It’s now the fourth year in a row that a female filmmaker has won San Sebastián’s prestigious Golden Shell award. After Déa Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning, Alina Grigore’s Blue Moon and last year’s Laura Mora’s The Kings of the World, it is Jaione Camborda‘s The Rye Horn wins the biggest prize of them all. The film had its world premiere in the Platform section at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival. Isabella Eklöf’s Kalak and María Alché plus Benjamín Naishtat’s Puan doubled up with wins – Kalak grabbed a Special Jury Prize and Best Cinematography, while Puan nabbed Best Screenplay and Best Leading perf for Marcelo Subiotto.…...
- 9/30/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Spanish director becomes the fourth consecutive woman director to win the festival’s top prize
The Rye Horn (O Corno), the second feature by Jaione Camborda, has won the top prize, the Golden Shell, at the 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival.
Set on an island off the coast of Galicia in 1971, the film tells the story of a woman who earns a living harvesting shellfish. She is also known on the island for helping other women in childbirth but has to flee and try to cross the border into Portugal after an unexpected event.
Camborda, who was born in San Sebastian,...
The Rye Horn (O Corno), the second feature by Jaione Camborda, has won the top prize, the Golden Shell, at the 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival.
Set on an island off the coast of Galicia in 1971, the film tells the story of a woman who earns a living harvesting shellfish. She is also known on the island for helping other women in childbirth but has to flee and try to cross the border into Portugal after an unexpected event.
Camborda, who was born in San Sebastian,...
- 9/30/2023
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
When “Avatar 2: Way of the Water” surged to the top of the Romanian box office earlier this year to become the highest-grossing film of all time, it marked an auspicious sign for a theatrical business still looking to recover from the doldrums of the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet local industry-watchers were even more encouraged to see a historic first in 2022, with two Romanian films cracking the top 10 at the year-end box office — a striking achievement for an industry that hasn’t historically been known for cranking out crowd-pleasing hits.
Topping the list was “Teambuilding,” a satirical workplace comedy from directors Matei Dima, Alex Coteț and Cosmin Nedelcu, which briefly reigned as the top-grossing film ever in Romania before being knocked from its perch by James Cameron’s blockbuster, which has raked in more than $8.3 million to date.
Meanwhile, first-time filmmaker Cristian Ilișuan’s “Mirciulică,” a comedy about a 30-year-old forced...
Yet local industry-watchers were even more encouraged to see a historic first in 2022, with two Romanian films cracking the top 10 at the year-end box office — a striking achievement for an industry that hasn’t historically been known for cranking out crowd-pleasing hits.
Topping the list was “Teambuilding,” a satirical workplace comedy from directors Matei Dima, Alex Coteț and Cosmin Nedelcu, which briefly reigned as the top-grossing film ever in Romania before being knocked from its perch by James Cameron’s blockbuster, which has raked in more than $8.3 million to date.
Meanwhile, first-time filmmaker Cristian Ilișuan’s “Mirciulică,” a comedy about a 30-year-old forced...
- 6/13/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Colombian filmmaker Laura Mora has clinched the Golden Shell in the main competition of the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival with her latest feature The Kings of the World (Los reyes del mundo).
Billed as a subversive tale of disobedience, friendship, and dignity, the film follows five boys living on the streets of Medellín who set out on a journey in search of the promised land. The film is a Colombian co-production with Luxembourg, France, Mexico, and Norway.
This is the third year running that a film helmed by a woman has taken home the Golden Shell following Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning in 2020 and Alina Grigore’s Blue Moon last year. This is also the first time a Colombian production has picked up San Sebastian’s top prize in the festival’s seven decades.
In other main competition awards, Japanese writer Genki Kawamura picked up the Silver Shell for Best...
Billed as a subversive tale of disobedience, friendship, and dignity, the film follows five boys living on the streets of Medellín who set out on a journey in search of the promised land. The film is a Colombian co-production with Luxembourg, France, Mexico, and Norway.
This is the third year running that a film helmed by a woman has taken home the Golden Shell following Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning in 2020 and Alina Grigore’s Blue Moon last year. This is also the first time a Colombian production has picked up San Sebastian’s top prize in the festival’s seven decades.
In other main competition awards, Japanese writer Genki Kawamura picked up the Silver Shell for Best...
- 9/24/2022
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Other winners include Genki Kawamura’s ‘A Hundred Flowers’ and China’s ‘A Woman’.
Colombian director Laura Mora’s second film The Kings Of The World has won the Golden Shell award for best film at the 70th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff).
Scroll down for full list of winners
A Colombian co-production with Luxembourg, France, Mexico and Norway, the film follows five street kids from Medellin who venture into the countryside in search of the land that one of them inherited. Film Factory Entertainment handles international sales. Mora’s debut was 2017 Toronto and San Sebastian selection Killing Jesus.
Colombian director Laura Mora’s second film The Kings Of The World has won the Golden Shell award for best film at the 70th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff).
