The San Sebastian Film Festival has announced new additions to its 2025 Official Selection, with new films from Edward Berger, Claire Denis, Dolores Fonzi, Joachim Lafosse, Olmo Omerzu, Xiaoyu Qin and James Vanderbilt set to compete for the Golden Shell at the 73rd edition of the event (Sept. 19–27). The festival also confirmed Juliette Binoche's directorial debut and Junji Sakamoto's latest feature will screen out of competition as part of the Special Screenings strand.
Berger returns to San Sebastian following last year’s Golden Shell bid with “Conclave” and will compete this year with “Ballad of a Small Player,” a U.K. production starring Colin Farrell as a high-stakes gambler in Macao whose debts begin to close in on him. The cast also includes Fala Chen, Tilda Swinton and Alex Jennings. Berger’s 2022 film “All Quiet on the Western Front” won four Academy Awards including best international feature.
Claire Denis, whose “High Life” earned the FIPRESCI Prize in San Sebastian in 2018, will present “Le Cri des Gardes” (“The Fence”), based on Bernard-Marie Koltès' play “Combat de nègre et de chiens.” The film stars Isaach de Bankolé, Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce and Tom Blyth. Denis' festival accolades include Cannes' Jury Grand Prix (“Stars at Noon”) and Berlin’s Silver Bear (“Both Sides of the Blade”). She served as president of San Sebastian's official jury in 2023.
Argentina's Dolores Fonzi, who presented her directing debut “Blondi” in the festival's Horizontes Latinos section in 2023, enters the official competition with “Belén,” in which she also stars. The film follows a lawyer in Tucumán fighting to free a woman imprisoned after a miscarriage. Fonzi has previously appeared in official selection titles including “The Aura,” “Truman” and “Fever Dream,” and served on the festival jury in 2017.
“Six Jours ce printemps-là” (“Six Days in Spring”), from Belgian filmmaker Joachim Lafosse, brings him back to the competition for a third time. Eye Haïdara stars as a divorced mother who spends a tense holiday with her children at her former in-laws’ house on the French Riviera. Lafosse won the Silver Shell for best director in 2015 for “The White Knights.”
Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu will make his first appearance in the Official Selection with “Ungrateful Beings,” a co-production between the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia and France. The drama follows a recently divorced father and his two teenagers on a camping trip that begins to unravel. His previous film “Winter Flies” won the best director award at Karlovy Vary.
China's Xiaoyu Qin will present his debut fiction feature “Jianyu Laide Mama” (“Her Heart Beats in Its Cage”), based on a true story about a woman who reunites with her 10-year-old son after serving a decade in prison for killing her husband. Qin’s documentary “The Verse of Us” won the best documentary award at the Shanghai Festival.
American filmmaker James Vanderbilt completes the new competition titles with “Nuremberg,” starring Rami Malek as U.S. psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who assessed 22 Nazi defendants, including Hermann Göring (played by Russell Crowe), prior to the historic trials. Vanderbilt previously directed “Truth” (2003) and has co-written “Zodiac,” “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “Scream” (2022).
These titles join previously announced competition films including Arnaud Desplechin's “Two Pianos,” José Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi's “Maspalomas,” José Luis Guerin's “Good Valley Stories,” Agnieszka Holland's “Franz,” Milagros Mumenthaler’s “The Currents,” Alberto Rodríguez's “Los tigres,” Alauda Ruiz de Azúa's “Sundays,” Yutaro Seki and Kentaro Hirase's “SAI: Disaster” and Alice Winocour’s “Couture.”
Juliette Binoche’s directorial debut “IN-I In Motion” will screen out of competition. The non-fiction feature revisits her 2007 dance-theater piece In-I, created and performed with choreographer Akram Khan. Binoche, who received the Donostia Award in 2022, has appeared in more than 70 films and won an Academy Award for “The English Patient.”
Also screening out of competition is “Teppen no mukou ni anata ga iru” (“Climbing for Life”) from Japanese filmmaker Junji Sakamoto. The film recounts the life of mountaineer Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest. Sakamoto is a regular at San Sebastian, having previously shown “Face” (winner of the festival's Youth Award), “Children of the Dark,” “A Chorus of Angels” and “Okiku and the World.”
More details on the films added to the San Sebastian's Official Selection lineup below:
“Ballad of a Small Player”
Director: Edward Berger
Country of production: UK
Cast: Colin Farrell, Fala Chen, Tilda Swinton, Deanie Ip, Alex Jennings
When his past and his debts start to catch up with him, a high-stakes gambler laying low in Macau encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation.
