SAN SEBASTIAN-KABUL (SW): James Franco scored his first big outright win as a director, his “The Disaster Artist” scooping Saturday night the 65th San Sebastian Festival’s Golden Shell, the top plaudit at the highest-profile film event in the Spanish-speaking world.
According to the Variety, James Franco, thanking Warner Bros,: “It’s a very simple film about a crazy man but he had big dreams and it’s better than not having dreams. I hope that in these crazy times this brings a little light and inspiration.”
In one of two firsts for San Sebastian, Jon Garano’ and Aitor Arregi’s “Handia,” sold by Film Factory, scooped the San Sebastian’s Special Jury Prize – the first big prize to go to a Basque movie in main competition at San Sebastian.
Argentine Anahi Berneri”s “Alanis,” the portrait of the trials and tribulations of a call-girl turned struggling streetwalker, won the first best director prize to go to a woman in San Sebastian’s 65-edition history. Sofia Gala took best actress for her lead performance.
Francen Marines’s debut, “The Sower” a delicate love story and ode to freedom set in a hamlet in the hills of France in 1851, won the Festival’s New Directors competition, its major sidebar. “You can be a director and also a mother,” Francen announced, on stage at San Sebastian.
Mora’s first feature, “Killing Jesus,” ripped by Latido Films, won San Sebastian’s Eroski Youth Award for a social thriller following a young student who hits Medellin’s mean streets to track down the sicario who murdered her father before her eyes.
In a good night for Argentine cinema with both its competition films scoring awards, Diego Lerman won best screenplay for the Film Factory-sold “A Kind of Family,” starring Barbara Lennie as a woman traveling across Argentina to adopt a baby.
ENDS
