21/09/2012 - Laurent Cantet, François Ozon, Ziad Doueiri, and Costa Gavras are competing amid a wave of 24 French films

French cinema is out in force at the 60th San Sebastian Film Festival starting today, as it has selected 24 French (co-)productions to screen in its various sections. Seven features involving France are notably in the competition, including four majority co-productions unveiled in Toronto: Laurent Cantet’s Foxfire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile] (photo - read the review - sales: Memento - to be released in France by Haut et Court on January 9, 2013), François Ozon’s In the House [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (read more - sales: Wild Bunch – Mars Distribution on October 10), Costa Gavras’s Capital [+see also:
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film profile] (read more - sales: Elle Driver– to be released on November 14) and Ziad Doueiri’s The Attack [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ziad Doueiri
film profile] (read more - sales and distribution in France: Wild Bunch).

Three majority co-productions with Spain also stand out in the race for the Concha de Oro (to be handed out by a jury including Mia Hansen-Love), including two by Parisian outfit Noodles Production: Javier Rebollo’s The Dead Man and Being Happy (sold by Urban Distribution International and acquired for France by Bodega Films) and Pablo Berger’s Snow White (distribution in France by Sophie Dulac). The third is Fernando Trueba’s The Artist and the Model [+see also:
trailer
film profile], co-produced by Bonne Pioche and starring Jean Rochefort to a script co-written by Jean-Claude Carrière.

Four other films sold by French agencies are also competing. Austrian director Barbara Albert’s The Dead and the Living [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Barbara Albert
film profile] is sold by Films Distribution and Argentinian director Carlos Sorin’s Gone Fishing is sold by Celluloid Dreams, while Italian director Sergio Castellitto’s Twice Born and Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s Rhino Season are both sold by Wild Bunch.

The New Directors section will include Jean-Christophe Dessaint’s Day of the Crows(sales: Le Pacte), an animation film co-produced by France, Luxembourg, Canada, and Belgium, as well as French minority co-production Rocker by Romanian director Marian Crisan (co-production: Slot Machine – sales Les Films du Losange).

The following titles shine in the Zabaltegui Pearls programme: Michael Haneke’s Palme d’or winner Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile], Olivier Assayas’s Venice awardee Something in the Air [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Assayas
film profile], and a co-production by English director Ken Loach, The Angels’ Share [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ken Loach
film profile]. The Zabaltegui Specials programme is to feature ensemble film Seven Days in Havana [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and minority co-production Opération E by Spanish director Miguel Courtois.

Christian Vincent’s Haute Cuisine [+see also:
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film profile], Daniel Cohen’s The Chef [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and Paul Lacoste’s documentary Step Up to the Plate will screen in the Culinary Cinema section, as will three co-productions in the Horizontes Latinos programme: Colombian director William Vega’s La Sirga [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Mexican director Carlos Reygadas’ Post Tenebras Lux [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and fellow Mexican Michel Franco’s After Lucia. Three others are to screen in the Made In Spain section (Pablo Trapero’s Elefante Blanco [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Alex de la Iglesia’s As Luck Would Have It [+see also:
film review
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interview: Álex de la Iglesia
interview: Álex de la Iglesia
film profile], and Jaime Rosales’ Dream and Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaime Rosales
film profile]).

Finally, Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve are to travel to San Sebastian this Sunday to present the television version of Valeria Sarmiento’s The Lines of Wellington [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valeria Sarmiento
film profile] (which recently competed in Venice).

(Translated from French)