Greek prime minister attends festival to highlight incentives for international projects.
Costa Rican director Valentina Maurel’s I Have Electric Dreams has won the €10,000 Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) which took place from November 3-13.
The film’s lead actor Reinaldo Amien Gutierrez also won the best actor award at the festival.
The French, Belgian and Costa Rican co-production, which premiered in Locarno, follows a young girl’s coming of age and her relationship with her estranged father. World sales are handled by Greece’s Heretic.
The international competition jury...
Costa Rican director Valentina Maurel’s I Have Electric Dreams has won the €10,000 Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) which took place from November 3-13.
The film’s lead actor Reinaldo Amien Gutierrez also won the best actor award at the festival.
The French, Belgian and Costa Rican co-production, which premiered in Locarno, follows a young girl’s coming of age and her relationship with her estranged father. World sales are handled by Greece’s Heretic.
The international competition jury...
- 11/16/2022
- by Alexis Grivas
- ScreenDaily
Imanol Rayo’s “Dog Days” promises to be an ambitious look at family, the challenges of adolescence, the impact of climate change and irreversible transformation.
The project, which won this year’s main prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Crossroads Co-Production Forum, is the Basque filmmaker’s first original script. His previous films, including “Two Brothers” and “Death Knell,” were based on books.
Speaking to Variety, Rayo says the story’s origin lies in a phenomena that has been transpiring in Spain for a long time, namely the popularity of campsites located at reservoirs across the country, to where middle-class families flock during the summer holidays.
The reservoirs themselves, however, built in the last century during the reign of Francisco Franco, flooded and destroyed some 500 villages, forcibly displacing their populations. In recent years many of these submerged villages have reemerged due to dropping levels of water caused by the ongoing drought.
The project, which won this year’s main prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Crossroads Co-Production Forum, is the Basque filmmaker’s first original script. His previous films, including “Two Brothers” and “Death Knell,” were based on books.
Speaking to Variety, Rayo says the story’s origin lies in a phenomena that has been transpiring in Spain for a long time, namely the popularity of campsites located at reservoirs across the country, to where middle-class families flock during the summer holidays.
The reservoirs themselves, however, built in the last century during the reign of Francisco Franco, flooded and destroyed some 500 villages, forcibly displacing their populations. In recent years many of these submerged villages have reemerged due to dropping levels of water caused by the ongoing drought.
- 11/13/2022
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Imanol Rayo’s “Dog Days,” a coming-of-age story set one sizzling summer in the Spanish countryside, won the top prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Crossroads Co-Production Forum, which wrapped with an award ceremony Wednesday night.
The Basque director’s fourth feature took home the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, offering full post-production image and sound to a film that’s currently in development. Producer Iker Ganuza of Spanish production outfit Lamia was on hand to accept the prize from the jury, which praised the film as “a story about both emerging and buried passions, approached with a very personal touch of sensibility.”
Speaking to Variety ahead of the Thessaloniki industry event, Rayo described his “sensual summer story” as “a reflection on the way in which the intervention of the human being or ‘climate change’ modifies the landscapes, habits and lives of ordinary people.” The director’s debut feature, “Two Brothers,...
The Basque director’s fourth feature took home the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, offering full post-production image and sound to a film that’s currently in development. Producer Iker Ganuza of Spanish production outfit Lamia was on hand to accept the prize from the jury, which praised the film as “a story about both emerging and buried passions, approached with a very personal touch of sensibility.”
Speaking to Variety ahead of the Thessaloniki industry event, Rayo described his “sensual summer story” as “a reflection on the way in which the intervention of the human being or ‘climate change’ modifies the landscapes, habits and lives of ordinary people.” The director’s debut feature, “Two Brothers,...
- 11/11/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
New films from Wissam Charaf, whose sophomore feature “Dirty Difficult Dangerous” premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, and San Sebastian prize winner Imanol Rayo (“Two Brothers”) are among the 14 projects selected for this year’s Crossroads Co-Production Forum at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.
The event, which takes places onsite and online from Nov. 7 – 11, presents a slate of films in development from Southeast Europe, the Middle East, the Black Sea and the wider Mediterranean region to an audience of co-producers, distributors, festival programmers and sales agents.
The selection features works from 13 countries, including nine directors making their feature debuts, representing a range of styles, genres and dramatic themes, from a coming-of-age story about two strangers brought together in pursuit of a lost backpack (“Lost Years”) to the tale of a disconsolate lover determined to make his ailing partner happy at any cost (“Love Thy Neighbor”), and a pulled-from-the-headlines crime...
