Overview
- The festival announced a 14-film New Directors slate that gathers first- and second-time feature directors from Europe, Asia and the Americas and names Jaime Lorente’s The Bad Son as the section opener and Billy Lumby’s Florid as the closer.
- The Bad Son follows 11-year-old Ruben moving in with his grandmother after his father’s unexplained disappearance and explores how family trauma passes between generations without revealing plot twists.
- Florid centers on a young musician who struggles to manage mental health, medication and drug use while pursuing his musical ambitions, marking Billy Lumby’s move from acclaimed shorts to a full-length debut.
- Other notable entries include Naëmi Ada’s Body of Glass, Rodrigo García Saiz’s Morro, Marlene Emilie Lyngstad’s Cute, Kazuya Murayama’s The Ballet Lesson, Ayana Nurdinova’s Mugalim and Massih Parsaei’s Lovers Sleep Alone.
- San Sebastian’s 74th edition runs Sep. 18–26 and the New Directors section sits inside a wider program that can boost festival exposure, press attention and sales interest for emerging filmmakers seeking distribution and festival momentum.