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).
Craig Gillespie, the director of films like I Tonya and Pam and Tommy, has come to the Festival to present Dumb Money inspired by the real case of some smalltime investors who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich in 2020. Gillespie explains that the American dream is a huge fallacy in which ten percent of the people achieve professional success while the remaining ninety percent think that they can do the same. It’s this huge majority that interests him as a filmmaker as he’s always been attracted to underdogs who don’t manage to make it in life and get stigmatised as losers. He says that it’s irritating just how easily we pigeonhole people, which also has a lot to do with the power of the media – something he usually talks about in his films. He adds that the Covid pandemic caused a lot of emotional stress, people felt really isolated and frustrated and the fact that a lot of small-time investors got together to challenge Wall Street was a way of focusing their discontent and giving the financial establishment the finger.