Already a box office success this past month in his native Argentina, Juan José Campanella's Foosball (aka Futbolín and also Metegol) will now become the first ever 3D animated title to open San Sebastián. It's a Spanish-Argentinian co-production and Campanella's first flick since picking up the Best Foreign Oscar nod in 2010 for The Secret In Their Eyes.
Meanwhile six films will compete for the top prize, The Golden Shell. Three French directors feature with Francois Dupeyron's My Soul Healed By You, Bertrand Tavernier's Quai D'Orsay and Mariana Rondón's Venezualan-produced Bad Hair all up for the accolade.
Also in with a chance are Mexican Fernando Eimbcke
with Club Sandwich, Roger Michell with Le Week-End and Jonathan Teplitzky's Aussie-Brit
co-production The Railway Man.
And for all the host country's industry ails just now, five Spanish-produced movies are in the official line up including David Trueba's Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed, Fernando Franco's debut La Herida, Alex de la Iglesia's Witching and Bitching and co-productions including Manuel Martín Cuenca's Cannibal and Denis Villeneuve's Enemy.
The yearly festivities begin on the Basque coast on September 20 and last for nine days. Apparently more Official Selection titles will be announced soon.
For the trailer and a behind-the-scenes link to Foosball, see Al Young's piece in March 2012 available below.