The winner of the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes, and of its Grand Prix du Jury, Best Director and the Caméra d’Or, plus a large representation of titles programmed at the Venice Mostra, figure amongst the sixteen feature films to make up the Perlak section at the 73rd edition of the San Sebastián Festival. The latest full-length films from Olivier Assayas, Noah Baumbach, Kaouther Ben Hania, Yorgos Lanthimos, Richard Linklater, Kleber Mendonça Filho, François Ozon, Hlynur Pálmason, Jafar Panahi, Raoul Peck, Paolo Sorrentino, Joachim Trier and Rebecca Zlotowski will feature in the section alongside the debuts from Guillermo Galoe, Hasan Hadi and the duo formed by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han. All of them will compete for the City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award.

Opening the section following its premiere in the official competition at Cannes is Nouvelle Vague, the tribute paid by Richard Linklater (Houston, 1960) to the famous French film movement and to the production in 1959 of the film À bout de souffle / Breathless, by Jean-Luc Godard. The North American has directed the acclaimed trilogy made up of Before Sunrise (1995), Silver Bear for Best Director in Berlin; Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013). Dazed and Confused (1993) and Waking Life (2001) were respectively programmed in the Very Funny Things. New American Comedy and Animatopia. The new paths of animation cinema, whilst Boyhood (2014), Silver Bear for Best Director in Berlin, received the FIPRESCI Grand Prix in San Sebastián. In addition to Nouvelle Vague, this year he has also premiered Blue Moon (2025), winner of the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Actor going to Andrew Scott.

Also programmed out of competition at Cannes is Vie privée (A Private Life), the film that will close the Perlak section. In it, Jodie Foster plays a psychiatrist who investigates the death of one of her patients. Actors Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Matthieu Amalric and Vincent Lacoste also appear in this latest work from Rebecca Zlotowski (Paris, 1980), whose previous films showed at the Semaine de la Critique (Belle épine, 2010), at Un Certain Regard (Grand Central, 2013) and at the Quinzaine des cinéastes (Une fille facile / An Easy Girl, 2019) in Cannes, and at the Venice Mostra, where she showed Planetarium (2016) out of competition and competed in the official selection with Les enfants des autres (Other People’s Children, 2022). She is also the co-writer of Emmanuelle (Audrey Diwan, 2024), opening film of San Sebastián’s Official Selection last year.  

Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Jeffrey Wright and Tom Sturridge star in Le mage du Kremlin / The Wizard of the Kremlin, by Olivier Assayas (Paris, 1955), narrating how a young artist and TV producer becomes the adviser to Vladimir Putin. The film will compete in Venice, where Assayas received the FIPRESCI Prize with his debut, Désordre (Disorder, 1986), later shown in the Zabaltegi-New Directors section at San Sebastián. He has harvested myriad recognitions with film such as Fin août, début septembre (Late August, Early September, 1998), winner of the Silver Shell for Best Actress going to Jeanne Balibar, and Personal Shopper (2016), which bagged the Best Director Award in Cannes. Amongst his other participations in the San Sebastián competition are L’heure d’eté (Summer Hours, Perlak, 2008), Clean (Backwash: the cutting edge of French cinema retrospective, 2004), Après mai (Something in the Air, Perlak, 2012) and WASP Network, which had its premiere in Venice before appearing as a Special Screening for the Donostia Award going to Penélope Cruz.

Also competing in Venice is Jay Kelly, a film from Noah Baumbach (New York, 1969) in which George Clooney plays a famous film star struggling with a personal crisis. The film features Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Eve Hewson, Greta Gerwig, Alba Rohrwacher and Emily Mortimer, also the co-writer. This is the latest feature film from the North American director and screenwriter, whose films have competed at Venice, Sundance, Cannes and Berlin. He is the writer, amongst others, of The Squid and the Whale (2005), Greenberg (2010), The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), Marriage Story (2019) and White Noise (2022).

The Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania (Sidi Bouzid, 1977), who participated in Cinema in Movement in 2012 and later in Zabaltegi with Le challat de Tunis / The Challat of Tunis (2014), will return to San Sebastián with The Voice of Hind Rajab, programmed in the official competition at Venice. The film brings a fiction based on the true story of a 6-year-old girl from Gaza who was killed along with members of her family during an attack by the Israeli army in 2024. Ben Hania was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Film with The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020), and for the Best Documentary Feature Film with Les filles d'Olfa / Four Daughters (2023), which had previously won the L'Oeil d'Or Award at Cannes.

Guillermo Galoe (Madrid, 1986) won the Prix SACD at the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes with Ciudad sin sueño / Sleepless City, a feature film debut shot with non-professional actors in Madrid’s Cañada Real shanty town. In that same setting and with the same characters, Galoe filmed Aunque es de noche / Even Though It's Night (2023), which was part of the official short film selection in Cannes and was later programmed in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera.

Mamlaket al-Qasab / The President’s Cake follows a young girl who must use her wits to prepare the mandatory cake for celebrating the birthday of President Saddam Hussein – or face terrible punishment. The film won the Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature Film at the Festival de Cannes and the Audience Award at the Quinzaine des cinéastes. Its director and screenwriter, the Iraqi Hasan Hadi (Bagdad, 1990), has worked as a journalist, producer and associate professor of film studies at the NYU.  

