France’s Ozon takes top honors at Spanish film festival

Spanish actress Macarena Garcia, third left, celebrates with Canadian actress Katie Coseni, 2nd left, after receiving the Silver Shell Award for Best Actresses, beside Spanish film director Pablo Berger, second right , next to Spanish film director Javier Rebollo, at the 60th San Sebastian Film Festival, in San Sebastian northern Spain, Saturday Sept. 29, 2012. AP/Alvaro Barrientoc

SAN SEBASTIAN – French director Francois Ozon won the top prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Saturday for his psychological thriller “Dans la maison” (In the House).

Ozon’s film tells the story of the relationship between a world-weary French teacher and a disturbingly gifted student.

It is based on the play “El chico de la ultima fila” (The Guy in the Back Row) by Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga. In addition to the Golden Shell for best film, Ozon also picked up the best screenplay prize.

French film director François Ozon receives the Golden Shell best film award of the San Sebastian International Film Festival for his film “Dans la Maison” on September 29, 2012, in the Northern Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian. AFP / RAFA RIVAS

Warm applause greeted the announcement of his wins at the awards ceremony.

The prize for best director went to Spain’s Fernando Trueba for “El artista y la modelo” (The Artist and the Model), a drama set in Nazi-occupied France during WWII.

Shot in black and white, it tells the story of the relationship between an aging French sculptor and a Spanish girl fleeing Franco’s Spain. The international cast includes Italy’s Claudia Cardinale and France’s Jean Rochefort.

In speeches at the festival, both Ozon and Trueba denounced the Spanish government’s budget cuts to the national film industry.

The special jury prize went to Spanish director Pablo Berger’s “Blancanieves” (Snow White).

This latest reworking of the classic fairy tale moves the setting to 1920s Spain. A silent movie with a flamenco soundtrack, it unfolds in the world of bullfighting in Seville and evokes the European cinema of that period.

Spanish actress Macarena Garcia won the Silver Shell for best actress for her performance in the film, which has also been selected as Spain’s candidate for best foreign-language picture at the Oscars.

Garcia shared the best actress honours with Katie Coseni for her performance in the Franco-Canadian production “Foxfire,” by French director Laurent Cantet.

The film, based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, tells the story of five teenage girls in 1950s New York who form a gang to strike back against their enemies.

The best actor award went to veteran Spanish actor Jose Sacristan for his performance in “El muerto y ser feliz” (The Dead Man and Being Happy) by Spanish writer-director Javier Rebollo, a road movie set in Argentina.

Sacristan plays an aging hitman stricken with cancer who is coming to terms with his own impending death.

The prize for best cinematography went to Iran’s Touraj Aslani for his work in the Turkish film “Fasle Kargadan” (Rhino Season).

And the jury’s special mention went to “The Attack” by Lebanese-born director Ziad Doueiri.

It tells the story of an Israeli surgeon of Palestinian origin whose life is shattered after his wife turns out to have been the suicide bomber in a devastating attack on a restaurant.

The San Sebastian Film Festival is the oldest and most prestigious event of its kind in the Spanish-speaking world.