The San Sebastián festival begins its 71st edition this Friday with Hayao Miyazaki's new and long-awaited gem, The Boy and the Heron, which has garnered excellent reviews after passing through Toronto and is participating out of competition. The 82-year-old master of Japanese animation and co-founder of Studio Ghibli will also receive a well-deserved Donostia lifetime achievement award at the opening gala. But he will do it virtually since he has not traveled outside of Japan for a long time.
On the 29th, veteran filmmaker Víctor Erice will receive, from the hands of actress Ana Torrent, the Donostia award in a ceremony where his new work, Close your eyes, will be screened, just 50 years after he won the Golden Shell. by The Spirit of the Hive. The other winner this year, actor Javier Bardem, star of the Zinemaldia poster, will not be able to come due to the Hollywood actors' strike, and the award is postponed to the 2024 edition.
Precisely, that strike that started on July 14 will tarnish the presence of glamor on the red carpet. Yesterday the presence of actresses Jessica Chastain and Sandrine Bonnaire was announced at the last minute, adding to the names already announced of European figures such as Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne, Dominic West, James Norton, Mads Mikkelsen, Aidan Gille, François Cluzet or Emmanuelle Devos and Spaniards such as Lola Dueñas, Sergi López, Carmen Machi, Emma Suárez, Quim Gutiérrez, Macarena García or J.A Bayona, who will present The Snow Society in the Perlak section, a film that will represent Spain at the Oscars.
This 2023, the contest directed by José Luis Rebordinos will screen 232 titles in nine days, until September 30. Titles “with a lot of personality” compete for the Golden Shell, in the words of Rebordinos, among which established figures such as Joachim Lafosse, Robin Campillo and Isabel Coixet and new talent, such as Raven Jackson, who directs All dirt roads taste of salt, a poetic portrait of a woman's life in Mississippi. Or that of the Taiwanese Peng Tzu-Hui and Ping-Wen Wang for A Journey in Spring.
“On the one hand, there are films that seek new paths, more experimental or that take more risks, such as MMXX, by Cristi Puiu, or Kalak, by the Swedish director Isabella Eklöf. And others with the most typical codes of classic cinema, such as The Royal Hotel, by the Australian Kitty Green, very special and with a lot of power.”
Along with Coixet, two other Spanish filmmakers are aspiring to the most important prize of the contest: newcomer Isabel Herguera, with the animated film El Sueño de la Sultana, and Jaione Camborda, with O Corno, filmed in Galician. In total, an official section made up of 21 films, although five are competing out of competition – among them, They Shot the Pianist, by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, and the new Los Javis series, The Messiah – which will be evaluated by a jury chaired by French director Claire Denis.
Zinemaldia has never been immune to controversy, and this year the stir is served with Don't Call Me Ternera, the interview that journalist Jordi Évole conducted with the former leader of the terrorist group ETA Josu Ternera and which opens the Made in Spain section today . Complaints from the Dignity and Justice association and a manifesto signed by more than 500 people requested that it not be screened, considering that it means a way to "whitewash ETA."
Rebordinos, for his part, has kept the documentary on the program and has defended it being criticized after being seen: "giving one's voice is not giving one's reason." This week several graffiti have appeared in which the slogan 'Killer Beef' can be read on the fences placed by the Festival at the entrance to the Kursaal, its main headquarters.
