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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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Fourteen filmmakers from China, Costa Rica, Denmark, India, Japan, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey and the UK will present their first and second feature films in San Sebastián Festival’s New Directors section and all will compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award.
Saoirse Ronan stars in Bad Apples, a biting satire with a thriller aftertaste that will open New Directors. Directed by Jonatan Etzler (Stockholm, 1988), the film tells the story of a teacher who has to deal with a conflictive 11 year-old pupil. This UK production is the second work from its director, writer of the prize-winning short film Swimmer and of the feature film, One More Time (2023).
Shiro no Kajitsu / White Flowers and Fruits, debut feature film from Yukari Sakamoto (Tokyo, 1990), will close the section. It is set in a Christian all-girls boarding school, where the suicide of a popular student leaves everyone shaken, and particularly one of the new boarders, who has the ability to see ghosts.
The Kurdish-Turkish filmmaker Seyhmus Altun (Diyarbakır, 1988) will show his debut film Aldığımız Nefes / As We Breathe, which participated in last year’s WIP Europa with the working title of Memento non mori. This Turkey-Denmark co-production follows the changes suffered by a family from a rural Anatolian town during a relentless fire.
Following her recognition for the short film If You Knew and her directing work on the series MOOD, the British filmmaker Stroma Cairns (London, 1992) turns to feature films with The Son and the Sea. Written by Cairns herself and her mother, the producer Imogen West, the film follows the travels of two friends on Scotland’s North-East coast, where they discover a connection that goes beyond words.
After competing in the Clermont-Ferrand Festival with the short films A Dream of Spring (2017) and Neko and Flies (2021), the Taiwanese director Tsao Shih-Han (Kaohsiung, 1981) brings us his feature debut, Nan Fang Shi Guang / Before the Bright Day. The film follows a teenager who, during the third Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996, must navigate tensions in his family, friends and love.
Värn / Redoubt is a co-production between Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, Poland Finland, UK and Switzerland directed by the Swedish filmmaker John Skoog (Malmö, 1985), winner of the Best Film Award at the Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival (CPH: DOX) with his documentary, Säsong / Ridge (2019). This fiction debut stars Denis Lavant as a man who sets about fortifying his house to protect it against potential enemy attacks.
In Vaegtloes / Weightless, debut from the director Emilie Thalund (Copenhagen, 1989), a fifteen-year-old girl spends her summer at a camp where she hopes to lose weight. There she meets a fun, lively and self-assured girl, as well as falling for a charming monitor.
Si no ardemos, cómo iluminar la noche / If We Don't Burn, How Do We Light Up the Night is the title of the first feature film from Kim Torres (Miami, 1993), which was selected in WIP Latam last year. The Costa Rican director, who competed at Cannes with the short film Luz nocturna / Night Light, follows the steps of Laura, a 13-year-old girl who feels trapped in her new family.
Zhang Zhongchen (Suzhou, 1991), who landed the Best Film and Best Director Awards at China’s FIRST Festival for The White Cow (2021), will participate with Ni De Yan Jing Bi Tai Yang Ming Liang / Nighttime Sounds. His second work revolves around an 8-year-old girl who one day runs into the ghost of a child her same age.
The first feature film from the Indian director Tribeny Rai (Sikkim, 1991), Chhora Jastai / Shape of Momo, is an India-South Korea co-production. The director hails from Sikkim, on the border with Nepal, setting of the action. Its protagonist returns to her Himalayan village, where she faces mounting family pressure and social expectations.
Finally, Anton Yarush (Yekaterinburg, 1985), screenwriter of Tesnota / Closeness (Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, 2017) and Razzhimaya kulaki / Unclenching the Fists (2021), and Sergey Borovkov (Vladivostok, 1987), who also works as director of photography, will present their first feature film as filmmakers, Chuzhie Zemli / Foreign Lands, in this section. The film portrays the escape of a Russian film director obsessed with finding the perfect actress for his next project.
These titles are joined by the previously announced Aro berria by Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe, and La lucha by José Alayón. Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe (Eguesibar, 1988) will premiere her feature film debut, Aro berria, a participant at its project stage in the Ikusmira Berriak residencies programme, as well as in other major events like the Locarno Residency and FidLab. The film examines at the struggle of the workers in the 70s and the community experiences which emerged at that time in the Basque Country. For its part, La lucha / Dance of the Living is the second feature film as a director from the similarly producer and director of photography José Alayón (Tenerife, 1980). Filmed on Fuerteventura island, it follows the relationship between a father and his daughter, both Canarian wrestlers, after the death of his wife and her mother.
All of the films will compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, coming with 50,000 euros to be shared equally between the director and the distributor of the film in Spain. The Kutxabank-New Directors Award is sponsored by Kutxabank, official collaborator of the Festival. The Jury of the Kutxabank-New Directors Award has the task of assessing and deciding the winning films. The works corresponding to the New Directors section also compete for the DAMA Youth Award, decided by a jury of 150 students between the ages of 18 and 25 years.
