San Sebastian film festival opens in Spain

Sep 18, 2009, 11:34 GMT

San Sebastian, Spain - The 57th San Sebastian film festival opens Friday in the northern Spanish seaside resort, with a touch of glamour expected despite a reduced budget in times of economic crisis.

The festival opened with the screening of Chloe, a story about infidelity and sexual self-discovery by Canadian director Atom Egoyan, starring Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson.

Fourteen other films will also compete for the Golden Shell, the festival's top award.

Celebrities at the festival include US director Quentin Tarantino, who arrived in San Sebastian late Thursday. Tarantino and actor Brad Pitt are due to present the movie Inglourious Basterds (sic), which is not competing for the Golden Shell.

Naomi Watts, Chiara Mastroianni and Robert Duvall are also expected to add a touch of glamour to the festival seeking to outshine Cannes in quality rather than glitz.

A total of more than 200 films are due to be shown at the popular festival which sold 65,000 tickets in the first four days of sales, organizers said.

The Golden Shell contest had a markedly French flavour, with three movies by French directors included in the official selection.

Hadewijch, by Bruno Dumont, tells the story of a former novice nun who is led off on a dangerous path. The Refuge by Francois Ozon deals with love, drugs and death. Making Plans for Lena, by Christophe Honore, portrays a brave single mother struggling against her family of do-gooders.

Other films in the official selection include French-Turkish- German coproduction 10 to 11, about two lonely men - a collector of nicknacks and a concierge - living in the same building in Istanbul; City of Life and Death by director Lu Chuan, about the Japanese occupation of China's temporary capital; and Get Low, by US director Aaron Schneider, about a man throwing his own funeral party.

Iranian director Mohammed Rasoulof tells the story of a man collecting people's tears in The White Meadows, while South Korea's Jeon Soo-il focuses on a young woman's search for the baby she gave up for adoption in I Came from Busan.

Four entirely Spanish-made films are also on the official selection.

The festival is scheduled to close with the non-competing Mother and Child, a US movie dealing with three women and motherhood by Colombian director Rodrigo Garcia, son of Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

British actor Ian McKellen is due to receive a lifetime achievement award at the festival for his versatile career, which has ranged from Shakespeare classics to his performances in X-Men (2000) and The Lord of the Rings (2001).

The San Sebastian film festival is seeking to oppose its popular character to the elitism of star-studded Cannes, the daily La Vanguardia reported, estimating the number of visitors to the festival at 200,000.

Spain's economic crisis has forced organizers to slash the festival budget by 800,000 euros down to about 6.8 million euros (10 million dollars).

The duration of the festival was also cut from the usual 10 days to only nine, with the closing day set for September 26.