\n\tFamily was the focus at tonight\u2019s San Sebasti\u00e1n Film Festival awards ceremony, as a jury led by Spanish director J.A. Bayona bypassed harder-edged fare to reward a number of heart-led films centered on parent-child relationships. Bayona, the Barcelona native whose credits include \u201cThe Orphanage\u201d and \u201cSociety of the Snow,\u201d also kept things close to home, as half the jury\u2019s prizes went to Spanish productions.<\/p>\n
\n\tForemost among those was \u201cSundays,\u201d the third feature by Spanish writer-director Alauda Ruiz de Az\u00faa, which took the Golden Shell for Best Film \u2014 marking the third consecutive year, following Jaione Camborda\u2019s \u201cThe Rye Horn\u201d and Albert Serra\u2019s documentary \u201cAfternoons of Solitude,\u201d that the Spanish festival\u2019s top prize has gone to a homegrown title. Popular with local audiences, \u201cSundays\u201d follows a 17-year-old girl at a profound personal crossroads, torn between her parents\u2019 wishes for her to attend university and her own desire to become a nun.<\/p>\n
\n\tBelgian auteur Joachim Lafosse was a two-time winner, landing both Best Director and \u2014 together with his co-writers Chlo\u00e9 Duponchelle and Paul Isma\u00ebl \u2014 Best Screenplay for \u201cSix Days in Spring,\u201d a delicate, sweetly melancholic study of a single mother taking her twin sons on vacation in the wake of splitting from their father, borrowing her former in-laws\u2019 holiday home without permission. It\u2019s a gentle change of pace for Lafosse, best known for more emotionally harrowing domestic dramas, as he acknowledged in his acceptance speech. \u201cI tried for the first time to direct a souvenir d\u2019enfance, and it was a real pleasure for me,\u201d he said, before paying tribute to his leading lady Eye Ha\u00efdara: \u201cWithout her, we don\u2019t have a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHa\u00efdara had to be content with her director\u2019s praise, as the jury\u2019s gender-neutral award for Best Leading Performance was shared between two other performers: Spanish TV veteran Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00f3n Soroiz, as a 76-year-old gay man retreating into the closet after reuniting with his estranged daughter in Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi\u2019s local charmer \u201cMaspalomas\u201d; and Chinese big-screen newcomer Zhao Xiaohong for her affecting turn in Qin Xiaoyu\u2019s \u201cHer Heart Beats In Its Cage,\u201d playing an ex-con forging a new relationship with her son after a decade behind bars for murdering her husband.<\/p>\n
\n\tA supporting performance prize went to Argentine actor Camila Plaate for her wrenching performance in the title role of \u201cBel\u00e9n,\u201d director-star Dolores Fonzi\u2019s rousing legal drama about the real-life case of a woman imprisoned for murder after suffering a miscarriage \u2014 and the national reproductive-rights campaign that her story inspired across Argentina. Recently tapped as Argentina\u2019s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar, Fonzi\u2019s film was one of the festival\u2019s biggest crowdpleasers, and looks set to be a widespread audience favorite following its world premiere in San Sebasti\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
\n\tA special jury prize was presented to Spanish filmmaker Jos\u00e9 Luis Guerin for his humanistic community portrait \u201cGood Valley Stories,\u201d while another Spanish title, Alberto Rodriguez\u2019s brother-sister drama \u201cLos Tigres,\u201d took Best Cinematography for DP Pau Esteve. <\/p>\n
