San Sebastian Competition: Cate Blanchett-Produced ‘Fingernails’ and ‘The Royal Hotel’ With ‘Matrix’ Stars Added to Lineup
variety.comJohn Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Headlined respectively by “Sound of Metal” lead Riz Ahmed and “Matrix” stars Jessica Henwick and Hugo Weaving, Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails” and Kitty Green’s “The Royal Hotel” figure among seven newly unveiled films which will play in main competition at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival.
Also in the running are buzz titles “A Journey in Spring,” from Taiwan’s Peng Tzu-Hui, Wang Ping-Wen, and “Kalak,” directed by Denmark’s Isabella Eklöf.
Announced Friday, the new additions are comprised by one debut (“Spring”) and five second features from emerging talent ranging from Japan’s Kei Chica-ura to France’s Xavier Legrand, nominated for an Academy Award for best live action short film for 2013’s “Just Before Losing Everything.” The new titles confirm a 2023 main competition which, including previously announced titles, frames three feature debuts – Raven Jackson’s “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” Isabel Herguera’s “Sultana’s Dream” and “A Journey in Spring” – and a remarkable nine sophomore outings out of a total 16 main competition contenders for San Sebastian’s Gold Shell.
Compounded by a prestige New Directors’ section, the festival’s leading sidebar, San Sebastian looks this year, more than ever before, as a platform for emerging talent, balanced by a bevy of established auteurs from Europe and Latin America: Isabel Coixet, Cristi Puiu, Martín Rejtman, Robin Campillo, Joachim Lafosse.
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