{"id":1735,"date":"2026-05-16T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/16\/hidden-gem-no-more-how-san-sebastian-found-its-sweet-spot\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:30:00","slug":"hidden-gem-no-more-how-san-sebastian-found-its-sweet-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/16\/hidden-gem-no-more-how-san-sebastian-found-its-sweet-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"\u3082\u306f\u3084\u96a0\u308c\u305f\u540d\u6240\u3067\u306f\u306a\u3044\uff1a\u30b5\u30f3\u30fb\u30bb\u30d0\u30b9\u30c1\u30e3\u30f3\u306f\u3044\u304b\u306b\u3057\u3066\u305d\u306e\u771f\u4fa1\u3092\u767a\u63ee\u3057\u305f\u306e\u304b"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tIf you\u2019ve spent time on the film festival circuit, you\u2019re probably aware of the \u201chidden gem\u201d reputation of the San Sebasti\u00e1n International<\/a> Film Festival. The \u201cgem\u201d part is easy to explain: global cinema, glittery stars, enthusiastic locals, a size that allows for real connections, world-renowned cuisine and the inimitable charm of this bay-set Basque city.\u00a0It\u2019s the \u201chidden\u201d part of the equation that raises some eyebrows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After 73 editions, San Sebasti\u00e1n still remains slightly off the radar for some in the industry, shadowed by its bigger European counterparts. Despite its melding of international auteurs and A-list celebrities, SSIFF is sometimes pigeonholed as mostly focused on Spain and Latin America. Timing is also not in its favor: The September fest comes on the heels of Venice and sometimes overlaps with Toronto, meaning it battles titans for world premieres.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one of the San Sebasti\u00e1n Film Festival\u2019s strengths is its awareness of its core characteristics and its refusal to try to be anything else,\u201d says SSIFF director Jos\u00e9 Luis Rebordinos, who will retire after 15 years following this fall\u2019s 74th edition (Sept.\u202f18-26), to be replaced at the helm by current deputy director Maialen Beloki.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t be a major market, but we can have interesting industry activities like the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum or the Investors\u2019 Conference,\u201d Rebordinos continues. \u201cWe can\u2019t have the year\u2019s biggest American releases as premieres, but we can showcase some of them with members of their teams in parallel sections.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, the event has found its sweet spot. \u201cWe are a festival with a large enough audience to interest both the industry and critics, but small enough to feel human and welcoming,\u201d Rebordinos says. \u201cWe work with humility, and our slogan is \u2018We are the smallest of the greats.\u2019\u202f\u201d<\/p>\n

San Sebasti\u00e1n regulars agree: \u201cEverybody thinks of Cannes and Venice and Berlin, but it\u2019s the smaller festivals like San Sebasti\u00e1n that people will gravitate toward,\u201d says Christine Vachon, co-founder of New York-based Killer Films. \u201cThose are the festivals where you actually get to spend time with filmmakers, local artists and financiers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The festival was recognized with \u201cA\u201d status in 1957, just four years after it launched. Early visitors included luminaries like Federico Fellini, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. The lifetime achievement Donostia Award, created in 1986, has drawn big names like Gregory Peck, Bette Davis, Lauren Bacall, Al Pacino and Anthony Hopkins.\u00a0
Last year saw two firsts: the youngest-ever awardee \u2014 Jennifer Lawrence \u2014 and the first producer honoree (Esther Garc\u00eda, Pedro Almod\u00f3var\u2019s in-house executive). Accepting her Donostia, Lawrence called it \u201creally special\u201d to be \u201cat a festival where people genuinely love cinema \u2014 the storytelling art and the soul of the movies.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\tThe festival\u2019s industry events have expanded over the years. They include the Creative Investors\u2019 Conference (heading into its fifth year, in collaboration with CAA Media Finance), the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum and a host of other initiatives focused on new directors, works in progress, startups and more. Last year\u2019s edition welcomed just over 2,400 professionals accredited from more than 1,500 companies across 65\u202fcountries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum has been a great success for years now,\u201d Rebordinos highlights. \u201cSelecting only around 16 projects is difficult due to the high quality of the submissions. More and more members of the industry are participating in this event. The Investors\u2019 Conference has also become a key event, bringing together some of the most important names in global film production and investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

