The world premiere of the film from the Uruguayan filmmaker, Daniel Hendler, 27 noches / 27 Nights, will open, on 19th September, the competitive Official Selection of the San Sebastián Festival’s 73rd edition, to close with the out-of-competition screening on the 27th of Winter of the Crow, by the Polish director Kasia Adamik.

Daniel Hendler (Montevideo, 1976) directs and stars in 27 noches / 27 Nights, in which the actress Marilú Marini plays an 80-year-old millionaire forced into a psychiatric clinic by her daughters. With Norberto apenas tarde / Norberto’s Deadline (2010) he won the Films in Progress award, the section in which he also participated with El candidato following its selection for the Co-Production Forum. This year he has another film programmed to screen San Sebastián, specifically in Horizontes Latinos, Un cabo suelto / A Loose End, following its premiere in the Spotlight section of the Venice Festival. The film won the WIP Latam Industry Award in 2024 and was selected for the Co-Production Forum in 2023. Hendler has also forged an important career as an actor, and at the San Sebastián Festival alone has presented films such as El fondo del mar / The Bottom of the Sea (Damián Szifron, Horizontes Selection, 2003), Whisky (Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll, Perlak, 2004), El abrazo partido / Lost Embrace (Daniel Burman, Made in Spain, 2004), Los suicidas / Suicidals (Juan Villegas, New Directors, 2005) and Una novia errante (Ana Katz, Horizontes Selection, 2007).  

Winter of the Crow, a co-production between Poland, the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, is a thriller set in the Cold War during the 80s. The latest film from Kasia Adamik (Warsaw, 1972) stars the British actress Leslie Manville, nominated for the Academy Award and for the Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, FIPRESCI Grand Prix, 2017). Adamik also co-writes this film based on a short story by Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018, telling the tale of a British professor who arrives in Poland to give a lecture in December 1981, just as martial law is coming into force. With her debut, Bark! (2002), the director competed at Sundance, whilst her later works, such as The Offsiders (2008) have received awards at several international competitions such as Gdynia and Camerimage.

Sale of tickets for the galas and closing event at the Velodrome

Tomorrow tickets will go on sale for the opening gala, at which the producer Esther García will receive a Donostia Award, for the closing gala, and for the ceremony on the 26th at which the North American actress Jennifer Lawrence will receive the same honorary award. All three events will take place at the Kursaal Auditorium, whilst the Velodrome will host a broadcast of the closing ceremony along with the screening of two feature films on the 27th.

For the second year running, the San Sebastián Festival galas will be written and directed by El Terrat (The Mediapro Studio). Silvia Abril, Toni Acosta and Itziar Ituño will present the opening ceremony on Friday 19th September at 20:30, at which Esther García will collect her Donostia Award and the FIPRESCI Grand Prix will be presented. The Official Jury will be introduced before the screening of Daniel Hendler’s 27 noches / 27 Nights. The gala will be broadcast live on TVE’s La 2 channel, RTVE play, ETB1, eitb.eus and the Festival website.

The same channels will broadcast the closing ceremony taken through its steps by Itsaso Arana on Saturday 27th September at 21:00. The gala will include presentation of the awards of the 73rd edition and screening of the film Winter of the Crow.

In addition, as usual, the Velodrome will also host a live broadcast of the closing gala. Prior to this broadcast, at 18:00, the surprise film of the edition will screen. This film and the broadcast of the closing gala, will be followed by another screening, this time of the film closing the Official Selection out of competition, Winter of the Crow.

For its part, presentation of the Donostia Award to Jennifer Lawrence will take place on Friday 26th September at 18:00 in the Kursaal. The ceremony will broadcast live on ETB4 and eitb.eus and recorded on La 2, and the Donostia Award Screening will be Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love.

Tickets for all of these events will go on sale tomorrow, 2nd September, at 10:00, on the Festival and Kutxabank websites. Tickets for the opening and closing galas at the Kursaal cost 80 euros for the general zones and 95 euros for zone B. For its part, the cost of tickets for the Donostia Award ceremony is 50 euros for the general zones and 55 euros for zone B. Tickets for the triple event at the Velodrome, for its part, cost 15 euros.

Esther García and Jennifer Lawrence, at Zinemaldia + Plus

Zinemaldia + Plus, the programme with which the San Sebastián Festival participates on Tabakalera’s shared screen, will screen two films in honour of the edition’s two Donostia Award winners: the producer Esther García and the actress Jennifer Lawrence.

The film programmed for the 5th September is Relatos salvajes / Wild Tales (2014), by the Argentinian Damián Szifron, in recognition of the support received from García, through the El Deseo production company, not only by Spanish filmmakers, but also by those in Latin America (tickets for this session can be purchased on the Tabakalera website). On the other hand, programmed on the 12th is Winter’s Bone (2010) by Debra Granik, one of the first works by Jennifer Lawrence and the film for which she landed her first Academy Award nomination (tickets are on sale here).

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