The social-family drama
Crai Nou (Blue Moon),
by the Romanian debutant Alina Grigore, has won the Golden Shell at the 69th edition of the San Sebastián festival.
The film develops its plot in a large house, where rooms are rented for tourists, and in which a large dysfunctional family tries to fix their problems loudly.
From that whirlwind, two sisters in their twenties unsuccessfully want to flee and go to study at the university.
In this way, the director who won last year, the Georgian Dea Kulumbegashvili, whose
Beginning
won up to four awards, and president of the jury for this edition, has passed the baton to another young filmmaker.
It is the fifth Golden Shell for a film led by a woman.
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What is a film festival for?
Goodbye to differentiated prizes for sex?
In the rest of the track record, the overwhelming female presence stands out.
Although of the 16 films in the competition, only seven were directed by women, the contest had programmed films that do host gender parity of their protagonists: in five of them the main role is male, in another five it is female and in six they are couples or groups.
In its first edition without interpretation awards differentiated by sex, the jury that, together with Kulumbegashvili, brought together the Spanish actress Susi Sánchez, the French filmmaker Audrey Diwan (who just won the Golden Lion in Venice for
The Event),
Chilean director Maite Alberdi
(The Mole Agent)
and American producer Ted Hope have awarded the Silver Shell for the best leading performance
ex aequo
to the Danish Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl for
As in Heaven
and Jessica Chastain for
The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
On Friday, Chastain responded to EL PAÍS about this issue of awards differentiated by sex: “I think that in the past, differentiation was important because filmmakers struggled to obtain stories that were not male.
I myself was a jury member at Cannes and I remember how difficult it was to find a female lead job.
Now, we cannot close the door to transsexual stories and characters, and maybe that way we can amplify the focus on all human beings ”.
The new Silver Shell for the best supporting performance went to the cast of adolescents of
Who prevents it,
by Jonás Trueba. Nine of them went up on stage excitedly, and through one of them, Candela, they dedicated it “to the more than 200 boys who participated in the project; with this award we feel listened to ”. And he confessed: "We have not only interpreted ourselves, we have also imagined ourselves."
The jury's special prize, considered the second in importance, went to
Earwig,
by French director Lucile Hadzihalilovic, a film that from the beginning was called to appear in the list of honors. Hadzihalilovic is not just anybody and she already accumulates a filmography in which she has been experimenting with atmospheres:
Earwig
seemed closer to the taste of the jury. However, the triumph of a film like the Romanian one, which is quite inferior, makes this recognition of the French creator less. The award for best director went to the Danish Tea Lindeburg, also debuting with
As in Heaven,
an oppressive story that takes place in a rural community during the 19th century.
The award for best photography went to Claire Mathon, a renowned French camerawoman thanks to her collaborations with authors such as Céline Sciamma, but who in the meager
political-journalistic
thriller
Enquête sur a scandale d'état
performs a seasoning task at the height of the movie.
With seeing
Spencer,
by Pablo Larraín, anyone will know that Mathon is capable of much more.
The actresses Jessica Chastain and Flora Ofelia after receiving the Exaequo Silver Shell. Javier Etxezarreta / EFE
Finally, the award for best screenplay was justly won by the oldest veteran of the official section, the British filmmaker Terence Davies (Liverpool, 75 years old) thanks to the
Benediction
libretto
,
showered with his caustic humor and his usual goldsmith work at the time. to recreate past worlds and mold them to their characters. This time his film is a love song to the poet Siegfried Sassoon.
Spanish cinema, which had four films in competition, has fared badly. As it was suspected from the beginning, the jury was going to opt for titles that were far from a traditional narrative, and only
Who prevents it,
by Jonás Trueba, seemed to be able to accommodate that line, which has also earned him the Fipresci award from international critics.
La abuela,
by Paco Plaza, and
El buen patron,
by Fernando León, have not achieved any recognition, and
Maixabel,
by Icíar Bollaín, has obtained - from another jury - the best Basque film. That same classic narrative has had to go against the best proposal present in the official section:
Arthur Rambo,
another demonstration of the overflowing talent of the French Laurent Cantet to tell social, political, current and fresh stories.
The award for the best film in the Horizons section, focused on Latin American cinema, went to the Mexican
Night of Fire,
by Tatiana Huezo.
In the Zabaltegi / Tabakalera section, which includes a more risky cinema,
Vortex
won
, by
the French-Argentine Gaspar Noé, in what is probably his best film.
The film, which participated in the last Cannes competition, has a split screen the end of an elderly couple, devastated by Alzheimer's and poor health.
Finally, in the New Directors section, one of the classic sections of the Zinemaldia, the Russian
Nich'ya,
by Lena Lanskih
, triumphed
.
During the presentation of her film last Monday, the new Golden Shell Alice Grigore (Bucharest, 37 years old), who as an actress has worked with Cristi Puiu, said that she herself had left a small town: “The situation remains the same, the girls are forced to go abroad and there is a manipulation by which they are forced to marry, go abroad to work and have children ”. Hence his inspiration for
Crai Nou (Blue Moon).
And about the current successes of female filmmakers, he assured: "I like what is happening at the moment, with filmmakers who are bravely combining very realistic stories with a very different aesthetic expression." The filmmaker is advancing these days in the pre-production of her second feature,
Some Irrelevant Stories about Moms
, which will be in English and starring Melissa Leo.
Record of the 69th edition of the San Sebastián festival
Golden Shell for 'Crai Nou (Blue Moon)', by Alina Grigore.
Special Jury Prize: 'Earwig', by Lucile Hadzihalilovic.
Silver Shell for Best Director: Tea Lindeburg, for 'As in Heaven'.
Best Leading Performance: ex aequo for Flora Ofelia Hofmann LIndahl for 'As in Heaven' and Jessica Chastain for 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye'.
Best Supporting Performance: The cast of 'Who prevents it'.
Best Screenplay: Terence Davies, for 'Benediction'.
Best photography: Claire Mathon, for 'Enquête sur un scandale d'état'.
FIPRESCI Award: 'Who prevents it', by Jonás Trueba.
Audience Award: 'Petit Maman', by Céline Sciamma.
Horizontes Award: 'Noche de fuego', by Tatiana Huezo.
New Directors Award: 'Nich'ya', by Lena Lanskih.
Zabaltegi / Tabakalera Award: 'Vortex', by Gaspar Noé.
