The Film Verdict: San Sebastian 2022

SEBASTIAN: THE AWARDS

GOLDEN SHELL FOR BEST FILM KINGS OF THE WORLD

Directed by Laura Mora

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

RUNNER Directed by Marian Mathias

SILVER SHELL FOR BEST DIRECTOR

Genki Kawamura, A HUNDRED FLOWERS (Hyakka) (Japan)

SILVER SHELL FOR BEST LEADING PERFORMANCE

Paul Kircher, WINTER BOY (Le lycéen) (France) and Carla Quilez, MATERNAL (La maternal) (Spain)

SILVER SHELL FOR BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

Renata Lerman, THE SUBSTITUTE (El suplente) (Argentina, Spain, Italy, Mexico, France)

JURY PRIZE FOR BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Manuel Abramovich, PORNOMELANCOLIA (Argentina, France, Brazil, Mexico)

JURY PRIZE FOR BEST SCREENPLAY

Dong Yun Zhou, Wang Chao, A WOMAN (China)

IRIZAR BASQUE FILM AWARD SURO

Director: Mikel Gurrea (Spain)

SAN SEBASTIAN: THE VERDICT

September 27, 2022

San Sebastian, the major film festival in the Spanish speaking world, celebrated its 70th anniversary this year with a strong selection that cast a spotlight on original new films from Latin America and Argentina in particular. The jury’s choice to award the Golden Shell for best film to Kings of the World (Los reyes del mundo), a

Colombian coprod with Europe, further confirmed what a magnet the festival has become for the top Latin American offerings. Unfolding in one of the most beautiful coastal cities in the Basque Country, the Donostia Zinemaldia, as the festival is called in Basque, drew full capacity audiences at all its numerous venues from Sept. 16 to 24. And yet, the COVID (Cont.)

SAN SEBASTIAN: THE VERDICT (Cont.)

ridden out the storm last year over giving the embattled Johnny Depp the Donostia Award for his career, he met with journalists over coffee to clearly explain that he would never cancel a confirmed screening without a court order demanding he do so.

era ticketing system, which uploads tickets to accredited attendees’ badges (as Venice used to do) without requiring smart phone verification, worked perfectly, relieving fest goers of needless stress and anxiety and allowing them to concentrate on the important thing: the films on the screen. A round of applause to the organizers and to their attitude of friendly partnership with the press.

Which is not to say that it was all smooth sailing for festival director José Luis Rebordinos, who came under scrutiny for refusing to cancel the screenings of two films that had been bumped from the Toronto line up the previous week, both on the strength of accusations of misconduct on the set while the films were shooting. One of these regarded the competition film Sparta by revered Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, a master at recounting the bleak meaninglessness of ordinary lives and the sexual exploitation that underlies them. TIFF pulled the much anticipated film after the German magazine Der Spiegel published an investigation into the film shoot in Romania, alleging that child actors aged 9 to

16 were exposed to alcoholism, nudity and violence during filming and that their parents were not made aware that the film was about pedophilia.

The second film removed from TIFF was Pornomelancholia starring Mexican “sex influencer” and porn star Lalo Santos; it too screened in competition at San Sebastian, where its director Manuel Abramovich, who was also D.P., won the jury prize for best cinematography. Toronto’s withdrawal occurred after Santos claimed the docu fiction hit too close to home and said the filming conditions had affected his mental health.

Neither Seidl nor Lalo Santos attended the festival. In a message thanking the organizers for showing Sparta, Seidl said he wanted the film to speak for itself without overshadowing it with his presence. (Overall reviews of the film were quite positive, in fact.) But even without the director’s presence, Rebordinos stuck to his guns, insisting that San Sebastian programs its films on the basis of their quality, and he can have no direct knowledge of what happened on film sets. Having

Curiously, this year’s Donostia Awards were presented to iconic French star Juliette Binoche and to Canadian director David Cronenberg, who was defined by his friend Viggo Mortensen as a living legend. In his acceptance speech Cronenberg, whose most recent film is Crimes of the Future, lauded the subversive, disruptive, dangerous nature of art. “Now more than ever there’s a need for the crime of art,” said the director. Certainly the time is ripe for a discussion of how festivals choose to showcase or exclude films and personalties that come with grave but unproven accusations and other uncomfortable baggage, and Rebordinos pledged that the dialogue, in the form of public debate, would continue at next year’s event.

In addition to Pornomelancholia, another Argentinean led coproduction that got attention was The Substitute (El Suplente) directed by Diego Lerman. The teenage actress Renata Lerman, who vivaciously played the rebellious daughter of an idealistic teacher struggling to teach marginalized kids, won the Silver Shell for best supporting performance.

The big Latin American win as best film, The Kings of the World, marks the third… Full Review

OFFICIAL SELECTION

screening in Zurich, with more festival slots likely. Prize winning buzz and co production credits with multiple European partners should boost potential art house bookings beyond Spanish language markets.

