Joe McFadden claims he won’t be jealous if Strictly Come Dancing partner Katya Jones wins this year’s competition.
22.09.2023 - 07:11 / variety.com
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Spain’s 71st San Sebastian Film Festival is tracking to welcome an even larger industry presence than 2022, currently up 10% in attendance on 2022’s already bullish figures, its status as the biggest movie event in the Spanish-speaking world remaining undiminished. Here are 10 key takes on potential highlights and trends which look likely to shape this year’s edition, running Sept.
22-30: New Talent Boasting a prestigious New Directors’ section as its biggest sidebar and an Ikusmira Berriak development lab for emerging cineasts, San Sebastian has always been strong on new talent. In 2023, however, it is even stronger still.
10 of its 16 main competition entries are first (three) or second features (seven). “Having so many new directors is part coincidence,” says San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos.
But the presence of so many emerging directors may reflect new industry dynamics and recent years of fuller employment. “My impression is that some young directors now move fast, make shorts and co-write screenplays before making first features and this experience means these films are more rounded and mature,” he adds, citing competition contender Isabella Eklöf, who co-wrote Ali Abbasi’s Oscar-nominated “Border.” Women Make Their Mark Seven of the first or second-time fiction feature directors in San Sebastian competition this year are women, and more than half of their films strongly women-centric, whether capturing the memories of a Black women in rural Mississippi (Raven Jackson’s “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,”) toxic masculinity in the Outback (Kitty Green’s “Royal Hotel”) or women’s reproductive rights in past rural Galicia (Jaione Camborda’s “The Rye Horn”).
.Joe McFadden claims he won’t be jealous if Strictly Come Dancing partner Katya Jones wins this year’s competition.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome’s upcoming MIA market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films and documentaries is set to run Oct. 9-13 in central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini, which besides being Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery, is also the market’s main hub. Now at its ninth edition, this innovative pre-Mipcom event (the MIA acronym stands for the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) aims to boost the Italian industry by strengthening its international ties.
The San Sebastian Film Festival awarded O Corno (The Rye Horn) with the Golden Shell for Best Film. San Sebastián native Jaione Camborda took the top prize of the night for the feature she directed.
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter As New York Film Festival’s artistic director, Dennis Lim has become adept at multitasking. “Sometimes, I have to introduce one film and then run across the street to moderate a Q&A for different film,” he says. “If I have an hour or two free, I will sneak into a cinema and watch something as a way to hide out.” This year, he’ll be bouncing around Manhattan’s Upper West Side to host some of the buzziest movies from Cannes and Venice, like Todd Haynes’ soapy romantic drama “May December,” Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro” and Sofia Coppola’s “Elvis and “Me” adaptation “Priscilla.” NYFF will also showcase the world premiere of Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s genre-defying series “The Curse” and the Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal-led sci-fi story “Foe.” Ahead of the 61st edition, which takes place from Sept.
Molly-Mae Hague asked herself 'are you happy' as she was seen ditching the UK again for the seventh time this year. The influencer is certainly living her best left - and who can blame her - as she racks up the air miles by travelling both for work and pleasure.
Anna Marie de la Fuente Italy’s Roberto Stabile, head of special projects, Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual-Ministry of Culture at Cinecittà, breezed through the San Sebastian Film Festival on Tuesday to tout Italy’s drive to amp up the distribution of Italian movies around the world. In a brief presentation at the city’s Museo de San Telmo, he held forth about the plan to increase the presence of Italian audiovisual content not only in cinemas, but also on streaming platforms, online distribution and television, among others.
Jessica Chastain is making a glamorous arrival at the 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival.
Holly Jones As it plays in competition at San Sebastian’s Works In Progress Latam strand, Buenos Aires-based sales agency Meikincine has swooped on international sales rights for mother-daughter relationship drama “Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us” (“Quizás Es Cierto Lo Que Dicen De Nosotras”). Produced by Storyboard Media (“Santiago, Italia” “El pacto de Fuga”), the film is directed by Chilean filmmaking duo Camilo Becerra (“El último sacramento”) and Sofía Paloma Gómez (“Quiero morirme dentro de un tiburón”).
Isabel Coixet recounts that she vowed to never to do another literary adaptation after her 2017 English-language feature The Bookshop based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed 1978 novel of the same name.
Amblin Partners Production of President Jeb Brody welcomed the tentative writers’ strike deal during an industry panel at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Tuesday but warned that some of the issues that sparked the industrial action in the first place were still swashing around.
