Documentary about bullfighting violence wins San Sebastian’s Golden Shell

According to afsanehezendegimedia , citing Variety, “Lonely Afternoons” by Spanish director Albert Serra, a serious examination of contemporary bullfighting and the only documentary in the main competition section of this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, won the Golden Shell for best film at the festival

“Lonely Afternoons,” centered on André Rey Roca, a famous Peruvian bullfighter who explicitly depicts the violence of these games, was screened at the festival despite opposition from the Spanish Animal Rights Party, which demanded the film be removed from the festival, to showcase the horror, absurdity, and spectacle of the game

The film will have its international premiere next week at the New York Film Festival

The festival’s Special Jury Prize, which is usually given to a filmmaker, was this time awarded to the entire cast of “The Last Showgirl,” a moving film about a veteran dancer searching for a new direction in her life

The official acting awards, not divided by gender, went to Spanish star Patricia López Arneiz for “The Shining” and French comic actor Pierre Loutin for his role as a former rural conman in François Ozon’s psychological drama “When Autumn Comes.” Ozon and Philippe Piazzo also won the festival’s best screenplay

The Best Director award was also shared for the first time by two filmmakers: Portuguese director Laura Carreira for “Falling” about a migrant warehouse worker in Scotland, and Spaniard Pedro Martin-Calero for “The Devil,” a conceptual horror film

In the New Directors Competition, which is awarded to a director’s first film, the jury considered Swiss director Pete Baumgartner worthy of the top prize for his film “Triangle of Sorrow”

Georgian director Dea Kolombashvili, who won the Golden Shell four years ago with her first film “The Beginning,” won the top prize in the Avant-Garde and Experimental Works competition section for her second film, “April,” and Argentine filmmaker Luis Ortega’s comedy “Killing a Jockey” won an award in the Latin Horizons section of the festival

The Audience Award, voted by the public, went to Emmanuel Corcol’s French film “The Marching Band,” about lost brothers whose love of music brings them together again. Another Audience Award for Best European Film went to Mohammed Rasoulof’s “The Fig Seed of the Temples,” which has been nominated by Germany for the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category

The 72nd edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival began on September 20 and ended last night (September 28) with the announcement of the winners