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French and Polish auteurs will face off in Spain this September after the 73rd San Sebastián International Film Festival added five features to its main competition, led by new works from Arnaud Desplechin, Agnieszka Holland and Alice Winocour. The festival, which runs 19–27 September, confirmed the additions in a statement released 29 July.

Desplechin joins the contest for the first time with “Deux pianos,” a Lyon-set drama in which a virtuoso, played by François Civil, reunites with his mentor and confronts a past romance. The cast also features Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot, continuing Desplechin’s habit of pairing seasoned performers with rising French talent.

Holland returns after previous bids for the Golden Shell with “Franz,” a mosaic-style look at Franz Kafka’s life that spans Prague, Berlin and Vienna. The Czech-German-Polish co-production stars Idan Weiss as Kafka and assembles an ensemble that includes Peter Kurth and Jenovéfa Boková. Festival...

The clock is ticking—it’s the eleventh hour. The Délégué général Thierry Frémaux is deep in the final throes of curating this year’s Competition lineup and he is currently weighing in on the last few masterstrokes for the Class of ’25. Rushed in at the wire, a handful of freshly picture-locked films are being evaluated and with only two or three slots left for the Palme d’Or comp, there are are maybe a dozen of antsy filmmakers hoping they get the invite. We might hear of the new titles tomorrow or perhaps early next week and we can only assume that Jim Jarmusch and Arnaud Desplechin might still options on the bingo card but were of the opinion that they were kept on ice incase something more noteworthy trickled in.…...

Exclusive: In keeping with its start-of-the-year tradition, Goodfellas has rolled out the bulk of its French-language slate for 2025 ahead of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris next week, and it’s a hot one.

The line-up features fresh additions An Affair by Arnaud Desplechin and Prime Rush by Carlos Abascal Peiró as well as half a dozen pictures that we expect to see at Cannes or Venice later this year.

An Affair marks a new chapter for Desplechin after achieving closure in 2024 with his long-running character of Paul Dédalus through Cannes-selected drama Filmlovers!, which hits French cinemas for Les Films du Losange next week.

New movie An Affair sees Desplechin collaborate with rising French stars François Civil (Beating Hearts) and Nadia Tereszkiewicz (The Crime is Mine) for the first time, in a cast also featuring Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot.

Civil plays a pianist who returns to France after a long...