Just a few weeks after the first batch of non-Spanish titles was announced for the selection – one of the strongest clutches of recent editions (which included films by Cristi Puiu, Joachim Lafosse and Robin Campillo – see the news) – the San Sebastián Film Festival continues to surprise us with its top-notch programme. The gathering headed up by José Luis Rebordinos has just announced the new titles that have been added to the competition for the Golden Shell at its 71^st edition, and standing out among them are opuses by France’s Xavier Legrand, Denmark’s Isabella Eklöf and Australia’s Kitty Green, as well as the leap to a US production by Greece’s Christos Nikou.

Xavier Legrand thus makes an almost surprise return after his successful feature debut, Custody [+lire aussi :
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interview : Xavier Legrand
fiche film] (which made a huge splash at the 2017 Venice Film Festival, with its Silver Lion for Best Director and its Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film, in addition to picking up the César Award for Best Film), with The Successor [+lire aussi :
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interview : Xavier Legrand
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interview : Victoria Carmen Sonne
fiche film] and co-wrote Ali Abbasi’s smash hit Border [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ali Abbasi
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interview : Asta Kamma August
interview : Isabella Eklöf
fiche film], which revolves around a Danish nurse who moves to Greenland and tries to connect with local culture through sex. Australia’s Kitty Green is also partaking with her new work, following The Assistant, a co-production between Australia and the UK entitled The Royal Hotel [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], again starring Julia Garner.

Standing out among the freshly announced films with no European production involvement is the new effort by Christos Nikou, who, after having turned heads at Venice in 2020 with his unusual Apples [+lire aussi :
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interview : Christos Nikou
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interview : Yorgos Lanthimos
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Out of competition, the festival – which recently announced that its opening film would be the highly anticipated new work by anime master Hayao Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron, screening as a European premiere, and that its closing film would be the new outing by James Marsh, Dance First [+lire aussi :
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interview : Thomas Lilti
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interview : Thomas Lilti
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Furthermore, the second Donostia Award at this edition (the first of which is destined for Javier Bardem) will be bestowed upon the maestro Víctor Erice, which will entail the Spanish premiere of his first feature in 31 years, Close Your Eyes [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]. As RTVE Galas, audiences will get to enjoy Chinas [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], the new film by Arantxa Echevarría, following her successful Carmen & Lola [+lire aussi :
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interview : Arantxa Echevarría
fiche film], and La ternura [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], the new comedy by Vicente Villanueva. Lastly, the Klasikoak section will host the world premiere of El realismo socialista, an unreleased film by Raúl Ruiz that was conceived some 50 years ago, and which his widow and regular collaborator Valeria Sarmiento has salvaged and completed.

Here are the titles announced so far:

Competition

Puan [+lire aussi :
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interview : Benjamín Naishtat et María…
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Red Island [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Robin Campillo (France/Belgium)
The Rye Horn [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jaione Camborda
fiche film] – Jaione Camborda (Spain/Portugal/Belgium)
Great Absence - Kei Chika-Ura (Japan)
Un amor [+lire aussi :
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interview : Isabel Coixet
fiche film] – Isabel Coixet (Spain)
Kalak [+lire aussi :
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interview : Asta Kamma August
interview : Isabella Eklöf
fiche film] - Isabella Eklöf (Denmark/Sweden/Norway/Netherlands/Finland)
The Royal Hotel [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Kitty Green (Australia/UK)
Sultana’s Dream [+lire aussi :
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interview : Isabel Herguera
fiche film] - Isabel Herguera (Spain)
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt - Raven Jackson (USA)
A Silence [+lire aussi :
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interview : Joachim Lafosse
fiche film] - Joachim Lafosse (Belgium/France/Luxembourg)
The Successor [+lire aussi :
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interview : Xavier Legrand
fiche film] - Xavier Legrand (France/Belgium/Canada)
Fingernails - Christos Nikou (USA)
Ex-Husbands - Noah Pritzker (USA)
MMXX [+lire aussi :
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interview : Cristi Puiu
fiche film] - Cristi Puiu (Romania/Moldova/France)
The Practice [+lire aussi :
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interview : Martín Rejtman
fiche film] - Martín Rejtman (Argentina/Chile/Portugal)
A Journey in Spring - Tzu-Hui Peng, Ping-Wen Wang (Taiwan)

Out of Competition

The Boy and the Heron - Hayao Miyazaki (Japan) (opening film)
La Mesías [+lire aussi :
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fiche série] - Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo (Spain) (series)
Dance First [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - James Marsh (UK/Belgium/Hungary) (closing film)

Special Screenings

They Shot the Piano Player [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal (Spain/France)
A Real Job [+lire aussi :
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interview : Thomas Lilti
fiche film] - Thomas Lilti (France)
Close Your Eyes [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Víctor Erice (Spain/Argentina)

RTVE Galas

Chinas [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Arantxa Echevarría (Spain)
La Ternura [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Vicente Villanueva (Spain)

Velodrome

Esa ambición desmedida - Santos Bacana, Cris Trenas, Rogelio González (Spain) (series)
El otro lado [+lire aussi :
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fiche série] - Berto Romero, Alberto de Toro, Javier Ruiz Caldera (Spain) (series)