SPAIN’S San Sebastian Film Festival unveiled its first six competition titles for its 68th edition, including movies from Naomi Kawase, François Ozon and Thomas Vinterberg.

Most of the movies are from the Cannes Film Festival’s “Cannes 2020” selection, which is made up of films that carry the Cannes brand to the screen at other events around the world.

San Sebastian organizers said on Friday that their competition will include “True Mothers,” about the confrontation between two mothers, one biological and the other adoptive, from Japan’s Kawase, who has been a regular at the fest, while François Ozon, who won the fest’s Golden Shell award for 2012’s “In the House,” will screen “Summer of 85,” a tale of teen loves impregnated with ‘80s nostalgia.

Danish director Vinterberg’s “Another Round,” about teachers who believe that if they maintain a constant level of inebriation throughout the working day, they will open their minds and increase their creativity, will have its European premiere at the Spanish festival.

Also competing for the Golden Shell will be Lithuanian director Sharunas Bartas’ “In the Dusk,” portraying the struggle of the partisan movement against the Soviet occupation of Lithuania after World War II, and Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s feature debut “Beginning.” The film is about harassment suffered by a Jehovah’s witness and her family at the hands of an extremist group and the police in their remote town.

San Sebastian will also world premiere the second feature by Japan’s Takuma Sato, “Any Crybabies Around?,” about a man caught on TV cameras running through the streets drunk and naked on New Year’s Eve. That film is not part of the Cannes 2020 selection.

In the coming weeks, the San Sebastian festival will unveil further titles for its 68th edition. Organizers previously said that the world premiere of Woody Allen’s latest, “Rifkin’s Festival,” will open it, out of competition.

The film, produced by The Mediapro Studio, Gravier Productions and Wildside, was shot last summer in San Sebastian and other nearby towns. The movie tells the story of a married American couple who go to the San Sebastian festival and “get caught up in the magic of the event, the beauty and charm of the city and the fantasy of movies.”

After the easing of coronavirus pandemic restrictions in Spain, San Sebastian has “ruled out both canceling the event and organizing a standard edition” of its festival.

Set to run Sept. 18-26, the event will be designed to be “in recognizable format, safe for the public, the film industry and the media,” organizers said Friday. That will include a 30 percent reduction in the number of screenings, the move of some activities online and other changes.

(SD-Agencies)