Laura Mora Lands San Sebastian Film Fest’s Top Honor for “The Kings of The World”

Festivals

Laura Mora Lands San Sebastian Film Fest’s Top Honor for “The Kings of The World”

For the third year in a row, a woman-directed feature has taken home San Sebastian Film Festival’s top honor, the Golden Shell. Deadline reports that Colombian filmmaker Laura Mora topped the main competition at the 70th edition of the fest with “The Kings of the World” (“Los reyes del mundo”). Alina Grigore’s “Blue Moon” received the Golden Shell in 2021, and Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “Beginning” won the award in 2020.

“The Kings of the World” marks Mora’s follow-up to 2017’s “Killing Jesus.” The drama tells the story of “five boys living on the streets of Medellín who set out on a journey in search of the promised land,” and is described as a “subversive tale of disobedience, friendship, and dignity.”

Films from women directors also took home the most prestigious prizes from Venice Film Festival and the Berlinale this year. “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras’ doc about artist Nan Goldin and her fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic, won Venice’s Golden Lion, and Carla Simón’s “Alcarràs,” a drama about a family of peach farmers in Catalonia, landed Berlinale’s Golden Bear. Spain recently selected “Alcarràs” as its pick in the 2023 international feature Oscar race.