San Sebastián, Spain, native Jaione Camborda took the top prize, the Golden Shell for best film, at the 71st San Sebastián Film Festival, for her The Rye Horn, a 1970s-set drama about a midwife forced to flee Galicia, Spain, to Portugal when, after a tragedy strikes, a teenage mother asked her for an abortion.
The audience award for best film went to J.A. Bayona’s Netflix real-life survival thriller Society of the Snow, while San Sebastián viewers voted Matteo Garrone’s migration drama Io Capitano the best European film at the festival. Both Society of the Snow and Io Capitano are in the running for the 2024 Oscar in the best international feature category.
The best performance award went to both Marcelo Subiotto for his performance as a philosophy teacher at the University of Buenos Aires battling a bitter rival over a professorship position in the dramedy Puan and Tatsuya Fuji as a father reconciling with his estranged son in Great Absence. María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat also took the best screenplay award for their script to Puan.
The Silver Shell for best supporting performance went to Hovik Keuchkerian for his performance in Isabel Coixet’s Un amor.
The Silver Shell for best director went to Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang for A Journey in Spring, a Taiwanese drama about a lonely widower who keeps his dead wife in the freezer in an attempt to hold onto their love into eternity.
See the full list of 2023 San Sebastián winners below.
Golden Shell For Best Film
The Rye Horn, dir. Jaione Camborda (Spain)
Special Jury Prize
Kalak, dir. Isabella Eklöf (Sweden)
Silver Shell For Best Director
Tzu-Hui Peng, Ping-Wen Wang for A Journey In Spring (Taiwan)
Silver Shell For Best Leading Performance
Marcelo Subiotto for Puan (Argentina)
and
Tatsuya Fujo for Great Absence (Japan)
Silver Shell For Best Supporting Performance
Hovik Keuchkerian for Un Amor (Lebanon)
Jury Prize For Best Screenplay
María Alché, Benjamín Naishtat for Puan (Argentina)
Jury Prize For Best Cinematography
Nadim Carlsen for Kalak (Denmark)
New Directors Award
Diwah Shah for Bahadur The Brave (India)
Horizontes Award
Martín Benchimol for The Castle (Argentina)
Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award
Eduardo Williams for The Human Surge 3 (Argentina)
Special Mention: Ulises de la Orden for The Trial (Argentina)
City Of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award
Society Of The Snow, dir. J.A. Bayona (Spain)
City Of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award For Best European Film
Io Capitano, dir. Matteo Garrone (Italy)
