Georgian Film 'Beginning' Sweeps San Sebastian Festival

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.

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.

Boldy unfolding through a series of fixed shots, Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s debut feature “Beginning” is a striking portrait of a woman’s internal suffering at the hands of a husband who prioritizes religious devotion over marital equality. Taking place within a small congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Georgia, “Beginning” consists of roughly a week in the life of Yana (Mohsen Makmalbaf), wife to the congregation’s leader David (Rati Oneli, who also co-wrote).

Though the film industry is full of uncertainty and craziness (even when there’s no global pandemic), filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve has found a way to be one of the most consistent directors working today. Over the past decade, almost like clockwork, Hansen-Løve has released a new film every two years.

French filmmaker Eugène Green has been kicked out of the San Sebastian Film Festival after refusing to comply with festival safety procedures and wear a face mask. The U.S.-born director was booted out of the world premiere of his latest film, Atarrabi et Mikelats, on Wednesday night.

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.

Jamie Lang U.S.-born, French filmmaker Eugène Green has picked the dumbest altar on which to sacrifice himself and is suffering the consequences after refusing to properly wear a mask at the screening of his latest feature “Atarrabi et Mikelats,” playing in the festival’s Zinemira competition.After refusing, five times, requests made by festival officials to wear his mask correctly, Green was asked to leave and had his status as a guest of the festival revoked.Local police were eventually

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.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAt a crunch time for Europe’s film and TV industries, as it faces COVID-19 crisis and streamer-propelled sea change, the San Sebastian’s Festival European Film Forum will take both bulls by the horns at its Sept.

“Akelarre,” (Pablo Agüero)A former San Sebastian Festival Co-Production Forum project, “Akelarre” is the latest from Cannes Jury Prize-winner Pablo Agüero (“First Snow”) and plays in this year’s main competition.

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.