New films from directors Mike Leigh, François Ozon, Edward Berger, Joshua Oppenheimer, and Costa-Gavras will compete for the Golden Shell at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. The lineup for the 72nd edition, running from September 20-28, was announced on Tuesday.
Among the highlights is Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, which marks a reunion with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, his star from Secrets & Lies. Edward Berger will present Conclave, a Vatican thriller featuring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal overseeing a conclave to elect a new Pope following the previous Pope’s sudden death. This film follows Berger’s success with All Quiet on the Western Front.
Costa-Gavras, known for political dramas like Missing and Z, returns with Last Breath, focusing on a palliative care doctor. François Ozon will showcase When Fall Is Coming, his sixth appearance in the festival’s official selection, featuring a cast that includes Hélène Vincent, Josiane Balasko, Ludivine Sagnier, and Pierre Lottin. Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa brings Serpent’s Path, a French-language remake of his 1998 film about a man seeking revenge for his daughter’s murder, starring Ko Shibasaki, Damien Bonnard, and Mathieu Amalric.
Oscar-nominated documentarian Maite Alberdi, known for The Mole Agent and The Eternal Memory, will make her narrative debut with El lugar de la otra, based on Alia Trabucco Zerán’s essay Las Homicidas about writer María Carolina Geel, who shot her lover in 1955. Joshua Oppenheimer, who has been nominated for Oscars for The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, will also debut his narrative film, The End, a Golden Age musical featuring Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, Moses Ingram, and Michael Shannon.
Gia Coppola, whose previous films Palo Alto and Mainstream were featured in Venice, will present The Last Showgirl at San Sebastian. The drama stars Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Dave Bautista and tells the story of a seasoned showgirl planning for her future after her show ends a 30-year run.
Argentine director Diego Lerman is returning to the competition with El hombre que amaba los platos voladores, a film about a famous TV recording of a supposed alien sighting. Lerman previously won the Silver Shell for The Substitute in 2022 and the best screenplay prize for A Sort of Family in 2017.
The festival will also highlight emerging talent. Laura Carreira, known for her acclaimed shorts, will present her debut feature On Falling, which portrays the precarious life of a Portuguese warehouse worker in Scotland. Xin Huo, the screenwriter for Kung Fu Hustle and The Monkey King, will debut Bound in Heaven, a film about a terminally ill man and a young girl racing against time through various cities.
Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, an adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsan’s 1967 erotic novel starring Noémie Merlant and Naomi Watts, will open the 72nd San Sebastian Festival on September 20.
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