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).
Spain’s most international filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar confessed yesterday afternoon that he was experiencing a 24-hour whirlwind full of emotions that culminated later on with the Donostia Award he was to receive at the Kursaal. “It constantly reminds me of the first time I came here 44 years ago with Pepi, Luci and Bom y otras chicas del montón. Since then, I’ve changed a lot, but this city continues to stir up very deep emotions in me,” the filmmaker said at the press conference that he gave a few hours before collecting his award.
As for his evolution as a director, Almodóvar commented: “My themes have changed, that’s obvious. In all this time I have been evolving in a natural, almost organic way.” In this sense, the director from La Mancha acknowledged that there was a turning point in his career that he placed in the mid-90s, which was when he claimed he began his mature phase as a filmmaker.
On the right to die with dignity, the subject of The Room Next Door, the director’s first foray into Hollywood that he is also presenting here in San Sebastián, Almodóvar said, “just as every individual owns their own life, they should also own their own death,” a message that links his film to Le dernier souffle, the feature film by Costa-Gavras presented yesterday in competition.