Scroll down for full list of winners
A Colombian co-production with Luxembourg, France, Mexico and Norway, the film follows five street kids from Medellin who venture into the countryside in search of the land that one of them inherited. Film Factory Entertainment handles international sales. Mora’s debut was 2017 Toronto and San Sebastian selection Killing Jesus.
- 9/24/2022
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
The festival runs September 16-24.
Glenn Close has been named president of the official selection jury for the 70th San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Close will be joined by French director and casting director Antoinette Boulat; Danish filmmaker Tea Lindeburg; Argentinian producer Matías Mosteirín; Spanish writer Rosa Montero; Mosotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese and the Icelandic director and screenwriter Hlynur Pálmason.
Wang Chao’s A Woman has also been added to Ssiff’s official selection, becoming the 16th title eligible for the Golden Shell.
The Chinese film is based on Zhang Xiu Zhen’s autobiography Dream and follows an aspiring...
Glenn Close has been named president of the official selection jury for the 70th San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Close will be joined by French director and casting director Antoinette Boulat; Danish filmmaker Tea Lindeburg; Argentinian producer Matías Mosteirín; Spanish writer Rosa Montero; Mosotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese and the Icelandic director and screenwriter Hlynur Pálmason.
Wang Chao’s A Woman has also been added to Ssiff’s official selection, becoming the 16th title eligible for the Golden Shell.
The Chinese film is based on Zhang Xiu Zhen’s autobiography Dream and follows an aspiring...
- 9/2/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
‘Utama’ won the World Cinema grand jury prize at Sundance earlier this year.
Bolivian director Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama won both the best film prize and the audience award at the 21st edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival which closed yesterday, Sunday June 26.
Distributed internationally by Alpha Violet, the Bolivian-Uruguayan-French co-production about an elderly Indigenous man trying to survive in the Bolivian highlands, premiered earlier this year in Sundance where it received the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema: Dramatic Competition. It is Grisi’s debut feature.
Iceland’s Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson won the best director prize...
Bolivian director Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama won both the best film prize and the audience award at the 21st edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival which closed yesterday, Sunday June 26.
Distributed internationally by Alpha Violet, the Bolivian-Uruguayan-French co-production about an elderly Indigenous man trying to survive in the Bolivian highlands, premiered earlier this year in Sundance where it received the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema: Dramatic Competition. It is Grisi’s debut feature.
Iceland’s Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson won the best director prize...
- 6/27/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
‘Utama’ won the World Cinema grand jury prize at Sundance earlier this year.
Bolivian director Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama won both the best film prize and the audience award at the 21st edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival which closed yesterday, Sunday June 26.
Distributed internationally by Alpha Violet, the Bolivian-Uruguayan-French co-production about an elderly Indigenous man trying to survive in the Bolivian highlands, premiered earlier this year in Sundance where it received the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema: Dramatic Competition. It is Grisi’s debut feature.
Iceland’s Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson won the best director prize...
Bolivian director Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama won both the best film prize and the audience award at the 21st edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival which closed yesterday, Sunday June 26.
Distributed internationally by Alpha Violet, the Bolivian-Uruguayan-French co-production about an elderly Indigenous man trying to survive in the Bolivian highlands, premiered earlier this year in Sundance where it received the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema: Dramatic Competition. It is Grisi’s debut feature.
Iceland’s Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson won the best director prize...
- 6/27/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Bogdan George Apetri’s “Miracle” took home the top prize in the Romanian Days competition at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, which saw nine first-time directors among the 12 filmmakers competing in the annual showcase of domestic cinema.
It’s the first time such a formidable number of debuts have featured in the competition, offering a snapshot of what the fest’s artistic director Mihai Chirilov describes as a “balanced landscape” of new and established voices in Romania’s celebrated film industry.
It’s been nearly two decades since Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” (2005) won the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival, kickstarting what would come to be known as the Romanian New Wave. Two years later, Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for his abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” cementing the movement’s status and effectively punching the tickets of Mungiu, Puiu...
It’s the first time such a formidable number of debuts have featured in the competition, offering a snapshot of what the fest’s artistic director Mihai Chirilov describes as a “balanced landscape” of new and established voices in Romania’s celebrated film industry.
It’s been nearly two decades since Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” (2005) won the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival, kickstarting what would come to be known as the Romanian New Wave. Two years later, Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for his abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” cementing the movement’s status and effectively punching the tickets of Mungiu, Puiu...
- 6/26/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s “Utama,” which won the grand jury prize in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance this year, took home top honors at the closing ceremony of the Transilvania Film Festival on Saturday night.
Grisi’s feature debut tells the story of an elderly couple in the Bolivian highlands who refuse to relocate to the city despite the constant threat of drought. In a glowing review, Variety’s Peter Debruge described the film as a “sublime, quietly elegiac” character study that “looks quite unlike anything else.”