“Le Cri des Gardes” (“The Fence”)
Director: Claire Denis
Country of production: Francia
Cast: Isaach de Bankolé, Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce
A vast public works project in West Africa. Horn, the construction site manager, and Cal, a young engineer, share lodging behind the double gates of their compound. Leone, Horn's recent bride, comes to join them the same night that a man appears at the fence. His name is Alboury. Like a specter in the darkness, he demands the body of his brother who died earlier that day on the site. He will hound the two men all night long until they return it, as Leone watches the disaster play out before her.
“Belén”
Director: Dolores Fonzi
Country of production: Argentina
Cast: Dolores Fonzi, Camila Plaate, Laura Paredes, Julieta Cardinali, Luis Machín, César Troncoso, Sergio Prina, Ruth Plaate, Lili Juárez
Tucumán, Argentina, 2014; a young woman is admitted to a hospital with severe abdominal pain, unaware she is pregnant. She wakes up handcuffed to a gurney and surrounded by police. She is accused of having an abortion and, after two years in detention, is sentenced to eight years in prison for aggravated homicide. A lawyer from Tucumán will fight for her freedom with the support of thousands of women and organizations, who unite to change the course of history.
“Six jours ce printemps-là” (“Six Days in Spring”)
Director: Joachim Lafosse
Countries of production: Belgium/France/Luxembourg
Cast: Eye Haïdara, Leonis Pinero Müller, Teodor Pinero Müller, Jules Waring
Despite adversity, Sana wants her twins to have a spring vacation, but all her plans fall through. They secretly decide to stay in her former in-laws' villa on the Riviera, without telling anyone. Six days of sunshine that mark the end of innocence.
“Ungrateful Beings”
Director: Olmo Omerzu
Countries of production: Czech Republic/Slovenia/Poland/Slovakia/Croatia/France
Cast: Barry Ward, Barbora Bobulova
David takes his two children on holiday to the Adriatic Sea, hoping to hold their fractured bilingual family together. His 17-year-old daughter, Klára, struggling with an eating disorder, falls in love with a local boy, Denis. When he is accused of murder, David rushes the children back home. Klára’s condition spirals, landing her in hospital. The only thing uniting her parents is their need to save her. And desperate times call for desperate measures.
“Jianyu Laide Mama” (“Her Heart Beats in Its Cage”)
Director: Xiaoyu Qin
Country of production: China
Cast: Xiaohong Zhao, Jingqi Zhang, Junyan Wang
Hong has been in prison for ten years for killing her husband. Due to her contribution to the inmates' art troupe, Hong unexpectedly gets a chance to reduce her sentence. Her son, Lele, has been raised by his grandmother and has never been ready to live with his mother. After their reunion, Lele always treats her coldly. With a lonely grandmother who wants Lele to come back to her, and a society that is not kind to ex-prisoners, will Hong be able to escape the intangible prison and regain the freedom of her heart?
“Nuremberg”
Director: James Vanderbilt
Country of production: USA
Cast: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Leo Woodall, Michael Shannon, Richard E. Grant, John Slattery
Nuremberg plunges us into the centre of the trials held in the 80s by the Allies following the defeat of the Nazi regime. American psychiatrist Douglas Kelly is tasked with assessing the mental health of the Nazi prisoners and determining if they are fit to stand trial for their war crimes. From one day to the next, Kelly will find himself thrown into a complex battle of wits with Hermann Göring, Hitler's right-hand man and one of the world's most feared men.
“In-I In Motion”
Director: Juliette Binoche
Country of production: France
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Akram Kahn
Special Screenings – Not in competition
In 2007, Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan paused their careers to co-create In-I, a daring performance toured worldwide. Today, Juliette Binoche revisits that inspiring journey. Through unseen footage, she reflects, as a filmmaker, on creation, the risks it entails, and the personal transformation it brings.
“Teppen no mukou ni anata ga iru” (“Climbing for Life”)
Director: Junji Sakamoto
Country of production: Japan
Cast: Sayuri Yoshinaga, Non , Yuki Amami, Koichi Sato
Special Screenings – Not in competition
In 1975, a woman made her way to the summit of Mount Everest. Her name is Junko. She became the first woman in history to conquer the world's highest summit. Her glorious achievement captivated the world, casting a radiant light but also a deep shadow on her friends and family. In her later years, even though she was diagnosed with a terminal illness, Junko continued to challenge the mountains throughout her life. What did Junko last see beyond the top?
