Johnny Depp y Matt Dillon, entre las estrellas del Festival de San Sebastián

Los actores estadounidenses Johnny Depp y Matt Dillon serán dos de las estrellas de Hollywood que visitarán el 68 Festival de Cine de San Sebastián (norte), al que también acudirán sus compatriotas Gina Gershon y Viggo Mortensen, Premio Donostia de esta edición.

Gershon estará junto a Elena Anaya en la presentación de «Rifkin’s Festival», la película de Woody Allen que inaugurará este viernes el certamen donostiarra y de la que su director hablará telemáticamente desde Nueva York.

El actor británico Joe Alwyn, con el que se completa el jurado oficial presidido por Luca Guadagnino, se ha unido a una lista que incluye asimismo a Candela Peña, Blanca Suárez, Paz Vega, Raúl Arévalo, Alejandro Sanz, Javier Cámara, Irene Escolar, Bárbara Lennie y Roberto Álamo como parte del «star system» español.

Son todas ellas presencias confirmadas, que tienen ya su billete de avión y reserva de hotel, aunque nadie puede garantizar al cien por cien su presencia a causa de la situación cambiante derivada de la pandemia.

Ayer mismo se cayó el equipo de una película después de que uno de sus miembros diera positivo en COVID-19, dijo en la rueda de prensa de presentación de las galas de este año la responsable de Comunicación del Festival, Ruth Pérez de Anucita. EFE

On-Site San Sebastian Confirms Johnny Depp, Matt Dillon, Primes TV, Opens with Buzz Titles

Braving COVID-19, Spain’s 68th San Sebastián Film Festival bowed on-site on Sept. 18, launching a somewhat slimmed edition that maintains, however, all its main sections.

Following, seven more takes on the highest-profile film event in the Spanish-speaking world as it finally kicks off:

Depp, Dillon, Gershon Confirm Attendance

Stars are rallying round this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. Viggo Mortensen is already confirmed as the recipient of a Donostia Award. On Thursday, the festival announced that Johnny Depp, who takes a producer credit on Julien Temple’s “Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan,” will also be in town, as Matt Dillon, director of Cuban music doc “The Great Fellove,” and Gina Gershon, star of Woody Allen’s “Rifkin’s Festival.” “The Skin I Live In’s” Elena Anaya, Rifkin’s Festival’s” other female lead, also attends along with a strong Spanish star contingent attached to other titles. San Sebastian’s star quotient is down on other years, but not negligible.

San Sebastian’s TV Cup Runneth Over

TV from Spain is booming, and everyone wants a piece of the action. In such a context, one of San Sebastian’s biggest achievements has been to become a prestige drama series world premiere platform. This year, it frames seven series, no less, including some of the most anticipated Spanish series of the year, two Movistar Plus dramas “Riot Police” and “Tell Me Who I Am” as well as Aitor Gabilondo’s “Patria” and, also from HBO Europe, Luca Guadagnino’s buzzy “We Are Who We Are.” With “Riot Police,” it will be the first TV show to screen in their entirety in Official Selection. Two Basque series – “The State vs. Pablo Ibar” and “Alardea” – suggest the region’s drive towards premium TV.

The Presence of Women Directors

Female director presence is down on previous years in main competition, with just three of 14 titles helmed by women. Horizontes Latinos, San Sebastian’s Latin America showcase, is dramatically up, however, with seven of its nine entries directed or co-directed by women. 90% of them are first or second-time directors – including notably Argentina’s “One in a Thousand” and “Mum, Mum, Mum,” suggesting a new wave of women cineastes is welling in Latin America, led by female talent, its passion and the sense of urgency of gender issue cinema.

More Buzz Titles

Of lesser-known titles, buzzy titles coming into San Sebastian included New Directors features “Gull,” a Jeonju Festival Grand Prize winner; Basque mother-daughter relationship drama “Ane”; and three Cannes Selection titles — João Paulo Miranda Maria’s “Memory House,” a chronicle of Brazilian racism; Susan Lindon’s rites-of-passage drama “Spring Blossom”; and Ben Sharrock’s remote Scottish-island set “Limbo.” In WIP Europa, Turkish workplace accident drama “Between Two Dawns” is drawing some heat. For talent spotters, Chinese short “Having a Good Time” and “I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face,” from Egypt’s Sameh Alaa, are being talked up in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera. “The level of short films at this year’s festival is very high indeed,” says San Sebastian Festival director José Luis Rebordinos. By John Hopewell