Today saw presentation of the selection of films making up New Directors, the section embodying one of a film festival’s core missions: to discover new filmmakers, or in other words, new ways of thinking, understanding and making cinema. The Director of the San Sebastian Festival, José Luis Rebordinos, together with Ander Aizpurua, Director of the Kutxabank Gipuzkoa Network, revealed the titles of fourteen first or second movies by filmmakers worldwide who will compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award.
 
Films produced in Germany, Argentina, Belgium, China, France, Greece, Israel, Moldavia, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and the USA explore themes including personal relations and the passage into adult life or portray society in their countries through the eyes of a group of youngsters or from the angle of three generations of women.

For five of the moviemakers these are their second feature films, following a prizewinning and acclaimed debut at international festivals. Such is the case of Federico Godfrid (Pinamar) whose first feature film, La Tigra, Chaco, co-directed with Juan Sasiaín, won, among others, Fipresci Best Film prize at the Mar de Plata Festival and a special jury mention in the Forum of Independents section at the Karlovy Vary Festival. Offline, by Peter Monsaert (Le ciel flamand), was named best film at the Amiens Festival, among other accolades. Yu Liu (Yi bai wu shi sui de sheng huo / One Hundred and Fifty Years of Life) participated with The Blinding Sunlight in New Directors, landed the Special Jury Prize in Cairo, and was deemed Best Screenplay in Beijing. Gabe Klinger (Porto) premiered his documentary Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater in Venice, where it was named best documentary, and Jean-Gabriel Périot, who now brings us Lumières d’été (Natsu no hikari) / Summer Light, opened the Panorama section at the Berlinale with the film later screened in Zabaltegi, Une jeunesse allemande / A German Youth.

Those competing with their first features also come backed by a filmography and acknowledgements in the short film world. Nely Reguera -María (y los demás)- bagged a special jury mention in Gijón and at the XI Iberoamerican Spanish Short Film Contest organised by the General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE) with Pablo. The short film Essaie de mourir jeune / Try to Die Young by Morgan Simon (Compte tes blessures / A Taste of Ink) secured a César nomination and an award in Rome, as did the title Panihida by Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu (Anişoara / Anishoara). Moroco Colman’s short film Fin de semana was selected for both the Cannes Short Film section and the International Students Meeting in San Sebastian in 2010. Ordinary Family by Hyun-ju Lee (Yeon-ae-dam / Our Love Story) scooped up the Korean competition grand prix at the Asiana International Short Film Festival. Last year, Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB) produced The Man in the Case by Alexandra Balteanu (Vanatoare / Prowl), while Maysaloun Hamoud (In Between) saw the screening of her short films Salma, Scent of Morning and Shades of Light at film festivals worldwide. And Sofia Exarchou (Park) won the Works-in-Progress Award at last year’s Karlovy Vary Festival with the film now participating in San Sebastian.

This section represents the Festival’s commitment to new talents on the international movie scene and is today an important platform for lending visibility to their works. This is the case of the winning film of the Kutxabank-New Directors Award at last year’s Festival, the comedy Le nouveau / The New Kid, following its screening at other international festivals such as Zagreb, Melbourne and Lisbon, where it won Audience Award. The film has now been released in Spain.

The Festival has dedicated a special space to new directors since 1976, and in these 40 years has acted as a trampoline for filmmakers including Pedro Almodóvar, Iván Zulueta, Olivier Assayas, Tsai Ming-liang, Danny Boyle, Walter Salles, Nicolas Winding Refn, Lee Daniels, Bong Joon-ho, Laurent Cantet and Lucile Hadzihalilovic, whose second film, Evolution, won the Special Jury Prize at last year’s Festival in addition to the Youth Award for Best Cinematography.

The Kutxabank-New Directors Award, to be decided by a international jury, comes with €50,000 for the film’s director and distributor in Spain. Kutxabank’s sponsorship of the New Directors section is part of a wider participation, under which the financial institution continues to occupy its place this year as the Film Festival’s Official Collaborator.

The films screened in this section will also compete for the EROSKI Youth Award, to be decided by a jury of 300 students between the ages of 18 and 25.