From Colin Farrell to Juliette Binoche, the San Sebastian Film Festival 2025 lineup shakes up awards season.
The San Sebastian Film Festival 2025 lineup just got a prestige boost, and the ripple effects will be felt from Los Angeles to Berlin. The festival confirmed nine fresh entries to its official selection, folding in new work from Oscar winner Edward Berger and the ever daring Claire Denis, while signaling a notable first for Juliette Binoche as a director.
For cinephiles plotting fall travel or awards watchers building prediction boards, the San Sebastian Film Festival 2025 lineup now reads like a curated map of where global cinema is heading next, with A list talent, thorny themes, and a charge of momentum that should carry into the year’s final quarter.
Why this San Sebastian Film Festival 2025 lineup matters
In a season crowded with showcases, San Sebastian’s official selection often acts as a discerning filter, a place where star power meets risk, and where European and Latin American voices share equal volume. The latest additions confirm that balance. Veteran auteurs arrive with actors who shape culture, while rising talents land stories with sharp political and moral stakes that speak to audiences.
This slate is the kind that influences distribution deals, late breaking awards narratives, and Q4 talk.
Edward Berger’s Macau gamble, “Ballad of a Small Player”
Berger will screen Ballad of a Small Player, a UK production starring Colin Farrell as a high-stakes gambler in Macao whose past and debts start to catch up with him. The film also stars Fala Chen, Tilda Swinton, and Alex Jennings.”
Berger, known for exacting craft and emotional heft, pairs with Colin Farrell for a character study that sounds both elegant and combustible. The Macau setting carries glamorous risk and nocturnal melancholy, which should resonate with viewers who appreciate narratives about luck, identity, and reinvention.
Expect a refined visual language and performances calibrated for awards conversations.
Claire Denis returns with “Le Cri des Gardes” also known as “The Fence”
Denis will screen Le Cri des Gardes / The Fence, based on Bernard-Marie Koltès’ play Combat de nègre et de chiens, stars Isaach de Bankolé, Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce, and Tom Blyth.”
Denis adapts Bernard Marie Koltès, which signals tactile atmospheres and ethical unease, the terrain where her cinema thrives. The cast, led by Isaach de Bankolé and Matt Dillon, suggests a blend of veteran gravity and fresh volatility.
Juliette Binoche steps behind the camera
The announcement also spotlights a first time turn behind the camera for Juliette Binoche. For an artist whose performances have defined world cinema across decades, directing invites a different kind of scrutiny from discerning audiences.
Dolores Fonzi’s “Belén” aims straight at the conscience
The Argentinian actress, screenwriter, and director Dolores Fonzi will compete in the official selection with her second work as a director. Starring herself alongside Camila Plaate and Laura Paredes, Belén recreates a true story in which Fonzi plays a lawyer from Tucumán as she leads the fight to free a woman imprisoned for having a miscarriage.”
Fonzi’s premise is stark, timely, and destined to spark conversation far beyond the festival corridors.
Enter Awards Conversation
San Sebastian has reframed the fall conversation with a handful of strategic choices that combine glamour, rigor, and relevance. Now the season’s most compelling itinerary, one that promises meaningful premieres and serious awards talk in every room that matters.