KINGS OF THE WORLD

VERDICT: Colombian writer director Laura Mora's prize winning road movie is a messy but big hearted love letter to the loveless. Stephen Dalton, September 28, 2022

Pitched somewhere between gritty neorealism and lyrical magic realism, Colombian director Laura Mora’s second feature Kings of the World (Los Reyes del Mundo) is a melodramatic coming of age road movie rich in caustic social commentary, dreamlike visual interludes and sporadic bloody violence. Swept along by the anarchic energy of its young non professional cast, mostly Medellín street kids playing semi fictional versions of themselves, the episodic plot feels wildly undisciplined at times, especially the muddled ending. But a charitable viewing might read this

as intentional, reinforcing the ever present sense of barely controlled chaos and edgy survivalist anxiety that defines lawless young lives on the margins.

A more formally adventurous work than Mora’s feature debut Killing Jesus (2017), which landed her a Berlinale prize, Kings of the World has just won the top Golden Shell award at San Sebastian film festival, cementing the Basque screen showcase’s solid reputation for championing emerging Latin American talent. This messy but big hearted love letter to the loveless is currently

Kings of the World opens in a familiar poverty porn milieu, with machete wielding teenage gangs clashing in the grimy, crumbling barrios of Medellín. But Mora then reverses the standard movie plot trope by steering her young anti heroes out of the city and into Colombia’s picturesque rural hinterlands. Informal father figure to a gang of homeless street urchins, 19 year old Rá (Carlos Andrés Castañeda), has just been awarded the legal deeds to his late grandmother’s derelict country farmstead as part of a government scheme returning properties to families displaced during decades of civil war with the FARC guerrillas. Rá’s impossible dreams of escaping the ghetto suddenly seem to be within his grasp.

Together with Sere (Davison Andrés Florez), Nano (Brahian Stiven Acevedo), Winny (Cristian Camilo David Mora) and bellicose hot head Culebro (Cristian David Campaña), Rá sets off into the deep countryside to secure his rightful destiny. Full Review

Philip Marlowe, the original hard boiled detective from Los Angeles, staged a surprise return in Irish writer John Banville’s 2014 novel The Black Eyed Blonde, a well received sequel authorized by the Raymond Chandler estate. Adapted for the screen by William Monahan (The Departed, Body of Lies), Neil Jordan’s Marlowe is an enjoyable period noir, but one that can’t get past its derivative origins Forget The Long Goodbye or Farewell My Lovely; Jordan and his knowing cast play the story for winking, gentle fun and the warm sensation of a bedtime story that has been read many times before.

The main attraction is the eponymous wisecracking detective who gets by on alcohol (but not much in this film) and wits alone. He’s older now but no less fascinating in Liam Neeson’s charming, markedly Irish incarnation. Perhaps the ethnic touches are meant to celebrate the actor’s reunion with Jordan, as this is the first time they’ve worked together since Michael Collins gave the star’s career a major boost in 1996. In any case, the jokes about James Joyce, County Clare and a mention of

OUT OF COMPETITION

MARLOWE

VERDICT: For the 100th film of his career, Liam Neeson switches from action thriller to classic film noir in a flyweight but generally entertaining post scriptum to Raymond Chandler’s immortal detective series, co starring Diane Kruger and Jessica Lange. Deborah Young, September 26, 2022

Marlowe fighting in the Royal Irish Rifles during the war sit oddly with what one knows about the P.I.

Marlowe is also memorable as the 100th film in Neeson’s long and successful career, and its period setting and relatively undemanding plot throw him a softball that he hits with effortless grace, while arch co stars Diane Kruger as a millionaire heiress and Jessica Lange as her movie star mother add a pungent, sassy female presence for him to play against.

Neeson joins the score of actors who have embodied Chandler’s fictional creation, from James Caan and Robert Mitchum to Elliot Gould (even Danny Glover played Marlowe in a TV episode directed by Agnieszka Holland.)

Visually, perhaps the reference for Neeson’s poker faced private eye wrapped in a trench coat and concealing hat brim is Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep; both command the natural gravitas that makes fist fights and grimacing superfluous.

Full Review

WINTER BOY

COMPETITION

In his semi autobiographical fiction feature Winter Boy (Le Lycéen), French director Christophe Honoré (Sorry Angel, Love Songs) plumbs the depths of a 17 year old’s mind after his father’s death. It’s a work that tries hard to be novelistic perhaps inspired by Honoré’s recent obsession with the work of Proust, both on stage and in film but that, at just over two hours, feels episodic more than really lived in and finally either too short or too long. That said, it features some impeccable acting work from promising fresh face Paul Kircher (son of Franco Swiss Kieslowski muse Irène Jacob), who won the acting prize in San Sebastian, and ugly cry champion Juliette Binoche as his mother. It opens in France Nov. 30.

VERDICT: French veteran director Christophe Honoré's latest is a study of grief and teenage exploration with great performances but a somewhat messy screenplay.

