19/09/2014 - Six French productions and co-productions are in the running for the Golden Shell at the Spanish festival, which kicks off today

French film production is extremely well represented at the 62nd San Sebastián Film Festival, which gets under way today. Indeed, featuring among the 17 titles in the running for the Golden Shell 2014 are The New Girlfriend [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: François Ozon
film profile] by François Ozon (read the review – sold by Films Distribution), Mia Hansen-Love’s Eden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Charles Gillibert
interview: Mia Hansen-Løve
film profile] (read the article – sales by Kinology), Wild Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Cédric Kahn (read the article – sold by Le Pacte) and the Franco-Austrian-German-Portuguese co-production The Casanova Variations [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Michael Sturminger (produced and sold by Alfama Films). And then there are also two minority co-productions in competition: Tigers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Bosnian director Danis Tanovic (involving India, France – via A.S.A.P Films – and the UK) and La voz en off [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Cristian Jimenez (Chile, France – via Rouge International – and Canada). It is also interesting to note that Films Distribution co-produced and is selling Magical Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Vermut
film profile] by Spaniard Carlos Vermut, and UDI is doing the same for Maxime Giroux’s Canadian feature Felix and Meira. Lastly, the Official Selection will be closed out of competition by Samba [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache; the directorial duo are back at San Sebastián, where they previously presented Untouchable [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

Meanwhile, in the competitive New Directors section, which is dedicated to first and second feature films, we find Thomas Salvador’s Vincent n'a pas d'écailles [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (read the article) and the co-production Cain’s Children [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Hungarian filmmaker Marcell Gero (see the news).

The Pearls programme boasts four titles that were revealed and highly acclaimed at Cannes (Girlhood [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Céline Sciamma
interview: Céline Sciamma
film profile] by Céline Sciamma, Mathieu Amalric’s The Blue Room [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mathieu Amalric
film profile], the documentary The Salt of the Earth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, and the Israeli-French co-production Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz). This is in addition to two movies coming fresh from Venice (Pasolini [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Abel Ferrara
film profile] by Abel Ferrara – read the interview - and Laurent Cantet’s Return to Ithaca [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile] – watch the video interview [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile]) and a title that was featured recently at Telluride and Toronto: Escobar: Paradise Lost [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] by Andrea di Stefano.

Also of note, in the Zabaltegi section, is Li'l Quinquin [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Bruno Dumont, the Franco-Tunisian production Le Challat de Tunis [+see also:
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] by Kaouther Ben Hania and the documentary Le Paradoxe de John Malkovich by Pierre-François Limbosch, not to mention Gente de bien [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Franco Lolli (revealed in the Cannes Critics’ Week) and the co-production Natural Sciences [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Matias Lucchesi on the Horizontes Latinos programme.

(Translated from French)