‘A Ravaging Wind,’ by Argentina’s Paula Hernandez, to Open San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos; Brazilian Carolina Markowicz’s ‘Toll’ Closes

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Headlined respectively by “Sound of Metal” lead Riz Ahmed and “Matrix” stars Jessica Henwick and Hugo Weaving, Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails” and Kitty Green’s “The Royal Hotel” figure among seven newly unveiled films which will play in main competition at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival. Also in the running are buzz titles “A Journey in Spring,” from Taiwan’s Peng Tzu-Hui, Wang Ping-Wen, and “Kalak,” directed by Denmark’s Isabella Eklöf.

Aussie filmmaker Kitty Green’s latest pic, The Royal Hotel, starring Julia Garner, and Fingernails, the latest film from Christos Nikou, with Riz Ahmed and Jessie Buckley, have been added to San Sebastian’s competition lineup.

Chile on Wednesday named the anti-colonialist Western The Settlers from first-time feature filmmaker Felipe Gálvez as its official entry for Best International Feature at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Emiliano De Pablos Chile’s Latente Films is teaming with Argentine outfit HD Argentina and Germany’s Orinokia to produce Chilean writer-director Sergio Castro San Martin’s project “Mil pedazos” (“A Thousand Pieces”), selected for the San Sebastian Festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum this September. A creator and co-director of TV series such as Amazon Original “La Jauria” and Disney+’s “Llévame al cielo” – both produced by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fábula – Castro San Martín’s feature debut, “The Mud Woman,” had its world premiere at the 2015 Berlinale.

San Sebastian Fetes Veteran Director Victor Erice

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Victor Erice, one of the greatest of Spanish filmmakers, will receive a prestigious Donostia Award, given for career achievement, granted by the San Sebastian Film Festival. The award will coincide with screening of Erice’s latest film, “Close Your Eyes” (Cerrar los Ojos), which world premiered at the Cannes Festival this May.

UK director James Marsh’s literary biopic Dance First, starring Gabriel Byrne as iconic Irish writer Samuel Beckett, will close the 71st San Sebastian Film Festival.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “Dance First,” a portrait of Irish writer Samuel Beckett starring Gabriel Byrne and directed by Oscar winner James Marsh, will close this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, playing out of competition. Byrne, a memorable lead in “The Usual Suspects” and “Miller’s Crossing” who also won a Golden Globe for his performance in “In Treatment,” plays Samuel Beckett, driving into his deep contradictions and inner torment of a writer who was a Parisian bon vivant, a WWII Resistance fighter and then Nobel Prize-winning playwright who, however, became a recluse, living the last years of his life in a single room in a nursing home, ashamed of past actions and convinced that for much of his life he had been a failure.

Julian Sands’ ex-wife has said the tragic actor “always had to take the hard path” and even at the end of his life had “sought a challenge”. Sarah Sands, former editor of the Evening Standard, said that Julian was “restless… both artistically and geographically”.The pair were married from 1984 to 1987 and share a son. Julian went missing in the San Gabriel mountains in southern California in January, prompting a manhunt that lasted for over five months.

EXCLUSIVE: Israeli sales house Go2Films has changed its international management team, as 13-year company veteran Hadar Taylor Schechter exits ahead of the Toronto and San Sebastián film festivals.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Living legend Hayao Miyazaki’s animated fantasy epic “The Boy and the Heron,” the latest from Japan’s legendary Studio Ghibli, will open the 71st San Sebastian Festival, screening on Sept. 22. Bowing San Sebastian, Miyazaki’s film, which he has declared to be his last, will score an extraordinary double of opening both the Toronto and San Sebastian festivals in the space of a couple of weeks.

Hayao Miyazaki will open the 71st edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival with his latest pic, The Boy and the Heron.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Argentina’s Tarea Fina, a producer on Cannes Camera d’Or winner “Las Acacias,” International Oscar entry “The Sleepwalkers” and Ventana Sur hit “Sublime,” has boarded “A Loose End,” the third feature as a director from Uruguay’s Daniel Hendler, a Berlin Silver Bear winner for Best Actor in Daniel Burman’s 2004 international breakout “The Lost Embrace.” Set up at Montevideo’s Cordon Films, founded in 2007 by producer-TV director Micaela Solé and Hendler, “A Loose End” (“Un cabo suelto”) is one of the highest-profile projects announced on Monday by the San Sebastián Festival as part of its Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, its industry centerpiece. Written by Hendler, his third directorial outing returns to a central theme in his first two features as a writer-director: Identity.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Prime Video has debuted the trailer for their upcoming drama “A Million Miles Away.” Based on a true story, Michael Peña stars as José Hernández, the first migrant farm worker to become an astronaut and go to space. The film will be released on Sept. 15 in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Federico Veiroj, Theo Court, Alicia Scherson and Daniel Hendler head a muscular project lineup at September’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, the Spanish festival’s industry centerpiece which underscores this year a welling sea-change in the region’s filmmaking. “The Moneychanger,” the latest film from Uruguay’s Veiroj, was selected for Toronto’s 2019 Platform; “White on White,” from Chile’s Court, won a best director Silver Lion at 2019’s Venice Horizons; Chile’s Alicia Scherson’s debut “Play” snagged new narrative director at Tribeca in 2005: multi-hyphenate Hendler, from Uruguay, scooped best director at Miami for “The Candidate” in 2017.

Tom Sandoval is single and not ready to mingle. The star set the record straight while grabbing a bite with friend and co-star Tom Schwartz.While out and about in Los Angeles, Sandoval called singer-songwriter Tii just «a friend,» after fans speculated they were on a date while spotted out recently at The Fleur Room Lounge in West Hollywood.

Holly Jones Oh My Gómez! Films’ Ramiro Pavón, producer of Ana Katz’s Sundance title “El perro que no calla,” and Rocío Romero Quintana, behind 2016 Berlinale Generation 14+ winner “Las Plantas,” will both pitch their latest doc projects at this month’s Sanfic Industria, one of the biggest industry forums in South America. Another project at its Documentary Lab is sourced from Paula Zyngierman at Argentina’s MaravillaCine, which backed “That Weekend” and “Marilyn.” “This year we received a large number of applications from both directors and producers with large experience as well as projects by new talents,” Gabriela Sandoval, head of Sanfic Industria, told Variety, noting that some projects have been sourced from allied international industry platforms such as Industria Guadalajara, DocsMx, Fidba, Taller de productores de Panamá, Arca Residencia.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Sanfic Industria, the industry component of Chile’s 19th Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic), charges back in full in-person mode this year after three years online. This year’s selection, comprising 11 fiction and 10 documentaries, hails from Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Peru, Spain and Brazil.

As the SAG-AFTRA strike enters its second month with no end in sight, joining the WGA strike that began in May, some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have been taking to picket lines to support the unions.

Swedish pic Mother, Couch! starring Taylor Russell and Ewan McGregor alongside Ellen Burstyn is one of the titles San Sebastian has set to compete for its New Directors award during its 71st edition, running September 22 — 30.