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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Spain / USA / Italy

Woody Allen putting the finishing touches to Rifkin's Festival

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- The new film by the veteran US director, starring Gina Gershon, Wallace Shawn, Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel, Sergi López and Christoph Waltz and set in Spain, will be released internationally in 2020

Woody Allen putting the finishing touches to Rifkin's Festival
Woody Allen and DoP Vittorio Storaro during the shooting of Rifkin's Festival (© Quim Vives/The Mediapro Studio and Gravier Productions, Inc.)

UPDATE (18 February 2020): Woody Allen's new film, set to be released internationally in 2020, is now titled Rifkin's Festival [+see also:
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. Italian company Wildside joined the film's production alongside Spain's The Mediapro Studio and US' Gravier Productions. The comedy-romance will tell the story of a married American couple who go to the San Sebastián Film Festival, where they get caught up in the magic of the festival, the beauty and charm of Spain and the fantasy of movies; she has an affair with a brilliant French movie director, and he falls in love with a beautiful Spanish woman who lives there. It will be sold internationally by The Mediapro Studio Distribution.

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Woody Allen is back in Spain, a country he adores and which holds him in very high esteem. His films always do well at the Spanish box office (his latest effort, A Rainy Day in New York, will be distributed by A Contracorriente Films from 4 October 2019), he picked up the coveted Prince of Asturias Award for Arts in 2002, and this Thursday, 20 June, he is playing in Madrid with the Eddie Davis New Orleans Jazz Band. Furthermore, over the last few days, he has been scouting locations in San Sebastián (having visited the Beach of La Concha, the Old Town and the Comb of the Wind) and its surroundings for what will be his as-yet-untitled 51st movie, which he is producing himself along with Catalan producer Jaume Roures. The duo previously teamed up on Midnight in Paris [+see also:
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, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger [+see also:
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and Vicky Cristina Barcelona [+see also:
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, which was shot in the titular city and which earned Penélope Cruz the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2008.

This production being staged by The Mediapro Studio and Gravier Productions (Allen’s own outfit) will be filmed in San Sebastián between 10 July and 23 August with Roman maestro Vittorio Storaro (who won Oscars for The Last Emperor, Apocalypse Now and Reds) in charge of the cinematography. Its cast will be toplined by Spaniards Elena Anaya (The Skin I Live In [+see also:
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) and Sergi López (7 Reasons to Run Away (from Society) [+see also:
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), German thesp Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds [+see also:
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), France’s Louis Garrel (A Faithful Man [+see also:
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), and the USA’s Gina Gershon and Wallace Shawn, a seasoned actor who is working with Allen again after having appeared in Manhattan, Radio Days and Shadows and Fog.

The capital city of the Guipuzkoa province previously served as a setting for movies by Basque filmmakers of the likes of Julio Medem, Imanol Uribe and Daniel Calparsoro, and for titles such as 27 horas by Montxo Armendáriz, Bullet in the Head [+see also:
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by Jaime Rosales and Todos estamos invitados by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, to name but a few. This spring has brought the shoots for the series Patria, directed by Félix Viscarret and Óscar Pedraza (for HBO), and La línea invisible [+see also:
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by Mariano Barroso (for Movistar Plus+) to the city’s various locations, as well as the feature Akelarre [+see also:
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by Pablo Agüero (Eva Doesn’t Sleep [+see also:
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). Ernesto Gasco, the deputy mayor of the city and also the head of the SSGIFilm Commission, stated, “For San Sebastián, it’s really great news that Woody Allen is shooting here because it will boost the internationalisation of the city’s brand.”

Meanwhile, Jaume Roures, one of the founding partners of the production company, said: “At Mediapro, we’ve been working with Woody Allen for the last 14 years. Like all of the projects that the group chooses to support, his films have a unique personality. This new movie has all the necessary ingredients to be up to the standard that we would expect from a director with Allen’s talent: a smart script and a top-notch international cast. In addition, we are delighted to be able to make it in San Sebastián, which is a city with such close ties to cinema.” The company recently launched a call for extras who wish to appear in this romantic comedy, the action of which unfolds during the San Sebastián Film Festival: it is hoped that the movie will be world-premiered at the 2020 edition of this very same festival.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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