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).
François Ozon is an old acquaintance of the Festival where he has competed for the Golden Shell on four occasions, and is back this year to present his latest film Frantz, in the Pearls section. Ashe loves challenges, this time he has adapted an old play by Maurice Rostand that was already filmed in 1932 by Ernst Lubitsch entitled Broken Lullaby. The director explained that “the film illustrates a dual journey: Adrien goes to Germany looking for forgiveness while Anna goes to France looking for love.” Unlike in the play that inspired Ozon, he tells the story from the German perspective rather than the French viewpoint as perceptions of the Franco-German relationship were quite different before the Second World War.
Ozon acknowledges that he is a great admirer of German culture although he pointed out that the references that he made use are from literature and not so pictorial or cinematic, for example, he was thinking in writers like Stefan Zweig.