Tabakalera and Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea, with the collaboration of the San Sebastian Festival and the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, present a joint yearly programme of talks about and from the cinema for the second year. From October 2024 to June 2025, more than twenty Basque, Spanish and international filmmakers will bring the creative processes involved in making their cinematic proposals to the general public. 

Filmmakers' Dialogues

The fourth season of Filmmakers Dialogues will analyse how to direct actors with filmmaker Celia Rico and actress María Vázquez, the protagonist of her latest film, Los pequeños amores / Little Loves; a dissection of  how autofiction can be brought to life with director Javier Giner and actor Oriol Pla, who tells Giner’s story in the series Yo, adicto / I, Addict. Following last season’s session with Isabel Coixet and Sara Mesa, the programme once again turns the spotlight on literary adaptations with director Paula Ortiz and screenwriter Javier García Arredondo (La virgen roja / The Red Virgin). This year, the Dialogues’ sessions with first-time directors and moviemakers who come from other backgrounds will merge this year in the session featuring Antón Álvarez, known in the music world as C. Tangana, recipient of a special mention from the Kutxabank-New Directors Jury for his first film La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés, and actress Marta Nieto, who made her debut behind the cameras with La mitad de Ana. Lastly, the elegant art direction and complex production design of El llanto / The Wailing, winner of the Silver Shell for Best Director, will be the subject of conversation between Pedro Martín-Calero and José Tirado, while director María Elorza and producer Marian Fernández will discuss Producing non-fiction following the success of A los libros y las mujeres canto / To Books and Women I Sing and the Sideral Award to the Ikusmira Berriak residencies project, Caro Bastiano.   

The Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea cultural centre, with its long history of creating spaces for discussion, creation and knowledge, joined the San Sebastian Festival’s Z365 area and the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola to create the course Filmmakers Dialogues, turning the spotlight on the intra-history of cinematic creation through discussion between filmmakers and their regular collaborators in the different film departments: screenplay, production, editing, music and actor direction, among others. 

Filmmakers Dialogues continues to run at the Santa Teresa Convent in San Sebastian’s Old Town (Function Hall, 19:00). The course will stress its pedagogical aspect by offering attendees the possibility of formal registration which, as well as attendance of the programme itself, will give them access to a series of complementary workshops, meetings and other training proposals. Registration will be free of charge and open to all, from students to film buffs. To encourage people to attend in person and make the gatherings feel like a real meeting place, the sessions will not be streamed. However, their recordings will be available on the Koldo Mitxelena and Festival websites at the end of the season.

Spoken Cinema

Since its beginnings, the Tabakalera cinema has served as both a shared public screen and a classroom for the general public. In 2020, in the endeavour to boost its pedagogical slant, Tabakalera launched the “Spoken Cinema” season, inviting moviemakers to make the theatre their own for the purposes of explaining their creative processes. This season was also born with the intention of taking to the cinema numerous local and international projects supported by programmes focused on backing cinematic creation, such as Noka and Ikusmira Berriak, promoted by the institutions making up Tabakalera’s cinematic ecosystem: EQZE, the San Sebastian Festival, the Basque Film Archives and the Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture. From 2020 until 2024, twenty-seven moviemakers have participated in the “Spoken Cinema” sessions, while in the coming months some ten directors will come to the Tabakalera cinema to talk about their films, coinciding with their release in cinemas of the city, with the aim of drawing audiences to the theatres.

On 19 October, the first ‘Spoken Cinema’ session will be brought to us by the moviemaker from Zaragoza, Pilar Palomero. Palomero, the first female director ever to win two Goya awards for a debut movie - the Goyas for Best New Director and Best Film for Las niñas / Schoolgirls - will share the session with writer Eider Rodríguez. Los destellos / Glimmers, Palomero’s third and most recent movie, is a screen adaptation of the story Bihotz handiegia by Rodríguez. The film, which had its premiere in San Sebastian Festival Official Selection, bagged the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance (Patricia López Arnaiz) and has just been released in cinemas.   

On 7 November, the Tabakalera film theatre will host the ‘Spoken Cinema’ session by the Catalan director Mar Coll, who will present her film Salve María. The film is based on the novel Amek ez dute by the writer Katixa Agirre. Following its premiere at the Locarno Festival, Coll comes to Tabakalera to explain the creative process of this film embodying her return to the cinema after a break of ten years.   

On 23 November, the director Jon Garaño will return to Tabakalera’s ‘Spoken Cinema’ after having participated four years ago alongside Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga with La trinchera infinita / The Endless Trench signed by Moriarti. This time he will present the film Marco, telling the story of Enric Marco, a man who pretended to be a former Nazi prisoner for 27 years. At Tabakalera, Garaño will explain the details of the 18 years of work that went into the story, initially conceived as a documentary, which premiered in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival.

The Zazpi t’erdi collective, who have been working on numerous film projects for several years now, will also give a ‘Spoken Cinema’ session. This year has seen them premiere Erreplika, helmed by Pello Gutiérrez, recipient of a special mention from the Irizar Award jury in the San Sebastian Festival’s Zinemira section. The German director, producer and screenwriter Nele Wohlatz also showed her latest movie at the San Sebastian Festival. Her most recent work, Dormir de olhos abertos / Sleep With Your Eyes Open (Horizontes Latinos), took its first steps at the Ikusmira Berriak residency in 2018. Wohlatz will share details of the creative process and how the project took shape from its early stages until becoming the film it is today.