The event, which takes places onsite and online from Nov. 7 – 11, presents a slate of films in development from Southeast Europe, the Middle East, the Black Sea and the wider Mediterranean region to an audience of co-producers, distributors, festival programmers and sales agents.
The selection features works from 13 countries, including nine directors making their feature debuts, representing a range of styles, genres and dramatic themes, from a coming-of-age story about two strangers brought together in pursuit of a lost backpack (“Lost Years”) to the tale of a disconsolate lover determined to make his ailing partner happy at any cost (“Love Thy Neighbor”), and a pulled-from-the-headlines crime...
- 11/6/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Romanian festival sets opening film for in-person event.
Transilvania International Film Festival has selected Cesc Gay’s Spanish comedy The People Upstairs as the opening film of its 20th edition, marking a new collaboration with San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The opener is part of a Spanish focus planned for this year’s festival, which TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov said had been in the works for some time.
“We had been thinking for the last couple of years about having a more consistent focus on Spanish cinema and had been discussing with [Ssiff director] Jose Louis Rebordinos and [programmer] Roberto Cueto about...
Transilvania International Film Festival has selected Cesc Gay’s Spanish comedy The People Upstairs as the opening film of its 20th edition, marking a new collaboration with San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The opener is part of a Spanish focus planned for this year’s festival, which TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov said had been in the works for some time.
“We had been thinking for the last couple of years about having a more consistent focus on Spanish cinema and had been discussing with [Ssiff director] Jose Louis Rebordinos and [programmer] Roberto Cueto about...
- 5/24/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Ventana Sur, which wrapped Friday, was, on many counts, quite extraordinary. With Buenos Aires, the market’s normal location, still under Covid-19 lockdown, Latin America’s biggest movie mart-meet spread out film screenings over five cities in two continents – Madrid, Mexico City, Bogotá, São Paulo and Santiago de Chile – complemented by digital screenings for the rest of the world. Following, five takes on that bold gambit and the market itself, organized by Argentina’s Incaa Film Institute and the Cannes Marché du Film and Festival:
It Was Remarkable – But Did It Work?
Ventana Sur’s five city spread marks a revolution. But did it work? Global attendance held stable at 2,957 participants from 61 countries. 188 online screenings, complimented by 118 theatrical screenings, and the loss of a single on-site event in Buenos Aires, sparked a dramatic increase in non-Argentine attendees with delegates rocketing up to 78% in Europe to 546, 49% in the U.S. to 110 and 185% to 134 in Mexico,...
It Was Remarkable – But Did It Work?
Ventana Sur’s five city spread marks a revolution. But did it work? Global attendance held stable at 2,957 participants from 61 countries. 188 online screenings, complimented by 118 theatrical screenings, and the loss of a single on-site event in Buenos Aires, sparked a dramatic increase in non-Argentine attendees with delegates rocketing up to 78% in Europe to 546, 49% in the U.S. to 110 and 185% to 134 in Mexico,...
- 12/5/2020
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Paris-based Axxon Films has picked up international rights to Imanol Rayo’s thriller “Death Knell” and Mireia Gabilondo’s comedy “The Hive,” two very different titles set in and produced by Spain’s Basque region.
The production, distribution and sales-company is presenting the Spanish pics, both distributed in Spain by Bilbao’s Barton Films, as part of its Ventana Sur lineup.
Based on Miren Gorrotxategi’s novel “33 campanadas,” and produced by Abra Producciones in association with Eitb, “Death Knell” centers on the discovery of human remains at a family farm. Fermin and Karmen call their son Nestor, who reports the matter to the authorities. When they turn up, however, the bones are gone. In the course of the police investigation, long dormant secrets are dredged up.
The film, which premiered at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival in its prestigious New Directors section, is Rayo’s sophomore feature after 2011’s “Bi anai.
The production, distribution and sales-company is presenting the Spanish pics, both distributed in Spain by Bilbao’s Barton Films, as part of its Ventana Sur lineup.
Based on Miren Gorrotxategi’s novel “33 campanadas,” and produced by Abra Producciones in association with Eitb, “Death Knell” centers on the discovery of human remains at a family farm. Fermin and Karmen call their son Nestor, who reports the matter to the authorities. When they turn up, however, the bones are gone. In the course of the police investigation, long dormant secrets are dredged up.