SSIFF is also the crown jewel of the fast-growing regional Basque industry. \u201cIts sights are firmly set on filmmaking as an evolving global force,\u201d says longtime observer Rob Stone, emeritus professor of film studies at the University of Birmingham and co-author of\u00a0Basque Cinema: A Cultural and Political History<\/em>. Yet it\u2019s still \u201cBasque at heart,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Since Jose Mari Goenaga and Jon Gora\u00f1o\u2019s\u00a0Flowers<\/em>\u00a0(Loreak<\/em>) became the first Basque-language film to premiere in the main competition in 2014, there has been at least one local film in the festival\u2019s official selection every year. Last year, a whopping 37 Basque productions screened at the festival, evidence of the industry\u2019s growth as a production hub thanks to major new incentives. The festival, in turn, had an estimated economic impact of 47.9\u202fmillion euros ($56.2\u202fmillion) on the region in 2024. \t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\u201cThere was a lot of very good material to choose from, and last year, many [Basque films] were left out,\u201d says Mar Izquierdo, coordinator of Zineuskadi, a nonprofit co-founded by the regional government to support and promote the Basque industry. But, she adds, \u201cJos\u00e9 Luis has always said he wouldn\u2019t want Basque productions to be here for free \u2014 he doesn\u2019t want it to seem like just because you\u2019re from here, you automatically get in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, \u201cSSIFF is excellent at identifying, attracting and nurturing original talent in Spain and Latin America,\u201d notes Bel\u00e9n Vidal, a reader in film studies at King\u2019s College London and Spanish cinema specialist, underscoring how those talents often end up becoming the year\u2019s biggest films from the regions. \u201cI attend SSIFF to catch the \u2018big\u2019 Spanish titles for the year ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

To wit, after Basque filmmaker Alauda Ruiz de Az\u00faa took home the festival\u2019s top Golden Shell prize for her film\u00a0Sundays<\/em>\u00a0(Los Domingos<\/em>) last year, she went on to sweep the country\u2019s Oscar-equivalent Goya Awards. \u201cParticipating in San Sebasti\u00e1n greatly helps position a film and give it exposure, especially in Europe and Latin America, and particularly in Spain,\u201d says Manu Calvo, co-producer of\u00a0Sundays\u00a0<\/em>through Encanta Films.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marisa Fern\u00e1ndez Armenteros of Buenapinta Media, also a co-producer on the film, adds: \u201cWinning the Golden Shell was a turning point for the film. An award like that opens many doors, because you go from having just another film on the festival circuit to gaining significant visibility in Spain and abroad. It helps with international sales, expands its reach to other festivals, and allows the film to find audiences it probably wouldn\u2019t have reached otherwise, and who, in the case of\u00a0Los Domingos<\/em>, connected with it and filled the\u202ftheaters.\u201d<\/p>\n

As anyone who has attended SSIFF knows, theaters at the festival itself are always full. Last year\u2019s edition saw 181,183 spectators attending 666 screenings of 254 titles from 56 different countries, an audience increase of 5.15\u202fpercent compared with the previous year. \u201cTicket prices are kept low and stable to ensure that local audiences can attend screenings,\u201d notes Stone.\u00a0
Rebordinos didn\u2019t have to look far for his replacement. \u201cI am immensely pleased that the person appointed \u2026 is someone from my team, as well as a fundamental part of the work carried out over these 15 years,\u201d Rebordinos says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The transition is already underway. Says Rebordinos: \u201cNow that the appointment has been made, my responsibility in the coming months is to work closely with Maialen so that she arrives in January 2027 with the greatest possible understanding of the festival.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve spent time on the film festival circuit, you\u2019re probably aware of the \u201chidden gem\u201d reputation of the San Sebasti\u00e1n International Film Festival. The \u201cgem\u201d part is easy to explain: global cinema, glittery stars, enthusiastic locals, a size that allows for real connections, world-renowned cuisine and the inimitable charm of this bay-set Basque city.\u00a0It\u2019s the \u201chidden\u201d part of the equation that raises some eyebrows.\u00a0 After 73 editions, San Sebasti\u00e1n still remains slightly off the radar for some in the industry, shadowed by its bigger European counterparts. Despite its melding of international auteurs and A-list celebrities, SSIFF is sometimes pigeonholed as mostly focused on Spain and Latin America. Timing is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,116,27,60,1103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hollywood","category-international","category-movie-news","category-movies","category-san-sebastian-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}