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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Javier Macipe
fiche film], 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! [+lire aussi :
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Until now, screenwriter and editor Ilia Malakhova (Saint Petersburg, 1973) debuts with the feature film Hi, Mom [+lire aussi :
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Iranian Farhad Delaram will participate with his first feature film: Achilles [+lire aussi :
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interview : Farhad Delaram
fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
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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 [+lire aussi :
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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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Farhad Delaram
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Bauryna salu [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Askhat Kuchinhirekov (Kazakhstan)
Mother, Couch! [+lire aussi :
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interview : Niclas Larsson
fiche film] - Niclas Larsson (USA/Denmark/Sweden)
The Blue Star [+lire aussi :
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interview : Javier Macipe
fiche film] - Javier Macipe (Spain/Argentina)
Hi, Mom [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Ilia Malakhova (Russia)
Last Shadow at First Light [+lire aussi :
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bande-annonce
fiche film] - Nicole Midori Woodford (Singapore/Japan/Slovenia/Philippines/Indonesia)
Carefree Days - Liang Ming (China)
Beyond the Fog - Daichi Murase (Japan)
The Other Son [+lire aussi :
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bande-annonce
fiche film] - Juan Sebastián Quebrada (Colombia/France/Argentina)
Bahadur the Brave - Diwa Shah (India)