San Sebastian Film Festival 2025: Edward Berger joins competition lineup

The San Sebastian Film Festival 2025 has confirmed new additions to its Official Selection, with Edward Berger, James Vanderbilt and Claire Denis set to compete at the 73rd edition of the event.

Edward Berger's Ballad of a Small Player, starring Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton and Fala Chen, will compete for the Golden Shell. The adaptation of Lawrence Osborne's novel follows a gambler adrift in Macao, marking Berger's return to San Sebastian after Conclave and his Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front.

Meanwhile, James Vanderbilt brings Nuremberg, with Rami Malek as psychiatrist Douglas Kelley and Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring, adapted from Jack El-Hai's book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist.Claire Denis will also be back with The Fence, an adaptation of Bernard-Marie Koltès' play, featuring Isaach de Bankolé, Matt Dillon and Mia McKenna-Bruce in a story of colonial tensions and survival.

Other newly announced contenders include Dolores Fonzi's Belén, Joachim Lafosse's Six Days in Spring, Olmo Omerzu's Ungrateful Beings, and Xiaoyu Qin's Her Heart Beats in Its Cage. They join previously revealed entries from Agnieszka Holland, Alice Winocour, José Luis Guerin and Alberto Rodríguez.

Beyond competition, Juliette Binoche will present her directing debut In-I in Motion, while Junji Sakamoto's Climbing for Life, about pioneering mountaineer Junko Tabei, will also screen out of competition. The 73rd San Sebastian Film Festival, the most prominent film event in the Spanish-speaking world, runs September 19-27.