Prestige platform for auteurs

The San Sebastian International Film Festival is one of the most effective platforms into the -Spanish, European and Latin American markets. Although short on big-name world premieres this year, the -festival is showcasing exciting new projects from European auteurs Fernando Trueba, Christophe Honoré and Matthias Glasner in the official selection.

San Sebastian is a good place to have better quality meetings with distributors who aren’t as busy as they might be in somewhere like Toronto

“We have worked hard to build -relations with the sales agents to attract the talent,” says Mikel Olaciregui, director of the festival. A few years ago, he says, he had to explain to the Asian contingent where San Sebastian was and what it was all about. “Now we attract all the leading sales agents and distributors from that region.”

There will be a total of around 1,200 industry figures from all over the world in attendance at this year’s event.

“San Sebastian is one of the most prestigious festivals on the circuit and we see it as a perfect launch pad into the European market,” says Rikke Ennis, CEO of TrustNordisk, who will be selling Glasner’s German drama This Is Love, which is competing for the Golden Shell. Glasner has described This Is Love as “a film about unfulfilled love”. His previous film, The Free Will, about a rapist in search of redemption, screened in competition in Berlin in 2006. “People are expecting something great from [Glasner] after the success of The Free Will and we thought San Sebastian would be the perfect platform to promote it,” says Ennis.

“We have worked hard to build -relations with the sales agents to attract the talent”

Mikel Olaciregui, director of the festival

It is a sentiment supported by Marina Fuentes, managing director of 6 Sales, which is promoting Oscar-winning Spanish director Trueba’s crime thriller The Dancer And The Thief. The film is set in Chile shortly after the fall of the Pinochet dictatorship and stars Argentinian superstar Ricardo Darin. “Our first objective is to target Latin American distributors, then the French and the UK because a good number of companies from those territories attend San Sebastian,” says Fuentes.

French director Honoré is returning to the official selection with the world premiere of Making Plans For Lena, following The Beautiful Person which debuted at the festival last year and was picked up by US, French and German distributors. Making Plans For Lena stars Chiara Mastroianni as a single mother juggling the demands of her children and her family. 

The Toronto contingent

Toronto titles having their European premieres in San Sebastian include the opening film, Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, starring Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore, and the closing film, Rodrigo Garcia’s Mother And Child, starring Samuel L Jackson, as well as Juan Jose Campanella’s Argentinian-Spanish drama The Secret In Their Eyes about a lawyer who delves into an old unsolved murder, also starring Darin.

London-based Bankside Films is handling international rights to Ana Kokkinos’ Australian drama Blessed, about a group of young children who run away from home, which will make its European debut at the festival. “We certainly hope to pick up a Spanish distributor at San Sebastian, and with good press hope to get a knock-on effect in other European territories,” says Stephen Kelliher, head of sales and marketing at Bankside.

San Sebastian is a good place to have better quality meetings with distributors who aren’t as busy as they might be in somewhere like Toronto.

“The official selection at San Sebastian is more contained so you can be sure of getting the attention you want for your film. We had Nick Broomfield’s Ghosts at San Sebastian a few years back, which sold very well, and had really positive press coverage, positioning it perfectly for the international market.”

The New Directors’ section for first- and second-time film-makers includes the world premiere of UK drama The Scouting Book For Boys, about a troubled teenager who helps a young girl run away from home. Directed by Tom Harper, it stars Thomas Turgoose, and is produced by Celador Films, Film4 and Pathé, the triumvirate behind Slumdog Millionaire.

The Latin line-up

Which are the key Latino films to look out for at the festival this year? Chris Evans picks the titles to watch

The San Sebastian film festival rightly claims to be the biggest Spanish-language festival in the world, attracting leading Spanish and South American films, talent and industry figures.

“There was a time when everyone went after German movies, then Asian and now everyone is targeting Latin American films,” says festival director Mikel Olaciregui. 

The Argentinian buzz

In official selection, there is Juan Jose Campanella’s The Secret In Their Eyes, a co-production between Spain’s Tornasol Films and Argentina’s 100 Bares. The Argentinian director previously made the 2001 hit Son Of The Bride, which sold widely around the world. The Secret In Their Eyes is a thriller starring Ricardo Darin who also starred in Campanella’s two previous films, and has already made $3.2m in Argentina.

In the Horizontes Latinos section, which specialises in Latin American films, film-makers to keep an eye on include Argentina’s Julia Solomonoff who will be in town for the world premiere of her coming-of-age drama El Ultimo Verano De La Boyita, which is backed by El Deseo. It is the follow-up to her successful 2005 debut Hermanas.

Another is Nicolas Pereda, whose Mexican-Canadian drama Perpetuum Mobile stars rising young star Gabino Rodriguez (who has appeared in Sin Nombre and Rudo Y Cursi) as a young man still living with his mother.

Horizontes Latinos is also screening selected completed films that featured as unfinished works at last year’s Films in Progress section. One such is Rigoberto Perezcano’s Mexican immigration drama Norteado, which secured the backing of Spanish outfit Mediapro at last year’s festival, alongside Mexico’s Tiburon Films, McCormick and Foprocine and Germany’s Niko Films. It is now looking for a sales agent. 

