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).
Oliver Stone’s latest film, Savages, will enjoy its premiere at the 60th edition of the San Sebastian Festival. The American director will receive a Special Award in tribute to his career bestowed by the San Sebastian Festival on the occasion of its 60th anniversary.
Oliver Stone (New York, 1946) is today one of the most emblematic makers of modern American film thanks to his treatment of red-hot social and political topics and his powerful visual style. Stone started in film as a screenwriter and won his first Academy Award for the script of Alan Parker’s Midnight Express (1978); he also penned the screenplay of hugely popular films like John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Brian de Palma’s Scarface (1983).
Although Stone debuted as a director in 1981 with the fantasy thriller The Hand, it wasn’t until five years later that he set about defining his style and interests as a director with the political drama Salvador (1986), opening movie of screenings in the Velodrome at the San Sebastian Festival in its day. This was followed by the film that sealed his international fame, Platoon, a brutal portrayal of the Vietnam War for which he landed the Academy Award for Best Director and carried off the statuette for Best Film. He continued to reap success with his acid view of the big business world in Wall Street (1987) and his return to the trauma of Vietnam in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), which garnered him a second Academy Award for Best Director.
In his following films, Stone sketched a profound and shocking portrait of modern America through subjects like the murder of Kennedy in JFK (1991), Richard Nixon’s presidency in Nixon (1995), the violence of American society in Natural Born Killers (1994), sports corruption in Any Given Sunday (1999) and the 9/11 terrorist attack in World Trade Center (2006).
Stone has visited the San Sebastian Festival on four occasions, with Salvador, Natural Born Killers and World Trade Center at the Velodrome and with his documentary Looking for Fidel (2004) in Zabaltegi Specials.