The film, which premiered at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival in its prestigious New Directors section, is Rayo’s sophomore feature after 2011’s “Bi anai.
- 11/30/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
“Ane Is Missing,” the feature debut of Spain’s David Pérez Sanudo, begins with a fixed shot of a woman security guard sitting in a hut on a construction site. For a full 45 seconds absolutely nothing happens until a firebomb suddenly flares outside the hut. Lide, the security guard, grabs a fire extinguisher. Later, having picked up a far younger man in bar, she returns home and in another extended, two-and-a half-minute shot, the camera creeps round her apartment, building like a horror film as Lide discovers that her teen daughter, Ane, has not spent a night at home.
From there on, Lide sets out with her ex-husband to find Ane, discovering that she knows very little about her daughter, as her life and the public context of increasingly violent protest against a high-speed-train project for which Lide works increasingly collide.
Produced by based Amania Films, developed at the Madrid Film School Ecam Incubator,...
From there on, Lide sets out with her ex-husband to find Ane, discovering that she knows very little about her daughter, as her life and the public context of increasingly violent protest against a high-speed-train project for which Lide works increasingly collide.
Produced by based Amania Films, developed at the Madrid Film School Ecam Incubator,...
- 11/12/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
An emerging generation of new Basque filmmakers is making its mark in the San Sebastian Festival, building on the foundations of now consolidated creative and industrial infrastructures.
Only time will tell if the Basque Country can follow in the footsteps of Catalonia, another richer region of Spain, and launch a modern day new wave. Expectations however, remain high.
The new generation is widely represented at this year’s San Sebastian.
A prominent member of the group is David Pérez Sañudo, whose highly anticipated feature debut, mother-daughter social drama “Ane,” plays at the festival’s New Directors sidebar. Handled by Latido Films, “Ane” was developed at the Madrid Film School Ecam Incubator, then won three prizes at Málaga’s Wip in April.
Imanol Rayo, winner of the Zinemira Award with “Bi anai” in 2011, presents in New Directors his rural tale “Hil Kanpaiak” (“Death Knell”), produced by Bilbao-based Abra Prod.
Six of the 11 features at Zinemira,...
Only time will tell if the Basque Country can follow in the footsteps of Catalonia, another richer region of Spain, and launch a modern day new wave. Expectations however, remain high.
The new generation is widely represented at this year’s San Sebastian.
A prominent member of the group is David Pérez Sañudo, whose highly anticipated feature debut, mother-daughter social drama “Ane,” plays at the festival’s New Directors sidebar. Handled by Latido Films, “Ane” was developed at the Madrid Film School Ecam Incubator, then won three prizes at Málaga’s Wip in April.
Imanol Rayo, winner of the Zinemira Award with “Bi anai” in 2011, presents in New Directors his rural tale “Hil Kanpaiak” (“Death Knell”), produced by Bilbao-based Abra Prod.
Six of the 11 features at Zinemira,...
- 9/22/2020
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
This quality in this year’s crop of home-grown productions at the San Sebastian Festival is no surprise to anyone following the region’s growth in recent years, but it is impressive.
Below, 20 Basque projects and finished films and series which stand out at this year’s event.
“Akelarre,” (Pablo Agüero)
A former San Sebastian Festival Co-Production Forum project, “Akelarre” is the latest from Cannes Jury Prize-winner Pablo Agüero (“First Snow”) and plays in this year’s main competition. Heavily influenced by Jules Michelet’s novel “The Witch,” Agüero’s period drama came from a “feeling of injustice that almost all works of fiction dealing with witch hunts perpetuate, clichés first created by the Inquisition.” Seven companies combined on the ambitious co-production.
S.A. Film Factory
“Patria,” (Aitor Gabilondo)
HBO Europe’s original series about two families caught up in the Basque Country’s armed conflict with the Eta organization,...
Below, 20 Basque projects and finished films and series which stand out at this year’s event.
“Akelarre,” (Pablo Agüero)
A former San Sebastian Festival Co-Production Forum project, “Akelarre” is the latest from Cannes Jury Prize-winner Pablo Agüero (“First Snow”) and plays in this year’s main competition. Heavily influenced by Jules Michelet’s novel “The Witch,” Agüero’s period drama came from a “feeling of injustice that almost all works of fiction dealing with witch hunts perpetuate, clichés first created by the Inquisition.” Seven companies combined on the ambitious co-production.