“By relying on the simplicity, purity and poetry of his cinematic approach, the director takes the audience on a universal journey, talking about the essence of life, death and everything in between,” said the Transilvania jury, praising a film that “gives the audience a deep, multilayered feeling of how fragile our future is.” “Utama” was also feted with the festival’s Audience Award.
Grisi’s feature debut tells the story of an elderly couple in the Bolivian highlands who refuse to relocate to the city despite the constant threat of drought. In a glowing review, Variety’s Peter Debruge described the film as a “sublime, quietly elegiac” character study that “looks quite unlike anything else.”
“By relying on the simplicity, purity and poetry of his cinematic approach, the director takes the audience on a universal journey, talking about the essence of life, death and everything in between,” said the Transilvania jury, praising a film that “gives the audience a deep, multilayered feeling of how fragile our future is.” “Utama” was also feted with the festival’s Audience Award.
- 6/26/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Boutique German sales agent Patra Spanou Film has acquired international sales rights to “Men of Deeds,” the fourth feature by Romanian director Paul Negoescu (“Two Lottery Tickets”), which will be presented in a closed screening for industry guests on June 24 at the Transilvania Film Festival.
The film tells the story of llie (Iulian Postelnicu), a small-town police chief who wants to build a modest, comfortable life for himself but makes all the wrong choices. Middle-aged and alienated, he feels the need to be a part of something – to build an orchard, even a home. But his past combines with a series of violent events to push him toward a dark place, where he’s desperate to find solutions in his search for justice.
“Men of Deeds” is produced by Anamaria Antoci and co-produced by Poli Angelova. Production companies are Papillon Film, Tangaj Production, Screening Emotions and Avanpost Production.
Negoescu said...
The film tells the story of llie (Iulian Postelnicu), a small-town police chief who wants to build a modest, comfortable life for himself but makes all the wrong choices. Middle-aged and alienated, he feels the need to be a part of something – to build an orchard, even a home. But his past combines with a series of violent events to push him toward a dark place, where he’s desperate to find solutions in his search for justice.
“Men of Deeds” is produced by Anamaria Antoci and co-produced by Poli Angelova. Production companies are Papillon Film, Tangaj Production, Screening Emotions and Avanpost Production.
Negoescu said...
- 6/23/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
When Dumitrana Lupu took over as the head of the Transilvania Film Festival’s industry program earlier this year, she was tasked with a two-fold mission of continuing to discover and boost emerging talents from the host country, as well as ensuring that the Romanian festival remains a vital meeting place for filmmakers from Southeastern Europe and the surrounding region.
To do so, she and the organizing team revamped some of TIFF’s industry sections while ensuring that long-running programs provide continuity for a festival that unspools its 21st edition from June 17 – 26.
With a focus on the Black Sea region and its neighboring countries, the Transilvania Pitch Stop has emerged as one of the leading co-production and co-financing platforms for the region’s filmmakers. Among the films supported by the Tps since its inception in 2014 include “Apples,” by Greece’s Christos Nikou, which opened the Horizons sidebar of the Venice...
To do so, she and the organizing team revamped some of TIFF’s industry sections while ensuring that long-running programs provide continuity for a festival that unspools its 21st edition from June 17 – 26.
With a focus on the Black Sea region and its neighboring countries, the Transilvania Pitch Stop has emerged as one of the leading co-production and co-financing platforms for the region’s filmmakers. Among the films supported by the Tps since its inception in 2014 include “Apples,” by Greece’s Christos Nikou, which opened the Horizons sidebar of the Venice...
- 6/15/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The old saying ‘in the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king’ has often be called into question, not least by Hg Wells, who used a short story to point out that the one eyed man in that scenario is more likely to be thought mad or suspected of trickery. Romanian actress Alina Grigore’s first film as a director, which earned her the Concha de Oro at the San Sebastian Film Festival, has a heroine whose abilities far outshine those of her family members, but who is, as a consequence, treated like a servant. She is possessed of what, to them, may as well be a supernatural ability to understand numbers, so they depend on her to do the books at the mountain resort they run. For that reason, they have no intention of letting her govern her own life.
We are plunged into a story full.
We are plunged into a story full.
- 4/5/2022
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Festival organisers paid tribute to Ukrainian filmmakers at the awards ceremony.
Bartosz Blaschke’s Sonata has been named best film at Sofia International Film Festival, which is staging its first full in-person edition since the start of the pandemic.
The Polish filmmaker’s debut feature picked up the Sofia City of Film Grand Prix as well as the audience award at a ceremony in the Bulgarian capital on Saturday (March 19). The drama is based on the true story of musician Grzegorz Plonka, who was initially diagnosed as autistic before it is discovered he had acute hearing loss.
The feature received...
Bartosz Blaschke’s Sonata has been named best film at Sofia International Film Festival, which is staging its first full in-person edition since the start of the pandemic.
The Polish filmmaker’s debut feature picked up the Sofia City of Film Grand Prix as well as the audience award at a ceremony in the Bulgarian capital on Saturday (March 19). The drama is based on the true story of musician Grzegorz Plonka, who was initially diagnosed as autistic before it is discovered he had acute hearing loss.
