Authors — Amber Wilkinson
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In the Sun by the Sea: The San Sebastian Film Festival
With the late summer and autumn film festival calendar almost an embarrassment of riches — from the traditional splendor of Venice to the ever-expanding line-up in Toronto — filmmakers can be faced with a tricky choice of where to go. They will find plenty of reasons to pick Spain’s San Sebastian, which often screens films in a quick turnaround after their premieres in Toronto helping to consolidate their appeal, and offers a wealth of cash awards, including a €50,000 ($56,000) purse for the New Directors winner, a €35,000 ($39,000) prize for a Latin-American film in the Horizontes Latinos strand and the €50,000 […]
by Amber Wilkinson on Oct 5, 2015 -
Pintxos and Co-Production Forums: The 62nd San Sebastián International Film Festival
If ever there was a city that embraced variety, San Sebastián is surely it. From its wide boulevards and art nouveau buildings, where Spanish royalty took time off in the 19th century, to its Bay of Biscay beaches that see surfers mixing with families and the higgledy-piggledy Old Town, where every bar is groaning under the weight of creative canapes (pintxos), this is a town that celebrates its own strengths while still being open to adventure. The same could be said of its film festival, which just celebrated its 62nd year and fourth edition under the directorship of José Luis […]
by Amber Wilkinson on Oct 1, 2014 -
San Sebastian Critics Notebook: Embracing 3D
The debate about the use and popularity of 3D in cinemas may be raging on but the San Sebastián International Film Festival has certainly embraced the format this year – and proved that content is the key to success. The Spanish festival opened with Juan José Campanella’s 3D animated family delight Foosball (Metegol), a comedy adventure which sees a soccer table champ take on a egotistical star with the help of his table-top team. The line-up also featured Alfonso Cuaron’s breathtakingly immersive space thriller Gravity midweek and closed with Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s endlessly inventive The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet. Jeunet’s film is an adaptation of the book by Reif […]
by Amber Wilkinson on Sep 29, 2013 -
San Sebastian Critics Notebook: The Perils of Human Relationships
At almost the midway point of the 61st edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, relationships have been high on the agenda in the competitive Official Selection, from the pushmi-pullyu problems of a middle-aged marriage in Le Week-End to an unhinged battle between the sexes in Álex de la Iglesia’s Witching and Bitching (Las Brujas de Zugarramundi) and the neat and sweet triumvirate of friendship that crops up in David Trueba’s Living is Easy with Eyes Closed (Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados). Relationships are also crucial to the festival itself and many others as they fight for films […]
by Amber Wilkinson on Sep 24, 2013 -
San Sebastian Critic’s Notebook #2
As the San Sebastian Film Festival drew to a close, there was — as there should be with festivals that want to thrive — a sense of honoring the past and looking to the future. The week had been studded with Hollywood star appearances, from Ewan McGregor becoming the youngest ever actor to win a Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award to 75-year-old Dustin Hoffman tearfully collecting his Donostia on Saturday. Thanking the festival for honoring the art form of cinema, he told the packed Kursaal auditorium: “The feeling that you gave me is as important as the award.” But there was […]
by Amber Wilkinson on Oct 1, 2012 -
San Sebastian Critic’s Notebook #1
San Sebastian is celebrating six decades in the film festival business with the insistence that “60 years is nothing.” In their welcome guide this year, the organizers say: “As far as a film festival is concerned, 60 years shouldn’t be concealed with facelifts, but should be flaunted proudly.” There’s little doubt that the ever-increasing leviathan that is the Toronto International Film Festival is having an effect on any festival close to its dates — and San Sebastian follows hot on its heels. But José Luis Rebordinos’s second edition as director shows this Basque country old lady has plenty of life […]
by Amber Wilkinson on Sep 24, 2012
