Films within films, and festivals within festivals. If Woody Allen hadn’t already written it, real life would certainly see to it that this game of cinephilic Russian dolls will become a reality on 18 September, when the latest film by the New York-born director – Rifkin’s Festival [+leggi anche:
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Rifkin’s Festival was shot last summer, still without a definitive title, in one of the most beautiful cities in Spain. Local, regional and even national institutions threw themselves head-first into this shoot, which had the potential to bring San Sebastián a huge amount of media coverage as well as attracting a great deal of tourism and mainstream attention, similar to the effect that Vicky Cristina Barcelona [+leggi anche:
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This romantic comedy, a Spanish-US-Italian co-production by companies The Mediapro Studio, Gravier Productions and Wildside, tells the story of a married couple from the United States who come to the San Sebastián Film Festival and are enraptured by the event, by the beauty, light and charm of the city, and by the dreams and fantasies of the film world. Later, the woman will have a fling with a French film director, and the man will fall in love with a Spanish woman who lives in the city.

As the gathering headed up by José Luis Rebordinos reminded us in its press release this morning, this will be the second time that Allen has opened the San Sebastián Film Festival, after having done so in 2004 with Melinda and Melinda; that year, he received the Donostia Award and had a retrospective dedicated to him, entitled “Conocer a Woody Allen”. Films of his such as Manhattan (1979), Zelig (1983) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) were screened both in the Official Section, out of competition, and in a number of parallel sections. In 1985, the then recently established Zabaltegi section was inaugurated by the marvellous The Purple Rose of Cairo, and in more recent years, various features by Allen have been programmed in Pearls: Match Point [+leggi anche:
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Two days ago, the San Sebastián Film Festival also announced that one of its Donostia Awards for Lifetime Achievement will this year go to actor Viggo Mortensen, who will be at the gathering to present his directorial debut: the movie Falling [+leggi anche:
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