Boyd van Hoeij, September 27, 2022

Mopey, introverted teenager Lucas (Kircher) is from Chambéry in eastern France, just south of Geneva, Switzerland. During the week, he goes to a boarding school one hour away from home. Full Review

COMPETITION

WALK UP

OUT OF COMPETITION RUNNER

VERDICT: Emotions are delicately explored over drinks in South Korean director Hong Sang soo’s beguiling and deceptively simple relationship tale. Deborah Young, September 23, 2022

Working with his usual stock players and covering virtually all technical roles by himself, from writer director producer to editing, music, lighting and sound, South Korea’s prolific Hong Sang soo opens another highly personal story front in his cinematic opus with Walk Up. Though like most of his recent films it is a standalone tale, it has such remarkable fidelity to Hong’s purposes and aesthetic that it seems part of one never ending story. This is good news for Finecut, who can count on the director’s worldwide distributors and art house fans to step forward. After initial bows in Toronto and San Sebastian, this whimsical account of an out of work film director and the women in his life will amuse the faithful and maybe pick up some new recruits, fascinated by the film’s relaxed simplicity and its sophisticated manipulation of time. It is one of the quieter films in his repertoire, however, and calls for a meditative frame of mind to be fully savored.

The film is significantly shot in often over exposed black and white, which combines with the old Mini driven by the main character Byungsoo to flash the action back into the past, giving it a whiff of the Nouvelle Vague. Time does indeed play a major role here, and the jumbled chronology of the scenes will keep viewers on their toes sorting out cause and effect.

Just how autobiographically we should take Byungsoo (Kwon Hae hyo, the philandering publisher in The Day After), or indeed any of Hong’s onscreen avatars, is another question to ponder. Full Review

VERDICT: Writer director Marian Mathias celebrates small acts of kindness and empathy in her opaque but haunting debut feature.

Stephen Dalton, September 24, 2022

Set against the vast lonely backdrop of the American Midwest, Runner is a minor key indie drama about the kindness of strangers. The feature debut of New York based Marian Mathias, its chief allure is a kind of austere beauty, peopling mournfully empty landscapes with stoical, emotionally withdrawn characters. Slight and disjointed, this minimalist coming of age drama feels at times like a work in progress sketchbook of embryonic scenes and half formed themes intended for a more substantial film. Even so, it has a strong visual aesthetic and a haunting emotional force that belies its lean plot and compact running time.

Shot in Indiana, but seemingly set in Missouri and Illinois, Runner takes place in a vague time period somewhere between the late 1940s and late 1970s. It could almost be frontier era America with its stark wooden houses, antique train carriages and dimly lit saloons, a time before billboards or shopping malls or ubiquitous TV screens. In interviews, Mathias has confirmed she gave the film a purposely “atemporal” setting. Fresh from its Toronto world premiere, the film made its European festival debut in San Sebastian this week, earning a special jury mention. Beyond festival and art house circles, interest will be slender for this opaque, low voltage character study, but Mathias shows ample promise and technical skill.

Hannah (Hannah Schiller, engaging but elusive) is a shy, solitary 18 year old nicknamed “Haas” by a German relative, which loosely translates as “hare” or “rabbit”. Full Review

Basque Ministry Awards Journalists

Carlos Boyero and TFV’s own Editor Deborah Young

Every year the Basque government presents the Euskadi Basque Country award at the San Sebastian Film Festival (or to say it in Basque, Donostia Zinemaldia) to a Spanish and an international journalist who have shown particular interest in the festival and the region where it takes place. On Sept. 22, the Basque Government’s Tourism, Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister, Javier Hurtado, presented the Euskadi Basque Country award to the journalists Carlos Boyero, the outspoken film critic for El Pais, and Deborah Young, critic and editor of The Film Verdict. It is a recognition by the Basque Government to journalists and critics who, thanks to their coverage of the festival, have

spread recognition of the San Sebastian Film Festival and thus the Basque Country all over the world.

In her acceptance speech, Deborah thanked the Basque Government for this prestigious

award to journalists, which she said would help her to deepen her ties with the Basque Country. She noted that San Sebastian was one of the first festivals to be covered by The Film Verdict since its inception.

OFFICIAL SELECTION

An intimate character study of a real life Mexican gay porn star and online “sex influencer”, Pornomelancolía is an engaging exercise in lightly fictionalised documentary, a reality blurring hybrid approach which has proved controversial even with its own star. Fresh from its world premiere in San Sebastian, where it won the best cinematography prize, Argentinean director Manuel Abramovich’s latest feature expands on the style and milieu of his Berlinale prize winning short Blue Boy (2019). Queer themes, juicy subject matter, and timely insights into niche social media celebrity should ensure plenty more traction in the festival and art house world, especially with a hint of scandal to spice the mix. Next on the screening schedule are Zurich and Reykjavik film festivals.

The subject/star of Pornomelancolía is Lalo (Lalo Santos), a young Freddie Mercury lookalike living in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. By day he works in a small engineering company, passing as straight with his more conservative, macho colleagues. Full Review

PORNOMELANCOLÍA

VERDICT: Manuel Abramovich's controversial docu fiction portrait of Mexican porn star Lalo Santos is empathetic and absorbing, despite being disowned by its leading man.