The feature received...
- 3/21/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Boutique sales agency Patra Spanou Film has acquired the international sales rights of Roberto Doveris’ “Proyecto Fantasma” (“Ghost Project”), an indie comedy with dramatic and spooky moments. The Chilean film will world premiere next week in the Tiger Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
It is Doveris’ second film after the youth drama ”Las Plantas,” which won Best Film in Berlinale’s Generation 14plus section. Doveris was also a producer on “El Principe” by Sebastian Muñoz, winner of the Queer Lion in Venice, and “(Im)Patient” by Constanza Fernández, Audience Award winner in Huelva. “Las Plantas” and “El Principe” are also represented by Patra Spanou.
“Proyecto Fantasma” centers Pablo, a young actor who dreams of starring in a film, but in order to pay the bills he has to work as a simulated patient in medical schools and in weird sessions of alternative therapies. And it is not just his career that becomes stuck.
It is Doveris’ second film after the youth drama ”Las Plantas,” which won Best Film in Berlinale’s Generation 14plus section. Doveris was also a producer on “El Principe” by Sebastian Muñoz, winner of the Queer Lion in Venice, and “(Im)Patient” by Constanza Fernández, Audience Award winner in Huelva. “Las Plantas” and “El Principe” are also represented by Patra Spanou.
“Proyecto Fantasma” centers Pablo, a young actor who dreams of starring in a film, but in order to pay the bills he has to work as a simulated patient in medical schools and in weird sessions of alternative therapies. And it is not just his career that becomes stuck.
- 1/20/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Only the second woman to win the prestigious Palme d’Or, the French director behind Raw and new film Titane discusses the boom in female-led horror and how she’s terrified of being booed
“When I see a stereotype,” says French director Julia Ducournau, “I try to kill it.” She certainly did that in July by winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival. The most revered and exalted award in cinema, a world away from the erratic glossiness of the Oscars, the Palme d’Or tends to honour films that both further the language of cinema and shed light on the loftier questions of earthly existence. You expect humanism, seriousness, perhaps a dash of difficulty. What you don’t expect is in-your-face sexuality, serial slaughter, a ferocious, electrically coloured techno-metal aesthetic – and radical DIY nasal surgery.
But that’s what you get in Ducournau’s Titane – only the...
“When I see a stereotype,” says French director Julia Ducournau, “I try to kill it.” She certainly did that in July by winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival. The most revered and exalted award in cinema, a world away from the erratic glossiness of the Oscars, the Palme d’Or tends to honour films that both further the language of cinema and shed light on the loftier questions of earthly existence. You expect humanism, seriousness, perhaps a dash of difficulty. What you don’t expect is in-your-face sexuality, serial slaughter, a ferocious, electrically coloured techno-metal aesthetic – and radical DIY nasal surgery.
But that’s what you get in Ducournau’s Titane – only the...
- 11/21/2021
- by Jonathan Romney
- The Guardian - Film News
The International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg (Iffmh) has very much captured the social, cultural and political zeitgeist with this year’s film selections, exploring such themes as female empowerment, HIV/AIDS and the post-Soviet collapse of Ukraine.
“The festival doesn’t work in topics, we are trying to show the best films, but the interesting thing is that the topics come to us through the films,” says Iffmh director Sascha Keilholz. “Obviously we are sensitive to the whole range and diversity that can be had in cinema.”
Indeed, this year’s films in the On the Rise competition section and supplemental Pushing the Boundaries sidebar, which showcases cutting-edge works by young and established filmmakers, ended up sharing unmistakable themes. Many new female voices are putting their mark in Eastern European film with stories of women rebelling against patriarchy and male structures, for example, Keilholz points out. “That was quite striking for us.
“The festival doesn’t work in topics, we are trying to show the best films, but the interesting thing is that the topics come to us through the films,” says Iffmh director Sascha Keilholz. “Obviously we are sensitive to the whole range and diversity that can be had in cinema.”
Indeed, this year’s films in the On the Rise competition section and supplemental Pushing the Boundaries sidebar, which showcases cutting-edge works by young and established filmmakers, ended up sharing unmistakable themes. Many new female voices are putting their mark in Eastern European film with stories of women rebelling against patriarchy and male structures, for example, Keilholz points out. “That was quite striking for us.
- 11/9/2021
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Germany’s Patra Spanou negotiated the deal with distributor Film Buró.
San Sebastian winner Blue Moon, which won the Golden Shell award for best film at this year’s 69th edition, has been secured for distribution in Spain by Film Buró.
German sales outfit Patra Spanou negotiated the deal with Film Buró’s Susana Rizzuti and Luis Angel Bellaba.
Romanian writer-director Alina Grigore’s debut feature is about a dysfunctional family living in a rural mountain region, a toxic environment that the film’s young heroine, played by Iona Chitu, is desperately trying to escape.
Grigore’s Blue Moon world-premiered...
