Mikel Gurrea’s “Sants,” with “The Beloved” star Vicky Luengo, joins in San Sebastian’s main competition alongside Berto Romero’s time-loop relationship comedy “Five Minutes More” and Roberto Bueso’s family dramedy “El mal padre.”
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Also selected for this year’s San Sebastián, playing out of competition is “El Castillo,” from Rodrigo Sorogoyen regular co-scribe Isabel Peña, and Eduardo Villanueva, who co-wrote with them Sorogoyen’s hit first series “Riot Police.”
September’s San Sebastián marks the last headed by San Sebastián director José Luis Rebordinos. As he prepared to present the 23 Spanish titles at this year’s festival he received a standing applause from the whole of the industry audience at the unveil in Madrid.
With the three biggest upscale Spanish films of the year, “The Beloved,” Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas,” and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s “The Black Ball” all selected for main competition at Cannes, this year’s selection of Spanish titles for San Sebastián is slightly less obvious.
“Black Ball” screens in Perlak, however.
This is the first time, for example, that Romero and Bueso compete for the festival’s Golden Shell.
That said, this year’s lineup offers the chance for discoveries: both ““Esa soledad,” from Javier Giner, director of Disney+ breakout series “I, Adict,” and “El mal hijo, from “Money Heist” star Jaime Lorente, are debut features.
It will also allow directors who merit more attention to share a larger part of the limelight. Basque director David Pérez Sañudo weighs in with by far his biggest films to date: historical serial killer thriller “The Harvester”; after impressing with “The Laws of the Border,” Daniel Monzón returns to San Sebastián with “Pray For Us,” a searing denunciation of on little known facet of Francoist repression.
Behind a stunning lineup in series – “The New Years,” “La Mesías· and “The Anatomy of a Moment” and “Sirāt, “The Beloved” and “The Black Ball” in film, Movistar+ will have a strong presence at San Sebastián, producing or co-producing “Five Minutes More” and “El Castillo.”
Atresmedia Cine back a clutch of selections this year. Arcadia Motion Pictures, behind the Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams” and Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” produces “Pray for Us.”
The selection will also serve as a showcase for some of Spain’s finest acting talents. Eduard Fernández “Smokes & Mirrors” stars in “El Mal Padre,”for instance.
A closer look at this year’s Spanish titles at the San Sebastián Film Festival, the biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world.
Main Competition
“Five More Minutes,” (Javier Ruiz Caldera)
Headlining “Talk to Her” star Javier Cámara and Goya winner Belén Cuesta and directed by Ruíz Caldera (“Wolfgang”) but very much a film from writer-star Berto Romero blending genre and his hallmark humor as one of Spain’s top comedians. He pulled that off very well in 2023 with the horror-laced TV series “The Other Side.” Here he turns to low-fi sci-fi in a dark, horror-laced fantasy comedy-thriller as an on-the-rocks couple is caught in a time-loop at a country getaway. Produced by Movistar+, Ikiru Flms and The Mediapro Studio’s El Terrat; Filmax handles world sales.
“El Mal Padre,” (Roberto Bueso)
A family dramedy from Mod Producciones (“Agora,” “Biutiful,” “The Captive”), Atresmedia (“The Black Ball”), Misent Producciones and Bueso, behind 2022 hit “Full of Grace.” Eduard Fernández, a four-time Spanish Academy Goya winner and San Sebastián best actor laureate (“Smokes & Mirrors”) stars, according to Spanish press reports, as a celebrated writer who asks his estranged children for one last wish: to spend Christmas together in the house where they used to spend summers when they were kids.
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“Sants,” (Mikel Gurrea)
Luengo, also in Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas,” plays a young woman struggling to care for her dying mother, who takes up with a gang of thieves which steal statues from churches and cemeteries, After Clara Simón’s Berlin Golden Bear” winner “Alcarràs,” Lastor Media and Italy’s Kino Produzione re-team on “Sants,” producing with Nocturna Pictures. The sophomore outing of Gurrea, who impressed with his first San Sebastián competition player Suro.”
