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).
Jonathan Rosenbaum, the American film critic and essayist, is here in San Sebastián this year to chair the New Directors Jury.
He feels that criticism is more important than ever before
because the average spectator now has so many possibilities when it comes to choosing the format for watching films, especially old ones. He thinks a good critic is one who provides information about films and can tell the difference between information and publicity.
He also believes that a good critic needs to have a good knowledge of the history of cinema: “you can only understand the present in relation to the past.”
He stresses that there is a degree of confusion about the difference between critics and reviewers. Whereas reviewers interemerely offer consumer advice; something that he considers to be unimportant, good critics are people who facilitate a discussion about cinema, and genuine criticism is something that can be read later; it’s not just of the moment.