Zinemaldia: Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Contest

Donostia - San Sebastián is celebrating these days (20-28 September) the 72nd edition of its International Film Festival, one of the four A category film festivals in Europe along with Cannes, Berlin and Venice. During these days some 200 films selected to take part in 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) will be seen.

President of the international jury this year is film director Jaione Camborda, who won last year's Concha de Oro, the highest prize of the contest. Other members of the jury include the Argentinian journalist and writer Leila Guerriero, film directors Ulrich Seidl (Austrian) and Christos Nikou (Greek), actor and director Fran Kranz (USA) and French producer Carole Scotta.

Among the film directors who have confirmed their assistance are Pedro Almodóvar, Paolo Sorrentino, François Ozon, Jacques Audiard, Sean Baker, Edward Berger, Leos Carax, Gia Coppola, Costa-Gavras, Audrey Diwan, Arnaud Desplechin, Mati Diop, Adam Elliot, Coralie Fargeat, Payal Kapadia, Dea Kulumbegashvili, Mike Leigh, Joshua Oppenheimer,  Mohammad Rasoulof, Walter Salles, Jane Schoenbrun and Johnny Depp, who is presenting here, out of contest, his second film behind the cameras.

A lot of Spanish actors and actresses will be attending the festival, among them Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Najwa Nimri, Ursula Corberó, Bárbara Lennie and Carmen Machi. International celebrities like Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Monica Belluci and Tim Burton, Charlotte Rampling, Franco Nero, Andrew Garfield (Spiderman), Jamie Campbell Bower ('Stranger Things'), Pamela Anderson, Tilda Swinton, Lupita Nyong’o and Isabelle Huppert have also confirmed their assistance.

The Festival is going green. In order to reduce CO2 emissions 100% renewable fuel will be used along with a fleet of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles (one of the plugs and a car from the Festival fleet can be seen in the panorama). The closing gala on Sept. 28 will be powered by three generators running on 100% renewable fuel.

The opening view of the panorama shows the Teatro Victoria Eugenia on the right and the Maria Cristina Hotel, where many of the attendants are lodged, to its left. Panning to the right can be seen, across the river, the modern building of the Kursaal, main center of the Festival along with the Victoria Eugenia theater. It is a work of the Pritzker prized architect Rafael Moneo. Many other venues across the city are also projecting films, including the velodrome. When director Oliver Stone visited it in 1986 to present his film 'Salvador' on the 400 square meters screen and met the 3.000 people reunited there to see it, he called the venue 'the best movie theater in the world".

Europe / Spain

Lat: 43° 19' 21.4" N
Long: 2° 59' 48.85" W

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Medium. Nearby, but not to the last decimal.

Z8, 7Artisans 10mm, monopod, home made panohead, NX Studio, PTGui Pro, Topaz Sharpen IA