SSIFF Honors to Brooks, McKellen and Uribe

Actor Ian McKellen, UK, and director Imanol Uribe, Spain, each received special awards yesterday at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. In addition, the Festival is honoring the late American writer / director Richard Brooks with a retrospective of his movies.

Sir Ian McKellen, 71, has left a lasting impression on millions with his diverse roles in movies such as THE DA VINCI CODE, THE LORD OF THE RINGS series, RICHARD III, KING LEAR and HAMLET, both in the movies and on television. He was the guest of honor at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, which honored him with the Donastia Award for years of exceptional work in Movies.

The date also signified McKellen's 40-year relationship with the Hollywood film industry. He received the Festival's Silver Shell (la Concha de Plata) for Best Actor in the 1998 movie, GODS AND MONSTERS, directed by James Whale.

What many do not know is that this diverse actor is a trained Shakespearean actor who originated the role of Antonio Salieri in the Broadway production of 'Amadeus,' has hosted 'Saturday Night Live,' and appeared in the original X-MEN. He was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in 1990 for his services to drama. He has been twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor but, alas, both alluded him.

In 1986, the Festival created the Donostia Award, to be given to a great film personality in recognition for their work and career. That year, the first one was awarded to Gregory Peck, and the honorees who have followed have been very diverse beginning with Peck to this year's honoree, Ian McKellen and last year's honoree, Meryl Streep. See all honorees.

Also on Wednesday, director Imanol Uribe received the Zinemira Award at the Basque Film Gala. Uribe was born in San Salvador (1950), but is of Spanish heritage and was raised in Madrid. After the death of dictator Francisco Franco, the Basque cinema could come forward, and it did with a vengeance in the late 1970's. The film that mostly facilitated the rise of the New Basque Cinema was written and directed by Uribe, THE BURGOS TRIAL (El proceso de Burgos). In 1979, the movie was awarded the Pearl of the Cantabrian Award for Best Film in the Spanish Language at San Sebastián.

He went on to make movies honored around the world such as, ESCAPE FROM SEGOVIA, (La fuga de Segovia, 1981), MIKEL'S DEATH (La muerte de Mikel), both films also related to the political situation of the time. Then, he turned his attention to other genres resulting in fine contemporary Spanish movies such as, BILBAO BLUES, (Adiós pequeña, 1986), THE DUMBFOUNDED KING (El rey pasmad, 1991), and two movies for which he landed the Golden Shell at San Sebastián Festival, Días contados (1994) and Bwana (1996).

The late American filmmaker Richard Brooks (1912 - 1991) is being honored by the Festival with a Richard Brooks Retrospective. Thirty movies, either written or directed by Brooks are being shown during the Festival, and their dates span the years from 1944 to 1985.

The movies of Richard Brooks, dubbed into Spanish of course, were very popular in Spain. Dubbed American movies, always older than those being shown elsewhere, were staples in the movie theaters and shown on television during era of dictator Franco. There was a complete industry in Spain devoted to dubbing movies from any language other than Spanish into Spanish, altering the content and dialogue at the same time in order to please Franco's censors.

When I first went to Spain, most people I met there knew more about American movies and movie stars than did I, even though I was practically raised in a movie theater in the American heartland. I wanted to know about films made in Spain and they did not want to talk about then, many saying they did not even go to see Spanish movies because they were mostly propaganda tools for, or against Franco.

To my dear friends in Spain, I wish I could be there this year to enjoy this Richard Brooks Retrospective with you, and here is the list (see more about them here):

COBRA WOMAN ( USA, 1944 )

BRUTE FORCE ( USA, 1947 )

CROSSFIRE ( USA, 1947 )

TO THE VICTOR ( USA, 1948 )

KEY LARGO ( USA, 1948 )

CRISIS ( USA, 1950 )

THE LIGHT TOUCH ( USA, 1951 )

DEADLINE-U.S.A. ( USA, 1952 )

BATTLE CIRCUS ( USA, 1953 )

TAKE THE HIGH GROUND! ( USA, 1953 )

FLAME AND THE FLESH ( USA, 1954 )

THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS ( USA, 1954 )

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE ( USA, 1955 )

THE LAST HUNT ( USA, 1956 )

THE CATERED AFFAIR ( USA, 1956 )

SOMETHING OF VALUE ( USA, 1957 )

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV ( USA, 1958 )

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF ( USA, 1958 )

ELMER GANTRY ( USA, 1960 )

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH ( USA, 1962 )