San Sebastian winner Blue Moon, which won the Golden Shell award for best film at this year’s 69th edition, has been secured for distribution in Spain by Film Buró.
German sales outfit Patra Spanou negotiated the deal with Film Buró’s Susana Rizzuti and Luis Angel Bellaba.
Romanian writer-director Alina Grigore’s debut feature is about a dysfunctional family living in a rural mountain region, a toxic environment that the film’s young heroine, played by Iona Chitu, is desperately trying to escape.
Grigore’s Blue Moon world-premiered...
- 10/5/2021
- by Melissa Kasule
- ScreenDaily
An imperfect, attention-grabbing debut feature from Romanian actor-turned-director Alina Grigore, “Blue Moon” is named for a song, though not the one you might expect: a somewhat mordant local lullaby, sung late in proceedings, at a point when any hope of rest has long deserted its frazzled protagonist. Still, it’s impossible to approach the film without that Rodgers & Hart lonely-hearts standard running through your head — which, accidentally or otherwise, turns out to be an effective bit of misdirection. For the more time we spend with 22-year-old Irina (Ioana Chitu), the clearer it becomes that what she’s missing isn’t a love of her own or someone to care for: What she really, really needs is just to be left alone for longer than five minutes at a time.
That’s easier said than done in what turns out to be a . Whenever Irina tries to escape the noise, it...
That’s easier said than done in what turns out to be a . Whenever Irina tries to escape the noise, it...
- 9/30/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Blue Moon (Crai Nou) by Romanian director Alina Grigore won the Golden Shell at the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival whose top awards were swept by female filmmakers and actors.
For the first time, the film festival a gender neutral acting award. The Best Leading Performance prize was shared. Jessica Chastain was honored for her portrayal of televangelist Tammy Faye Messner in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. The other winner was 16 -year-old Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl, star of the Danish film As in Heaven (Du som er i himlen). The film’s Tea Lindeburg was named Best Director.
Other major female winners included Tatiana Huezo, whose Prayers for the Stolen (Noche de fuego) took the prize for Best Latin American film, Claire Mathon, Best Cinematography winner for Undercover (Enquête sur un scandale d’état) and Lucile Hadzihalilovic whose film Earwig was recognized with the festival’s special prize.
The sole...
For the first time, the film festival a gender neutral acting award. The Best Leading Performance prize was shared. Jessica Chastain was honored for her portrayal of televangelist Tammy Faye Messner in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. The other winner was 16 -year-old Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl, star of the Danish film As in Heaven (Du som er i himlen). The film’s Tea Lindeburg was named Best Director.
Other major female winners included Tatiana Huezo, whose Prayers for the Stolen (Noche de fuego) took the prize for Best Latin American film, Claire Mathon, Best Cinematography winner for Undercover (Enquête sur un scandale d’état) and Lucile Hadzihalilovic whose film Earwig was recognized with the festival’s special prize.
The sole...
- 9/26/2021
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
Other winners included Earwig, Jessica Chastain, Tea Lindeburg and Terence Davies.
A debut feature by Romanian director Alina Grigore, Blue Moon has won the Golden Shell award for best film at the 69th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff).
The victory adds another woman director as winner of a festival’s main prize following the Palme d’Or win at Cannes for Julia Ducournau’s Titane and the Venice Golden Lion triumph for Audrey Diwan’s Happening.
Other awards in Ssiff’s main competition included a special jury prize for Earwig, by Lucile Hadzilhalilovic; the Silver Shell...
A debut feature by Romanian director Alina Grigore, Blue Moon has won the Golden Shell award for best film at the 69th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff).
The victory adds another woman director as winner of a festival’s main prize following the Palme d’Or win at Cannes for Julia Ducournau’s Titane and the Venice Golden Lion triumph for Audrey Diwan’s Happening.
Other awards in Ssiff’s main competition included a special jury prize for Earwig, by Lucile Hadzilhalilovic; the Silver Shell...
- 9/25/2021
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
Female directors and actors reigned supreme at tonight’s San Sebastian Film Festival awards ceremony, with the Romanian actor-turned-director Alina Grigore taking the Golden Shell for Best Film for her intimate debut feature “Blue Moon.” The film, a raw realist study of a young woman attempting to free herself from an abusive rural household, was an unexpected winner, besting a number of higher-profile auteur films in the festival’s main competition. Yet a full spectrum was covered: At the opposite end of the celebrity scale, Jessica Chastain was one of two Best Leading Performance winners for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”
This was the second year in a row that a first-time female filmmaker took the festival’s top prize. Last year, Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili swept the board for her debut “Beginning,” which won the Golden Shell in addition to Best Director, Actress and Screenplay. Kulumbegashvili returned to the...
This was the second year in a row that a first-time female filmmaker took the festival’s top prize. Last year, Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili swept the board for her debut “Beginning,” which won the Golden Shell in addition to Best Director, Actress and Screenplay. Kulumbegashvili returned to the...
