2004 San Sebastián Film Festival Award Winners

Shot a mere month after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles Can Fly won the Golden Shell at the 52nd edition of the San Sebastián Film Festival.
According to Reuters, Peruvian author and chairman of the jury Mario Vargas Llosa stated that although the decision was not unanimous, Turtles Can Fly had "moved us all, not only because of the terrible conditions in which it was filmed, but also because … despite the tragedy which it recounts, it is filled with humanity, poetry and even humor."
Set in Iraq’s Kurdistan right before the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion of that country, Turtles Can Fly tells the story of several Iraqi villagers who struggle to set up a [...]

San Sebastián Film Festival 2004

This year, the San Sebastián Film Festival will present a retrospective dedicated to Woody Allen, whose Melinda and Melinda (above, with Will Ferrell and Radha Mitchell) will have its world premiere on opening night. American actors Jeff Bridges and Annette Bening, for their part, will be honored with lifetime achievement awards.
The festival, which takes place on Spain’s Basque coast, is currently being used as a launching pad for movies made in Latin America via its fifteen-film sidebar Horizontes Latinos.
The 52nd edition of the San Sebastián Film Festival kicks off on September 17; nine days later, a jury headed by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa will give out the Golden Shell to one [...]