S.A. Film Factory
“Patria,” (Aitor Gabilondo)
HBO Europe’s original series about two families caught up in the Basque Country’s armed conflict with the Eta organization,...
- 9/22/2020
- by Jamie Lang and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Nine out of 13 features will be presented as world premieres.
San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff) is set to world premiere a raft of new features, which will compete for the coveted Golden Shell award.
The 68th edition, which runs September 18-26, will see 13 films play in competition from the Official Selection, nine of which are world premieres.
Scroll down for full list of titles
These include Harry Macqueen’s UK drama Supernova, starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, and UK documentary Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan, directed by Julien Temple and produced by Johnny Depp.
San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff) is set to world premiere a raft of new features, which will compete for the coveted Golden Shell award.
The 68th edition, which runs September 18-26, will see 13 films play in competition from the Official Selection, nine of which are world premieres.
Scroll down for full list of titles
These include Harry Macqueen’s UK drama Supernova, starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, and UK documentary Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan, directed by Julien Temple and produced by Johnny Depp.
- 9/18/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Limbo Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival British director Ben Sharrock's second feature Limbo is among the 11 films that will compete for the New Directors Award at this San Sebastian Festival, which runs from September 18 to 26.
Sharrock's intercultural satire on the difficulties and hopes of refugees marks the second time his work has been selected for the festival, after Pikadero debuted there in 2015, going on to win the Michael Powell Award when it screened at Edinburgh Film Festival the following summer.
Spanish director Imanol Rayo - who won the festival's Zinemira award with Bi anai in 2011- also returns with his second film Death Knell (Hil kanpaiak), an adaptation of Miren Gorrotxategi’s novel 33 ezkil about family infighting in a rural setting. Silent Night director Piotr Domalewski will make a first appearance at the festival with his second film I Never Cry (Jak Najdalej Stad), about a young girl who travels.
Sharrock's intercultural satire on the difficulties and hopes of refugees marks the second time his work has been selected for the festival, after Pikadero debuted there in 2015, going on to win the Michael Powell Award when it screened at Edinburgh Film Festival the following summer.
Spanish director Imanol Rayo - who won the festival's Zinemira award with Bi anai in 2011- also returns with his second film Death Knell (Hil kanpaiak), an adaptation of Miren Gorrotxategi’s novel 33 ezkil about family infighting in a rural setting. Silent Night director Piotr Domalewski will make a first appearance at the festival with his second film I Never Cry (Jak Najdalej Stad), about a young girl who travels.
- 8/4/2020
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Three titles selected for Toronto, which also have Cannes 2020 labels, among 11 productions selected to compete for award.
The San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff) has revealed the 11 features that will compete for the New Directors award at its 68th edition, set to run September 18-26.
Scroll down for full list of titles
The titles include three features recently selected for Toronto, which also have Cannes 2020 labels: Suzanne Lindon’s Spring Blossom; João Paulo Miranda Maria’s Memory House; and Ben Sharrock’s Limbo. In addition, Isabel Lamberti’s Last Days Of Spring was selected for Cannes’ Acid parallel programme.
It...
The San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff) has revealed the 11 features that will compete for the New Directors award at its 68th edition, set to run September 18-26.
Scroll down for full list of titles
The titles include three features recently selected for Toronto, which also have Cannes 2020 labels: Suzanne Lindon’s Spring Blossom; João Paulo Miranda Maria’s Memory House; and Ben Sharrock’s Limbo. In addition, Isabel Lamberti’s Last Days Of Spring was selected for Cannes’ Acid parallel programme.
It...
- 8/4/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Suzanne Lindon’s “Spring Blossom,” João Paulo Miranda María’s “Memory House” and Grigory Kolomytsev’s “Chupacabra” will vie for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, the Basque Country event announced Tuesday.
This year, the New Directors competition takes in 11 films from Brazil, China, France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Russia, the U.K. and Vietnam. Of them, seven will be debut features; the rest are second films.
One of the first-time directors at San Sebastian is Korean Kim Mi-jo, who recently won the Grand Prize in the Korean competition at the 2020 Jeonju Festival with “Gull,” the story of a middle-aged victim of rape that will make its international premiere at San Sebastian sold by sales agent M-Line Distribution. China’s Xingyi Dong will debut with “Slow Singing,” whose lead character is a man who returns to his hometown after release from jail.
