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).
This is not the first time that director Gabriel Valázquez had had a film screened at the Festival as he came here in 2005 with Sud Express, that competed in the Official section. This time around he’s back with Amateurs, about two lonely people in need of love whose lives cross. When he began writing the script with Blanca Torres a few years ago he had originally imagined it would turn out to be a social comedy but shooting Sud Express radically changed his conception of film and he began to see everything from a human angle. “This is how that social comedy was transformed into the human drama that is now Amateurs".
The key to making the story as credible as possible was getting the main characters absolutely right and Velázquez thinks he has achieved this with his two main actors: While Emilie de Preissac was an experienced actress, he discovered Paco Luque in a park in Vallecas after being struck by his extraordinary face.