\n\tAs is often the case at San Sebasti\u00e1n, Bayona\u2019s jury \u2014 which also included directors Gia Coppola and Laura Carreira, actors Mark Strong, Zhou Dongyu and Lali Esposito, and producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint \u2014 opted not to reward a number of the bigger-name titles in competition, with Claire Denis\u2019s \u201cThe Fence,\u201d Alice Winocour\u2019s Angelina Jolie vehicle \u201cCouture\u201d and Edward Berger\u2019s Colin Farrell-starring romp \u201cBallad of a Small Player\u201d among those leaving the festival empty-handed.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn two of the festival\u2019s other competitive sections, prizewinners from previous major festivals this year added to their hardware. Seven months after winning a Silver Bear at the Berlinale for her enigmatic adult fairytale \u201cThe Ice Tower,\u201d French director Lucile Had\u017eihalilovi\u0107 won the top prize in the festival\u2019s arthouse-oriented Zabaltegi-Tabakalera competition with the same film. Colombian director Simon Mesa Soto won an Un Certain Regard award at Cannes for his dark literary comedy \u201cA Poet,\u201d and followed that up by taking top honors in San Sebasti\u00e1n\u2019s Latin Horizons program. <\/p>\n
\n\tIn the festival\u2019s New Directors competition, however, Marco Muller\u2019s jury handed the award to a San Sebasti\u00e1n world premiere: Danish director Emilie Thalund\u2019s \u201cWeightless,\u201d a warm, compassionate portrait of a 15-year-old girl coming out of her shell at a summer weight-loss camp.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe festival\u2019s Audience Award, meanwhile, went to Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab,\u201d an emotionally pummelling docudrama utilizing real-life audio of a young Palestinian girl killed in one of last year\u2019s Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. The win was hardly a surprise: Ben Hania\u2019s film, a Grand Jury Prize winner at Venice earlier this month, has left audiences in floods of tears, and at a festival marked throughout by pro-Palestine protests at the red carpet \u2014 and where everyone from Donostia Award honoree Jennifer Lawrence to a number of tonight\u2019s winners have felt compelled to make a vocal anti-genocide statement at the festival \u2014 the recognition felt fitting.<\/p>\n
\n\tFull list of award winners below:<\/p>\n
\n\tOFFICIAL SELECTION AWARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tGolden Shell for Best Film: <\/strong>\u201cSundays,\u201d Alauda Ruiz de Az\u00faa<\/p>\n \n\tSpecial Jury Prize: <\/strong>\u201cGood Valley Stories,\u201d Jos\u00e9 Luis Guerin<\/p>\n \n\tSilver Shell for Best Director: <\/strong>\u201cSix Days in Spring,\u201d Joachim Lafosse<\/p>\n \n\tSilver Shell for Best Leading Performance: <\/strong>(ex aequo) \u201cHer Heart Beats in Its Cage,\u201d Zhao Xiaohong; \u201cMaspalomas,\u201d Jose Ramon Soroiz<\/p>\n \n\tSilver Shell for Best Supporting Performance: <\/strong>\u201cBel\u00e9n,\u201d Camila Plaate<\/p>\n \n\tJury Prize for Best Cinematography: <\/strong>\u201cLos Tigres,\u201d Pau Esteve<\/p>\n \n\tJury Prize for Best Screenplay: <\/strong>\u201cSix Days in Spring,\u201d Joachim Lafosse, Chlo\u00e9 Duponchelle, Paul Isma\u00ebl<\/p>\n \n\tOTHER OFFICIAL AWARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tNew Directors Award: <\/strong>\u201cWeightless,\u201d Emilie Thalund \n\tHorizontes Latinos Award:<\/strong> \u201cA Poet,\u201d Sim\u00f3n Mesa Soto \n\tZabaltegi-Tabakalera Award:<\/strong> \u201cThe Ice Tower,\u201d Lucile Had\u017eihalilovi\u0107 \n\tAudience Award for Best Film: <\/strong>\u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab,\u201d Kaouther Ben Hania<\/p>\n \n\tAudience Award for Best European Film: <\/strong>\u201cLittle Am\u00e9lie,\u201d Ma\u00eflys Valladeania<\/p>\n \n\tIrizar Basque Film Award: <\/strong>\u201cSundays,\u201d Alauda Ruiz de Az\u00faa<\/p>\n \n\tCulinary Zinema Award: <\/strong>\u201cMam,\u201d Nan Feix<\/p>\n \n\tRTVE Another Look Award: <\/strong>\u201cThe Currents,\u201d Milagros Mumenthaler \n\tSpanish Cooperation Award: <\/strong>\u201cGood Valley Stories,\u201d Jos\u00e9 Luis Guerin<\/p>\n \n\tPREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED AWARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tNest the