For his part, filmmaker David Pérez Sañudo will talk about the development of Azken erromantikoak, his latest film, which adapts the work of Txani Rodríguez. This feature film premiered in the New Directors section of the San Sebastian Festival, and it should be noted that Pérez Sañudo was a resident of Ikusmira Berriak in 2023.

In addition, director Pablo Hernando will share details about the creative process of Una ballena, his most recent feature film presented at the Sitges Film Festival. The film, starring Ingrid García-Jonsson and produced, among others, by the Señor y Señora production company, has generated great expectation for its unique approach and narrative.

The last confirmation received to date is that of the young director Sara Fantova, who participated in the 2020 Noka programme and has finished her debut feature film, Jone batzuetan.

The sessions can be attended in person. However, their recorded version will be added at a later to the ‘Spoken Cinema’ audiovisual content on the Tabakalera website.

The year’s programme

At the end of the day, both programmes are underpinned by strong strategic lines that constantly cross paths with one another, namely: the desire to transmit knowledge and convey artistic know-how while disclosing and continually supporting creation. Now that both initiatives have been on the go for three years, engendering enormous popularity, attracting locals and users from the city, the idea is to offer a joint programme, designed in coordinated fashion and with a calendar running throughout the academic year. This coming together between the two programmes will offer an exhaustive analysis of the state of today’s cinema while helping to promote films produced throughout the year both locally and nationally. 

The joint programme will start in October and end in June; it will include the participation of some twenty protagonists and those responsible for a wide variety of cinematic proposals:

1. Actors direction: Celia Rico and María Vázquez
2. Interpreting autofiction: Javier Giner and Oriol Pla
3. New filmmakers and other disciplines: Antón Álvarez and Marta Nieto
4. Literary adaptations: Paula Ortiz and Javier García Arredondo
5. Art direction and production design: Pedro Martín-Calero and José Tirado
6. Producing non-fiction: María Elorza and Marian Fernández

The complete 'Filmmakers' Dialogues' programme and instructions for registration will be announced shortly.

1. Pilar Palomero and Eider Rodríguez. Los destellos / Glimmers, October 19.
2. Mar Coll. Salve María, November 7.
3. Jon Garaño. Marco, November 23.
4. Colectivo Zazpi t’erdi. Erreplika.
5. Nele Wohlatz. Dormir de olhos abertos / Sleep With Your Eyes Open
6. David Pérez Sañudo. Azken erromantikoak.
7. Sara Fantova. Jone batzuetan.
8. Pablo Hernando. Una ballena

Previous editions of Spoken Cinema and Filmmakers' Dialogues

Since 2020 and until 2024, twenty-seven filmmakers have participated in Tabakalera’s 'Spoken Cinema' sessions:

1. Ion de Sosa, Mamántula
2. Bas Devos
3. Celia Rico, Los pequeños amores / Little Loves
4. Andrea Jaurrieta, Nina
5. Oskar Alegría, Zinzindurrunkarratz

1. Maria Elorza. A los libros y a las mujeres canto / To Books and Women I Sing.
2. Paul Urkijo. Irati.
3. Marina Lameiro. Young & Beautiful and Dardara.
4. Estibaliz Urresola. 20.000 especies de abejas / 20,000 Species of Bees.
5. Ruth Beckerman.
6. Mia Hansen-Løve.

1. Radu Jude. Un polvo desafortunado.
2. Arantza Santesteban. 918 gau / 918 Nights.
3. Chema García Ibarra. Espíritu sagrado / The Sacred Spirit.
4. Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado. Eles transportan a morte / They Carry Death.
5. Carlos Casas. Cemetery.
6. Isaki Lacuesta. Un año, una noche / One Year, One Night.
7. Mikel Gurrea. Suro.

1. Maite Arrotajauregi and Aranzazu Calleja. Akelarre.
2. Nuria Jiménez Lorang. My Mexican Bretzel.
3. Dea Kulunbegashvili. Beginning.
4. Koldo Almandoz and Marian Fernandez. Hondar ahoak.
5. David Pérez Sañudo. Ane.

1. Jon Garaño, Aitor Arregi, José Mari Goenaga. La trinchera infinita / The Endless Trench.
2. Oliver Laxe. O que arde / Fire Will Come.
3. Carlos Marqués-Marcet. Els dies que vindran.
4. Itsaso Arana and Soledad Morente. La virgen de agosto / The August Virgin.

For their part, 43 voices have participated in the three editions of 'Filmmakers Dialogues':

1. Collective directing: Negu Hurbilak
2. Cinema and other disciplines: Víctor Iriarte and Carlos Muguiro
3. Making a first film: Itsaso Arana, Laura Ferrés and Javier Macipe
4. Literary adaptations: Isabel Coixet and Sara Mesa
5. Producing a film: JA Bayona and Belén Atienza
6. Writing cinema: Belén Funes and Marçal Cebrián
7. Animation: Isabel Herguera and Pablo Berger

1. Estibaliz Urresola, Irati Gorostidi and Maider Fernández Iriarte
2. Albert Serra, Ariadna Ribas and Artur Tort
3. Fernando Franco, Telmo Irureta and Valèria Sorolla
4. Pilar Palomero and Sofía Escudé
5. Alauda Ruiz de Azúa and Carlota Pereda
6. Alberto Rodríguez and Rafael Cobos
7. Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga

1. Lara Izagirre and Paula Olaz
2. Icíar Bollaín and Koldo Zuazua
3. Carla Simón and Ana Pfaff
4. Jonás Trueba and Javier Lafuente
5. Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Isabel Peña