- 9/25/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
In “Blue Moon,” young Irina dreams of University in Bucharest while her chaotic, rural family serves to undermine her future. Alina Grigore’s directorial debut premiers in competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival, and follows Irina’s psychological take on ‘blood for blood.’
Grigore – who wrote and starred in Berlinale prize-winning film “Illegitimate” – moves behind the camera for “Blue Moon,” and uses her knowledge of focus and mise-en-scène to build bubbling tension from emotional violence. The film is also written by Grigore, who was inspired by her own community.
“Blue Moon” is produced by Gabriela Suciu and Robi Urs through InLight Center, and co-produced by Atelier de Film, Forest Film, Smart Sound Studios, Unfortunate Thespians and Avanpost. It was acquired by Patra Spanou Film for international sales.
Variety spoke with Grigore ahead of the film’s San Sebastian premiere.
What inspired you to tell a story regarding the dark side of family dysfunction?...
Grigore – who wrote and starred in Berlinale prize-winning film “Illegitimate” – moves behind the camera for “Blue Moon,” and uses her knowledge of focus and mise-en-scène to build bubbling tension from emotional violence. The film is also written by Grigore, who was inspired by her own community.
“Blue Moon” is produced by Gabriela Suciu and Robi Urs through InLight Center, and co-produced by Atelier de Film, Forest Film, Smart Sound Studios, Unfortunate Thespians and Avanpost. It was acquired by Patra Spanou Film for international sales.
Variety spoke with Grigore ahead of the film’s San Sebastian premiere.
What inspired you to tell a story regarding the dark side of family dysfunction?...
- 9/21/2021
- by JD Linville
- Variety Film + TV
Starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” will receive its European premiere at late September’s San Sebastian Festival.
The biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world will open with the anticipated “One Second” from China’s Zhang Yimou, which was dramatically pulled from competition at the 69th Berlin Film Festival.
Both titles play in competition, vying for San Sebastian’s top film plaudit, its Golden Shell, where they are joined by French filmmaker Thierry de Peretti’s “Undercover.”
Recounting the rise, fall and redemption of Tammy Faye, the indomitable wife of televangelist Jim Bakker, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” weighs in as the only U.S. movie in San Sebastian main competition. It catches Chastain on a high as she will receive the TIFF Tribute Actor Award, coinciding with the premiere at Toronto of the film.
The three new films mark the final titles to...
The biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world will open with the anticipated “One Second” from China’s Zhang Yimou, which was dramatically pulled from competition at the 69th Berlin Film Festival.
Both titles play in competition, vying for San Sebastian’s top film plaudit, its Golden Shell, where they are joined by French filmmaker Thierry de Peretti’s “Undercover.”
Recounting the rise, fall and redemption of Tammy Faye, the indomitable wife of televangelist Jim Bakker, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” weighs in as the only U.S. movie in San Sebastian main competition. It catches Chastain on a high as she will receive the TIFF Tribute Actor Award, coinciding with the premiere at Toronto of the film.
The three new films mark the final titles to...
- 8/20/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
German sales outfit Patra Spanou Film has acquired the international sales rights to “Blue Moon,” the feature debut of Romanian director Alina Grigore, which will world premiere in main competition at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival.
“Blue Moon” follows the psychological journey of a young woman, played by Ioana Chitu, who struggles to receive a higher education and escape her dysfunctional family. An ambiguous sexual experience with an artist will spur her intention to fight the family’s violence.
Pic stars Chitu alongside Mircea Postelnicu, Mircea Silaghi, and Vlad Ivanov, and is produced by Gabi Suciu for InLight Center (“Illegitimate”), in co-production with Atelier de Film, Forest Film, Smart Sound Studios (“Monsters”) and Avanpost. It’s Grigore’s second feature as a writer, after she wrote and starred in Adrian Sitaru’s Berlinale prize winner “Illegitimate.”
“Romanian cinema has been in the focus of the international arthouse film scene for a while,...
“Blue Moon” follows the psychological journey of a young woman, played by Ioana Chitu, who struggles to receive a higher education and escape her dysfunctional family. An ambiguous sexual experience with an artist will spur her intention to fight the family’s violence.
Pic stars Chitu alongside Mircea Postelnicu, Mircea Silaghi, and Vlad Ivanov, and is produced by Gabi Suciu for InLight Center (“Illegitimate”), in co-production with Atelier de Film, Forest Film, Smart Sound Studios (“Monsters”) and Avanpost. It’s Grigore’s second feature as a writer, after she wrote and starred in Adrian Sitaru’s Berlinale prize winner “Illegitimate.”
“Romanian cinema has been in the focus of the international arthouse film scene for a while,...
- 8/3/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Fernando León de Aranoa’s ‘The Good Boss’, Icíar Bollaín’s ‘Maixabel’ and ‘La Abuela’ from Paco Plaza are all in competition.
A total of 14 Spanish productions have been selected for the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival (September 17-25).
