Bullfighting documentary wins top prize at San Sebastian

A documentary about bullfighting, ‘Tardes de Soledad’ (Afternoons of Solitude) , picked up the top award at the San Sebastian Film Festival Saturday.

The film, by Spanish director Albert Serra, won the Golden Shell for best film at the festival, for its portrayal of a day in the life of a Peruvian bullfighter, Andres Roca Rey.

Serra thanked the festival organisers for having selected his film after animal rights groups had campaigned against its screening.

It got a warm reception at its festival screening, even though animal rights group PACMA had denounced it as a romanticised vision of bullfighting that normalised violence towards animals.

The best director prize was tied between two film-makers, Laura Carreira and Pedro Martin Calero.

Careirra's feature debut, ‘On Falling’, tells the story of a Portuguese worker in a Scottish warehouse struggling with the pressures of the gig economy. Perreira is a Portuguese film maker based in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

Martin-Calero's film, ‘The Wailing’ (El Llanto), also his first feature, is a horror film about an evil presence that stalks three women. The Spanish director previously made music videos.

Earlier in the week, the festival awarded a lifetime achievement award to Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.