The San Sebastián Festival kicks off its 71st edition today with Hayao Miyazaki’s long-awaited new gem, El chico y la garza , which has received excellent reviews after its Toronto run and is in out-of-competition. The 82-year-old master of Japanese animation and co-founder of Studio Ghibli will also receive a well-deserved Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural gala, presented by actors Loreto Mauleón and Gorka Otxoa and comedian Eva Hache . But he will pick it up virtually, since he hasn’t traveled outside of Japan in a while. On the 29th it will be the veteran filmmaker Víctor Erice who will receive, from the hands of the actress Ana Torrent, the Donostia prize in a ceremony in which the new work, Cerrar los ojos, will be screened, exactly 50 years after he won the Concha d’Or by The spirit of the beehive. The other awardee this year, the actor Javier Bardem, protagonist of the Zinemaldia poster, will not be able to come because of the Hollywood actors’ strike, and the award is postponed until the 2024 edition. Precisely this strike that started on July 14th it will dazzle the presence of stars and glamor on the red carpet. It was revealed yesterday that actresses Jessica Chastain and Sandrine Bonnaire are coming, joining a list that includes Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne, Dominic West, James Norton, Mads Mikkelsen, François Cluzet, Emmanuelle Devos, Lola Dueñas, Carmen Machi and J. A. Bayona, who will present La sociedad de la nieve, the film that will represent Spain at the Oscars, in the Perlak section.
This 2023, the contest directed by José Luis Rebordinos will screen 232 titles in nine days, until September 30. Titles “with a lot of personality” compete for the Concha d’Or, in the words of Rebordinos, among which stand out established names, such as Joachim Lafosse, Robin Campillo and Isabel Coixet, and new talent, such as that of Raven Jackson, who directs All dirt roads taste of salt, a poetic portrait of a woman’s life in Mississippi. Or that of the Taiwanese Peng Tzu-Hui and Ping-Wen Wang for Un viaje en primavera. “There are films that look for new paths, more experimental or more risky, such as MMXX, by Cristi Puiu, or Kalak, by the Swedish director Isabella Eklöf; and others with the most typical codes of classic cinema, such as The Royal Hotel, by the Australian Kitty Green, very special and with a lot of power”.
Along with Coixet, two other Spanish filmmakers aspire to the most important prize of the contest: debutant Isabel Herguera, with the animated film El sueño de la sultana, and Jaione Camborda, with O Corno, shot in Galician. In total, an official section made up of 21 films, although there are five that compete out of competition – including Dispararon al pianista, by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, and the new series of Los Javis, The messiah – which will be evaluated by a jury chaired by the French director Claire Denis. In addition, the surprise film of each year will not be missing and the controversy is served with the screening of No me llame Ternera, Jordi Évole’s interview with the ex-leader of the ETA terrorist group Josu Ternera which opens the Made section today in Spain.
