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).
Yesterday in the Official Selection the British director Harry Macqueen presented Supernova, a touching road movie about a middle-aged gay couple facing an existential crisis. He explained that the
process of making the film had involved a long period of intense research about dementia that had been a profoundly moving experience for him, and that he had focused on a couple in their 50s because he felt that love at this age was not often touched on in cinema.
Asked about the use of silence in his film, he said that the power of cinema was often based on it being a visual medium so he had tried to let the images tell the story. He also explained that although Supernova explored big themes like love, life and death, what it was really about was the universality of the human experience.
As for the title of his film, Macqueen felt that the title literally represented Stanley Tucci’s character, in that a star burns most brightly at the end of its life. He was also full of praise for his two leading actors: the fact that Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci were good friends meant that the personal chemistry between them was already there and all he had needed to do was to shape the love they had for each other and streamline it.