These include four titles which will compete for the Golden Shell, including The Good Boss, starring Javier Bardem, which marks the third time in official selection for Fernando León de Aranoa. The Madrid filmmaker won the Golden Shell for best film with Mondays In the Sun back in 2002. The Good Boss is a black comedy and is set in an industrial sales manufacturing business.
A total of 14 Spanish productions have been selected for the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival (September 17-25).
These include four titles which will compete for the Golden Shell, including The Good Boss, starring Javier Bardem, which marks the third time in official selection for Fernando León de Aranoa. The Madrid filmmaker won the Golden Shell for best film with Mondays In the Sun back in 2002. The Good Boss is a black comedy and is set in an industrial sales manufacturing business.
- 7/30/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
New features by Gabriel de Achim, Sebastian Mihailescu, Alina Grigore and Octav Chelaru.
The new feature by Gabriel de Achim and Sebastian Mihailescu’ debut documentary feature are among the new projects being presented to sales agents and festival programmers in the Closed Screenings industry strand of the Transilvania International Film Festival this week.
De Achim’s Snowing Darkness, which is produced by Anca Puiu and Smaranda Zarnoiau of Bucharest-based Mandragora, centres on a film director living through the traumatic experience of the death of his young daughter.
The director said the film “arose from a personal depression I thought I’d never overcome,...
The new feature by Gabriel de Achim and Sebastian Mihailescu’ debut documentary feature are among the new projects being presented to sales agents and festival programmers in the Closed Screenings industry strand of the Transilvania International Film Festival this week.
De Achim’s Snowing Darkness, which is produced by Anca Puiu and Smaranda Zarnoiau of Bucharest-based Mandragora, centres on a film director living through the traumatic experience of the death of his young daughter.
The director said the film “arose from a personal depression I thought I’d never overcome,...
- 7/30/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The San Sebastian Film Festival has unveiled first competition titles from the likes of Laurent Cantet, Terence Davies, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Claudia Llosa and Claire Simon.
The Official Selection of the 69th edition of the fest, set to run from Sept. 17 through Sept. 25, will also feature Inés Barrionuevo’s fourth feature film, along with Alina Grigore, Zhang Ji and Tea Lindeburg’s first features.
French filmmaker Cantet competed in the Spanish festival with Foxfire (2012), but will this year return with Arthur Rambo, starring Rabah Naït Oufella as a successful writer forced to deal with the hate messages he posted in the past ...
The Official Selection of the 69th edition of the fest, set to run from Sept. 17 through Sept. 25, will also feature Inés Barrionuevo’s fourth feature film, along with Alina Grigore, Zhang Ji and Tea Lindeburg’s first features.
French filmmaker Cantet competed in the Spanish festival with Foxfire (2012), but will this year return with Arthur Rambo, starring Rabah Naït Oufella as a successful writer forced to deal with the hate messages he posted in the past ...
- 7/19/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The San Sebastian Film Festival has unveiled first competition titles from the likes of Laurent Cantet, Terence Davies, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Claudia Llosa and Claire Simon.
The Official Selection of the 69th edition of the fest, set to run from Sept. 17 through Sept. 25, will also feature Inés Barrionuevo’s fourth feature film, along with Alina Grigore, Zhang Ji and Tea Lindeburg’s first features.
French filmmaker Cantet competed in the Spanish festival with Foxfire (2012), but will this year return with Arthur Rambo, starring Rabah Naït Oufella as a successful writer forced to deal with the hate messages he posted in the past ...
The Official Selection of the 69th edition of the fest, set to run from Sept. 17 through Sept. 25, will also feature Inés Barrionuevo’s fourth feature film, along with Alina Grigore, Zhang Ji and Tea Lindeburg’s first features.
French filmmaker Cantet competed in the Spanish festival with Foxfire (2012), but will this year return with Arthur Rambo, starring Rabah Naït Oufella as a successful writer forced to deal with the hate messages he posted in the past ...
- 7/19/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 69th San Sebastian Film Festival has confirmed its first crop of Competition titles, including Terence Davies’ Benediction starring Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi.
The movie chronicles different moments in the life of Siegfried Sassoon, a soldier and anti-war poet who survived the First World War. This will be British director Davies’ third time competing for the Golden Shell – San Seb’s top award – following The Deep Blue Sea in 2011 and Sunset Song in 2015.
Also on the early list is the latest film from Lucile Hadzihalilovic, who previously bagged the San Seb New Directors Award with her debut, Innocence, in 2004, while her second feature, Evolution, landed the Special Jury Prize in the Official Selection in 2015. She returns this year with Earwig. Based on the novel by Brian Catling, it tells the story of Albert, a man employed to look after Mia, a girl with teeth of ice.
Claudia Llosa, winner...
The movie chronicles different moments in the life of Siegfried Sassoon, a soldier and anti-war poet who survived the First World War. This will be British director Davies’ third time competing for the Golden Shell – San Seb’s top award – following The Deep Blue Sea in 2011 and Sunset Song in 2015.
