At the 72nd edition of the San Sebastian Festival, the Velodrome will host the premieres of the series Celeste and the first episode in the 11th season of Go!azen, as well as the feature film Marco, the film to close Perlak out of competition, and the closing film of the Official Selection, still to be announced. The auditorium with capacity for 3,000 spectators will also provide the setting for the traditional Concert & Screening organised with the Basque National Orchestra and the SGAE Foundation, running in the evening for the first time, and for the morning screenings for schoolchildren, Ikastetxeak Belodromoan.

Diego San José (Irun,1978) is the creator of Celeste, a 6-episode series directed by Elena Trapé (Barcelona, 1976) to screen in full at the Velodrome on Sunday 22 September at 18:00. Actress Carmen Machi plays an inland revenue inspector about to retire who is tasked with proving that a Latino music star is guilty of tax fraud. Trapé competed in New Directors with Blog (2010) and Les distàncies / Distances (Made in Spain, 2018) garnered numerous awards including the Golden Biznaga for Best Film at the Malaga Festival, where Els encantats (Los encantados, Made in Spain, 2023) carried off Best Screenplay. This year another series will screen at the San Sebastian Festival, whose Official Selection comes with the out-of-competition programming of Yo, adicto, co-directed with Javier Giner. For his part, San José has created Vota Juan, Vamos Juan and Venga Juan also having joined director Borja Cobeaga on the co-writing of Pagafantas / The Friend Zone (Made in Spain, 2009), No controles / Love Storming (Made in Spain, 2011), and Fe de etarras / Bomb Scared (Velodrome, 2017).

On the other hand, on Friday 27 September at 18:30 the Velodrome will host the screening of the first episode of the 11th season of the series Go!azen, which, like last year, will start with a live performance by its protagonists. Itziar Gomez (Errenteria, 1964) directs this latest instalment following the musical adventures of the Basakabi summer camp, featuring the regular faces alongside a number of new arrivals such as that of the actress Sara Cozar.

Also as usual on the last day of the Festival, falling this year on 28th September, the Velodrome will host the live broadcast of the closing gala. Prior to this, at 18:45, will be the screening of the film closing Perlak out of competition, Marco, programmed in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Mostra. Directed by Jon Garaño (San Sebastian, 1974) and Aitor Arregi (Oñati, 1977), the film starring Eduard Fernández tells the true story of Enric Marco, a man who faked his past to make it look as though he was a survivor of the Flossenbürg concentration camp. The Basque moviemakers previously participated in San Sebastian’s Official Selection with Loreak/ Flowers (2014), Handia / Giant (Special Jury Prize and Irizar Award, 2019) and La trinchera infinita / The Endless Trench (Silver Shell for Best Director and Best Screenplay Award, 2019), whose direction also includes Jose Mari Goenaga. Following Marco and the gala broadcast, the Velodrome will host a screening of the Official Selection closing film, still to be announced.  

Tickets for the Velodrome screenings cost 8.75 euros, with the exception of those for the Festival closing event (€15), and will be available for purchase from tomorrow Tuesday 20 August at 10:00 from the Festival and Kutxabank (https://tickets.kutxabank.es) websites. Only four tickets per event can be purchased at any one time. Bundles of 10 or more tickets obtained in a single purchase will receive a 25% discount.

Concert & Screening and Ikastetxeak Belodromoan

In addition to the above screenings, the Velodrome will once again host the Concert & Screening event organised with the Euskadiko Orkestra-Basque National Orchestra and the SGAE Foundation, to take place on Saturday 21 September at 18:00. The show combines the symphony rendering of soundtracks and a collage of scenes from the films that inspired them. Although admission is free, a ticket must be collected from either the San Sebastian Festival information point at the Kursaal or the Donostia Turismo tourist office on the Boulevard, from 14-20 September, or on the same day of the event from the Velodrome itself.

Finally, the Velodrome will also be the setting for the Ikastetxeak Belodromoan morning screenings, an initiative thanks to which thousands of schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 11 can enjoy a film linking cinema and science. These screenings, jointly organised by the San Sebastian Festival, the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and the Filmoteca Vasca are designed to give schoolchildren from the province a positive image of science while conveying the city’s strong connection with scientific research.