Ozon wins Golden Shell at end of historical edition

by Juan Arteaga

01/10/2012 - The emblematic 60th edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, the second to be directed by José Luis Rebordinos, has come to a very happy close, with the Golden Shell awarded to François Ozon’s In the House [trailer], a film that, since the beginning of the festival, had received praise from both the critics and the public, and finally also did from the jury. Best Screenplay was also awarded to In the House, a film written by Ozon himself based on Juan Mayorga’s play El chico de la última fila (lit. "The boy in the back row").

This year, Ozon participated in the San Sebastián Film Festival for the third time, after doing so in 2000 with Under the Sand and in 2009 with Hideaway [trailer], which won the Jury Special Prize.

Spanish cinema, currently going through one of the most difficult phases of its history, received important recognition from the festival's jury, presided by Christine Vachon, who gave its Special Jury Prize to Snow White [trailer, film focus], a brilliant and surprising silent version of the fairy tale set in 1920s Spain directed by Pablo Berger that is also to represent Spain at the Oscars.

Fernando Trueba was awarded the Silver Shell for Best Director for The Artist and the Model [trailer], an evocation of Jean Renoir’s films shot in French and black-and-white starring Jean Rochefort.

Very young newcomers Macarena García, from Snow White, and Canadian actress Katie Coseni, from Laurent Cantet’s Foxfire [trailer, film focus] (interview), were chosen to receive Best Actress in an edition with no distinctive roles for actresses.

Great Spanish actor José Sacristán was awarded Best Actor for his role in Javier Rebollo’s The Dead Man and Being Happy, a road movie through Argentina that subverts all the genre’s conventions.

Best Cinematography went to Touraj Aslani for his work in Fasle Kardagan, a film that Bahman Ghobadi shot in Turkey.

The Jury’s Special Mention went to Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri’s The Attack [trailer, film focus], one of the films that stood out in this edition.

With a more important presence at the festival this year, the New Directors section highlighted Chilean director Fernando Guzzoni for his film Carne de Perro (lit. “Dog’s meat”).

Argentinian director Armando Bo was handed the Horizontes Latinos award for The Last Elvis, one of Argentinian cinema’s great successes this year.BR>
Beyond the official awards, the FIPRESCI Prize went to The Dead Man and Being Happy, a film that thus leaves San Sebastian with two important awards.

(Translated from Spanish)