The Brazilian production Pacificado / Pacified, directed by the North American Paxton Winters, is the winner of the Golden Shell for Best Film at the 67th edition of the San Sebastian Festival. Darren Aronofsky, Paula Linhares, Marcos Tellecheak, Lisa Muskat and Winters himself are the producers of this film set in the favelas of Brazil. As well as carrying off the Festival’s highest accolade, Pacified garnered another two recognitions: the Best Actor Silver Shell for Bukassa Kabengele and the Award for Best Cinematography going to Laura Merians.

This year’s official awards were announced by the actress Natalia de Molina and the journalist Edurne Ormazabal during a gala held in the Kursaal Auditorium. Pacified, which will be distributed worldwide by Twentieth Century Fox, is the first Brazilian production to win the Golden Shell in the history of the Festival.

On the other hand, the Silver Shell for Best Director went to the trio made up of Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga, the helmers of La trinchera infinita / The Endless Trench  (Spain), which also bagged the Best Screenplay Award for Luiso Berdejo and Goenaga. In addition, Greta Fernández and Nina Hoss, the respective stars of La hija de un ladrón (Spain) and Das Vorspiel / The Audition (Germany-France), carried off the Silver Shell for Best Actress ex aequo. Finally, Proxima (France-Germany), by Alice Winocour, landed the Special Jury Prize “for its aesthetic ambition” and for “turning a drama of space exploration into an exploration of motherhood”.  

Other official awards

Algunas bestias / Some Beasts (Chile) won the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, and in the same section a special mention went to Sestra / Sister (Bulgaria - Qatar), by Svetla Tsotsorkova. The Horizontes Award was presented to De nuevo otra vez / Again Once Again (Argentina), while the special mention went to Daniel and Diego Vega brothers for La bronca (Peru - Colombia). The Zabaltegi-Tabakalera was carried off by Angela Schanelec with Ich War Zuhause, Aber / I Was at Home, But (Germany - Serbia) and the special mention fell upon Les enfants D’Isadora / Isadora’s Children (France-South Korea), by Damien Manivel. 

La trinchera infinita won the Irizar Basque Film Award, while Glittering Misfits, by Iban del Campo, obtained a special mention. The City of Donostia/San Sebastian Audience Award went to Hors normes (The Specials) (France), by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, and the Audience Award for Best European Film was carried off by Sorry We Missed You (UK - France- Germany), by Ken Loach. Moreover, the TCM Youth Award went to Ana García Blaya for Las buenas intenciones / The Good Intentions (Argentina).

The gala hosts thanked the filmmakers, screenwriters, producers and stars for their presence during the nine days of the Festival, while also referring to the audience who “packed out the cinemas yet another year” and “turned even the smallest film into cinema with a capital letter”. “We could say that this closes a cycle, but it’s not true, because at the San Sebastian Festival farewells are only the start of a countdown until the next time we meet to watch more films. We therefore say au revoir in the best possible way, in the dark, with a film,” said De Molina and Ormazabal before introducing the screening of The Song of Names. The film’s director, François Girard, was present at the ceremony in the company of the actors Tim Roth and Catherine McCormack.