Also on the early list is the latest film from Lucile Hadzihalilovic, who previously bagged the San Seb New Directors Award with her debut, Innocence, in 2004, while her second feature, Evolution, landed the Special Jury Prize in the Official Selection in 2015. She returns this year with Earwig. Based on the novel by Brian Catling, it tells the story of Albert, a man employed to look after Mia, a girl with teeth of ice.
Claudia Llosa, winner...
- 7/19/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
The 69th edition of the festival will run from September 17-25.
Features from Terence Davies and Lucile Hadzihalilovic will play in the Official Selection of the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival (September 17-25), which has announced its first titles today.
Davies will compete for the Golden Shell for best film with Benediction, his biopic of soldier and anti-war poet Siegfried Sassoon, which shot last autumn starring Screen Star of Tomorrow 2014 Jack Lowden, alongside Simon Russell Beale and Peter Capaldi.
French director Hadzihalilovic’s third feature Earwig is based on Brian Catling’s novel of the same name, and tells the...
Features from Terence Davies and Lucile Hadzihalilovic will play in the Official Selection of the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival (September 17-25), which has announced its first titles today.
Davies will compete for the Golden Shell for best film with Benediction, his biopic of soldier and anti-war poet Siegfried Sassoon, which shot last autumn starring Screen Star of Tomorrow 2014 Jack Lowden, alongside Simon Russell Beale and Peter Capaldi.
French director Hadzihalilovic’s third feature Earwig is based on Brian Catling’s novel of the same name, and tells the...
- 7/19/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The drama explores the relationship between victim and abuser in a dysfunctional, rural family. Best known for Adrian Sitaru’s Berlinale-selected Illegitimate, actress-screenwriter Alina Grigore is putting the finishing touches to her directorial debut, Blue Moon. The independent feature follows a dysfunctional family in rural Romania, exploring how a victim can become an abuser. The exclusively Romanian project is being produced by Gabriela Suciu and Robi Urs through InLight Center, and co-produced by Atelier de Film, Forest Film, Unfortunate Thespians, Smart Sound Production and Avanpost. The screenplay, written by Grigore, centres on the relationship between Liviu, a man trying to make a family-run business successful in rural Romania, and his younger cousin, Irina (Ioana Chiţu). He doesn’t believe in education, while she dreams of studying in Bucharest. Soon, Irina will discover that she is ready to do anything in order to smash Liviu’s preconceptions about...
Illegitimate, helmed by Adrian Sitaru, is a dark exploration of family that stands along recent notable Romanian titles. The debate over abortion unfolds across the dinner table between a father and children here in Sitaru’s film. Gradually, these beliefs are tested by the acerbic secrets the family has kept for too long. Using only first takes and improvisation, Sitaru has crafted a daring film that pushes his ensemble and the audience into uncomfortable confrontations. We talked to Sitaru about the unique process of making Illegitimate, the jazz-like quality of the film, and how the film is merely the start of a larger conversation about cinema and society.
The Film Stage: Is this your first time in Berlin?
Adrian Sitaru: No actually I came in 2010 or 2011 with a short film in competition The Cage, it’s called. And it won the main award, it was the Daad award, and it was nice,...
The Film Stage: Is this your first time in Berlin?
Adrian Sitaru: No actually I came in 2010 or 2011 with a short film in competition The Cage, it’s called. And it won the main award, it was the Daad award, and it was nice,...
- 2/24/2016
- by Zade Constantine
- The Film Stage
Cruel Intentions: Sitaru Aims to Provoke with Abortion Drama
Director Adrian Sitaru makes his most galling effort yet with his fourth film, Illegitimate, a social drama engaging two hot-button taboo topics all rolled up into one unsightly experience. At its core, the film is an abortion drama, which automatically places the title in an arena with the hailed juggernaut of the New Romanian Wave, 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, which famously netted Cristian Mungiu the Palme d’Or. It’s perhaps an unfair comparison since this rudimentary scenario aims to convey nagging intergenerational discord by complicating the issue of abortion as the result of incest. Unfortunately, the end result is as visually putrid as its subject matter is repugnant, never necessitating the narrative extremities which it assumes will shock or unnerve.
While enjoying a family meal with his grown children, widower Victor Anghelescu (Adrien Titieni), an aging obstetrician, gets...
Director Adrian Sitaru makes his most galling effort yet with his fourth film, Illegitimate, a social drama engaging two hot-button taboo topics all rolled up into one unsightly experience. At its core, the film is an abortion drama, which automatically places the title in an arena with the hailed juggernaut of the New Romanian Wave, 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, which famously netted Cristian Mungiu the Palme d’Or. It’s perhaps an unfair comparison since this rudimentary scenario aims to convey nagging intergenerational discord by complicating the issue of abortion as the result of incest. Unfortunately, the end result is as visually putrid as its subject matter is repugnant, never necessitating the narrative extremities which it assumes will shock or unnerve.
While enjoying a family meal with his grown children, widower Victor Anghelescu (Adrien Titieni), an aging obstetrician, gets...
- 2/19/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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