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).
Paulina Garcia, the Chilean actress and theatre director (and star of Gloria, which is being screened in the Pearls section), is in San Sebastián to form part of the Official Jury. She confesses that the films she’s most interested in are those that arouse contradictory feelings in her. She has a particular soft spot for films that tastefully work on the sense of humour, for example she really likes filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch or Alexander Payne, but loves almost all genres ranging from animated films to intense dramas.
She thinks that the current healthy state of Chilean cinema is due to several factors: the return to democracy in the 1990s meant that many filmmakers came back from exile, and at the same time a new generation began to come out of film schools. The state also began to invest more in the arts which meant that both the quantity and quality of films increased. Another essential factor was the appearance of digital systems for filming which considerably reduced production costs, which proved to be decisive in the case of the Chilean film industry.