Zabaltegi-Tabakalera and Pearl selection preview

 Some of the year’s most important films will feature in the Pearls and Zabaltegi-Tabakalera sections. The Hungarian filmmaker Ilkidó Enyedi, winner of the Golden Bear with the fable Teströl és lékekröl  / On Body and Soul, will compete for the City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award against the Jury Prize in Cannes, Nelyubov / Loveless, by Russian moviemaker Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviafan / Leviathan) and the Jury Grand Prix at the French festival, 120 battements par minute (120 BMP) / 120 Beats Per Minute by Robin Campillo, screenwriter of Foxfire, which competed in San Sebastian’s Official Selection in 2012.

Also contending for the award decided by the spectators are Wonderstruck, the adaptation of a story by Brian Selznick which competed at Cannes, in which Todd Haynes (Carol) directs Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams and child actors Oakes Fegley and Millicent Simmonds, and two films premiered at Sundance:The Big Sick, third film by Michael Showalter, about an interracial couple forced to deal with their cultural differences, and Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino (A Bigger Splash), screened at the Berlinale following its stop at the North American Festival. Besides, as it was announced last week, the co-production Loving Pablo will close the Pearls section.

For its part, The Square, latest film from the Swedish director Ruben Östlund (Turist / Force Majeure), recognised with the Golden Palm at the last Cannes Festival, will open the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section, including contenders Philippe Garrel -to whom the Festival devoted a retrospective in 2007- with L’amant d’un jour / Lover for a Day, premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight; and Tesnota / Closeness, the debut by Kantemir Balagov, presented in Un Certain Regard. These titles join the Spanish productions announced last week: Saura(s), helmed by Félix Viscarret, a film from the Cineastas contados series; the directorial debut of Gustavo Salmerón, Muchos hijos, un mono y un castillo / Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle, winner of Best Documentary at Karlovy Vary; the documentary No intenso agora / In the Intense Now, by the Brazilian filmmaker João Moreira Salles, which competed at Berlin; and the world premiere of Movistar+ series Vergüenza, written and helmed by Juan Cavestany and Álvaro Fernández Armero. This is the first time a television series will have competed for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award.

The remaining titles making up both sections will be announced in the coming weeks.