The short answer: not every film shown at the San Sebastián Festival competes for the Golden Shell, and its awards are not all decided in the same way. The 74th edition runs from 18 to 26 September 2026 and places titles in distinct sections, while its awards area separates official, section-specific, audience and honorary distinctions. To interpret a report correctly, first identify the film’s section; then check whether it is labelled “in competition,” “out of competition” or part of a strand with its own award.
The Official Selection is not a single category
The 2026 Official Selection page shows why being “in Official Selection” is not enough to conclude that a title is competing for the Golden Shell. Fatih Akin’s *Geister / Ghost Song* is presented as the opening film in competition. Michaël R. Roskam’s *Le Faux Soir*, meanwhile, closes the section out of competition.
The same listing identifies David Ayer’s *Heart of the Beast* and Koldo Almandoz’s *Azken agurra / The Last Goodbye* as non-competing titles. It also includes the Spanish series *El castillo*, directed by Elena Martín Gimeno and Sandra Romero. “Official Selection” therefore identifies a title’s place in the programme, but its competitive status must be checked individually.
Features listed without an out-of-competition label include *Glaxo*, a Brazil–Argentina coproduction directed by Benjamín Naishtat, and Gabriel Martins’s Brazilian production *Vicentina pede desculpas / On Behalf of My Son*. The official catalogue is the appropriate place to confirm any later classification updates.
The Golden Shell and other official awards
The 74th edition portal maintains separate areas for sections, the programme and awards. In its navigation, “Official Awards” is distinct from awards named after other festival strands. The Golden Shell belongs to the official competitive framework; an appearance in New Directors, Horizontes Latinos or Zabaltegi-Tabakalera should not be rewritten as a Golden Shell nomination.
The supplied pages do not identify the members of the 2026 juries or explain, in these extracts, who decides every distinction. Before an official result, the accurate wording is therefore “selected for” or “screening in,” rather than “nominated for an award.” Once winners are announced, readers should check the relevant award page on the festival website.
New Directors, Horizontes and Zabaltegi have separate identities
The programme lists New Directors, Horizontes Latinos and Zabaltegi-Tabakalera as independent sections. The awards menu also names the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, Make & Mark Horizontes Award and Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award. That naming correspondence helps readers find the right track, but it does not justify assumptions about rules, eligibility or voting methods not published in the consulted sources.
Readers seeking emerging filmmakers can begin with New Directors. Those following Latin American cinema can consult Horizontes Latinos—while remembering that films from the region may also appear elsewhere, as Brazilian and Argentine-Brazilian productions do in the Official Selection. Zabaltegi-Tabakalera should likewise be treated as its own section, not as an automatic subdivision of the Golden Shell contest.
Perlak and the audience award need an extra check
Perlak appears in the list of sections, while the City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award appears in the awards list. The supplied pages, however, do not establish which films are eligible for that vote or demonstrate on their own that the entire Perlak selection is linked to the award.
A Perlak listing is consequently not enough to call a film an audience-award contender. Check the film record or the distinction’s dedicated page on the official portal. The same caution applies to the phrase “audience favourite”: a screening response, social-media attention and a formal voting result are three different things.
Donostia is a career tribute, not a Shell
The clearest contrast involves the Donostia Award, which the festival presents as an honorary distinction. An August announcement said that Werner Herzog would receive it at the opening gala, accompanied by a screening of *Bucking Fastard*. Because that source predates the ceremony, it verifies the announcement rather than serving alone as later confirmation that the presentation occurred.
The page devoted to Naomi Watts scheduled her tribute for 19 September at the Kursaal, alongside the presentation of *The Housewife*, Ben Shirinian’s feature-directing debut. Pairing a tribute with a screening does not make the film a Golden Shell winner: the distinction honours the recipient’s career.
A simple way to follow the festival
When reading the programme or a headline, note four items: section, competitive status, exact award name and the nature of the recognition. If one is missing, do not fill the gap by analogy. On 20 September, while the festival is still underway, programme details, classifications and forthcoming results should be checked through the official links.
This filter separates selection, competition, audience voting and tribute without reducing the festival to one trophy race. After following San Sebastián, the cinema conversation can continue at Becoartes, Rua Gonçalo Afonso, 99, Vila Madalena—the address published on the official Becoartes website.
Continue the cinema conversation at Becoartes
Find Becoartes at Rua Gonçalo Afonso, 99, Vila Madalena, and check its official website for current information.
Becoartes - Beco do Batman
99 Gonçalo Afonso Street, Vila Madalena, São Paulo