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FESTIVALS Spain

Sixteen titles vying for Golden Shell

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Sixteen feature films will compete for the Golden Shell of the 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival (September 20 – 29), which will bring together a number of established filmmakers coming to the festival for the first time (Hans Weingartner, Manuel Poirier, Wayne Wang, David Cronenberg) and others whose works have previously screened at San Sebastian, such as Gracia Querejeta, Icíar Bollaín, Simon Staho and Nick Broomfield.

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Of these 16 titles, seven are European. The two previously announced local productions – Bollain's Mataharis and Querejeta's Seven Billiards Tables (see news) – are now joined by Poirier’s French title The House, starring Catalan actor Sergi López (see news); German/Austrian co-production Reclaim Your Brain by Hans Weingartner (The Edukators), with Moritz Bleibtreu as a TV producer in decline; British director Nick Broomfield’s Iraq conflict drama Battle of Haditha; Iranian/French title Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame by Hana Makhmalbaf; and Denmark's Daisy Diamond by Simon Staho (see interview), who returns to San Sebastian two years after the controversial Bang Bang Orangutang.

The opening film is David Cronenberg's London-shot Eastern Promises (news), while Michael Radford – whose upcoming title La mula will be shot in Spain (news) – will close the festival with Flawless.

Screening out of competition are the French/Portuguese/Spanish title The Inner Life of Martin Frost by Paul Auster (who follows Jeanne Moreau as this year's jury president) and the German/UK documentary Earth by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield.

Six of the films vying for the Golden Shell will also compete for the Altadis-New Directors Award (see news): Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame, US titles Emotional Arithmetic and Our Father, Argentina’s Embodiment, Korea's Shadows in the Palace and South American co-production Matar a todos.

Besides the official competition and sidebar section Zabaltegui, San Sebastian will also present a retrospective on Philippe Garrel and a focus on recent Scandinavian films. Industry professionals will be able to meet in the Sales Office and interact at one of the event's parallel activities: Films in Progress and Cinema in Motion (news)

Films in competition

Eastern Promises - David Cronenberg, US (Opening Film)
Battle for Haditha - Nick Broomfield, UK
Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame - Hana Makhmalbaf, Iran/France
Daisy Diamond - Simon Staho, Denmark
Reclaim Your Brain [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Hans Weingartner, Germany/Austria
La Maison [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Manuel Poirier, France
Mataharis - Iciar Bollain, Spain
Seven Billiards Tables - Gracia Querejeta, Spain
Exodus - Pang Ho-Cheung, Hong Kong
Emotional Arithmetic - Paolo Barzman, Canada
Embodiment - Anahí Berneri, Argentina
Shadows in the Palace - Kim Mee-jeung, Korea
Honeydripper - John Sayles, US
Matar a todos - Esteban Schroeder, Uruguay/Chile/Argentina
Our Father - Christopher Zalla, US
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers - Wayne Wang, US

Films out of competition
Earth - Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield, UK/Germany
The Inner Life of Martin Frost - Paul Auster, France/Spain/Portugal
Flawless - Michael Redford, UK (Closing Film)

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