Pacified, directed by the Texan Paxton Winters, won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell, the festival’s top award, on Saturday night.
A Brazilian produced movie dealing with a troubled father-daughter relationship, it also earned best actor (Bukassa Kabengele) and cinematography (Laura Merians).
It is co-produced by Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox ,
The other big victor of the night at the 67th edition of San Sebastian, the highest profile movie event in the Spanish-speaking world, was “The Endless Trench,” from the Basque filmmaking trio of Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga, behind 2017’s Special Jury Prize winner “Handia.”
Well reviewed in San Sebastian, the film swept director, screenplay and the Fipresci Intl. Federation of Film Critics Prize for a tightly composed and allegorical thriller about a man who hides in the walls of his own home during the Spanish Civiil War, rightly fearing for his life, and stays hidden for three decades, supported and protected by his wife.