Jeremy Irons, David Puttnam Join Sevilla European Film Festival Jury (EXCLUSIVE)

As a seasoned cinephile who has traveled far and wide across the globe in search of the most captivating films, I am beyond thrilled about this year’s Sevilla European Film Festival! With an impressive lineup featuring some of the most acclaimed filmmakers from Europe, it promises to be a cinematic extravaganza that will leave me spellbound.

This November 8th to 16th marks the 21st Sevilla European Film Festival. We at EbMaster have been privileged with an early peek at this year’s competition juries, responsible for selecting the recipients of the Gold and Silver Giraldillos, as well as the special judges’ prize and a fresh addition, the Puerta América Award.

Sevilla focuses on showcasing modern European cinema, offering a platform in southern Spain for interactions between emerging artists and established industry professionals. Additionally, it provides a venue for exploring innovative new media as a means of cinematic expression.

This year’s principal competition section has jurors such as the British producer David Puttnam, who will lead the jury, the Academy Award-winning British actor Jeremy Irons, Paola Malanga, artistic director of Rome Film Fest, Eva Rekettyei from France who is a programmer, and Mounia Meddour, a French-Algerian director known for her film “Papicha”.

Today, Sevilla unveiled information about its freshly introduced Puerta América Award, which goes to one of the 16 European films chosen to represent their respective countries in the global Film Oscar competition. These films are slated to be screened in Sevilla as part of this prestigious race.

As stated by festival director Manuel Cristóbal, the intention behind the introduction of this new award is twofold: firstly, to propel Sevilla as a launchpad for the most outstanding European films in the Academy Awards; secondly, to provide a broad perspective on modern filmmaking across Europe.

For the inaugural Puerta América prize, jurors are Oscar-winning Austrian film producer Josef Aicholzer (“The Counterfeiters”), author Nico Casariego (“Society of the Snow”), and scholar Pascalle Dillemann. (In this paraphrase, I’ve attempted to make the sentence more conversational and easy to understand while maintaining the original meaning.)

Nine hopefuls for the Puerta América competition will be showcased in Seville’s EFA section, which highlights films under consideration for the upcoming European Film Awards. Meanwhile, the remaining seven contenders can be found dispersed across the festival’s various other categories.

16 films are competing for the first Puerta América Award, including “Flow” from Latvia’s Gints Zilbalodis (the winner of Annecy), “The Girl With the Needle” from Magnus von Horn in Denmark, “Julie Keeps Quiet” by Leonardo Van Dijl in Belgium, “The Antique” from Rusudan Glurjidze that almost didn’t make it to Venice, and “Santosh” from Sandhya Suri representing the U.K.

A number of competitors from Puerta América clinched prestigious accolades at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Portugal’s “Grand Tour,” directed by Miguel Gomes, earned a director award. France’s “Emilia Pérez” was honored with the best actress prize. Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig Tree” took home the Grand Jury prize. Lastly, Romania’s “Three Kilometers to the End of the World” was awarded the Queer Palm.

At this year’s Oscar competition, there are other notable contenders such as “Armand” from Ingmar Berman and Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (Norway), “Waves” by Jiří Mádl (Czech Republic), the Venice Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize winner, “Vermiglio,” directed by Maura Delpero (Italy), “Semmelweis” from Lajos Koltai (Hungary), and “Saturn Return” helmed by Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez (Spain).

2024-10-11 12:19

Jeremy Irons, David Puttnam Join Sevilla European Film Festival Jury (EXCLUSIVE)

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