Mediapro Studio Award:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cHow to Listen to Fountains,\u201d Eva Sajanov\u00e1 \n\tMovistar Plus+ Award for Best Short Film<\/strong>: \u201cThe Loneliness of Lizards,\u201d In\u00eas Nunes<\/p>\n \n\tTabakalera Short Film Award: <\/strong>\u201cLife is Like That and Not Otherwise,\u201d Lenia Friedrich<\/p>\n \n\tEuskadi Basque Country 2030 Agenda Award:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab,\u201d Kaouther Ben Hania<\/p>\n \n\tZinemaldia Startup Challenge Best Spanish Project:\u00a0<\/strong>Quickets, Felipe Ortiz<\/p>\n \n\tZinemaldia Startup Challenge Best European Project:<\/strong>\u00a0Novel Fire Masks Engineered With 3D Technology, Raoul Peltier<\/p>\n \n\tZinemaldia Startup Challenge Special Mention for Entrepreneurship:<\/strong>\u00a0Quickets, Felipe Ortiz<\/p>\n \n\tWIP Latam Industry Award:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cFlies,\u201d Fernando Eimbcke<\/p>\n \n\tEgeda Platino Industria Award For The Best WIP Latam:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWe Were No Longer Five,\u201d Esteban Hoyos Garcia, Juan Miguel Gelacio Ramirez<\/p>\n \n\tWIP Europa Industry Award:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cFebruary, Seven Days,\u201d Tatjana Moutchnik<\/p>\n \n\tWIP Europa Award:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cFebruary, Seven Days,\u201d Tatjana Moutchnik<\/p>\n \n\tXIII Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum Best Project Award:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cDo Not Let Me Die Alone,\u201d Francisco Rodriguez Teare<\/p>\n \n\tDALE! Award:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWhat Follows Is My Death,\u201d Laura Baumeister<\/p>\n \n\tArtekino International Award:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cLa Piel del L\u00e9on,\u201d Alvaro Brechner<\/p>\n \n\tIkusmira Berriak Award:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cLa Koreana, Un Poema Ferromagn\u00e9tica de Luz y Memoria,\u201d Joana Moya Blanco<\/p>\n \n\tCasa Wabi-ESCINE Award:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cDo Not Let Me Die Alone,\u201d Francisco Rodriguez Teare<\/p>\n \n\tQCinema Award: <\/strong>\u201cWhat Follows Is My Death,\u201d Laura Baumeister<\/p>\n \n\tMusic Library & SFX Award:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cMariana X BHP,\u201d Renan Flumian<\/p>\n \n\tEuroregional Documentary Award: <\/strong>\u201cAltxaliliak,\u201d Maia Iribarne Olhagarai\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tEpe-Ibaia-Elkargi Award:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cLa Incre\u00edble Historia de Una Pel\u00edcula Que No Hemos VistoBarrabas,\u201d Claudia Ch\u00e1vez Levano, Christine Mladic Janney\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tEusko Label Micro Short Film Award: <\/strong>\u201cHatsa,\u201d Josu Ozaita Azpiroz
Special Mention: <\/strong>\u201cAro Berria,\u201d Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe<\/p>\n
Special Mention: <\/strong>\u201cThe Ivy,\u201d Ana Cristina Barrag\u00e1n; \u201cA Loose End,\u201d Daniel Hendler<\/p>\n
Special Mention:<\/strong> \u201cTwo Times Jo\u00e3o Liberada,\u201d Paula Tom\u00e1s Marques; \u201cBlue Heron,\u201d Sophy Romvari<\/p>\n
Special Mention: <\/strong>\u201cBel\u00e9n,\u201d Dolores Fonzi<\/p>\n
Special Mention: <\/strong>\u201cThe Old Bull Knows, or Once Knew,\u201d Milan Kumar<\/p>\n
Runner-up: <\/strong>\u201cGatz Harana,\u201d Saioa Miguel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Family was the focus at tonight\u2019s San Sebasti\u00e1n Film Festival awards ceremony, as a jury led by Spanish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,148419,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-456328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-san-sebastian-film-festival","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115278450792231175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}