Laura Mora’s film Los reyes del mundo / The Kings of the World, a Colombian co-production with Luxembourg, France, Mexico and Norway, bagged the Golden Shell at San Sebastian Festival’s 70th edition.   

The official jury also decided to honour Genki Kawamura with the Silver Shell for Best Director for Hyakka / A Hundred Flowers (Japan), while the Best Screenplay Award went to Dong Yun Zhou and Wang Chao for their work on the latter’s movie, Kong Xiu / A Woman (China).

Carla Quílez and Paul Kircher landed the Silver Shell ex-aequo for Best Leading Performance in Pilar Palomero’s La Maternal (Spain), and Christophe Honoré’s Le lycéen / Winter Boy (France), respectively, while Renata Lerman forged ahead to win Best Supporting Performance for Diego Lerman’s El suplente / The Substitute (Argentina-Spain-Italy-Mexico-France). Manuel Abramovich, the director of Pornomelancolía (Argentina-France-Brazil-Mexico), carried off the Best Cinematography Award for his work on this film, while the Special Jury Prize went to Runner, by the first-timer Marian Mathias (USA-Germany-France), “for the ambition of its narrative engagement, for its originality and for the intensity sensed in this first work”.

This is the third year running that a film helmed by a woman has landed the Official Selection’s top prize after Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili, 2020) and Crai nou / Blue Moon (Alina Grigore, 2021), and the Golden Shell went to a Colombian production for the first time in the Festival’s seven decades. The movie in question is the second by its director, Laura Mora (Medellín, 1981), whose debut, Matar a Jesús (2017), received a Kutxabank-New Directors Award special mention.

Both the Jury Prize and the Golden Shell for Best Director went to two debut movies, Runner and Hyakka / A Hundred Flowers, respectively. The latter of the two is the work of Genki Kawamura, producer of essential titles in the field of contemporary Japanese animation.

The Official Jury giving these awards was presided over by the producer Matías Mosteirín, who was accompanied by the jury members Antoinette Boulat, Tea Lindeburg, Rosa Montero, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese and Hlynur Pálmason.