FILMS

San Sebastian's film programme consists of some 200 films selected for seven competitive sections (Official Selection, New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, Perlak, Culinary Zinema and Nest) and six non-competitive sections (Made in Spain, Zinemira, Velodrome, Movies for Kids, Retrospective and Klasikoak).

FILMS-TO-BE

As well as selecting and showing films to an audience of spectators, specialised media and film industry professionals, the San Sebastian Festival promotes projects and films in development (the so-called 'works in progress'). In this section, the Festival has two programmes for films at the post-production stage: WIP Latam for Latin American productions and WIP Europa for European productions. The Festival also promotes three calls for projects.

THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION

The San Sebastian Festival wants to stress its character as a place of meeting, knowledge generation and transfer through the Thought and Discussion area. In dialogue with the different Festival departments, this cross-cutting area focusses on identifying subjects, formats and relevant people to lead the debate and develop innovative answers around the major challenges and concerns facing contemporary cinematic culture and the international festival circuit.

It is, therefore, the event’s most strategic area, the space where the Festival questions itself and endeavours to find forward-looking responses to a constantly changing international filmmaking panorama.

It has therefore established four core strategic lines from which to question the way the Festival relates to the spheres of creation (training programmes, project development and support for new talents), the industry (production and distribution structures, new technologies, models of sustainable labour practices in the sector), the territory (relationship with the urban environment and architecture, on-site film screening models, the economic impact of festivals) and the community (gender identities and environmental sustainability).

These strategic lines materialise in two ways. On the one hand, as a permanent space of reflection and analysis, the Thought and Discussion area extends its activity throughout the year by means of its own programmes and initiatives, such as the gender report published since 2017, the environmental audit launched in 2021 which will enable the SSIFF to become a more sustainable festival, and different research projects to generate specific knowledge networks for each of the lines.

On the other hand, the Thought and Discussion umbrella encompasses the Film Talks section during the Festival in September. A place to promote dialogue on the cinema from the industrial, creative and training points of view, as well as the programmes that generate agreement and business opportunities in the fields of creation, production and distribution. The aspects figuring in this area range from the masterclasses, open to accredited guests and the public, to activities specifically intended for film industry professionals and the specialised media, such as the conversations and round tables or the Zinemaldia & Technology programme, among others.