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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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The new films by Fred Cavayé, Jesse Eisenberg, Amanda Kernell and Gabriel Martins, together with the feature film debuts from Ah Biao and Tony Vahl, will compete in the Official Selection of the San Sebastián Festival’s 74th edition. Their respective films, Les Misérables, The Debut, Garrat du váimmu / Brace Your Heart, Vicentina pede desculpas / On Behalf of My Son, Bian jing / Border y Krux, join the ten titles already announced and will also compete for the Golden Shell and the other official awards.
The Bangkok-based director, screenwriter and cinematographer Ah Biao (Shanxi, 1990) will compete with Bian Jing / Border. His debut film is set in a border town, where a miner marked by a life of abuse is inveigled into committing a crime.
Fred Cavayé (Rennes, 1967) will compete with a new adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, starring, among others, Vincent Lindon, Tahar Rahim and Noémie Merlant. The French screenwriter and director has shown great versatility throughout his career. After putting his name to Pour elle / Anything for Her (2008), later adapted in Hollywood by Paul Haggis, he settled into thrillers with À bout portant / Point Blank (2010) and Mea culpa (2014), later turning successfully to comedies with Radin! / Penny Pincher! (2016) and Le Jeu / Nothing to Hide (2018), dabbling in historical drama with Adieu Monsieur Haffmann / Farewell, Mr. Haffmann (2021) and returning to comedy with Les Chèvres! / This is the Goat! (2024).
Jesse Eisenberg (New York, 1983) directs Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti in his third feature as a director. The Debut, which follows a timid housewife who unexpectedly becomes a musical star, is written, directed and produced by Eisenberg, who also appears in the film and composed its original music and lyrics. His directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World (2022), opened the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes after premiering at Sundance, while A Real Pain (2024) won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance and earned him an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, among other accolades. As an actor, Eisenberg has worked with directors including Noah Baumbach, Kelly Reichardt, Woody Allen, Zack Snyder and David Fincher. His performance in Fincher's The Social Network (2011) earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
The Swedish director Amanda Kernell (Umeå, 1986) will present Garrat du váimmu / Brace Your Heart, in which a young woman does everything in her power to keep her family’s reindeer herd alive, crossing her own boundaries and giving up her true love. Kernell’s debut feature, Sami Blood (2016), won the Europa Cinemas Label Award and the Fedeora Award for Best New Director in the Giornate degli Autori section of the Venice Festival, among other accolades. Her second film, Charter (2020), screened in competition at Sundance and was the film selected to represent Sweden at the Academy Awards.
Vicentina pede desculpas / On Behalf of My Son is the third feature film from the Brazilian Gabriel Martins (Belo Horizonte, 1987), in which a woman seeks forgiveness from the families of an accident caused by her son. Martins’ first film, co-directed with Maurilio Martins, had its premiere at the Rotterdam Festival with the title of No coração do mundo / In the Heart of the World (2019), while his second feature, Marte um / Mars One (2022), was presented at Sundance. His short films have also screened at festivals all over the world such as, for example, at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes in Cannes, which hosted the showing of Nada / Nothing (2017).
Tony Vahl will compete in the Official Selection with Krux. Inspired by true events, her feature film debut tells the dark story of a small northeastern German village at the end of WWII, when the Nazi regime gave its citizens the order to leave nothing alive for the enemy to find. The German filmmaker has directed short films including Pein (2014), nominated for the German Short Film Award and winner of a prize at Dresden Festival, and Gömböc (2010), which premiered at Locarno and won the Grand Prix at Bristol Festival.
These 6 feature films join the 10 titles already announced, which will also compete for the Golden Shell: El mal padre, by Roberto Bueso; 7:40 ce matin-là / Milo, by Nicole Garcia; Sants / Saints, by Mikel Gurrea; Muyou no hito / In My Father’s Room, by Maha Harada; Mis muertos tristes / My Sad Dead, by Pablo Larraín; Tender Loving Care, by Mike Leigh; Markens Grøde / Growth of the Soil, by Hans Petter Moland; Glaxo, by Benjamín Naishtat; 5 minutos más / 5 more minutes, by Javier Ruiz Caldera; and Artakalan / What Remains, by Yeşim Ustaoğlu.
In a forgotten town where men have learned to survive by keeping their feelings buried and their words few, a broke young miner quietly drifts through a life he barely feels. His numb routine fractures with the arrival of an enigmatic young woman, who sparks a dormant curiosity and the promise of something new. He follows her down a dark path, leaving behind the quiet safety of the only world he knows, unaware that this stranger is not all she seems to be.
Ejva inherits her late father's reindeer herd. As she struggles to keep the herd thriving, local leader Heaika falls for her, and though hesitant, she feels compelled to accept. But everything changes when Nejla, Heaika's cousin, arrives, and Ejva discovers true love for the first time. Betrayed and jealous, Heaika reacts harshly, leaving Ejva with a condition that makes her hands shake uncontrollably, threatening her ability to care for the herd.
Inspired by true events, Krux tells the dark story of a small northeastern German village at the end of WWII, when the Nazi regime gave its citizens the order to leave nothing alive for the enemy to find. Most of the men are at the front. What remains is a handful of women, children, and the few men who were allowed to stay behind. Life still runs on its old rituals: school, church, weddings, work. The villagers still believe it will end well. Then the river gives up bodies no one can name. No one knows when the enemy will come, or what will happen when they do. Rumors fill the silence where facts should be. Out of that silence grows a fear larger than the enemy itself.
After enduring 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread, Jean Valjean emerges a hardened man. He seeks redemption by reinventing himself as a respected dignitary under a new identity. He promises Fantine, a dying factory worker, to rescue and protect her daughter Cosette, who is being exploited and mistreated by the deceitful Thénardier family. As Valjean raises Cosette as his own, he is relentlessly pursued by Inspector Javert. Amidst the social unrest shaking France, the fates of Valjean, Cosette, her lover Marius, and Javert become intertwined in a turbulent, revolutionary Paris. Through struggles, sacrifices, and a deep yearning for justice, Valjean strives to complete his journey of redemption and offer Cosette a future of love and freedom.
When Mona Friedman is cast in a bit part at a small community theater, she transforms from a shy, unassuming housewife into a zealous method actor willing to do anything to protect the artistic integrity of her marginal role—even if it means waging war against the show’s domineering director.
When a bus driven by her son plunges off an overpass, killing dozens, Vicentina seeks out the victims' families to apologize, only to discover the limits of forgiveness.
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