The feature film O corno / The Rye Horn (Spain-Portugal-Belgium), directed by Jaione Camborda from San Sebastian, carried off the Golden Shell at San Sebastian Festival's 71st edition. In addition, the official jury decided to give the Silver Shell for Best Director to Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang for Chun xing / A Journey in Spring (Taiwan), while the Best Screenplay Award went to María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat for Puan (Argentina-Italy-Germany-France-Brazil), the film helmed by both.
The Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance fell ex aequo upon Marcelo Subiotto and Tatsuya Fuji for their respective roles in Puan, by Alché and Naishtat, and Great Absence (Japan), by Kei Chika-ura, while the Silver Shell for Best Supporting Performance went to Hovik Keuchkerian for his character in Un amor (Spain), by Isabel Coixet. Directed by Isabella Eklöf, Kalak (Denmark-Sweden-Norway-Finland-Greenland-Netherlands) harvested both the Best Cinematography Award for Nadim Carlsen and the Special Jury Prize "because it takes us into a world we knew absolutely nothing about with surprising and empathetic performances, and with a way of showing the country, its conflicts and its hidden beauty through true cinematographic art".
For the fourth year running, the Golden Shell has been garnered by a woman after Dasatskisi / Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili, 2020), Crai nou / Blue Moon (Alina Grigore, 2021) and Los reyes del mundo / The Kings of the World (Laura Mora, 2022). Furthermore, O Corno / The Rye Horn is the first film coming from the Ikusmira Berriak programme, co-organised by the San Sebastian Festival, Tabakalera and the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE), to win the top accolade in the Official Selection.
The list of winners includes a feature debut (Chun xing / A Journey in Spring) and three second movies (O corno, Great Absence and Kalak).
The official jury responsible for deciding these awards was presided by the filmmaker Claire Denis alongside the actress Fan Bingbing, the producer Cristina Gallego, the photographer Brigitte Lacombe, the producer Robert Lantos, the actress Vicky Luengo and the director Christian Petzold.
The gala was followed by the world premiere of Dance First (UK-Hungary-Belgium), the new movie by James Marsh, who came to San Sebastian with Gabriel Byrne, Sandrine Bonnaire, Aidan Guillen, Fionn O'Shea and Leonie Lojkine.
OTHER OFFICIAL AWARDS
Tonight the Kursaal hosted the closing gala of the Festival's 71st edition, at which other official awards were also given.
Bahadur The Brave (India), the debut from filmmaker Diwa Shah, won the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, while the Horizontes Award went to El castillo (Argentina-France-Spain), first solo feature from Martín Benchimol, which had its premiere in Berlin's Panorama section after receiving the WIP Latam Award and Egeda Platino Industry Award for Best WIP Latam in San Sebastian in 2022. The Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award went to El auge del humano 3 / The Human Surge 3 (Argentina-Portugal-Netherlands-Taiwan-Brazil-Hong Kong-Peru), by Eduardo Williams, and El juicio / The Trial (Argentina-Norway-France-Italy), by Ulises de la Orden, bagged a special mention.
The Nest The Mediapro Studio Award went to the short film Amma ki katha (India), by Nehal Vyas, from the California Institute of the Arts School of Film/Video, and the section's special mention to Entre les autres (Belgium), directed by Marie Falys, from the Institut de Arts de Diffusion-IAD.
Presented once again this edition, the Culinary Zinema Best Film Award went to La passion de Dodin Bouffant / The Pot au Feu (France), by Tran Anh Hung, and the new Eusko Label Award went to Mikel Urretabizkaia, first prize for Latxa (Spain), and to Paolo Tizón, second prize for Soroborda (Spain). In addition, the Irizar Basque Film Award was scooped up by El sueño de la sultana / Sultana's Dream (Spain-Germany), the feature debut from the animation director Isabel Herguera, while Fingernails (USA), second film from Christos Nikou, also included in the Official Selection, won the FIPRESCI Award.
On the other hand, the City of Donostia / San Sebastian Award decided by the audience in the Perlak section went to La sociedad de la nieve / The Society of the Snow (Spain), by J.A. Bayona, closing film of Venice Festival, and the Audience Award for Best European film was carried off by Io capitano / I'm Captain (Italy), which landed Matteo Garrone the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice and Seydou Sarr the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor. Finally, La estrella azul / The Blue Star (Spain-Argentina), the film by Javier Macipe included in New Directors, won the TCM Youth Award.
