In San Sebastian, the Kursal, the buzzing center of the festival, lights up the entrance to Gros and the beach. - Emily Monaco ...

When writing reviews for film festival movies, there are a few adjectives I've learned I will probably drop from my vocabulary: heart-warming, light, sweet... They're good adjectives for other movies, to be sure, (if a bit overused at times), but they have no place here. Nope. No way. So when I saw Yo, También, I wasn't exactly sure how I planned to describe it, for that is what it is: heart-warming, light and sweet. It made me (and the rest of the audience) burst out laughing at...

  The rain from this weekend has let up, but the weather here in San Sebastian is still cloudy. Fingers crossed that the sunny day they promised us for Thursday will arrive! Until then, everyone here is walking the red carpet with an umbrella in one hand, just in case. At least the carpet isn't covered in plastic anymore, like it was this weekend. ...

Some films just make me feel stupid. I generally am not a fan of this. 20 minutes into This is Love, I still had no real idea what was going on, or even who the main character was supposed to be. I spent a lot of time trying to figure it out… was the director going to pull a “Bruce Willis was dead the whole time!” on me? How did these two characters connect? What in God’s name was going on? Let me backtrack a moment: This is Love is a German film that begins by intro...

Both Michel Franco and lead actor Darío Yazbek are here in San Sebastian to promote Daniel y Ana, the young Mexican director´s first full-length feature. The film tells the (true) story of two siblings in an upper class Mexican family that are captured by pornographers and forced to have sex with one another on tape. The director seeks to tell the story of what happens to the relationship between the two after this ordeal and how it comes to shape the way that each one deals wit...

Woody Allen's new film Whatever Works starring Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood was screened here in San Sebastian yesterday. The film played to an enthusiastic press audience: there was laughter and applause at all the right moments, and the daily newspaper review here stated that it harkens back to some of his best work. The film follows Larry David as an early Allen-esque character--New Yorker, neuroses and all--who meets and befriends a Mississippi ingénue played by Evan Rache...

 Today is Saturday, September 18th... the second day of the San Sebastian-Donostia Film Festival. Here's what's being screened today...   Official Selection Chloe Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried star in a Canadian film that follows a woman who hires a girl to tempt her husband to see if he is cheating. El Baile de la Victoria In Chile, a young man looking to take revenge on a famous bank heister crosses paths with a mysterious ballerina. ...

Oh, how I love film festivals. Or, more precisely, how I love when they invade the town that I call home. My first festival was Toronto: I worked as a volunteer behind the scenes, showing people to their seats. Toronto could never compare to Cannes, the first festival I saw as a journalist, the first time I worked with fest21. Cannes was all glamor and sparkle: we waited for weeks as we learnd which films would be premiering there, who would be coming. We watched as the red carpet wa...

Today is Friday, September 18th... the first day of the San Sebastian-Donostia Film Festival. Here's what's being screened today... Official Selection Chloe Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried star in a Canadian film that follows a woman who hires a girl to tempt her husband to see if he is cheating. Zabaltegi Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino's film stars Brad Pitt as the leader of a group of Jewish-American men performing acts of retribution on Nazi's during World War II. Yuki & Nina T...

EFP and San Sebastian International Film Festival join forces for "European Distributors: Up Next!" to be held on September 26  With the aim of increasing the wider distribution of non-domestic European films, European Film Promotion (EFP) and the San Sebastian International Film Festival are to launch the initiative "European Distributors: Up Next!" which is scheduled to take place on September 26, 2008 during the festival. The first edition of the programme is focused on d...

Hong Kong-born director Wayne Wang's "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" won the best film and best actor awards at the 55th annual San Sebastian film festival in Spain on Saturday.Based on a short story by the same name by award-winning author Yiyun Li, the movie depicts the tensions that follow when a widower from Beijing, Mr Shi, goes to the US to visit his recently divorced daughter Yilan."It was a small film that needed a lot of time to be done because I think films need to br...

  Official selection Eastern Promises by David Cronenberg is the Opening Night Film; Flawless by Michael Radford (Out of Competition) will be San Sebastian Festival Closing Night Film.Battle for Haditha Nick Broomfield Buda az sharm foru rikht / Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (Buda explotó por vergüenza) Hana Makhmalbaf Ceot oi kap gei / Exodus Pang Ho-Cheung Daisy Diamond Simon Staho Earth Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield. Out of CompetitionEmotional Arithmetic Paolo Barzman Encarnación ...

The international jury for the 55th San Sebastian Film Festival is chaired by Paul Auster (Chairman );other jury members includePERNILLA AUGUST NICOLETTA BRASCHI BAHMAN GHOBADI EDUARDO NORIEGA SUSÚ PECORARO PETER WEBBER PAUL AUSTER (Chairman) Paul Auster is the author of Travels in the Scriptorium (2007), The Brooklyn Follies (2006), Oracle Night (2003), The Book of Illusions (2002), The Red Notebook (2002), Timbuktu (1999), Mr. Vertigo (1994), Leviathan (1992), The Music of Chance (1990), Moo...

Canadian director David Cronenberg says that he is “delighted” to participate in the San Sebastian International Film Festival in a text sent by him to the Festival organisation for its circulation.Cronenberg, who will open the San Sebastian Festival on 20th September with his new film Eastern Promises, starring Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel, and who will also compete in the Official Selection, wished to show his interest in participating in the event because “people have...

October 1, 2006 Saturday Afternoon in the press room where the Concha prizes have been announced, and, the Main Winners were -- -- -- (pause for bated breath) -- -- - Kurd-Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi scored another big victory here with two of the most important awards, the Golden Concha, or Grand Prix for Best Film, “NIEMANG/HALF MOON, and the International Film Critics FIPRESCI prize as well. This was Ghobadi’ second Golden Concha best film prize here in Donostia, where his “Turtl...

“Help Wanted: Mature, well-known movie actresses to preside over juries at major film festivals. Temporary work, well paid, five-star hotel accommodations with many extras and fringe benefits. French or English speaking preferred. Under sixty need not apply ...