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Stephen Eustace reports on the 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival (18–27 September 2008).

The stars were out in force at the 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain recently, with an interesting mix of films being presented. Robert Downey Jr., Ben Stiller, John Malkovich, Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas and Colin Firth were joined by top directors such as Woody Allen, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jonathan Demme and Pedro Almodóvar for one of the best line-ups of talent for years.

The opening film of the Offical Selection was The Other Man, from Richard Eyre, who previously directed Iris and Notes On a Scandal. Liam Neeson and Laura Linney play the married couple, while Antonio Banderas plays the ‘other man’. Banderas, who was accompanied by his wife Melanie Griffith, was presented with a Donostia Award by the festival ‘in recognition of his career to date’. Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona kicked off the Zabaltegi (open section) and Allen was joined by two of his stars, Oscar®-winner Javier Bardem and British newcomer Rebecca Hall.

Having premiered in Dublin, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was given its first international screening at San Sebastián with John Boyne, the Dublin writer of the book, teaming up with the film’s director/screenwriter, Mark Herman and its stars David Thewlis and Vera Farmiga to promote it. Interestingly, fans cheered for Boyne, rather than the film’s stars. The book was of course a huge best seller in Spain.

Also of Irish interest was Steve McQueen’s Hunger, which screened in the Pearls section, with Michael Fassbender and Liam Cunningham arriving to represent the film. Hunger competed for the Youth Award and it had the highest score throughout the festival before being pipped at the post by the 28th and final film in the category, Amorosa soledad from Argentina.

Oscar®-winning director Jonathan Demme was clearly the busiest man at the festival, being chairman of the official jury, as well as presenting two of his own projects, Rachel Getting Married, with Anne Hathaway and his work-in-progress documentary, Neil Young Trunk Show: Scenes from a Concert. He was also called on to present Meryl Streep with her Donostia Award, having directed her in The Manchurian Candidate.

Demme’s fellow jury members included German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and Japanese director, writer and actor Masato Harada. They shared out the prizes well, giving the Golden Shell award for best film to the Turkish film Pandora’s Box from director Yesim Ustaoglu (Journey to the Sun), the Silver Shell award for best director to Michael Winterbottom for Genova and Samira Makhmalbaf received the Special Jury Prize for Two-Legged Horse.

The Best Actress award was shared by Melissa Leo (Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River) and Tsilla Chelton (Pandora’s Box), while Oscar Martínez picked up the Best Actor award for El nido vacío (The Empty Nest). El nido vacío also won the prize for photography, with the screenplay award going to Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern, the writing/directing partnership behind the French film Louise Michel.

Joan Chen chaired the Altadis-New Directors Award Jury and it was a win for China, with Cao Baoping coming out tops for his striking The Equation of Love and Death.

The critics went for Jaime Rosales’ Spanish film Bullet in the Head, (winning the FIPRESCI Award) having had its world premiere in the official selection. FIPRESCI also presented their Grand Prix award for best film of the year annually at San Sebastian and the deserving winner this year was There Will Be Blood with director Paul Thomas Anderson on hand to pick up the prize at the closing ceremony.

John Malkovich attended the festival to represent Burn After Reading, which went on to win the Audience Award for the Coen brothers. Finally, the festival had three fantastic retrospectives, honouring the work of Mario Monicelli, Terence Davies and Japanese film noir.

Stephen Eustace is a member of The Picture House Film Society in Wexford.
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