Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
The Zabaltegi section will open this year with Vicky Cristina Barcelona whose director Woody Allen has confirmed that he will be putting in an appearance in San Sebastián. As usual the section is divided into Pearls, New Directors and Specials, and coordinatorJosé Ángel Herrero-Velarde is sure that,”we have put together a really attractive selection of films for all kinds of audiences.”
There are 12 pearls that have already been screened at other festivals. These are competing for the TCM audience award and as usual are the ones that have aroused most interest to judge by ticket sales. This is hardly surprising as they include the Coen Brothers’ Burn after Reading, that opened the Venice Festival or Laurent Cantet’s Entre les Murs, Golden Palm at Cannes.
There’s a wide variety of themes in all 3 sub-sections with Pearls about the IRA hunger strikes in 1981, the situation in Palestine, and the CSN&Y 2006 US tour, as well as films by New Directors from China, India and Portugal that are not usually released on the commercial circuit, and two absolute world premieres among the Specials: Atlantis, a Dutch science fiction film, and the Spanish documentary Flores de Luna.