Stephen Dalton, September 27, 2022

Unifrance congratulates Alice Diop and her producers Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral (SRAB Films), whose film, Saint Omer will represent France at the Oscars 2023, following the decision of the selection committee convened by the CNC on September 23.

Saint Omer is the first fiction film by documentary filmmaker Alice Diop and had its world premiere in early September at the Venice Film Festival, where it received two prestigious awards: the Lion of the Future, for a first work, and the Silver Lion (Grand Prix du Jury). Sold internationally by Wild Bunch International, it had its North American premiere at TIFF, and was bought for the USA by Neon, via the Super label, which distributed Bong Joon ho's Parasite. It will soon be screened at the BFI London Film Festival. Distributed in France by Les Films du Losange, Saint Omer will be released in France on November 23.

Saint Omer by Alice Diop will represent France at the Oscars 2023 for Best International Feature Film

IDFA FEST SELECTS

IDFA announces first Competition Lineups along with their ‘Masters’ and ‘Best of Fests’ selections.

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

Best of Fests

SHOUT LONDON Patron, Michel le Collins, will present the opening film OCD & ME, followed by a Q & A with Director Adrian McCarthy.

Other Highlights:

How Do You Measure a Year

Will You Look At Me

SHOUT LONDON and WHAT’S GOING ON IN YOUR HEAD? announce opening titles and collaboration

The Ashford Place Mental Health Film & Arts Festival, taking place Oct 10th & 11th to coincide with World Mental Health day, announced its opening titles and collaboration with What’s Going On In Your Head?

What’s Going On In Your Head? explores the fragility of the human mind through performance art and discussion. It uses the power of performance art to open up important conversations around mental health and is a platform for artists with lived experience of mental illness to perform their work and be heard.

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Out & Proud photography exhibition by Peter Mirow

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#BeTheLight, directed & edited by Liz Smith

Carey Fitzgerald commented “We are so pleased to partner with What’s Going On In Your Head? for the inaugural Shout London Festival. Between us we are opening up the conversation with the whole of London to normalize the subject of mental health.”

Further details of the full programme schedule will be announced next week,along with news of the closing gala event.

Still Static

IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary Oasis Masters

I Am Gen Z (recent Best Feature winner at the Lower East Side Festival)

COMPETITION

Spanish writer director Pilar Palomero, whose debut feature Schoolgirls (Las ninas) bowed in Berlin and made a sweep of Spanish prizes in 2021 including the national Goya Awards for best film and best new director, confirms her dramatic talent and her unusual empathy for the travails of young girls faced with adult problems in Maternal (La maternal). Set largely in a foster home for unwed mothers, it follows the dynamic trajectory of Carla, a 14 year old tomboy who has a crush on a schoolmate, and who finds herself pregnant and unprepared for her new life as a single mother. Packing the energy and irresponsibility of a child in her screen debut, Carla Quilez portrays the protag with alarming realism. She won the award for best performance at San Sebastian, where the film bowed. With Elle Driver aboard for sales, Maternal should find responsive audiences willing to be involved in these difficult but, in Palomero’s view, redeemable lives.

Though she may seem too young and spontaneous to win a major acting award her first time out, Quilez is the heart of the film, … Full Review

MATERNAL

VERDICT: A cocky 14 year old rebel becomes a mother in Pilar Palomero’s closely observed and vibrant tale, whose mixed pro/non pro cast is convincingly upbeat.

Deborah Young, September 28, 2022

OFFICIAL SELECTION

THE WONDER

VERDICT: Oscar winner Sebastien Lelio's handsome mystery thriller stars Florence Pugh as a kick ass nurse fighting fake news and dubious miracles in 19th century Ireland. Stephen Dalton, September 23, 2022

The clash between science and superstition, and the endless horrors inflicted on women in the name of religious faith, are key themes of Chilean director Sebastian Lelio’s lavish literary adaptation The Wonder. Starring Florence Pugh as an English nurse fighting for empirical truth amidst the fake news and hokey mysticism of 19th century Ireland, this polished Netflix original is based on the 2016 novel by Irish Canadian author Emma Donoghue.

Lelio’s third English language feature also marks a slight shift towards mainstream frocks and bonnets convention from a director who previously won plaudits and Oscars with sparky contemporary dramas like Gloria (2013) (later remade as Gloria Bell), A Fantastic Woman (2017) and Disobedience (2017), though all these films are united by defiant, rebellious female protagonists. This lightly Gothic mystery boasts a stellar cast and high production gloss, even if it ultimately feels more like a deluxe exercise in style than a personal passion project. Currently earning positive buzz on its introductory run of big screen festival premieres, The Wonder is screening in official competition at San Sebastian this week ahead of its autumn streaming debut. Donoghue is best known for her 2010 novel Room, which spawned an Oscar winning 2015 film starring Brie Larson. Though outwardly a very different narrative, The Wonder is another horror tinged domestic thriller touching on similar themes of abused children, coercive adults and stifled female agency. Full Review

REBORDINOS Speaks to Non-Controversy

Let’s begin with a general question. You head up one of the most prestigious film festivals entering its 70th year how are you keeping it fresh and vibrant?

