San Sebastián, between auteur cinema and Gaza

The European entries are joined by Argentine director Milagros Mumenthaler's third feature film (and best to date), Las Corrientes , as well as American director James Vanderbilt's new work, Nuremberg , starring Russell Crowe in an Oscar-nominated role. It's worth noting that all of these aforementioned works are direct from world premieres that took place just a few days ago at the Toronto Film Festival, guaranteeing the Basque festival something that festivals in this category always seek: the presence of stars from the Anglo-Saxon cinematic universe.

San Sebastián will never compete with Cannes and Venice, but regardless of geographic origin, besides those already mentioned, filmmakers Jafar Panahi, Joachim Trier, Richard Linklater, Raoul Peck, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and François Ozon are expected this weekend, as well as the well-known faces of Juliette Binoche, Paul Dano, Harris Dickinson, Elle Fanning, and Lali Espósito. Jennifer Lawrence will receive the Donostia Award, a tribute to her career. There's nothing to say about the choice, which caused some surprise: these types of awards usually recognize the work of artists with a long history. But Jennifer is only 35.

San Sebastián will be presenting, for the first time in the same competition, new works by Spaniard José Luis Guerin ( Historias del Buen Valle ) and Belgian Joachim Lafosse ( Six jours ce printemps-là ), a total of 17 candidates. There is no Portuguese representation this year that could win the Golden Shell. However, Portuguese cinema is represented in secondary categories, in the parallel sections, which are equally competitive. The Zabaltegi-Tabakalera opens this Saturday with a Portuguese-Spanish co-production (a world premiere) involving Terratreme, Una Película de Miedo , by Brazilian Sergio Oksman, starring Daniel Blaufuks and Ana Moreira.