San Sebastián It's too early to say for sure which film will pick up this year's Concha de Oro (Golden Shell), but the feeling around the Maria Cristina is that the quality has not been up to 1995's standards. We're still waiting for the big one. Rafelson's Blood and Wine was better than people thought, but not good enough. Trojan Eddie came and went, in too low key a way to make the necessary impact.
The two biggest Spanish contributions, Saura's Taxi and Miro's Tu nombre envenena mis sueños, were placed early in the running order, but have disappointed though both are redeemed by strong performances, and Emma Suárez (Tu nombre) is San Sebastián 96's featured actress. Pre-screening buzz on Eduardo Mignogna's Sol de Otoño and Zhou Xiaowen's The Emperor's Shadow is positive.
But for best film, it's Ted Demme's Beautiful Girls which is on most commentator's lips as having all the right production ingredients to make a festival killing. If a Spanish film has to come through in the last 10 years only 1992 is on record as having made no awards at all to Spanish films then it is likely to be Gracia Querejeta's Robert Ryland's Last Journey. As MPI goes to press, it has not yet been shown, though it will probably have to be awarded best director. Like Francisco J Lombardi's Bajo la piel, Rylands is likely to win, in the words of one wary insider, 'something'.
Imanol Uribe is unlikely to repeat his 1994 Días contados success with Bwana, where the subject matter is likely to impress Spanish jury members more than foreigners.
Jonathan Holland
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