San Sebastian Adds Kitty Green’s ‘The Royal Hotel’ And Riz Ahmed Pic ‘Fingernails’ To Competition Lineup
25.08.2023 - 10:19
/ deadline.com
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.
Overall, six films have been announced as late additions to proceedings in San Seb. The other titles are Kalak (Isabella Eklöf), The Successor (Xavier Legrand), Great Absence (Kei Chika-Ura), and the debut from Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang, A Journey in Spring. Additionally, the French pic A Real Job, directed by Thomas Lilti, will play the fest’s special screenings section.
The Royal Hotel is Kitty Green’s first feature since her 2019 breakout, The Assistant. The film tells the tale of two backpackers (Garner and Jessica Henwick) who take a job in a pub in the remote Australian Outback. Neon has acquired North American rights to the film. Following his debut Apples, which played Telluride, Toronto, and Venice, director Nikou assembled an A-list cast including Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson, and Annie Murphy for his second movie and first English-language film, Fingernails. The film has been described as a thought-provoking romantic drama about an institution that tests the presence of romantic love between couples.
A Journey in Spring is the first feature film from filmmakers Taiwanese Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang. The pic follows a man overcome with remorse as he mourns his wife’s death. Legrand returns to San Seb following Custody, which played the fest after winning Best Director at Venice. The Successor is the tale of a designer who discovers a terrible secret in his family home when his father dies. Kei Chika-Ura’s Great Absence follows a young actor who