We will try to get back to a normal pre pandemic edition, which is already going to be important. In addition, in the frame of Spanish Screenings: Financing & Tech, we are organizing a meeting of creative investors at the highest international level. As for the 70th anniversary, we have an exhibition on the history of the festival at Tabakalera, International Centre for Contemporary Culture and we will launch a website in December, where the public will be able to access for the first

time restored, catalogued and digitised materials from our historical archive.

Some film distributors have expressed their concern that festivals are losing their film culture to red carpet

events. What are your observations on how festivals are changing in the era of TikTok and social media? And as you enter your anniversary year, how does San Sebastian confront these changes? (Continued on page 2)

“…I don’t care if a film is produced by a platform or by a traditional producer.”

REBORDINOS Speaks to Non-Controversy \

(Continued)

I think that San Sebastian is a festival that combines good films with a certain amount of glamour. For us, what is essential are the films we show and our commitment to new talents, as well as all the activities that we organize in our Thought and Discussion area.

The Horizontes Latinos section is one of the world’s most respected showcases for Latin American films. How is it evolving and what kind of programming approach do you take with it?

For us, everything that is related to Latin American cinema is key. We share the Spanish language with more than 500 million speakers. It’s a single market. That is why we follow very closely the Latin American films that may come to our festival when they are still in the project phase (our Ikusmira Berriak, Europe Latin America Co Production Forum), then later when the film is shot but not completed (WIP Latam), and finally it can be selected for several sections of the festival including Horizontes Latinos, of course, when it’s finished.

In the past there was some controversy when Johnny Depp

received the Donostia Award. The festival has confronted those questions already, but TFV is keen to ask you how the new political correctness is affecting festivals, in particular San Sebastian? [NOTE: This interview took place before Ulrich Seidl’s film SPARTA was canceled in Toronto but confirmed in San Sebastian.]

The streaming platforms (Netflix, Amazon, Apple) are becoming more feature film oriented and investing in domestic national content. How do you feel that might change the dynamic of European cinema or Spanish cinema? Is an independent film with financing from a streamer still considered an independent film?

I don’t care if a film is produced by a platform or by a traditional producer. Nor am I interested in entering the debate about which films are independent and which are not. We watch films and try to judge the interest of their subjects and their cinematic qualities.

You have an illustrious career. Do you have a single stand out moment that you can tell us about?

We live in a time when people are judged on social media rather than in court. Johnny Depp had not even been charged with abuse in court and many people already assumed he was guilty. We will always defend the right to the presumption of innocence.

There would be many. The moving farewell when I stepped down as director of the San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival, or the visit I paid to the Secondary School (EES Nº37) in Mar del Plata I was already the Festival director and we were working on an international cooperation project. I could also mention the warm welcome given in San Sebastian to my first Donostia Award recipient, Glenn Close.

DONOSTIA ZINEMALDIA

COMPETITION

which is all the more repugnant for revealing the perfectly ordinary background that spawns the monster. Here the protag seems more keen on regressing to a safe, happy, lost childhood than having sex and his slow game of entrapment seems unplanned, as though he himself was unsure how far it would take him.

SPARTA

VERDICT: Screening in San Sebastian competition after it was pulled from Toronto, Ulrich Seidl’s most controversial film to date underlines the sleaze and creepiness of pedophilia so forcefully it is painful to watch.

Deborah Young, September 19, 2022

Anyone familiar with Ulrich Seidl’s work will concur that the Austrian auteur has never minced words, nor imagery, where sexual exploitation is concerned. It is one of the master themes of his films and the sense of tawdriness and humiliation lingers long after the film is over: the three middle aged white ladies who visit Kenya for sex tourism in Paradise Love; the prostitution industry in Ukraine and Austria in Import/Export; ordinary people who turn out to have highly developed sexual perversions (many examples), and so on.

But Sparta, a film whose main character is a complexed pedophile hunting pre teen boys, includes perhaps the most grotesque and uncomfortable scenes of them all.

Although no abuse is shown on screen, Seidl and his regular actor Georg Friedrich reach far beyond TV’s special crimes units that deal with child abuse from the safety of a police car. Sparta, instead, describes the banality of evil from a pedophile’s perspective the harrowing atmosphere of an individual’s world gone wrong,

The film’s premiere was marked with turmoil and controversy after the German magazine Der Spiegel published an investigation into the circumstances of the film shoot in Romania, in which it alleged that the child actors, who were between the ages of 9 and 16, were exposed to alcoholism, nudity and violence during filming and that their parents were not made aware that the film was about pedophilia. As a consequence of the article, Toronto pulled its world premiere, while San Sebastian confirmed its competition screening. Seidl himself decided not to attend, saying he wanted the film to speak for itself without overshadowing it with his presence.

