The new features by Edward Berger, Claire Denis, Dolores Fonzi, Joachim Lafosse, Olmo Omerzu, Xiaoyu Qin and James Vanderbilt will be duking it out – in the official section – for the Golden Shell at the upcoming San Sebastián Film Festival (19-27 September). They thus join the previously announced names (see the news), as listed below this article. In addition, the gathering has confirmed that in the Special Screenings, audiences will be able to see the debut film directed by actress Juliette Binoche as well as the latest outing by Junji Sakamoto.

After locking horns for the Golden Shell last year with Conclave [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Red Carpet @ European Film…
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French filmmaker Claire Denis (Grand Jury Prize at Cannes for Stars at Noon [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Claire Denis
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Six Days in Spring is the title of the new feature by Joachim Lafosse, in which Eye Haïdara plays a desperate mother who borrows the house of her ex-parents-in-law on the Costa Azul in order to spend a few days there on holiday with her children. This will be the Belgian auteur’s third time taking part in the Official Section, where he scooped the Silver Shell for Best Director with The White Knights [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Joachim Lafosse
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intervista: Joachim Lafosse
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A recently divorced father and his two teenage children enjoy staying on a camping site for a seemingly pleasant holiday in Ungrateful Beings, which marks Slovenian helmer Olmo Omerzu’s first time taking part in the Official Section of San Sebastián. Previously, he partook in the New Directors sidebar with his second feature, Family Film [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Olmo Omerzu
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intervista: Jiří Konečný
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Argentinian actress-screenwriter-director Dolores Fonzi, who made her debut behind the camera with Blondi [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dolores Fonzi
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Meanwhile, Chinese director Xiaoyu Qin (The Verse of Us) will be at the Basque event to present his first fiction feature, Her Heart Beats in Its Cage, which recreates a true story with its original protagonists: it revolves around a woman who, after spending a decade behind bars for killing her husband, is reunited with her ten-year-old son. And after making his debut in 2003 with Truth, US helmer James Vanderbilt will be partaking with his movie Nuremberg, in which Oscar winner Rami Malek breathes life into the real-life character of Douglas Kelley, a US psychiatrist who evaluated 22 Nazis, including Hitler’s right-hand man, Hermann Göring, who is played by Russell Crowe in this adaptation of the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by author Jack El-Hai.

On the other hand, standing out in the Special Screenings sidebar is the feature-length directorial debut by actress Juliette Binoche (who won an Oscar for The English Patient): IN-I in Motion, a non-fiction flick that revisits her experience in In-I, the hybrid dance-theatre show that the thesp staged in 2007 together with dancer and choreographer Akram Khan. Also freshly announced, out of competition, is the presence of the movie Climbing for Life, based on the true story of Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei, who was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Its director, Junji Sakamoto, was behind films such as Face, which won the Award for Best Director from the Japanese Academy after competing in the Official Section of San Sebastián in 2000 and scooping the Youth Award.

Here is the full list of films announced so far:

Competition

Ballad of a Small Player – Edward Berger (UK)
The Fence – Claire Denis (France)
Two Pianos – Arnaud Desplechin (France)
Belén – Dolores Fonzi (Argentina)
Maspalomas – José Mari Goenaga, Aitor Arregi (Spain)
Good Valley Stories – José Luis Guerín (Spain/France)
SAI: Disaster – Kentaro Hirase, Yutaro Seki (Japan)
Franz [+leggi anche:
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Six Days in Spring - Joachim Lafosse (Belgium/France/Luxembourg)
The Currents – Milagros Mumenthaler (Switzerland/Argentina)
Ungrateful Beings - Olmo Omerzu (Czech Republic/Slovenia/Poland/Slovakia/Croatia/France)
Los Tigres – Alberto Rodríguez (Spain)
Sundays – Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (Spain/France)
Nuremberg - James Vanderbilt (USA)
Couture – Alice Winocour (France/USA)
Her Heart Beats in Its Cage – Xiaoyu Qin (China)

Special Screenings

Bocas de cielo – Koldo Almandoz (Spain) (series)
Karmele – Asier Altuna (Spain)
IN-I in Motion – Juliette Binoche (France)
Flores para Antonio – Isaki Lacuesta, Elena Molina (Spain)
La suerte – Paco Plaza, Pablo Guerrero (Spain) (series)
Climbing for Life - Junji Sakamoto (Japan)