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The San Sebastian International Film Festival has unveiled a high-profile wave of new titles for its 73rd edition, running from September 19 to 27 in northern Spain. Among the standout additions to the official competition lineup are Couture, a fashion world drama starring Angelina Jolie, and Franz, a Franz Kafka biopic directed by acclaimed Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland.
Alice Winocour, who previously won the Special Jury Prize at San Sebastian in 2019 for Proxima, returns to the competition with Couture, her fifth feature. This French-American co-production stars Jolie alongside Louis Garrel. Set in the high-stakes world of fashion, the film is expected to bring both star power and stylistic flair to the festival.
Joining the competition for the first time is veteran French director Arnaud Desplechin with Two Pianos. The film centers on a virtuoso pianist who returns to his hometown of Lyon and becomes entangled in a tale of impossible love. The cast includes François Civil, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling, and Hippolyte Girardot, signaling a rich character-driven drama with emotional depth.
From Japan, the directing team of Kentaro Hirase and Yutaro Seki — known for co-directing 2022’s Roleless with Masahiko Sato — will present their second feature, Sai. Actor Teruyuki Kagawa stars in the darkly atmospheric narrative, which follows a mysterious man who enters the lives of several people under various identities, unraveling tragedy along the way.
Agnieszka Holland, no stranger to San Sebastian, brings Franz, her latest project centered on the enigmatic life of writer Franz Kafka. With her track record of politically and psychologically nuanced films, expectations are high for this biographical drama.
Argentine-Swiss filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler also enters the official selection with The Currents. Her third feature stars Isabel Aimé González Sola as a woman forced to confront a past she believed was long buried. This Swiss-Argentine co-production adds a layer of personal and emotional introspection to the festival’s offerings.
These international features join four Spanish films already announced in the competition: Maspalomas by Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi; Good Valley Stories by José Luis Guerin; Los Tigres by Alberto Rodríguez; and Sundays by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa. More titles are expected to be revealed in the coming weeks, rounding out a diverse and globally representative program for one of Europe’s most prestigious film festivals.
