Filmmakers from Bulgaria, Chile, Germany, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the U.K. and Ukraine will present their first and second feature films in the New Directors lineup at this year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival.

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The Bad Son, the debut feature film from Money Heist star Jaime Lorente, will open the section, while Florid from British director Billy Lumby is set to close it. The fourteen titles will compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award at San Sebastian’s 74th edition, running from Sep. 18-26.

Lorente’s The Bad Son focuses on 11-year-old Ruben, who has to move in with his grandmother when his father mysteriously disappears. In a rural setting where time seems to have stood still, Ruben will learn that family wounds are passed down from one generation to another and will try to find a way to heal them as he grows.

Florid, meanwhile, from Lumby, follows a young man struggling to balance his mental health issues, medication and drugs with his musical ambitions. The filmmaker and screenwriter takes to the full-length format after having gaining recognition for his short films Suspended Animation (2009), Gold View (2012) and Samuel-613 (2015), for which he received a BAFTA nomination.

Elsewhere, Naëmi Ada will screen Body of Glass, the tale of a young dancer who lives a parallel life after a violent incident with her manipulative partner. Prior to studying film and directing short and experimental works, the German filmmaker trained in contemporary dance.

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Having shown his 2023 debut Rain at several festivals including Malaga, Miami, Morelia, Havana and Los Angeles, Mexican director Rodrigo García Saiz will compete with Morroin San Sebastian. His second film is set in a small Mexico town, where, following the death of his son, a vet heals the dog of a local capo.

A host of emerging talent rounds out the rest of the selection, including Cute from Norwegian filmmaker Marlene Emilie Lyngstad, The Ballet Lesson from Japanese director Kazuya Murayama, as well as Mugalim from young Kazakh filmmaker Ayana Nurdinova and Iran’s Massih Parsaei, who is presenting Lovers Sleep Alone. You can find the rest of the New Directors lineup here.

The film festival in northern Spain has promised another stirring competition selection, too, with movies from Mike Leigh, Pablo Larrain and Benjamín Naishtat.

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