'O corno / The Rye Horn' lands the Golden Shell at San Sebastian Festival's 71st edition

The feature film  "O corno / The Rye Horn"  (Spain-Portugal-Belgium), directed by Jaione Camborda from San Sebastian, carried off the Golden Shell at San Sebastian Festival's 71st edition.

In addition, the official jury decided to give the Silver Shell for Best Director to Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang for Chun xing / A Journey in Spring (Taiwan), while the Best Screenplay Award went to María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat for Puan (Argentina-Italy-Germany-France-Brazil), the film helmed by both.

The Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance fell ex aequo upon Marcelo Subiotto and Tatsuya Fuji for their respective roles in Puan, by Alché and Naishtat, and Great Absence (Japan), by Kei Chika-ura, while the Silver Shell for Best Supporting Performance went to Hovik Keuchkerian for his character in Un amor (Spain), by Isabel Coixet. Directed by Isabella Eklöf, Kalak (Denmark-Sweden-Norway-Finland-Greenland-Netherlands) harvested both the Best Cinematography Award for Nadim Carlsen and the Special Jury Prize "because it takes us into a world we knew absolutely nothing about with surprising and empathetic performances, and with a way of showing the country, its conflicts and its hidden beauty through true cinematographic art".

For the fourth year running, the Golden Shell has been garnered by a woman after Dasatskisi / Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili, 2020), Crai nou / Blue Moon (Alina Grigore, 2021) and Los reyes del mundo / The Kings of the World (Laura Mora, 2022). Furthermore, O Corno / The Rye Horn is the first film coming from the Ikusmira Berriak programme, co-organised by the San Sebastian Festival, Tabakalera and the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE), to win the top accolade in the Official Selection.

The list of winners includes a feature debut (Chun xing / A Journey in Spring) and three second movies (O corno, Great Absence and Kalak).

The official jury responsible for deciding these awards was presided by the filmmaker Claire Denis alongside the actress Fan Bingbing, the producer Cristina Gallego, the photographer Brigitte Lacombe, the producer Robert Lantos, the actress Vicky Luengo and the director Christian Petzold.

The gala was followed by the world premiere of Dance First (UK-Hungary-Belgium), the new movie by James Marsh, who came to San Sebastian with Gabriel Byrne, Sandrine Bonnaire, Aidan Guillen, Fionn O'Shea and Leonie Lojkine.