‘Beginning’ Is An Acute Portrayal Of Religious Suffering [San Sebastian Review]

Tom Grater International Film ReporterGeorgia has become the latest country to submit its entry for this year’s International Oscar Race, selecting Beginning, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s debut feature that was a hit at the recent San Sebastian Film Festival.The film swept the top awards at the Spanish fest, winning best film, director, actress and screenplay. Jury president Luca Guadagnino said it was “a revelation”.

In a Mexico City recording studio in 1999, the planets aligned. At the center of the jubilant cross-cultural, intergenerational music sessions was Francisco Fellove Valdés, stage name El Gran Fellove, who half a century earlier had combined Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz to create a new style of scat singing.

Georgian film Beginning was the big winner at this year's San Sebastian film festival, taking four of the top prizes, including the Golden Shell for Best Film, at the awards ceremony this weekend.

Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a directorial polyglot, no doubt about it, but he’s more fluent in some cinematic languages than others.

SAN SEBASTIÁN, Spain -- Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s first feature film “Beginning” triumphed at Spain’s San Sebastian International Film Festival, scooping up four of its top prizes including best film and best director.The story about a community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a isolated village in Georgia amid the aftermath of an extremist attack also won best screenplay and best actress for Ia Sukhitashvili in the awards ceremony Saturday night.“Beginning,” a Franco-Georgian

Andreas Wiseman International EditorGeorgian-French drama Beginning (Dasatskisi) was the big winner at the San Sebastian Film Festival, winning the top prize Golden Shell at last night’s awards ceremony.The buzzed-about arthouse film from first-timer Dea Kulumbegashvili also won Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay awards. We debuted first footage for the film earlier this month.Kulumbegashvili wrote the script with Rati Oneli.

Joe Alwyn gets caught in the middle of a wind and rain storm while walking the red carpet at the closing ceremony of the 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival on Saturday (September 26) in San Sebastian, Spain.

Money Heist and Elite actress Maria Pedraza was at the 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival last weekend and she looked so chic in her three appearances!

Guy Lodge Film CriticThirteen films were in the running for prizes in this year’s San Sebastián Film Festival competition, but it doesn’t appear to have been much of a contest at all.

San Sebastian: A ‘Miracle’ It Happened At AllBy Sept. 10, COVID-19 cases ran at 260 infections per 100,000 of population, twice the level in France, the next worst ravaged territory in Europe.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorThe San Sebastian Film Festival has withdrawn the accreditation of U.S.-born French filmmaker Eugène Green for refusing to wear a mask.According to the Spanish festival, Green refused five requests for him to don a mask at last night’s premiere of his film Atarrabi Et Mikelats and he was ultimately asked to leave the auditorium.

Matt Dillon holds hand with Roberta Mastromichele while attending The Great Fellove premiere during the 2020 San Sebastian International Film Festival held at the Victoria Eugenia Theater on Tuesday evening (September 22) in Spain.

Early in the Georgian feature Beginning, when the central character's husband is dealing with a crisis in the religious community he leads, she confesses her own urgent predicament. "It's as if I were waiting for something to start," Yana tells him.

Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci play a middle-aged couple facing an existential crisis in Supernova, a poignant portrait of love in autumn from young British writer-director Harry Macqueen. Firth and the London-based Tucci have been friends for years, notching up several shared screen credits already.

Emiliano De Pablos An emerging generation of new Basque filmmakers is making its mark in the San Sebastian Festival, building on the foundations of now consolidated creative and industrial infrastructures.Only time will tell if the Basque Country can follow in the footsteps of Catalonia, another richer region of Spain, and launch a modern day new wave.

San Sebastian’s Nest program for student short films seeks out filmmakers from schools around the world, inviting them to screen their films in a dedicated competition at the Spanish festival.Students are also invited to participate in discussions and masterclasses given by industry professionals.

Emilio Mayorga A double San Sebastian Golden Shell winner with “The Double Steps” (2011) and “Between Two Waters” (2018), Isaki Lacuesta is teaming with Tamara Iglesias’ Atekaleun and Víctor Iriarte’s Cajaconcosasdentro to co-produce “Reescritura” (“Rewriting”), Iriarte’s fiction feature debut.

Johnny Depp is looking handsome at the 2020 San Sebastian International Film Festival!

Johnny Depp is posing for pictures!

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentSeven drama series play at the 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival, a historic record. Three series, Movistar Plus’ “Riot Police” and HBO Europe’s “Patria” and “We Are Who We Are,” screen in their entirety in San Sebastián’s Official Selection, another first.None of this seems a coincidence.