Home movies hold their own at San Sebastián Film Festival
The cine-event, which starts today, features some promising Spanish titles
This year's San Sebastián International Film Festival starts today boasting new works by the likes of British filmmaker Terence Davies (The Deep Blue Sea ), South Korean ace Kim Ki-duk (Amen) Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda (Kiseki/I Wish) and Canadian actress-director Sarah Polley (Take This Waltz) in its Official Selection, this year to be judged by a jury comprising Frances McDormand, director Alex de la Iglesia and Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, among others. But a solid selection of new Spanish movies is also on show across the festival's various strands. We took a tour through some of the stand-out homegrown titles of the cine extravaganza.
- INTRUDERS Showing out of competition in the Official Selection, the new film from Canarian director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo opens this year's proceedings. Like his 2007 zombie sequel 28 Weeks Later , it's another English-language horror and stars Clive Owen, Carice Van Houten, Daniel Brühl and Pilar López de Ayala in a story about two children - one in Spain, one in the UK - terrorized by visiting monsters.
- THE SLEEPING VOICE Already on Spain's shortlist of Oscar candidates (see below), Benito Zambrano's version of Dulce Chacón's book La voz dormida stars Inma Cuesta (of TV series Águila Roja ) and María León in a tale of two sisters separated when one is thrown into a Francoist jail in the aftermath of the Civil War. Zambrano shot to fame with the multi-Goya-winning Solas in 1999 and also directed 2005's Habana Blues .
- WRINKLES Ignacio Ferreras' feature debut is an animated adaptation of Paco Roca's award-winning graphic novel Arrugas about the dreams, feelings and frustrations of a group of retirement home residents. It's screening in the Zabaltegi-New Directors strand.
- EXTRATERRESTRIAL Oscar-nominated (for his short film 7:35 de la mañana ), Nacho Vigalondo's much-anticipated follow-up to his quirky 2007 debut Timecrimes (2007) is another original sci-fi offering. Julián Villagrán, Michelle Jenner, Raúl Cimas and Carlos Areces star in this alien invasion-set romantic comedy, which is showing in the Zabaltegi-Specials section.
- VERBO After making a number of successful shorts, notably Contracuerpo (2005), Alumbramiento (2007) and The End (2009), Madrileño director Eduardo Chapero-Jackson moves into features with this fantasy about a young girl's journey into a new dimension. Featuring Alba García in the lead, it also stars Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Verónica Echegui, Najwa Nimri, Víctor Clavijo and Macarena Goméz.
- 14 D'ABRIL: MACIÀ CONTRA COMPANYS The latest movie from Manuel Huerga,who directed Daniel Brühl in 2006's Salvador (Puig Antich) as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, is a historical drama about the declaration of the Second Spanish Republic and the confrontation between the two Catalan government presidents of the era, Francesc Macià (Fermí Reixach) and Lluís Companys (Pere Ponce).
Almodóvar's 'Skin,' Villaronga's 'Bread' in Oscars running
The Skin I Live In , Pa negre ( Black Bread ) and The Sleeping Voice are the three films shortlisted by Spain's Cinema Academy to represent the nation at next year's Oscars, the body's president Enrique González Macho and one of its vice presidents, Judith Colell, announced Tuesday. The final choice, which will also represent Spain in the best foreign film category at Mexico's Ariel film awards, will be named on September 28.
While Pedro Almodóvar's horror film is playing in theaters at the moment and post-Civil War drama Pa negre has finished its run, having debuted at last year's San Sebastían Film Festival and scooped up nine Goya Awards and the National Cinema Prize for director Agustí Villaronga in the meantime, The Sleeping Voice is just starting out.
Its director, Benito Zambrano, was at the Cinema Academy for the announcement. "The films are neither better nor worse because a jury votes for them," he said. "But within our precarious way of promoting films, it is very important to be chosen, as well as participate in the [San Sebastián] festival. I only want that when the film is released on October 24, people know that it is in theaters and that they can make an informed decision about whether they see it or not."
Zambrano added that he didn't mind lining up against Almodóvar once again - his debut movie, Solas , had to vie with All About My Mother to compete for the best foreign film Academy Award. "To coincide with Pedro is an honor: he is the most important [director] of the last 30 years," he said.
Both Almodóvar and Villaronga's movies are also among the four Spanish productions in the running for the best European film of 2011. The two titles joined Iciar Bollain's Even the Rain and Alex de la Iglesia's Sad Trumpet Ballad on the list of 45 films up for the prize. The finalists will be announced on November 5 at the Seville Film Festival with the winner named on December 5 at the headquarters of the European Film Academy in Berlin.
Among the other films chose were João Nuno Pinto's Portuguese-Spanish production América ; Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's The Kid With a Bike and British actor-director Peter Mullan's Neds .
