After the announcement of the Spanish films set to participate in the upcoming 73rd San Sebastián International Film Festival, among which the new works by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, José Luis Guerin, Alberto Rodríguez, and duo Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi will compete for the Golden Shell (see the news), the festival has added the first round of international titles that will be vying for the award.

Leading the pack is Couture, the eagerly awaited new feature by French director Alice Winocour, who had already been invited to take part in this section with Proxima [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], the winner of the Special Jury Prize. Her fifth film is a French-US co-production starring Angelina Jolie in which, in the frenzy of Fashion Week, three women cross paths in Paris, grappling with the world's tragedies and the big questions in their lives. Another French filmmaker, who will be participating in the festival for the first time with his first world premiere outside Cannes and Venice, is Arnaud Desplechin, the director of titles such as A Christmas Tale [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]. His new film, Two Pianos, starring François Civil, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot, follows a virtuoso pianist returning to Lyon, his hometown, after a long absence to experience a story of impossible love.

Poland’s Agnieszka Holland returns with Franz [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], rewarded in Venice and nominated for the Academy Award.

Alongside these, Argentinian-born, Swiss-based filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler locks horns for the first time at the festival after having competed at Locarno twice, bagging the Golden Leopard in 2011 with Back to Stay [+lire aussi :
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interview : Milagros Mumenthaler
fiche film]. In The Currents, a woman confronts a past she thought she had left behind. The section also welcomes Japanese duo Kentaro Hirase and Yutaro Seki, who have already participated in the New Directors section with their previous effort Roleless, co-directed with Masahiko Sato. They present SAI: Disaster, in which a mysterious man tragically enters the lives of a number of people, appearing under different identities.

Here is the selection announced so far:

Competition

Two Pianos – Arnaud Desplechin (France)
Maspalomas – José Mari Goenaga, Aitor Arregi (Spain)
Good Valley Stories – José Luis Guerín (Spain/France)
SAI: Disaster – Kentaro Hirase and Yutaro Seki (Japan)
Franz [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] – Agnieszka Holland (Czech Republic/Germany/Poland/France/Turkey)
The Currents – Milagros Mumenthaler (Switzerland/Argentina)
Los Tigres – Alberto Rodríguez (Spain)
Sundays – Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (Spain/France)
Couture – Alice Winocour (France/USA)