This 2024, EITB has become an Official Sponsor and will increase its presence at the San Sebastián Festival. The sponsorship was presented this Friday, September 13, by José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastián Festival, and Andoni Aldekoa, general director of EITB, at a press conference in Tabakalera. It represents an important leap, due to EITB's commitment to the Basque film industry, a Basque cinema that is being promoted and strengthened through joint work between the sector, institutions and Donostia Zinemaldia. It is EITB's task to reinforce its commitment to public service, preserving its role as a unifier of initiatives that arise in Basque society; thus, the alliance between EITB and Zinemaldia highlights the fundamental role of the San Sebastián Film Festival as a cultural expression and reference of Basque culture and its international projection. And both Basque cinema and Zinemaldia itself are our window to the world.

This edition, EITB is organizing and producing the Great Basque Cinema Gala. It will be on September 24, with a party and recognition of all the agents that make up Basque cinema: actors and actresses, directors, screenwriters, camera operators, producers... and all those professionals who are making Basque cinema be in one of its best moments. The Victoria Eugenia theater will host this show, with several prizes awarded. Among them, EITB will award the Egile Berriak award, created a year ago to distinguish and promote new Basque talent.

Throughout the Festival, there will also be other important events such as the EITB Gala, also at the Victoria Eugenia on the 25th, with the preview of the musical film "Itsatsita", which will premiere on the free PRIMERAN platform. The Zinemaldia will also host the first preview of the season of the phenomenon "Go!azen", on September 27 at the Velodrome, with tickets sold out in record time.

Likewise, EITB has organized, once again, the professional meeting with the audiovisual sector and industry, which will take place on September 24. This year it is titled Obligation and opportunity: investment in co-official languages, and is presented as a space for dialogue between television and the Basque film sector.

EITB will expand, even more if possible, its presence at the Festival and in San Sebastián in the streets. The Festival is also experienced throughout the city and the EITB media will be very present in all places. They will have a large mobile set, a spectacular platform located between the Boulevard and the town hall, where radio and television programs will be made, and it will even become a news set.

EITB permanently collaborates with the sector to face future challenges, to guarantee and promote Basque language, boost the work of new directors, internationalization and the participation of women. As a result of this collaboration, it is present in the 12 Basque productions that will be screened at Zinemaldia: 3 feature-length fiction films, 7 documentaries, a short film and two series. Among them, the international New Directors section will host the premiere in Basque language of the film Azken Erromantikoak by David Pérez Sañudo, based on the novel by Txani Rodríguez. In the Perlak section, on the other hand, we will have the film Marco, by Aitor Arregi and Jon Garaño, premiered at the Venice Film Festival; and in Made in Spain, you can see Nina, directed by Andrea Jaurrieta.