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).
Christine Vachon’s production company “Killer Films” has launched the careers of some of the most outstanding independent American directors in recent years. Vachon herself is currently in San Sebastian as chairwoman of the Official Jury.
She reveals that she’s wanted to come to the Festival for quite some time; in fact she was invited here last year, but in the end her professional commitments meant that she couldn’t make it. Since she’s been here, she’s found that exchanging opinions with people in the world of cinema from other countries has proved to be really enriching, and she is also impressed with the commitment that the entire city shows to cinema and to the Festival itself.
Asked whether the concept of indie cinema was still valid, she acknowledges that the term has been abused over the years but that she considers independent cinema to be work made with a personal vision, so that even big-budget films such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master fulfill the criteria of independent cinema.