Eleven Golden Shell competition films have been announced this morning, joining the previously selected quintet. This year’s lineup features a mix of veteran directors, and filmmakers transitioning from non-fiction to narrative debuts, and they even made room for two directorial debuts. Costa-Gavras, François Ozon, Mike Leigh and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (premiering Serpent’s Path, and not Cloud which is headed to Venice) are joined by Joshua Oppenheimer‘s The End (Telluride/TIFF) and Maite Alberdi‘s El Lugar De La Otra — the Chilean filmmaker’s fiction debut is actually backed by Netflix and is a period film set 1950s Santiago and focuses on the case of novelist Maria Carolina Geel who killed her lover in front of stunned diners at the Hotel Crillón. Alberdi gave us back to back docu gems in The Mole Agent and The Eternal Memory. Here is the complete lowdown on this new film.
British-Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira (who’ll be having her world premiere at TIFF) arrives with On Falling — this debut is accompanied by another first-timer filmmaker who has been a writer for more than two decades – notably working on Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle and Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons. Adapting from Li Xiuwen’s novel, Xin Huo‘s Bound In Heaven is potentially a tearjerker story of a terminally ill man (Zhou You) and and a young girl (Ni Ni) trapped by violence as they set out on a race against the clock through different cities. Taking the Toronto to Spain flight path, Edward Berger‘s Conclave and Gia Coppola‘s The Last Showgirl will also be part of the competition festivities. The 72nd edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival takes place between September 20th until the 28th with Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle opening the competition for the Golden Shell. Here are the selections:
Bound In Heaven – Xin Huo
Conclave – Edward Berger
El Hombre Que Amaba Los Platos Voladores – Diego Lerman
El Lugar De La Otra – Maite Alberdi
The End – Joshua Oppenheimer
Hard Truths – Mike Leigh
On Falling – Laura Carreira
Last Breath – Costa-Gavras
The Last Showgirl – Gia Coppola
Serpent’s Path – Kiyoshi Kurosawa
When Fall Is Coming – François Ozon
Previously announced competition titles
Emmanuelle – Audrey Diwan
Glimmers – Pilar Palomero
I’m Nevenka – Iciar Bollain
Tardes De Soledad – Albert Serra
The Wailing – Pedro Martín-Calero
