Two Pianos by Arnaud Desplechin, Agnieszka Holland’s Franz and Alice Winocour’s Couture are among five international titles added to the competition lineup for this year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF, September 19-27).
Desplechin’s Two Pianos is about a virtuoso pianist who returns to his home in Lyon after a long absence and stars François Civil, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot. Desplechin last attended San Sebastian in 2024 with Filmlovers! in the Zabaltegi-Tabakera section.
Franz is Agnieszka Holland’s take on the life and work of Franz Kafka, played by Idan Weiss. Holland has appeared multiple times at the festival and won the Golden Shell in 1995 with Total Eclipse.
Alice Winocour returns with Couture, starring Angelina Jolie and Louis Garrel and set in the fashion world. She won the special jury prize with Proxima in 2019.
Directing duo Kentaro Hirase and Yutaro Seki, who premiered Roleless in New Directors in 2022, will also compete with Sai: Disaster. Teruyuki Kagawa stars as a mysterious man who enters the lives of a number of people under different identities.
The final new title is Swiss-Argentinian production The Currents by Milagros Mumenthaler and starring Isabel Aimé González Sola as a woman confronting a past she thought she had left behind.
The films join four previously announced Spanish productions in competition: Maspalomas by Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi; José Luis Guerin’s Good Valley Stories; Los Tigres by Alberto Rodríguez, and Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Sundays.
Official selection – in competition
Couture (Fr-US)
Dir. Alice Winocour
Franz (Czech Republic-Ger-Pol)
Dir. Agnieszka Holland (Poland)
Sai: Disaster (Japan)
Dir. Yutaro Seki, Kentaro Hirase
The Currents (Switzerland-Argentina)
Dir. Milagros Mumenthaler
Two Pianos (Fr)
Dir. Arnaud Desplechin