Out of Competition
“El Castillo,” (Creators: Isabel Peña, Eduardo Villanueva; directed by Elena Martín, Sandra Romero)
The fictionalized chronicle of the real-life transformation of Spain’s roadside brothel business into large-scale organized crime. This is told from the POV of its creation, a special police unit seeking to dismantle it, and one of its sex worker victims, Peña has said. Movistar+ produces iwith Caballo Films, behind “The Beasts.” Elena Martín, helmer of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight winner “Creatura,” and Sandra Romero (“As Silence Passes By”) direct.
Special Screenings
“Beyond Society,” (“Mas Allá de la Sociedad,” J.A.Bayona, Carles Torrens)
Picking up where “The Society of the Snow,” the there part series chronicles how the survivors of the 1972 air crash returned home to afce the families of those who died. A three part non-fiction series created by Bayona and Torres and produced by Belén Atienza, Sandra Hermida and J.A. Bayona.
“The Harvester,” (“Sacamantecas,”David Pérez Sañudo)
Starring Antonio de la Torre (“May God Save Us”) and Patricia López Arnaíz (“Sundays”) and inspired by the 1870s story of Spain’s first documented serial killer. Boasting meticulous 1870s period construction and a €10 million ($11.5 million) budget – notably high for Spain, produced by La Claqueta and Amania Films and a step up in scale for director Pérez Sañudo, whose debut “Ane is Missing” was already notable for its fluid use of genre. Latido Films sells.
“Pray For Us,” (“Ruega por nosotras,” Daniel Monzón)
1974 After a night on the tiles, Ana, 19, is dispatched by her wealthy family to Spain’s Women’s Protection Board, a Francoist state-backed institution confining young women in the guise of moral “reform.” The latest from the often underrated Monzón (“Cell 211,” “The Laws of the Border”), backed by Arcadia Motion Pictures, behind the Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams” and Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts.” Picked up by Film Factory Entertainment for international, Elastica for Spanish distribution.
New Directors
“Esa soledad,” (Javier Giner)
Giner’s feature debut, once more partnering with star Oriol Plá. here with Marina Salas (“El Barco”), in a portrait of Millennial “existential emptiness in a fragmented and chaotic present,” Giner has said. Sold by Filmax and produced by Fuga de cuerpos, A.I.E., Balance Media Entertainment, La Embajada TV and Basajaun Filmak.
“El mal hijo,” (Jaime Lorente)
The first feature as a director of Lorente, Denver in “Money Heist,” adapting a novel by Salvador S. Molina, a screenwriter on Bambú productions such as “Jaguar” and “13 Exorcisms.” Set in Murcia, a coming of age tale in which a half gitano boy is abandoned by his father, goes to live with his grandmother, who has kidnapped his father. Produced by Frank Ariza at AF.
Horizontes Latinos
“Ashes” (“, Diego Luna)
A Special Screening at Cannes, “Ardor” star Luna’s fifth feature as a director, based on Branda Navarro’s novel, a raw, gritty tale of uprooting, disconnection and everyday hostility, with “Eugenia Perez” Cannes best actress co-awardees Anna Diaz and Adriana Paz which sees young Lucia leaves Mexico with her younger brother to join her mother in Madrid.
Zabaltegi
“Red Rocks,” (Bruno Dumont)
Shot on the French Riviera, two gangs of kids compete at cliff jumping as a Romeo and Juliet love flowers in their midst. The latest from Cannes double Grand Jury Prize winner Dumont (“Humanity,” “Flanders”) which premiere in Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s French festival.
Perlas
“The Black Ball,” (Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo)
A Cannes best director award winner and subject of long applause at its premiere and a substantial Netflix U.S. pickup. Featuring Penelope Cruz and Glenn Close in an ensemble drama rich with new Spanish talent, it interweaves the story of three gay men in 1932, 1937 and 2017 and a novel just begun by Federico Lorca when he was executed in 1936.
Velodromo
“Karateca,” (Aritz Moreno)
The third film from Moreno, who broke out with the meta unreliable narrator sluiced “Advantages of Travelling by Train” (2019), an EFA nominee. Here, tells the larger-than-life true story of Spanish karate queen and Olympic gold medallist Sandra Sánchez, promising “an awe-inspiring visual style.” Included in Variety’s Top 10 Spanish female producers to track 2023), Senõr y Señora co-founder Leire Apellaniz produces with Atresmedia Cine.
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