The San Sebastián Film Festival has unveiled a new batch of competition titles for its 74th edition, bringing names like Mike Leigh, Marion Cotillard, and Pablo Larraín into the race for the Golden Shell — the festival's top prize, awarded each year in the Basque coastal city.

The festival runs 18–26 September 2026. The Hollywood Reporter reported the additions on 28 July 2026, adding international star power to a selection already anchored by three previously announced Spanish films.

Mike Leigh's British drama Tender Loving Care will compete, marking another appearance at San Sebastián for a director whose working method — long improvisation rehearsals that shape the script before cameras roll — has made him one of the most distinctive voices in British cinema. Nicole Garcia's French drama Milo, starring Marion Cotillard alongside Théodore Pellerin, also joins the lineup.

Pablo Larraín's My Sad Dead brings a curious format to the competition: a Netflix mini-series screened as a single four-hour feature. Streaming-originated content appearing at major festivals is now common, but entering a four-hour television cut in a film competition is a choice that turns heads. Larraín, the Chilean director behind No and Jackie, has form with festival premieres; the Netflix backing gives the project a global distribution platform the moment its festival run ends.

Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland arrives with Growth of the Soil, an adaptation of Knut Hamsun's classic novel. Turkish filmmaker Yeşim Ustaoğlu returns to San Sebastián with What Remains; she previously took the Golden Shell for Pandora's Box in 2008, when Tsilla Chelton won best actress.

Argentine director Benjamín Naishtat enters the competition with Glaxo, a 1950s-set drama adapted from Hernán Ronsino's novel and starring Lali Espósito, Marcelo Subiotto, and Esteban Bigliardi. Naishtat is a San Sebastián regular: he won the Silver Shell for best director for Rojo in 2018 and the best screenplay award for Puan in 2023.

Japanese novelist Maha Harada makes her directorial debut with In My Father's Room, also in competition. Three Spanish titles were already confirmed: El mal padre by Roberto Bueso, 5 More Minutes by Javier Ruiz Caldera, and Saints by Mikel Gurrea.

Outside the main competition, San Sebastián will host two Spanish series out of competition: El Castillo, created by Isabel Peña and Eduardo Villanueva and directed by Elena Martín Gimeno and Sandra Romero, and Beyond Society from Carlos Torres. Special screenings include The Last Goodbye by Koldo Almandoz, Pray for Us by Daniel Monzón, The Harvester by David Pérez Sañudo, and Bajañí by Fernando Trueba.

For audiences and industry buyers alike, San Sebastián has long served as an autumn bridge between the late-summer festival circuit — Venice and Telluride — and the awards-season corridor that builds through Toronto and into the guild nominations. A Golden Shell win does not guarantee Oscar traction, but it places a film firmly on the radar of international distributors and critics at a moment when the conversation about the year's best films is just beginning to form.