San Sebastian Film Fest Unveils First Competition Titles

Spain’s San Sebastian film festival unveiled its first group of competition titles Friday, naming a typically eclectic mix of established art house favorites — Cristi Puiu, Joachim Lafosse, Robin Campillo — and rising talents, including Maria Alche, Benjamín Naishtat and American debutant Raven Jackson whose first feature, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, will be competing for San Sebastian’s Golden Shell this year.

Produced by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is described as a lyrical exploration of the life of a Black woman in Mississippi and stars The Woman King‘s Sheila Atim.

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A second American title, the comedy Ex-Husbands from director Noah Pritzker (Quitters), also made the San Sebastian cut. Rosanna Arquette, Griffin Dunne, Miles Heizer, James Norton and Eisa Davis are part of the ensemble cast in a story focused on a father (Dunne) overwhelmed by the twin crises of an impending divorce and his father’s perhaps fatal illness.

Campillo, best known for his 2017 breakout 120 BPM, will grace San Sebastian with Red Island, a coming-of-age story set in 1960-’70 Madagascar, which explores the end of childhood alongside the end of a chapter in France’s colonial era. MMXX, from Romanian director Puiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), is an ensemble drama focused on four people: a therapist, her brother, her husband and a police inspector, who are all obsessed with their own personal issues.

Belgium filmmaker Lafosse, whose last feature, The Restless, premiered in competition in Cannes, will screen A Silence, a family drama exploring issues of abuse, at the Spanish festival.

Other San Sebastian titles announced Friday include The Practice, the latest Argentine comedy from driector Martín Rejtman (Dos disparos, The Magic Gloves), which follows a yoga teacher who faces increasingly absurd challenges and situations; and Puan, a satirical look at Argentine society and academic life, focused on a academic rivalry in the philosophy department of the University of Buenos Aires and directed by Maria Alche and Benjamín Naishtat.

San Sebastian will announce its lineup of Spanish titles July 17.

The 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival runs Sept. 22-30.

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