Every year, Spain’s San Sebastian International Film Festival is a must on the international festival circuit! At the fest’s upcoming 67th edition, which takes place from September 20 to 28, 2019, Canada’s got three features in the spotlight (including the festival’s official Closing Night Film) plus a special award for Canadian icon Donald Sutherland!
Competing in San Sebastian’s Official Selection is Louise Archambault’s Il pleuvait des oiseaux (And the Birds Rained Down). After making its world premiere at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival, this tale set in the forest where three elderly people live, will also head to the Vancouver International Film Festival and the Festival de cinéma de la Ville de Québec.
Closing the festival this year is Canadian director François Girard’s The Song of Names (starring Clive Owen and Tim Roth, with a cast that also features Catherine McCormack). After premiering at TIFF, this Canada-Hungary coproduction will head over to Spain for this special presentation! The story begins during the second World War, when a young violinist goes missing, and many years later, his friend tries to find him.
Also in competition in San Sebastian, this time in the running for the fest’s Abaltegi-Tabakalera prize, is Denis Côté’s Repertoire des villes disparues (Ghost Town Anthology), which had its world premiere at the Berlinale. Set in a small town in rural Quebec, after a young man dies in a car accident, local citizens start noticing some very strange things.
And finally, some very exciting news for Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, who has been chosen by the festival to receive this year’s prestigious Donostia Award, honouring his five decades of performing, from M.A.S.H. to The Hunger Games, and so much more. The Donostia Award will be presented on September 26, 2019 at a gala followed by a showing of Giuseppe Capontondi’s The Burnt Orange Hersey, in which Sutherland stars (as does Mick Jagger).
As outlined in the festival announcement, Sutherland has also been honoured here at home over the years; just this summer, he became a companion of the Order of Canada, among his many other distinguished accolades and awards, including an honorary Oscar in 2017. (Showing no signs of slowing down, Sutherland will appear in David E. Kelley’s upcoming HBO series The Undoing, with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.)
Looks like Canada will be making a splash in Spain this fall!
