Seventeen 'New Directors' to compete in San Sebastian

For the first time, the traditional debutant filmmakers section does not belong to Zabaltegui and has an independent status marking the 60th anniversary of the San Sebastián Film Festival. Directors from Spain, Denmark, Holland France, Lebanon, Germany, UK, Romania, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, China Iran and Israel will vie for the Kutxa-New Directors award, with €90.000 to be split by the filmmaker and Spanish distributor, the same amount that was given in the previous years. 

Until now, the New Directors section had belonged to the Zabaltegui programme and was non competitive. High profile names as Danny Boyle, Tasi Ming Liang or Isabel Coixet were discovered in San Sebastián.

The selections this year include Shell, by Scotland’s Scott Graham (a 2011 Screen Star of Tomorrow), about the relationship between a father and a son in the Scottish Highlands. Danish The Caretaker’s Tale, by Katrina Wiedeman, is an insight on man’s sexuality telling a brutal story of love. A co-production by Germany and Switzerland, Summer Outside, sees the conflict between a marriage through a teenager eyes.

Jean Cristophe Dessaint’s Day of The Crow, from France and Belgium, is an animated feature with the voices of Jean Reno and Claude Chabrol about a boy who has grown in the forest and discovers civilization. Silent City, from the Netherlands, Belgium and Louxembourg, by Threes Anna portrays a young european woman living in Tokyo.

From the Middle East, three titles include Six Acts, by Israeli Jonathan Gurfinkel, about a teenage girl who uses sex to improve her social status. From Lebanon-Dubai, Sleepless Nights, by Eliane Raheb, is a documentary about the conflict in the zone that won last year’s Cinema in Motion Award in San Sebastián. Majid Barzegar’s Parviz, from Iran, tells the story of 50-year-old man who has always lived with his father and never had a job.

The four films from South America are Peruvian The Cleaner, by Adrián Saba, set during and epidemic breakout portraying the relation between a boy and a crime scene cleaner; Brazilian Francisco García brings Colors, a tale of youngsters in uprising Sao Paulo; Dog Flesh, a co-production from Chile, France and Germany, by Fernando Guzzoni, a story of a fragile man who is haunted by his past; Seven Boxes, from Paraguay, won the Film in Progress Award in lats year’s San Sebastian, it’s about of a teenage boy to buy a TV.

Finally, from China, there is The Love Songs of Tiedan, about a music contest in north China, directed by Hao Jie, who debuted in San Sebastián with Single Man.

As previously reported, Spanish filmmakers will participate with Animals, a teenage drama by Marçal Forés; Los increíbles, a drama about three real life super heroes; and Chaika, a drama set in Siberia and Kazahsktan. In Romanian Rocker, by Marian Crisan, another father helps his son quitting drugs.