Others include Carlos Serrano Azcona’s debut feature The Tree (El Arbol), a Spanish-Mexican co-production (Mexican director Carlos Reygadas is a co-producer), about a loner who has lost his job and is prevented from seeing his children. It had its world premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival earlier this year. And there is Cristian Jimenez’s Chilean-Portuguese-French film Ilusiones Opticas, a drama centring on three disparate characters: a mall guard who falls for a thief, a man being trained to cope with unemployment and a blind skier who recovers his sight. The film was picked up by French sales outfit Films Boutique after San Sebastian last year.

“Ilusiones Opticas is more than a festival and arthouse film, I believe it can really sell well abroad,” says Jean-Christophe Simon, head of Films Boutique, who has already sold the film to Sophie Dulac Distribution for France.         

However, despite the enthusiasm, not all films from the region do well at the Spanish box office. “We have worked with Latin American producers for some time now, but have not had much success with marketing them,” says Gustavo Ferrada, head of film at Spanish broadcaster TVE.

Ferrada has backed heavyweight Latino projects including Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Barcelona-set Biutiful, now in post, and Claudia Llosa’s  Peruvian-Spanish film The Milk Of Sorrow, which won the Golden Bear at Berlin earlier this year. 

“Films from Campanella and [Argentina’s] Marcelo Pineyro can do well in Spain and Argentina, but not so well in the rest of Europe. Others also fail at the Spanish box office, like The Milk Of Sorrow, despite gaining a lot of publicity and picking up some good awards.

“Part of the reason is because it is hard to understand them in Spain. Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien was full of Mexican slang and so was a surprise flop here.”

It had its world premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival earlier this year. And there is Cristian Jimenez’s Chilean-Portuguese-French film Ilusiones Opticas, a drama centring on three disparate characters: a mall guard who falls for a thief, a man being trained to cope with unemployment and a blind skier who recovers his sight. The film was picked up by French sales outfit Films Boutique after San Sebastian last year.

“Ilusiones Opticas is more than a festival and arthouse film, I believe it can really sell well abroad,” says Jean-Christophe Simon, head of Films Boutique, who has already sold the film to Sophie Dulac Distribution for France.         

However, despite the enthusiasm, not all films from the region do well at the Spanish box office. “We have worked with Latin American producers for some time now, but have not had much success with marketing them,” says Gustavo Ferrada, head of film at Spanish broadcaster TVE.

Ferrada has backed heavyweight Latino projects including Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Barcelona-set Biutiful, now in post, and Claudia Llosa’s  Peruvian-Spanish film The Milk Of Sorrow, which won the Golden Bear at Berlin earlier this year. 

“Films from Campanella and [Argentina’s] Marcelo Pineyro can do well in Spain and Argentina, but not so well in the rest of Europe. Others also fail at the Spanish box office, like The Milk Of Sorrow, despite gaining a lot of publicity and picking up some good awards.

“Part of the reason is because it is hard to understand them in Spain. Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien was full of Mexican slang and so was a surprise flop here.”

Official selection line-up

Blessed(Aus)
Dir Ana Kokkinos
Int’l sales Bankside Films, (44) 207 734 3566

Chloe(Can)
OPENING FILM
Dir Atom Egoyan
Int’l sales StudioCanal, (33) 1 71 35 35 35

City Of Life And Death(Chi)
Dir Lu Chuan
Int’l sales Media Asia Distribution, (852) 2314 4288

The Damned(Sp)
WORLD PREMIERE
Dir Isaki Lacuesta
Contact Versus Entertainment, (34) 607 31 7498, produccion@versusent.es

The Dancer And The Thief(Sp)
WORLD PREMIERE
Dir Fernando Trueba
Int’l sales 6 Sales, (34) 91 781 7301

Get Low(US)
Dir Aaron Schneider
Int’l sales K5 International, (44) 1923 333597

Hadewijch(Fr)
Dir Bruno Dumont
Int’l sales Pyramide International, (33) 1 42 96 02 20

I Came From Busan(S Kor)
Dir Jeon Soo-il
Int’l sales M-Line Distribution, (822) 796 2425

Woman Without Piano(Sp)
WORLD PREMIERE
Dir Javier Rebollo
Int’l sales TVE, (34) 91 496 2926

Making Plans For Lena(Fr)
WORLD PREMIERE
Dir Christophe HonorÈ
Int’l sales Le Pacte, (33) 1 44 69 59 45

Me Too(Sp)
WORLD PREMIERE
Dirs Alvaro Pastor, Antonio Naharro
Int’l sales The Match Factory, (49) 221 539 7090

This Is Love(Ger)
WORLD PREMIERE
Dir Matthias Glasner
Int’l sales TrustNordisk, (45) 368 68777

The Refuge(Fr)
Dir Francois Ozon
Int’l sales Le Pacte, (33) 1 44 69 59 45

The Secret In Their Eyes(Arg-Sp)
Dir Juan Jose Campanella
Int’l sales Latido Films, (34) 91 548 8877

The White Meadows(Iran)
Dir Mohammad Rasoulof
Contact Mohammad Rasoulof, mrasoulof@yahoo.com

10 To 11(Turk-Fr-Ger)
Dir Pelin Esmer
Contact Sinefilm, (90) 212 266 09 68