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).
International competition between the first or second feature movies by their filmmakers, as yet unscreened – they can only have been released in the country of their production – and produced in the last year.
All of the films in this section compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, coming with 50,000 euros distributed in equal parts between the director and the distributor of the film in Spain.
The Kutxabank-New Directors Award is sponsored by Kutxabank, an official Festival collaborator. The Jury of the Kutxabank-New Directors Award has the task of appraising and granting the awards to these films.
Films in the New Directors section are also candidates for the Youth Award, decided by a jury of students between the ages of 18 and 15 years.