Another of the films to compete for the Golden Lion in Venice is the black comedy Bugonia, the latest collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos (Athens, 1973) and the actress and producer Emma Stone, who stars alongside Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis. Amongst the distinctions harvested by the Greek moviemaker are the Un Certain Regard Award for Kynódontas (Dogtooth, 2009); the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay for Alps (2011); the Cannes Prix du Jury for The Lobster (2015); the Best Screenplay Award in Cannes for The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), and the Grand Jury Prize in Venice and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress going to Olivia Colman for The Favourite (2018). He presented the short film Nimic (2019) in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera following its premiere in Locarno and Poor Things (2023) won the Golden Lion in Venice, as well as four Oscars and the FIPRESCI Grand Prix in San Sebastián, whilst Kinds of Kindness (2024) earned Jesse Plemons the Best Actor Award in Cannes.

Kleber Mendonça Filho (Recife, 1968) carried off the Best Director Award and the FIPRESCI Prize in the official competition at Cannes with O agente secreto / The Secret Agent, whose protagonist, Wagner Moura, landed best actor for his performance as the mysterious man eager to reunite with his son in the Brazil of 1977. He had previously participated in Cannes, both in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes with his short film Vinil verde / Green Vinyl (2004), and in the Official Selection, where he presented Aquarius (Doña Clara, 2016) and Bacurau (2019), co-directed with Juliano Dornelles and winner of the Jury Prize. He also presented Retratos fantasmas / Pictures of Ghosts (2023) at the French event’s special screenings.

Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Denis Lavant and Swann Arlaud feature on the cast of L'Étranger / The Stranger, adaptation of the novel of the same name by Albert Camus with which François Ozon (Paris, 1967) will compete in Venice. With Dans la maison (In the House, 2012), Ozon won the Golden Shell and Best Screenplay Award in San Sebastián, where he has competed with Sous le sable (Under the Sand, 2000), Le refuge (The Refuge, Special Jury Prize, 2009), Une nouvelle amie (The New Girlfriend, 2014), Été 85 (Summer of 85, 2020) and Quand vient l’automne (When Autumn Comes, 2024, Silver Shell for Best Supporting Performance and Jury Prize for Best Screenplay). Other of his films have also been programmed in Perlak, Zabaltegi and in retrospectives such as Backwash and Incorrect@s.

For its part, the Cannes Première screened Ástin sem eftir er / The Love that Remains, capturing a year in the life of a family through intimate vignettes and strange events. The Icelandic filmmaker and artist Hlynur Pálmason (Hornafjörður, 1984), to whom Tabakalera is dedicating an individual exhibition running until 28 September, has participated in festivals such as Locarno and Cannes, in whose Un Certain Regard section he premiered Godland (2022). With this film he later won the award from Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, the section in which he also showed the short film Nest (2022) following its screening at Berlinale Special, and where he will present the world premiere of his other feature film of the year: Jóhanna af örk / Joan of Arc.

The Iranian Jafar Panahi (Mianeh, 1960) carried off the Palme d’Or in Cannes with Un simple accident / It Was Just an Accident, whose starting point is a minor incident with unimaginable consequences. Amongst other distinctions, Panahi has won the Golden Lion in Venice and the FIPRESCI Grand Prix in San Sebastián for Dayereh (The Circle, 2000); the Grand Jury Prize in Berlin for Offside (2006); the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay in Berlin for Pardé / Closed Curtain (2012); the Golden Bear and FIPRESCI Prize, also in Berlin, for Taxi (Perlak, 2015); the Best Screenplay Award in Cannes for Se rokh / 3 Faces (Perlak, 2018), and the Special Jury Prize in Venice for Khers nist (No Bears, 2022). 

Raoul Peck (Port-au-Prince, 1953), who came to New Directors with Haitian Corner (1988), will participate in Perlak with Orwell: 2+2=5, a non-fiction released at Cannes Première and focused on George Orwell’s prophetical vision. The Haitian filmmaker has competed at festivals such as Cannes and Berlin with titles like L'homme sur les quais / The Man by the Shore, Lumumba (2000), Sometimes in April (2005) and I Am Not Your Negro (2017), nominated for an Academy Award in addition to winning the BAFTA and the César for Best Documentary.  

Paolo Sorrentino (Naples, 1970) returns to Perlak with the film to open the Venice Mostra, La Grazia, another collaboration between the actor Toni Servillo and the director, who defines his film as a love story set in Italy. Sorrentino has competed in Cannes with films including Le conseguenze dell'amore (The Consequences of Love, 2004), Il Divo (Jury Prize, 2008), This Must Be The Place (2011) and La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, 2012), winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. With È stata la mano di Dio (The Hand of God, 2021), Grand Jury Prize in Venice, he took part in the Film Talks programme of the San Sebastián Festival, where he appeared last year with Parthenope (Perlak, 2024) after competing at Cannes.

Joachim Trier (Copenhagen, 1974) won the Grand Prix du Jury in Cannes with Affeksjonverdi / Sentimental Value, which explores a family and stars Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård alongside Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning. The Danish director had already participated in the official competition of the French fest, where he premiered Louder than Bombs (2015) and Verdens verste menneske (The Worst Person in the World, 2021), nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best International Film and winner of the Goya for Best European Film. In addition to these, he presented Oslo, 31. August (2011) in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

Amélie et la métaphysique des tubes / Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, the debut film from Maïlys Vallade (Châtenay-Malabry, 1985) and Liane-Cho Han (Paris, 1983), showed in a Cannes official selection special screening and won the Audience Award at the Annecy Animation Film Festival. The film brings an adaptation of the novel Métaphysique des tubes (The Character of Rain, 2000), in which the Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb recreated her childhood in Japan.   

All films in the Perlak Section will compete for the City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award, which will be decided by the spectators who attend the first public screening of each film in the said section. The City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award is made up of two different awards: a first Award for Best Film, carrying 50,000 euros, and a second Award for Best European Film carrying 20,000 euros. The City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award goes to the distributor of the film in Spain.

Armani Beauty, Official Beauty Sponsor of the Festival, is the sponsor of the Perlak section.