This year, the New Directors competition takes in 11 films from Brazil, China, France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Russia, the U.K. and Vietnam. Of them, seven will be debut features; the rest are second films.
One of the first-time directors at San Sebastian is Korean Kim Mi-jo, who recently won the Grand Prize in the Korean competition at the 2020 Jeonju Festival with “Gull,” the story of a middle-aged victim of rape that will make its international premiere at San Sebastian sold by sales agent M-Line Distribution. China’s Xingyi Dong will debut with “Slow Singing,” whose lead character is a man who returns to his hometown after release from jail.
- 8/4/2020
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
eOne and Australian pay TV company Foxtel have inked an expanded deal on a slate of the former’s recent titles. Included are the Oscar-winning 1917, Green Book, and Judy, as well as Wild Rose, Booksmart, Babyteeth, and more. The agreement sees Foxtel take both pay TV and SVOD rights for the pics in the territory and extends a long-running partnership between the two companies.
The San Sebastian Film Festival has unveiled its line-up of Spanish titles screening this year. They include two series – HBO Europe’s Patria and Movistar+ series Riot Police, both of which take part in the Official Selection. Films added include Pablo Agüero’s Akelarre and Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Courtroom 3H both of which compete for the Golden Shell, as well as David Pérez Sañudo’s Ane, Isabel Lamberti’s Last Days Of Spring, and Imanol Rayo’s Death Knell, which are in the New...
The San Sebastian Film Festival has unveiled its line-up of Spanish titles screening this year. They include two series – HBO Europe’s Patria and Movistar+ series Riot Police, both of which take part in the Official Selection. Films added include Pablo Agüero’s Akelarre and Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Courtroom 3H both of which compete for the Golden Shell, as well as David Pérez Sañudo’s Ane, Isabel Lamberti’s Last Days Of Spring, and Imanol Rayo’s Death Knell, which are in the New...
- 7/30/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Two series selected for out of competition slots.
Pablo Agüero’s Akelarre and Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Courtroom 3H will compete for the Golden Shell at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival (Ssiff), which runs September 18 to 26.
The latest project from Argentinian director Agüero, previously at San Sebastian with competition title Eva Doesn’t Sleep in 2015, is a historical witchcraft drama shot in Spanish and Basque.
Esparza also returns to competition, following Fipresci Prize winnerLife and Nothing More in 2017, with documentary Courtroom 3H, about a Florida court specialising in judicial cases involving minors. The previously announced competition films include five Cannes label titles.
Pablo Agüero’s Akelarre and Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Courtroom 3H will compete for the Golden Shell at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival (Ssiff), which runs September 18 to 26.
The latest project from Argentinian director Agüero, previously at San Sebastian with competition title Eva Doesn’t Sleep in 2015, is a historical witchcraft drama shot in Spanish and Basque.
Esparza also returns to competition, following Fipresci Prize winnerLife and Nothing More in 2017, with documentary Courtroom 3H, about a Florida court specialising in judicial cases involving minors. The previously announced competition films include five Cannes label titles.
- 7/30/2020
- by 1101184¦Orlando Parfitt¦38¦
- ScreenDaily
In a sign of the times, Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, the biggest movie event in the Spanish-speaking world, announced Thursday two of its biggest Spanish premieres, both of which are TV series: Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “Riot Police,” a Movistar Plus original, and Aitor Gabilondo’s “Patria,” a banner title at HBO Europe.
They will be joined in San Sebastian’s official selection by two in-competition movies from directors who underscore other trends now coursing through Spain’s content industries: Pablo Agüero’s “Akelarre” and Antonio Méndez Esparza’s “Courtroom 3H.”
As scripted drama looks to reach far larger audiences, the cream of Spain’s directorial talent has moved into the longer format, few with more lauded results than Sorogoyen, whose “Riot Police” is being talked up by the few who have seen its first episodes as one of the crowning achievements to date of Movistar Plus.
The first full...
They will be joined in San Sebastian’s official selection by two in-competition movies from directors who underscore other trends now coursing through Spain’s content industries: Pablo Agüero’s “Akelarre” and Antonio Méndez Esparza’s “Courtroom 3H.”
As scripted drama looks to reach far larger audiences, the cream of Spain’s directorial talent has moved into the longer format, few with more lauded results than Sorogoyen, whose “Riot Police” is being talked up by the few who have seen its first episodes as one of the crowning achievements to date of Movistar Plus.
The first full...
- 7/30/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
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