LORD JIM ( USA, 1965 )

THE PROFESSIONALS ( USA, 1966 )

IN COLD BLOOD ( USA, 1967 )

THE HAPPY ENDING ( USA, 1969 )

$ (DOLLARS) ( USA, 1971 )

BITE THE BULLET ( USA, 1975 )

LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR ( USA, 1977 )

WRONG IS RIGHT ( USA, 1982 )

FEVER PITCH ( USA, 1985)

San Sebastián IFF Opens Friday

The 57th San Sebastián International Film Festival (the Zinemaldia) opens this Friday, 18 September, in San Sebastián, Spain. Renault, once again, will provide the official cars for the Festival.

Tickets went on sale Sunday and a total of 46,455 tickets were sold as compared to 37, 579 last year. Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, WATEVER WORKS and PRECIOUS were the first to sell out, the Tarantino movie within seven minutes.

This year's Festival will include a total of 202 films. The competitive sections are as follows: 17 films in the Official Selection, 14 in Zabaltegi-New Directors, 15 in Zabaltegi-Pearls and 13 in Horizontes Latinos. Made in Spain will offer 15 titles and Zinemira-Basque Film Showcase another 9, plus a short retrospective. The Zabaltegi-Specials has a recent addition of Hana Makhmalbaf’s GREEN DAYS.

The 57th Edition will offer 27 world premieres, 5 international premieres and 12 European premieres. The Selection Committee viewed a total of 1,819 films, compared to the 1,696 in 2008, in order to choose the titles presented in the different sections.

Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried star in the opening movie, CHLOE, which is almost sold out for the largest venue, the Kursaal Auditorium. As of now, there are still tickets available in the smaller venues for opening night.

Only a few tickets remain for the Cannes Festival winner, THE WHITE RIBBON (Das Weisse Band), also winner of this Festival's FIPRESCI Grand Prix. Same for THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS and SIN NOMBRE, all three expected to be among the most popular movies screening at the Festival.

Sir Ian McKellen will receive the Donastia Award on the 23rd. Cultivated in the Shakespeare classics, the British actor achieved worldwide fame in THE LORD OF THE RINGS and X-MEN. He won the Festival's Silver Shell for Best Actor in 1998 for GODS AND MONSTERS.

The Antonio Elorza Velodrome has been converted into an enormous 3-D cinema for screening the Spanish premiere of BATTLE FOR TERRA, OCEANWORLD, THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS and the 3-D version of TOY STORY. Almost 3,000 viewers at each screening will be able to enjoy the experience of watching films in three dimension as part of an enormous audience and before a giant screen.

Canadian director Atom Egoyan and producer Ivan Reitman will present their film CHLOE at the Festival opening gala. Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz will also present INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, the opening movie of the Zabaltegi-Pearls section, on the first day of the Festival at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre.

At the closing gala in the Kursaal, on Saturday, 26th, the director Rodrigo García, together with actresses Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington, are expected to present MOTHER AND CHILD, bringing the 57th edition to a close.

French director Laurent Cantet will chair the Official Jury. He will be accompanied by Mexican actor Daniel Giménez Cacho, Korean director Bong Joon-ho, Spanish actress Pilar López de Ayala, British director John Madden, Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf and the Portuguese actress Leonor Silveira.

Some of the glitterati expected to attend the festival, other than those mentioned above are: Ang Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam, Michael Winterbottom, François Ozon, Tom DiCillo, Jacques Audiard, Johnnie To, Bahman Gobhadi, Lee Daniels, Olivier Hirschbiegel, Christophe Honoré, Juan José Campanella, Matthias Glasner, Fernando Trueba, Isaki Lacuesta, Javier Rebollo, Nicolas Klotz, Jalil Lespert. Robert Duvall, Chiara Mastroianni, Miranda Otto, Brenda Blethyn, Ricardo Darín, Carmen Machi, Lola Dueñas and Ariadna Gil.

The International Film School Meeting 24 and 25 September will offer youngsters the chance to present their works. They and their teachers will also comment on them. The showings at the Kutxa Function Hall are open to the public.

Producer and director Lluís Miñarro will chair the jury consisting of students from the participating film schools that will choose the winning film, the director of which will win €10,000 in Panavision filming material for his or her next work, also earning the chance to participate in the Short Film Corner at Cannes. Twelve countries will participate in the Meeting, which includes a Masterclass.

For more see previous posts. For detailed ticket information, click the title of this post to link to the Festival's official Web site.