New Directors is one of the most obvious examples of the San Sebastián Festival’s commitment to new talent. For more than five decades, the Festival has had a section dedicated to the first and second works from their makers. New Directors has helped to boost the discovery of filmmakers such as Olivier Assayas, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jonathan Glazer, Lucile Hadžihalilović, Bong Joon-ho, Isabel Coixet and Kevin Smith. The films selected for this section last year have gone on to harvest more than 50 awards and nominations since screening in San Sebastián.
NEW DIRECTORS
Bad Apples is a biting satirical comedy with a thriller aftertaste starring Saoirse Ronan. Maria is a primary school teacher doing her best to inspire a class of 11-year-olds but unable to because of one unruly and chaotic student. With her career in question and the child’s behaviour spiralling and her class out of control, she makes a series of bad decisions that lead to her accidentally locking this bad apple in her home.
Set in an all-girls Christian boarding school, Anna always feels like an outsider due to her ability to see ghosts. Her roommate, Rika, is the complete opposite: an effortlessly popular, well-liked honors student admired by everyone. But when Rika takes her own life, the entire school is shaken, none more so than her closest friend, Shiori, who struggles to make sense of the loss. After discovering Rika's diary, Anna begins to feel her spirit manifest before her, slowly seeping into her body...
In a small Anatolian town in the early 2000s, ten-year-old Esma’s world quietly unravels after a factory explosion sets off an unrelenting fire. As smoke poisons the land and her family struggles to survive, Esma clings to what remains of her childhood. As We Breathe is a tender portrait of resilience in the face of invisible disasters, a story about growing up too soon, holding on to hope, and refusing to disappear.
San Sebastian, 1978. The workers at the water meter factory hold an assembly to discuss a strike, which ultimately fails. Disappointed, the most non-conformist workers turn their aspirations for radical transformation towards more intimate spheres. Some leave the factory to join an isolated community in the mountains, where dozens of young people embarked on an intense journey of shared cathartic experiences.
Bishnu returns to her Himalayan village after quitting her job, only to face mounting family pressures and societal expectations. As tensions rise with her pregnant sister's arrival and a budding relationship with a "suitable" boy from her community, Bishnu must choose between conforming to tradition or claiming her independence.
Anton, a successful Russian director in his late thirties, feels hollow despite his career, relationship, and friends. Obsessed with casting the perfect actress for his deeply personal film, he flees to foreign lands, trapped in an exhausting, relentless routine. As weeks pass, the producer makes decisions without him. Alone and spiraling, Anton's self-destruction deepens - until an unexpected, wordless connection offers a faint hope of salvation.
On the arid island of Fuerteventura, Miguel and his daughter Mariana try to move on after his wife dies, a loss that has cast them both adrift. Canarian wrestling is their refuge, their way to make a place for themselves in the world. But Miguel’s body is starting to fail, and Mariana’s rage pushes her to break the rules. With the championship final just around the corner, father and daughter must find their way back to one another before it’s too late.
Chou, a sensitive teen craving independence, struggles as the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis hits his family's finances and worsens tensions at home. He secretly works at a billiard hall, forming a bond with gang leader Button, but faces setbacks like Button's enlistment and peer conflicts. Caught by his father, their relationship worsens. At school, his crush Min leaves due to war fears, and pressure from a teacher deepens his uncertainty.
The Song dynasty stone statues, dating back 800 years, stand in the wheat fields of Maozhuang Village. Eight-year-old Qing lives in this village with her mother, Hongmei, while her father works away from home all year round. On the way to school, she meets a ghost-like white child who has come to find his missing mother. With the child's arrival, Qing starts to sense whispering under the stone statues as her mother's secret past begins to reveal itself.
At the age of thirteen, Laura feels trapped in her new family. Just as she starts accepting her new life surrounded by sprawling forests and palm plantations, she learns that the village hides a dark secret that preys on the women she loves most.
Two best mates, Jonah and Lee, take a trip to the Northeast coast of Scotland, where Jonah hopes he'll escape the mess he's making of his life in London. They meet Charlie, who is profoundly deaf and visiting his twin brother. Through the darkness that meets them on this wild coast, they form a friendship that ultimately brings Jonah to discover the courage to be vulnerable and that joy can be found despite loss.
Lea, a fifteen-year-old girl, spends her summer at a health camp surrounded by forest and beach. Lea is determined to lose weight, and she longs to be like her friend Sasha, her new roommate at the camp: fun, lively, and unafraid to take up space in the world. While Sasha seeks attention from the local boys, Lea's heart is set on Rune, a charming instructor from the camp. When Rune reciprocates her attention, something awakens within Lea; an unfamiliar yet thrilling desire.
At the peak of the Cold War, farm worker Karl-Göran Persson starts fortifying his house. He gathers scrap metal and casts it into the walls to build a fortress meant to protect himself and his neighbours. His efforts are met with puzzlement by everyone but the children. As the construction progresses, so does a conflict with the people in the village.
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