The Film Talks section of the San Sebastian Festival’s 72nd edition includes an extensive programme of conversations taking a closer look at the creative processes of filmmakers including Sean Baker, Leos Carax, Laura Carreira and Jane Schoenbrun. Other sessions will also address subjects such as production from a feminist and intersectional point of view, inclusion in the film industry and the treatment received by festivals in social media, in addition to issues related to artificial intelligence, casting direction, glamour, movie posters, music and cinema, and the boom in Spanish crime series.

Film Talks is a section organised by the Thought & Discussion area, thanks to which the San Sebastian Festival emphasizes its character as a place to meet, generate and share knowledge, while questioning itself and endeavouring to find answers for the future in the face of a changing filmmaking panorama.

Film Talks

Two sessions will take place in Tabakalera on the Festival opening date, Friday 20th. On the one hand, the cinema will host a film talk with the North American Francine Maisler moderated by the Argentine María Laura Berch. Both casting directors, the former has worked with filmmakers including Alejandro Gómez Iñárritu, Greta Gerwig, Gus Van Sant, Terrence Malick and Paul Greengrass, while the second has participated in La sociedad de la nieve / Society of the Snow (Perlak 2023), by J.A. Bayona, and in projects by Benjamín Naishtat, Celina Murga, Paula Hernández, Diego Lerman, Luis Ortega and Martín Rejtman, among others.

On the other, in collaboration with the Euskal Aktoreen Batasuna (EAB) will be the session Behind the glamour: the actor facing of new recruitment paradigms, between the actors agent María José Zulueta and casting directors Eva Leira and Yolanda Serrano together with the lawyer Sara Mora. This talk moderated by Alizia Otxoa, secretary general of the EAB, will take place in Tabakalera’s Z Room.

The following day, North American filmmaker Sean Baker will take the lead in the conversation on Saturday 21st in the Tabakalera cinema. Baker won the Palme d’Or at the last Festival de Cannes with Anora, the movie programmed in Perlak constituting the director’s third participation in the section after The Florida Project (2017) and Red Rocket (2021).

Production From a Feminist and Intersectional Perspective is the title of the conversation organised in collaboration with CIMA and the Interterritorial Work Group on Equality in Audiovisuals 50/50 by 2025, taking place on the 23rd in Room Z between producers Inés Nofuentes and Beli Martínez with the director Lara Izaguirre and moderated by the content and diversity consultant, Salima Jirari.

On the 24th, Tabakalera’s Z Room will host two film talks. In the morning, director Justin Edgar and disability inclusion specialist Shani Dhanda will discuss Diversity and Inclusion On and Off the Screen. The meeting is organised in collaboration with the British Film Institute (BFI) and moderated by Claire Baines, an Inclusion Partner of said institution.

Programmed in the afternoon is the conversation James Verdesoto. The Art of Visual Storytelling: Crafting Iconic Movie Posters, featuring the Ecuadorian graphic designer settled in the USA, James Verdesoto, author of iconic posters for movies such as Ocean’s Eleven and Pulp Fiction. Verdesoto will talk about the art of creating movie posters that not only capture the essence of the film, but which also become lasting symbols of the film culture.

On the 26th, Room Z will host the film talk New Narratives: The Climate Lens in Cinema reflecting on the possibility of generating alternative, positive and realistic stories on the issue of the climate emergency. Participants in this talk are the British filmmaker and screenwriter Elham Ehsas, Bilibin consultant Eneko Muruzabal and Greenpeace’s ecofeminism coordinator, Nerea Ramírez. The session will be moderated by Len Rowles from Climate Spring.

The following day, the film critic and writer Guy Lodge will moderate the film talk on New Media: Film and Festivals in the Age of Social Networks, with the participation of Wendy Ide (The Observer), Diego Batlle (Otroscines.com) and Pepa Blanes (Cadena Ser).

Film Talks: Nest

The programme also includes four film talks programmed as part of Nest, San Sebastian Festival’s international competition for shorts by students from film schools. All of these meetings will take place in the Tabakalera cinema.  

On Monday 23rd, the filmmaker Leos Carax will take the lead in a film talk moderated by the director Elena López Riera. Winner of awards at myriad competitions with titles such as Les amants du Pont-Neuf (1991), Holy Motors (2012) and Annette (2021), Carax participates in this year’s Zabaltegi-Tabakalera with the medium-length C’est pas moi / It’s Not Me, included in Cannes Premiere, while López Riera will show another medium-length work in the Festival’s most open section, Las novias del sur / Southern Brides, which had its premiere at the Cannes Semaine de la Critique.

In collaboration with BIME, a film talk is programmed for the 24th on the subject of music and cinema with the participation of Antón Álvarez (C. Tangana), who opens the New Directors session with his directorial debut, La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés. Álvarez will be accompanied by the self-same Yerai Cortés and Harto Rodríguez, his co-authors on the movie soundtrack.

On Wednesday 25th it will be the turn of Jane Schoenbrun, who participates in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera with their latest feature-length I Saw the TV Glow, premiered in Sundance Festival’s Midnight section and programmed in Berlin Festival’s Panorama section. Their previous works include the documentary A Self-Induced Hallucination (2018) and the feature film We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021). 

For her part, Laura Carreira, will take the lead of another conversation on Thursday 26th. Having successfully shot several short films, the Portuguese director will present her feature debut On Falling in San Sebastian Festival’s Official Selection. This talk will seek to learn about the process of making the film, as well as the possibilities that cinema has to promote change.

Film Talks: Industry

In collaboration with the Festival’s Industry Department, the Thought & Discussion area organises the now traditional day dedicated to series, entitled Spanish Horror Story. The Success of Spanish Crime Series. The meeting, programmed for Saturday 21, will analyse a rising global phenomenon with the producer Susana Herreras, the creator and screenwriter Laura Sarmiento and the director and producer Elías León Siminiani.

On Tuesday 24th, the film talk on The Inclusion of Transmasculine Realities in Ibero-American Cinema, organised in collaboration with Gehitu (the Basque association of gays, lesbians, transexuals and bisexuals), Mugen Gainetik and the 2030 Agenda, will have the participation of professionals from the fields of directing and screenwriting (Afioco Gnecco), production (Charli Bujosa) and casting direction (Do Bofill) and will be moderated by Emilio Papamija, director of research and of trans representation at the ODA (Observatory for Diversity in Audiovisual Media).  

Programmed as part of Zinemaldia & Technology, the Festival initiative seeking to strengthen ties between technology and the audiovisual sector, is a conversation on Thursday 26th, entitled Does Generative AI Help Us to Live a Better Life? Moderated by AC Coppens (The Catalysts ), with the participation of the researcher and co-founder of Algorights Judith Membrives i Llorens, the Head of Business Growth at Respeecher Margarita Grubina and the Senior VFX Supervisor at XReality Studios, Ignacio Lacosta.

In addition to these conversations, the Industry department will organise several talks and round tables on subjects such as partnerships and investments to consolidate the European audiovisual ecosystem. In addition, for the third year running, it will organise the Creative Investors' Conference (Spanish Screenings: Financing & Tech), an event encompassing a series of conferences and conversations on current trends in financing and international co-production.

CONVERSATIONS PROGRAMME

Unless otherwise indicated, free invitations for the Conversations will be available on the Festival website, the Zinemaldi Plaza and Tabakalera ticket desks from the day before the event. Accredited guests can book tickets online.