Set in the desolate hinterlands of Austria and Romania, Sparta is the second part of a diptych about two brothers; the first film was Rimini, which screened in competition in Berlin earlier this year. Full Review

COMPETITION

Recounting Spanish society in the difficult years following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, Prison 77 (Modelo 77) makes double use of prison life as a metaphor and an example of the constraint, brutality and arrogance of a period that, in reality, was fading to black while a democratic society gradually took its place. Alberto Rodriguez moves scores of actors through sharply defined roles that make each of the prisoners count. Though many members of the audience may buy a ticket to see a fast paced, violence strewn prison picture (and they won’t be disappointed), everyone should come away with a better understanding of the grueling frustrations inherent in living through a time when society is changing gears and the promised land of democratic freedom from oppression seems to recede rather than come closer.

The Seville born Rodriguez is one of Spain’s top filmmakers and his early career as an action and crime director is put to good use here. Full Review

PRISON 77

VERDICT: Director Alberto Rodriguez grippingly reconstructs the post Franco years, using historical riots and prisoners demanding human rights as a microcosm of Spain as it made a screeching transition from fascism to democracy.

Deborah Young, September 17, 2022

NEW DIRECTORS

THUNDER

VERDICT: Carmen Jaquier's powerful debut feature chronicles a stormy collision between religious faith and sexual rapture in early 20th century Switzerland.

Stephen Dalton, September 20, 2022

A religiously devout young woman surrenders herself to the carnal side of spiritual love in Swiss writer director Carmen Jaquier’s passionate, lyrical, visually ravishing debut feature Thunder, which has just world premiered in both Toronto and San Sebastian. Drawing on the agony and ecstasy in Pasolini’s The Gospel According to Matthew (1964), Jaquier’s feverish coming of age drama sometimes gets a little consumed by its own self serious, quasi mystical pretensions. But this is still an accomplished and original debut, rooted in worthy intentions to give voice to all those voiceless women missing from the history books for being too lustful, too disobedient, too far ahead of their time. Partly inspired by the diaries of her own great grandmother, Jaquier infuses a handsome period canvas with a very modern attitude here. Festival acclaim and awards potential should translate into solid art house prospects.

Thunder takes place in the Swiss alps in the year 1900, though it could just as easily be 1800 from the timeless mountain scenery, austere rural communities and ingrained traditionalism on display here. After five years cloistered in a convent, 17 year old Elisabeth (Lilith Grasmug) is bluntly summoned home to her family’s modest hillside farm with the shock news of her elder sister Innocente’s death. Full Review

SLOVAKIA

Lionsgate is preparing a remake of The Strangers filming in Slovakia

The Slovak forests may once again show their mysterious and dark power in the upcoming remake of horror film The Strangers, currently in production on locations around Bratislava, Slovakia.

Director Renny Harlin is creating a disturbing story together with Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez and Gabriel Basso.

Rastislav Kuril´s Frame film SK s.r.o. is servicing the production in Slovakia. The producers registered for the 33% cash rebate at the Slovak Audiovisual Fund in June 2022. The shooting started in August 2022 and is planned till the end of October. "Fans of the original film will be amazed, new viewers will discover the intensely unnerving world of The Strangers," promised producer Mark Canton.

AUSTRIA

Austria Announces 2023 Film Incentives

The federal government, looking to further develop Austria as a film location, announces a new incentive system for all film productions as of January 1st, 2023. The subsidies will be

implemented in all sectors without a budgetary cap. The model provides for an automatic, non repayable subsidy based on a catalogue of criteria of up to 35 % of the expenses incurred in Austria in the context of film productions, 5 % of it for the consideration of climate friendly criteria. The maximum amount of the subsidy is 5 million euros per film and 7.5 million euros for series. For the first time, streaming productions are also supported.

CANADA Saskatchewan Filmmakers Mentorship is now open

This grant supports emerging Saskatchewan filmmakers with the production of a music video for a Saskatchewan musician.

Filmmakers will be paired with a mentor throughout the music video production process, and both parties will participate in professional development workshops.

Successful filmmaker grant recipients will gain experience and knowledge in Shot list and storyboard development; Production budgeting and scheduling; Navigating production agreements; Rough cuts vs. fine cuts .

Project expenses are 100% covered by Creative Saskatchewan, to a maximum of $7,500.

More information click here.

MALTA

Das Boot Again Chooses Malta

Das Boot a German TV series produced by Sky and Bavaria Fiction have again chosen Malta to film their fourth season. Fabian Wolfart, Executive Producer, remarked how Malta has become the natural home for ‘Das Boot’ and praised all the local crew working on this series from the beginning till today.

This production is filming at the Malta Film Studios and in various locations in Kalkara, Marsa and Kordin.

Malta Film Commissioner Johann Grech remarked “the plan is working” and this shows the film industry that Malta is creating new jobs. Furthermore, he said “this is not enough. We need more film productions like ‘Das Boot’ to choose Malta as their home.”

Grech also said “the government is investing in the film industry so that Malta can generate more economic growth, create more jobs, and more opportunities to those interested in this industry.