Holly Jones Frenetic and high-flying ‘90s rock emblem Mauricio Aznar trades his position as enigmatic frontman of Zaragoza’s Más Birras for a journey towards the soul of his craft in Spanish writer-director Javier Macipe’s highly-anticipated second feature, “The Blue Star” (“La Estrella Azul”) saw its world premiere in the New Directors strand of the San Sebastian Film Festival on Monday. Macipe’s (“Los inconvenientes de no ser dios”) short efforts, 2014 release “Children of the River” and 2019’s “Gastos incluídos,” earned Spanish Academy Goya nominations, placing him among Variety’s 10 Spanish talents to track in 2021.
Callum McLennan At this year’s Annecy, the most important animation festival in the world, Basque animations were out in force. With a diverse showcase ranging from the nostalgic cartoon charm of “Conej Steps Out” by student outfit Funnie Fantasies, to UniKo’s tantalising taster excerpts for feminist story “Sultana’s Dream” by Isabel Herguera and the short “Body of Christ” by Beatriz Lumez, Basque animators made a mark. The festival’s spotlight on Spanish female creators further underscored this region’s depth of talent.
Holly Jones Incendiary Spanish director Isabel Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”) heads to San Sebastian for the international premiere of her latest drama “Un Amor,” a take on devouring love starring Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) and Hovik Keuchkerian (“Money Heist”) that sets Coixet up to compete on the festival’s main stage for the first time. “Un Amor” is produced by Buenapinta Media’s Marisa Fernández Armenteros (“The Mole Agent”) alongside “Society of the Snow” producers Sandra Hermida and Belén Atienza, here producing out of Perdición Films. World sales are handled by Film Constellation (“Return to Reason”).
Anna Marie de la Fuente Not long after the Miami episode of Netflix’s hit show “’Street Food: USA” dropped, its Emmy-nominated director Mariano Carranza received an Instagram message. It was from Gastón Acurio, Peru’s preeminent chef-restaurateur of Astrid & Gastón fame, but Carranza thought it was a prank.
Callum McLennan Latido Films is venturing yet more into the inspiring world of e-sports and viral fame with Goya Award winning producer-helmer Alvaro Longoria’s new doc-feature, “La vida de Brianeitor.” The film serves as a spin-off from Javier Fesser’s Spanish box office smash hit, “Championext,” which Latido is also selling. The doc follows Brian Albacete, better known as Brianeitor2022. With millions of social media followers, an acting role in a top-charting Spanish film “Championext” and a spot on Team Heretics—one of Spain’s leading e-sport entities—Brian is redefining what it means to be a star.
Noah Pritzker’s bittersweet father and sons tale Ex-Husbands (aka Men Of Divorce) world premieres in Competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Sunday as one of the few U.S. productions to be accompanied by its cast this year thanks to its SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.
LatAmCinema.com. Yet genre surfaces in disparate ways: the mix of coming of age, apocalypse and fantasy in “Mi Bestia”; the true-life horror of “Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us”; the sense of surreal in Colombia’s “Jungle.” As LatAmCinema.com notes, multiple titles are co-productions, a fact martín hazards, could be for the reduction in moneys from Argentina’s INCAA film institute, with Argentine titles dominating in the selection. This year, of the total six films at WIP Latam, four come from Argentina, one from Chile and one from Colombia.
The Great British Bake Off contestants know they’re doing something right if they receive one of Paul Hollywood’s famous handshakes. But the 57-year-old judge has revealed we won’t be seeing much of his trademark move in the new series. Speaking to OK! alongside fellow judge Prue Leith and new presenter Alison Hammond, the trio opened up about their time in the white tent.
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent SAN SEBASTIAN — In a first big deal to be announced during this year’s San Sebastian Festival, Madrid-based The Mediapro Studio, one of Europe’s biggest independent and international creation-production-distribution powerhouses, has acquired Cimarrón, the Uruguay, Argentina and Mexico-based production house and services company. Of “highly significant value,” TMS said Friday, the deal looks set to consolidate TMS’ presence in Latin America and beyond.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor European pay TV platform Sky has released the trailer for Sky Original film “Dance First,” ahead of its world premiere at San Sebastian Film Festival on Sept. 30. The film is directed by BAFTA and Academy Award winner James Marsh (“The Theory of Everything”) and written by BAFTA winner Neil Forsyth (“Guilt”).