Films from Arnaud Desplechin, Kentaro Hirase and Yutaro Seki, Agnieszka Holland, Milagros Mumenthaler, and Alice Winocour are among the latest additions to the Official Selection of the 73rd San Sebastian Film Festival, which will run from Sept. 19–27. They join previously announced Spanish titles by Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi, José Luis Guerin, Alberto Rodríguez, and Alauda Ruiz de Azúa.
Desplechin will make his San Sebastian competition debut with “Deux pianos” (“Two Pianos”), a drama following a virtuoso pianist who returns to Lyon after a long absence and finds himself drawn into a story of impossible love. The cast includes François Civil, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot.
Japan’s Kentaro Hirase and Yutaro Seki will compete with their second feature, SAI” (“SAI: disaster”), a dark psychological narrative in which a mysterious man enters the lives of several people, each time under a different identity. The project marks a return to San Sebastian for the directing pair, who previously co-directed “Miyamatsu to Yamashita” (“Roleless”) , selected for the festival’s New Directors section in 2022.
Holland will return to the competition for the third time with “Franz,” a co-production between the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. The film traces the life of Franz Kafka, from his birth to his death. Holland’s past work includes “Angry Harvest” (1986), nominated for the Best International Feature Film Oscar; “Europa Europa” (1990), nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay; and more recently “Green Border” (2023), which won the Special Jury Prize at Venice.
Argentine-Swiss filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler will make her San Sebastian competition debut with “Las corrientes” (“The Currents”), starring Isabel Aimé González Sola as a woman confronting unresolved memories from her past. Mumenthaler previously premiered her first two features, “Back to Stay (Golden Leopard, Locarno 2011) and “The Idea of a Lake” (2016), at the Locarno Festival.
Winocour returns to San Sebastián following her 2019 Special Jury Prize win for “Proxima.” Her latest, “Couture,” is a French-American co-production starring Angelina Jolie and Louis Garrel, set against the backdrop of the fashion industry. Winocour’s previous films include “Augustine” (Critics’ Week, Cannes 2012), “Disorder” (Un Certain Regard, 2015), and “Paris Memories” (Directors’ Fortnight, 2022).
A full list of titles confirmed so far for the Official Selection competition at the 73rd San Sebastian Festival follows.
- “Historias del buen valle” (“Good Valley Stories”)
Director: José Luis Guerin
Spain/France - “Los Tigres”
Director: Alberto Rodríguez
Spain/France - “Maspalomas”
Directors: Jose Mari Goenaga, Aitor Arregi
Spain - “Los domingos” (“Sundays”)
Director: Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
Spain/France - “Deux pianos” (“Two Pianos”)
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
France - “SAI” (“SAI: disaster”)
Directors: Yutaro Seki, Kentaro Hirase
Japan - “Franz”
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Czech Republic/Germany/Poland - “Las corrientes” (“The Currents”)
Director: Milagros Mumenthaler
Switzerland/Argentina - “Couture”
Director: Alice Winocour
France/USA