At the opening ceremony of the San Sebastián International Film Festival, Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band) will receive the FIPRESCI Grand Prix 2009 for the Best Film of the Year. Although the film has barely been screened apart from the Cannes Film Festival (where it won both the FIPRESCI Award and the Golden Palm), The White Ribbon was chosen the Best Film of the Year by the 223 critics throughout the world that took part in the poll for Grand Prix. The award will be handed out on Friday, September 18th, during the opening ceremony of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (www.sansebastianfestival.com ), which hosts the Grand Prix since its creation in 1999.

The Grand Prix, which distinguishes a film from the current season (any feature-length film premiered since July of the previous year) for its overall artistic quality, has already distinguished Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, 1999, and Volver, 2006), Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, 2000 and There Will Be Blood, 2008), Jafar Panahi (The Circle, 2001), Aki Kaurismäki (The Man Without a Past, 2002), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Uzak, 2003), Jean-Luc Godard (Notre musique, 2004), Kim Ki-Duk (Iron 3, 2005), and Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, 2007).