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In July, José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastián Film Festival, highlighted the growing prominence of documentaries at this year’s event. Among the notable examples he cited were Albert Serra’s “Afternoons of Solitude,” and the New Directors opener “La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés,” the directorial debut of Antón Álvarez, better known to date as singer-songwriter C. Tangana.

“Genre auteur cinema has been around for some time, but there’s ever more of it, and non-fiction cinema is increasingly normal,” Rebordinos observed. These selections highlight Spain’s expanding presence in the documentary realm. Basque cinema is not lagging behind.

A prime example is “Los Williams,” which arrives at the festival bolstered by the celebrity of its subjects, soccer superstar siblings Iñaki and Nico Williams. Amaia Remírez, its producer at Kanaki Films, shared with Variety that director Raúl de la Fuente drew his inspiration from seeing the profound...

This year, Middle Eastern — North African (Mena) films are especially strong. Plus, 15 international films are participating in the Feature Narrative Competition, 12 films in the Feature Documentary Competition, 23 films in the Short Film Competition, as well as 5 films in Gff’s special retrospectives program. The festival will be screening 25 films Out of Competition, which brings the total count to 80 titles.

Cinema For Humanity Audience Award (Ex-aequo)

Another Day of Life Poland, Spain | 2018 | English, Portuguese, Polish, Spanish | 86 min

Directed by Raúl De La Fuente, Damian Nenow and Produced by Jarosław Sawko, Ole Wendorff-Østergaard, Amaia Remirez, Raúl De La Fuente

Jury Citation Cinema for Humanity is an Audience Award that is reserved for a film that exemplifies a humanitarian theme. The award includes a trophy and Us $10,000.

A gripping story of a three-month-long journey that renowned Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski took across Angola ravaged by a war in which the front lines shifted...