56th San Sebastian International Film Festival News

Today this fest started in the Basque city and well, I’ll be checking what’s going on everyday and if there is something worth mention I’ll posted. Think that today I’ll post some of the Juries.

Official Selection Jury Members
Jonathan Demme (President), Producer and Director USA
Michael Ballhaus, Cinematographer, Germany
Martina Gusman Urruti, Producer and Actress, Argentina (She’s the producer and star of Pablo Trapero’s Leonera)
Nasato Harada, Director, Writer and Actor, Japan
Nadine Labaki, Director and Actress, Lebanon
Clare Peploe, Director, Tanzania born works in Italy
Leonor Watling, Actress, Spain

New Directors Award
Joan Chen (President), Actress and Director, China and USA
Koldo Almandoz, Producer, Spain
Calmin Borel, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival Delegate, France
Sandra Den Hamer, Director of the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam
Keja Ho Kramer, Video Artist, USA and France
Hitashi Okajima, Chief Curator, National Film Center, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Antonio Santamarina, Manager of the Spanish Film Library Doré Cinema, critic and cinema historian, Spain

I’m impressed and have to comment that this is truly an interesting, interdisciplinary and diverse jury.

Horizontes Award Jury
Mirtha Ibarra (President), Actress, Cuba and Spain
Jorge Goldenberg, Director, Argentina
Luis Miñarro, Producer, Spain

On other news the winner of The FIAF Award was announced and here it is the official announcement with some additional info about this award.

The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) presents the eighth FIAF Award to the worldwide renown Brazilian film director Nelson Pereira dos Santos. The Award will be presented to Mr Nelson Pereira dos Santos by FIAF Vice-President Hisashi Okajima on 25September 2008 in San Sebastian.

The FIAF Awards have been presented to the following personalities: Martin Scorsese (at the New York Film Festival in 2001), Manoel de Oliveira (at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2002), Ingmar Bergman (at the 59th FIAF Congress in Stockholm in 2003), Geraldine Chaplin (at the 61 Mostra del Cinema di Venezia in 2004), Mike Leigh (at the London Film Festival in 2005), Hou Hsiao-hsien (at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei, in 2006) and Peter Bogdanovich (at the International Film Festival in Toronto in 2007). With the presentation of the 2008 FIAF Award to Nelson Pereira dos Santos, the Executive Committee has underlined its willingness to reward a great representative of the Latin American Cinema, and of the Brazilian Cinema Novo.