28/07/2023 - This year's edition of the festival offers seven first features and four second works produced by 19 countries, all of which are competing for a prize of €50,000

Eleven films are competing for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, worth €50,000, at the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival, which will be held between 22 and 30 September. The works in this section (first and second films) are also candidates for the TCM Youth Award.

As announced a few days ago (read more), New Directors will include a Spanish film (in co-production with Argentina), The Blue Star [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Javier Macipe
film profile], the second feature by Javier Macipe (who debuted in 2014 with Los inconvenientes de no ser Dios). It tells the story of a famous rock star in the 1990s who travels around Latin America trying to reconnect with his vocation. There he meets an old musician down on his luck and from this encounter an unlikely duo with every chance of becoming a commercial failure.

None other than Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn play Mother, Couch! [+see also:
film review
interview: Niclas Larsson
film profile] (USA/Denmark/Sweden), the debut film by Niclas Larsson (Malmö, 1990), which begins when three estranged brothers come together to find out why their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store.

Until now, screenwriter and editor Ilia Malakhova (Saint Petersburg, 1973) debuts with the feature film Hi, Mom [+see also:
trailer
film profile], focused on a 36-year-old woman who has never recovered from her mother’s disappearance. And the Colombian Juan Sebastián Quebrada will show his debut, The Other Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a co-production between his country, France and Argentina which participated in the Europe-Latin American Co-Production Forum 2020 and follows a teenage boy who, after the unexpected death of his brother, tries to find the strength to go on living.

Iranian Farhad Delaram will participate with his first feature film: Achilles [+see also:
film review
interview: Farhad Delaram
film profile], a co-production between France and Germany about a young filmmaker who works in a hospital and whose life changes after meeting a mysterious young girl. Last Shadow at First Light [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Singapore/Japan/Slovenia/Philippines/Indonesia) is Nicole Midori Woodford's debut feature film and follows the trip to Japan of a young girl who, tormented by recurring apparitions, sets out to find her missing mother.

Among those competing with his second feature film is China's Liang Ming, who will open the section with Carefree Days, an adaptation of Ban Yu's novel of the same name, which follows a young patient as she tries to find her place in the world. Canadian Henry Bernadet's Gamma Rays provides a generational portrait of a group of youngsters in Montreal. The first work by Kazakhstan's Askhat Kuchinhirekov is entitled Bauryna salu [+see also:
film review
film profile], the name given to a nomadic tradition whereby the firstborn child is given to the grandparents for them to look after instead of its parents.

With previous experience as an assistant director and novelist, Diwa Shah debuts with Bahadur the Brave, set during the early days of the pandemic in an Indian village bordering Nepal, where an immigrant tries to earn money to cure his sick son. And finally, the Japanese Daichi Murase will show Beyond the Fog, an intimate portrait of a family who has been running a boarding house in a remote mountain village for generations. This film will close the New Directors section at this year's San Sebastian Film Festival.

The films in the 2023 New Directors section are as follows:

Gamma Rays - Henry Bernadet (Canada)
Achilles [+see also:
film review
interview: Farhad Delaram
film profile] - Farhad Delaram (Iran/France/Germany)
Bauryna salu [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Askhat Kuchinhirekov (Kazakhstan)
Mother, Couch! [+see also:
film review
interview: Niclas Larsson
film profile] - Niclas Larsson (USA/Denmark/Sweden)
The Blue Star [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Javier Macipe
film profile] - Javier Macipe (Spain/Argentina)
Hi, Mom [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Ilia Malakhova (Russia)
Last Shadow at First Light [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Nicole Midori Woodford (Singapore/Japan/Slovenia/Philippines/Indonesia)
Carefree Days - Liang Ming (China)
Beyond the Fog - Daichi Murase (Japan)
The Other Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Juan Sebastián Quebrada (Colombia/France/Argentina)
Bahadur the Brave - Diwa Shah (India)

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)