Savage Cinema, the Festival’s adventure film section, will gather in San Sebastian the moviemaker Jennifer Peedom, actor Bérénice Bejo and the surfer Kai Lenny, among others

Tout là-haut is one of the few fiction movies to celebrate the world of mountain snowboarding and skiing. Serge Hazanavicius, a lover of freeride, will present his first feature film, inspired in the story of the snowboarder Marco Siffredi, who died while making his way down Everest on his board in 2002. At the Festival, the director will be accompanied by Bérénice Bejo (Oscar-nominated for The Artist and Best Actress Award at Cannes for Le passé / The Past), Kev Adams and Vincent Elbaz, and the producer Julie Gayet.

The director of Mountain, Jennifer Peedom, known for the closeness with which she portrays people in extreme situations (Solo [2008], Sherpa [2015]), will come to San Sebastian to present her latest film, a suggestive journey packed with historical archival footage and beautiful contemporary images, with which she aims to expand upon western culture’s fascination with mountains.  

Paradigm Lost deals with the evolution as a sportsman of Kai Lenny, a respected young Hawaiian athlete and recent winner of the WSL big wave surf contest at Puerto Escondido (Mexico). Lenny will attend the Festival together with the film’s co-director, John DeCesare, to present their movie in which surfing, kitesurfing, windsurfing and foil surfing sessions come together with some of the biggest names in the disciplines, including John John Florence, Kelly Slater, Robby Naish, Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama, to name just a few. On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 27, the 24 year-old surfer will give a presentation at San Sebastian’s Hurley Surf Club (limited capacity, pre-registration is needed).   

Bill Heick, one of the adventurers who took to the coasts of Indonesia looking for waves in the early 80s, will come to San Sebastian to attend the European premiere of Secrets of Desert Point at the Festival. His father, a producer of ethnographic documentaries, made a series of recordings of Indonesian regional dances, also making the most of the occasion to film that fabulous journey between friends which ended with a key discovery in the history of contemporary surf.  

Tickets for the Savage Cinema films will be available for purchase from September 17th on the Festival website.

Filmmakers and athletes in attendance

Serge Hazanavicius, director of Tout là-haut
Serge Hazanavicius started acting while studying in 1986 and has played in over 20 theater plays and 70 films in France and abroad. In the early 2000’s, he started writing and directing his own projects. He first wrote, directed and acted in a short film and went on to direct theater plays as well as stand-up comedy shows. The breakthrough happened in 2003, with the highly-acclaimed theatre play adaptation of the novel 84 Charing Cross Road, which he directed and acted in. The play was nominated for the Molière (French theatre awards) and toured for over 2 years. Serge Hazanavicius has kept on acting, writing and directing plays. In 2012, he started to work on his first feature film: To the Top. A film about his other great passion: the mountains, and more specifically high mountain skiing, also known as "freeride".

Bérénice Bejo, star of Tout là-haut
Bérénice Bejo embarked on a successful acting career in the 1990s, with various roles in French television and film productions. She made her American film debut in Knight´s Tale (2001), but came to major international recognition with her role as Peppy Miller in the critical and popular hit, The Artist (2011). Bejo received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won her the César Award for Best Actress. In 2013 she won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Le passé (The Past).

Kev Adams, star of Tout là-haut
From 2009 he played different roles on live shows and French television until 2014 when he started working in the Soda television series, in which he plays a major role. He also took part in the Fiston and Kidon comedies before starting his cinema career with roles at Les profs and Les nouvelles aventures d'Aladin which saw great commercial success. In 2016 he played in Amis publics de Edouard Pluvieux, together with Vincent Elbaz. 

Jennifer Peedom, director of Mountain
Jennifer Peedom is a BAFTA nominated director, well known for her gripping, intimate portraits of people in extreme circumstances. Her credits include the internationally renowned documentaries Sherpa (2015), Miracle On Everest (2008), Living The End (2011) and Solo (2008), which played in the Official Selection of major documentary festivals IDFA and Sheffield and won numerous awards including an Australian Film Institute for Best Documentary. She has also directed  Life at 7 (2012), Life at 9 (2014) and Miracle in the Desert (2010)

Kai Lenny, star and co-director of Paradigm Lost
Kai Lenny is one of the world’s most complete watermen. Be it kiteboarding, windsurfing, stand-up paddleboarding, big-wave surfing, or anything else in the water, Kai does it, and does it well. Growing up on the swell-rich northern shore of Maui, the now multiple World Champion was surfing by the time he was five and was behind a kite before he was 10. With Robby Naish, Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama Kai has an impressive lineup of mentors but still remains modest and humble. He was recently the winner of the WSL big waves contest at Puerto Escondido (Mexico).

John DeCesare, co-director of Paradigm Lost
John DeCesare has been at the forefront of action sports films for nearly two decades. It all began with one super 8 camera, a guillotine and some tape. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of obsolete technology, John transformed into a turnkey digital director. Utilizing each and every pixel to his respective potential, he has shot everything from skiing to surfing to soccer.

Bill Heick, surfer and star of Secrets of Desert Point
Bill´s dad, William Heick, was known for his ethnographic photographs and documentary films of North American Indian cultures, and remote areas of Africa, Indonesia and The Middle East. Bill was fortunate to travel and work on many documentaries with him during his 60 year collaboration in filmaking and photography. Besides this cinematographic experience, Bill has pursued a surfing life from his home base in California and traveling around the world.