’Das Boot’ is the 11th production which is filming in Malta this year and it is expected that over €3 million will be spent in the local economy.”

NEW DIRECTORS

Roman Catholic nuns on screen have a perpetual fascination dating back to Lilian Gish in the silents, with their promise of taking the audience backstage for hidden glimpses of convent life and saintly living. Katrin Brocks’ first feature, The Great Silence (Den Store Stilhed) is set in a small, modern Danish convent full of big windows and uncomfortable looking Scandi furniture, where the earnest young Sister Alma is eagerly looking forward to taking her final vows as a nun. Her lofty ideals and religious vocation come in for a final test when Erik, her estranged brother just out of rehab, drops by demanding money and opening old wounds. This psychological drama, shot with a faint, teasing touch of Goth, bowed in the New Directors section at San Sebastian. Despite treading a well worn dramatic path, it’s a festival worthy vessel that introduces Brocks as a bright talent to watch, and stars Sick of Myself heroine Kristine Kujath Thorp and Godland priest Elliott Crosset Hove.

Full Review

THE WAKE OSCAR® QUALIFIED SHORT

THE GREAT SILENCE

VERDICT: Katrin Brocks’ feature debut takes full advantage of its exotic setting in a highly dramatized if not always convincing story about a devout young woman who's about to become a nun when her violent brother turns up at the convent.

Deborah Young, September 18, 2022

Luis Gerard's latest film, THE WAKE, has qualified for the 95th Academy Awards®. This timely short shares the story of a young deaf boy Martin (played by Zander Colbeck Bhola) who looks up to his older brother and follows him, even at times when he shouldn't. Zander Colbeck Bhola comes from a large deaf family. All the cast learnt sign language for this film.

After being selected for Hollyshorts Film Festival and winning honorable mention at Cleveland International Film Festival and a Jury award at Thomas Edison Film Festival, this topical film will now play at Cinelounge in Los Angeles and will qualify to be considered for the 9fth Academy Awards®.

IL BOEMO

COMPETITION

THE

VERDICT: The life and loves of 18th century Czech opera composer Josef Myslivecek, and his dazzling Italian career and fall into obscurity, are lovingly and authentically reconstructed in Petr Vaclav’s sumptuous period production.

Deborah Young, September 20, 2022

Outside of opera lovers, who will surely be an eager audience for Petr Vaclav’s Il Boemo, few know the story of the once toasted Czech composer Josef Myslivecek known as “Il Boemo”, a contemporary and friend of Mozart’s. Though Mozart has now eclipsed all the musicians of his age, Myslivecek was even more celebrated in his day in the great opera houses and courts of Naples, Venice, Turin and Bologna, where his works were acclaimed by kings. Sumptuously recreating the late 18th century ambience of musicians, singers and their noble patrons with a lavishness and authenticity Visconti would have appreciated, the film sweeps the viewer into its quaint and lusty world.

All that’s missing is a strong narrative framework that might have turned this well made biopic into a more cohesive and gripping drama. While no Amadeus (it also lacks the manic fun of Milos Forman’s visionary film), Il Boemo is nonetheless a classy contribution to the genre dotted with memorable scenes that capture the age and its august personages. It brought a touch of old world glamour to the San Sebastian competition, and has been named as the official Oscar submission from the Czech Republic. Hopefully it will also play a part in bringing the composer out of undeserved obscurity. Full Review

VERDICT: Set in the barrios of Buenos Aires, Diego Lerman’s classroom drama movingly praises a dissatisfied young lit teacher who can’t help but interfere in his students’ lives.

Deborah Young, September 21, 2022

Argentine writer director producer Diego Lerman is one of Latin America’s most successful crossover filmmakers whose feature films have circled the globe winning prizes at festivals while they have also been able to attract commercial audiences. With The Substitute (El Suplente), his sixth feature, it is obvious how hard the film works to communicate with the audience, and the message the characters passionately convey is an important one about recovering the stragglers left behind by Argentine society and never giving up on the hard cases. Or as the film puts it, “no one saves himself alone”. Screening in competition at San Sebastian after its bow in Toronto, this classroom drama should make an attractive art house choice, developing a familiar theme in a very Argentine idiom.

Actor Juan Minujin, who played the young Pope Francis in The Two Popes, sports a thick beard in the main role of Lucio, a wired writer with literary ambitions, which he enviously sees realized by his ex wife (Barbara Lennie), who is a published poet. Some sparks fly when they share a book presentation in a crowded old bookstore, a charming scene that smoothly introduces the city’s lively intellectual life.

