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 Mexican scriptwriter Marina Stavenhagen came to San Sebastián in 2001 as the scriptwriter of De la calle by Gerardo Tort, which won the New Directors Award, and this year she’s back as a member of the New Directors jury that is assessing the first and second films by selected directors.
She thinks that the last few years have been good for Mexican cinema as it has established a significant international presence, with a new generation emerging that she admits that she has been fortunate to accompany. She stresses how important the policies they have implemented to support filmmakers have been, including screening programmes for Mexican films in communities and getting them onto commercial television.
She utterly agrees with José Luis Rebordinos’s opinion that Latin American cinema is currently the most creative in the world and admires how up-and-coming talents are exploring new narrative possibilities although she stresses that the Achilles’ heel of Latin American cinema is still distribution.