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SAN SEBASTIÁN 2015 France

Evolution and 21 Nights with Pattie set their sights on the Golden Shell

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- Lucile Hadzihalilovic and the Larrieu brothers are in competition at San Sebastián with The White Nights and Eva Doesn’t Sleep

Evolution and 21 Nights with Pattie set their sights on the Golden Shell
Evolution by Lucile Hadzihalilovic

After lighting up Venice and Toronto, French film is once again showing just how dynamic and diverse it is at the 63rd San Sebastián Film Festival, which opens today. Five French productions and co-productions have been selected to compete, most notably Evolution [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Lucile Hadzihalilovic (see news article), the second film by the director, who rose to fame with her enchanting film Innocence (which won her the award for Best Young Filmmaker at San Sebastián in 2004). The film, the screenplay for which was written by the director with Alanté Kavaïté, was produced by Sylvie Pialat and Benoît Quainon for Les Films du Worso and by Jérôme Vidal for Noodles Production, co-produced by Belgium and Spain, and pre-bought by Canal+ and Ciné+. It will be distributed in France (the release date has yet to be announced) and sold internationally by Wild Bunch.

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Also in the running is 21 Nights with Pattie [+see also:
film review
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]
by Jean-Marie and Arnaud Larrieu, the 7th feature film by the two brothers, following on from previous titles Summer’s End (1999), A Man, A Real Man (2003), To Paint or Make Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu
interview: Philippe Martin
film profile
]
(shown in competition at Cannes in 2005), Le voyage aux Pyrénées [+see also:
trailer
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]
(Directors’ Fortnight 2008), Happy End [+see also:
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]
(shown at Locarno in 2009, in Piazza Grande) and Love is the Perfect Crime [+see also:
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]
(premiered at Toronto in 2013). With a cast featuring Isabelle Carré, Karin Viard, André Dussollier, Sergi Lopez, Laurent Poitrenaud, Denis Lavant and Philippe Rebbot, 21 Nights with Pattie (the screenplay for which was written by the Larrieu brothers) was produced by Bruno Pésery for Arena Films and by Francis Boespflug for Pyramide Productions. Pre-bought by Canal+ and OCS, with financial backing from Arte Cofinova and the Languedoc-Roussillon region, the film will be released in French theatres on 25 November by Pyramide. International sales of the movie are handled by Pathé.

The line-up for the San Sebastián competition also includes Belgian-French parity co-production The White Knights [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile
]
by Joachim Lafosse, starring Vincent Lindon and Louise Bourgoin. Produced on the French side by Sylvie Pialat for Les Films du Worso, co-produced by France 3 Cinéma and pre-bought by Canal+ and Ciné+, the film will be released in France on 20 January 2016 by Le Pacte and is being sold by Indie Sales.

After being noticed at Directors’ Fortnight in 2008 for his film Salamandra [+see also:
trailer
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]
, Pablo Agüero will be competing with Eva Doesn’t Sleep [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. Notably starring Gaël Garcia Bernal, the production of the film was outsourced to Jacques Bidou and Marianne Dumoulin for Parisian production company JBA with Argentina and Spain, and financial support in the form of the CNC’s world cinema aid in particular. Distribution in France and international sales are being taken care of by Pyramide.

Finally, a minority French production has been selected for the competition: The Apostate [+see also:
film review
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film profile
]
by Federico Veiroj, which was co-produced by Spain, Uruguay and France (via La Vie Est Belle Films Associés and Local Films, with financial support from the Île-de-France region).

The highlights of the New Directors competitive section include The New Kind [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rudi Rosenberg
film profile
]
by Rudi Rosenberg (see news article - a Récifilms production which is being sold by Indie Sales and is scheduled for release in France on 23 December by Mars Films) and minority co-production Family Film [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olmo Omerzu
film profile
]
by Olmo Omerzu (co-produced by Rouge International with the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia and Slovakia – being distributed in France by Shellac).

The rest of the programme for San Sebastián is also rich in French productions and co-productions with, among others, My Golden Days [+see also:
film review
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film profile
]
by Arnaud Desplechin and documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut by Kent Jones in the Pearls section (which will also feature the latest opuses by Nanni Moretti and Jia Zhang-ke), Francofonia [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Alexandre Sokourov, Montanha [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: João Salaviza
film profile
]
by Joao Salaviza, Adama [+see also:
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]
 by Simon Rouby and A German Youth [+see also:
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]
by Jean-Gabriel Périot in the Zabaltegi section (along with films by Corneliu Porumboiu, Magnus Von Horn and Anca Damian) and six minority films in the Horizontes Latinos section: Paulina [+see also:
film review
trailer
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]
, Ixcanul [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jayro Bustamante
film profile
]
, Land and Shade [+see also:
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trailer
film profile
]
, Chronic [+see also:
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]
, The Pearl Button [+see also:
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film profile
]
and The Chosen Ones [+see also:
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film profile
]
.

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(Translated from French)

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