The contrast couldn’t be greater when Lucio drives off to an outlying neighborhood for his first day of work as a substitute teacher. Full Review

OFFICIAL SELECTION

GREAT YARMOUTH – PROVISIONAL FIGURES

VERDICT: Brexit Britain offers only hellish horrors to exploited migrant workers in this bleakly compelling social realist thriller from Portuguese director Marco Martins. Stephen Dalton, September 21, 2022

A relentlessly bleak drama about migrant workers trapped in low paid seasonal jobs in Britain’s run down coastal regions, Great Yarmouth Provisional Figures is one of the more gruelling world premieres currently screening in competition at San Sebastian film festival. But this grimly compelling feature from Portuguese director Marco Martins also has the slow burn tension of a crime thriller, the grungy look of a torture porn horror movie, and the bracingly amoral nihilism of film noir. An unflinching depiction of Brexit Britain as a kind of purgatorial doomscape, it should strike a timely chord with resilient viewers, proving socially engaged cinema can come in more artful packages than worthy docu drama. Martins and co writer Ricardo Adolfo based their screenplay on the accounts of real economic migrants. The sordid depths of human depravity on display in Great Yarmouth Provisional Figures, tinged with sexual sadism and casual cruelty, have some of the coolly aloof voyeurism of Austrian hybrid documentary maker Ulrich Seidl… Full Review

Laura Poitras named Guest of Honor for IDFA 2022

As part of the Top 10, Poitras will be in conversation with several of her selected filmmakers during the festival’s public talks program.

In the Retrospective section, IDFA presents all seven films directed by Poitras from 2003 to today.

Ibero American films compete for the Spanish Cooperation Award

Academy Award winning director

Laura Poitras will be honored at IDFA this November with the Retrospective and Top 10 programs.

Long prolific in the spheres of documentary and journalism, Poitras’ fearless filmmaking has changed the world as we know it.

The Top 10 program curates Poitras top ten films key to the human condition. The program includes reflections on political imprisonment (Hunger by Steve McQueen; This is Not a Film by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb), incarceration and psychiatry (Frederick Wiseman’s Titicut Follies), and genocide (Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah), among other interventions so influential on Poitras’ own view of the world, and film’s place in it.

Alongside titles that made Poitras a household name, the program includes lesser screened films such as Risk, the years in the making portrait of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and her first feature Flag Wars, made in collaboration with artist Linda Goode Bryant, a cinéma vérité film co directed with Linda Goode Bryant on the gentrification of a working class African American neighborhood by white gays and lesbians. In celebration of the filmmaker, the festival will hold a public master talk with Poitras and IDFA’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia in Amsterdam’s historic Pathé Tuschinski cinema.

IDFA takes place Nov. 9 20.

For the eighth consecutive year, AECID, together with the San Sebastian Festival, is promoting the accolade which recognises the Ibero American film making the best contribution to human development, the eradication of poverty and the full exercise of human rights. The Award is part of the alliance between the AECID and the Festival to promote the Ibero American audiovisual industry

The Cooperación Española Award goes to an Ibero American film screened in the Official Selection, New Directors or Horizontes Latinos. Its objective is to strengthen the commitment to work jointly with the Ibero American audiovisual (Continued page…)

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industry in order to promote new talents, stimulate the production of film projects, disseminate the values of development cooperation and boost commercialisation and internationalisation of the films. In its eighth edition, In the collaboration between San Sebastian Festival and AECID, the award comes with 10,000 euros.

Two of the candidates, La Maternal (Spain), by Pilar Palomero, and Los reyes del mundo / The Kings of the World (Colombia Luxembourg France Mexico Norway), by Laura Mora, come from the Official Selection. while La hija de todas las rabias / Daughter of Rage (Nicaragua Mexico Netherlands Germany France Norway – Spain), by Laura Baumeister, come from New Directors section. The others will participate in Horizontes Latinos section: Mi país imaginario / My Imaginary Country (France Chile), by Patricio Guzmán; La jauría (France Colombia), by Andrés Ramírez Pulido; Ruido / Noise (Mexico), by Natalia Beristain, and Un varón (Colombia

France Netherlands Germany), by Fabián Hernández.

The Cooperación Española Award will be announced on September 24 at the closing gala in the Kursaal

KYIV MEDIA WEEK 2022 is coming to the Serial Killer festival in Brno

The first meeting point of KMW 2022 is the Serial Killer International Festival of TV and Online Series.The Festival is held annually in Brno, Czech Republic, and over the course of five days offers a great selection of international premieres, competition of TV and web series.

I am very proud that t he great event KYIV MEDIA WEEK will become part of our festival programme this year. Its organizers and speakers will be standing side by side with representatives of Netflix and other important TV professionals coming to Brno Zlatušková, Founder & CEO of Serial Killer Festival.

Traditionally the KYIV MEDIA WEEK International Media Forum was held annually in the capital of Ukraine Kyiv. The Russia invasion foiled that plan, but KMW will continue its mission of highlighting the current state of the Ukrainian AV industry and facilitating its development and integration into the global media market. This year the Forum will be held in a traveling format representing guest sessions developed in partnership with three European festivals and markets.

The Serial Killer International Festival of TV and online Series takes place Sept. 20 25

KYIV Media Week will then travel to MIA (International Audiovisual Market (October 11 15, Rome, Italy) and the the 38th International Co Production and Entertainment Content Market MIPCOM (October 17 20, Cannes, France).