Politics has been in the limelight throughout the fall festival season so far and, as the San Sebastián International Film Festival readies itself
Politics has been in the limelight throughout the fall festival season so far and, as the San Sebastián International Film Festival readies itself for its 73rd edition later this week, the progressive event has no plans to shy away from the conversation.
In fact, Spain’s most prominent film event has gone one step further than its predecessors this year by issuing an open letter on September 5 – just two weeks before the festival kicks off – where San Sebastián called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza. In a unique move for any film festival, the institution publicly stated its “rejection of the genocide [and] of the unimaginable massacres to which the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu is subjecting the Palestinian people since Hamas perpetrated the terrorist attack of 7 October 2023, which, we of course, also condemn.”
The letter continued: “They are killing boys and girls. They are killing journalists and humanitarian workers. They are using starvation as a weapon. They are preventing and hindering access to humanitarian aid. They are forcing the mass displacement of the Palestinian population.”
It was bold and unprecedented statement from a major international film festival, none of which have yet publicly commented as institutions on the war in Gaza. But for San Sebastián festival director José Luis Rebordinos, the letter was a no-brainer. “For our festival, it’s important that we speak about the reality of the situation,” he tells Deadline. “We don’t have to speak about different [political] parties being better than another, but we have to speak about the reality of the human hearts. I think cultural institutions need to speak out in this moment and, if a government is killing people, we need to denounce that.”
On a macro level, Spain was one of the first European countries to recognize Palestine as a state and condemn the Israeli government’s actions while just two days before to San Sebastián’s open letter, organizers of major Spanish cycling race Vuelta de España stopped the race from finishing due to pro-Palestine protests.
As a festival, San Sebastián has a reputation for supporting progressive protests. Last year, the festival ramped up support for Argentina’s film industry after far-right leader Javier Milei withdrew all state funding from the country’s film body, the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA).
“As festivals, we have to do different things,” says Rebordinos. “While it’s important for us to showcase diverse cinema and attract people to our event, we also need to speak about the reality of what is happening in our world because festivals can serve as very big megaphones.”
Diverse programming
This year’s edition sees another eclectic lineup, with projects from all across the globe set to screen across the nine-day event. The festival kicks off on September 19 with world premiere of Argentine drama 27 Nights from writer-director Daniel Hendler. There are the European premieres of Edward Berger’s Ballad of a Small Player, Angelina Jolie starrer Couture, Claire Denis’ The Fence, Agnieszka Holland’s Franz and James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg, all of which will screen In Competition.
José Luis Rebordinos
Additional competition titles include the world premiere of Chinese helmer Xiaoyu Qin’s Her Heart Beats in its Cage, Spanish filmmaker Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Los domingos (Sundays), Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu’s Ungrateful Beings and Japanese entry SAI: Disaster from Yutaro Seki and Kentaro Hirase.
Argentine film Belén is also screening in competition this year. The project, from writer-director-actor Dolores Fonzi, is based on the 2014 true story of a woman who was sent to jail and accused of having a self-induced abortion after suffering a miscarriage.
“It’s important for us as a festival to offer a very open point of view about the cinema coming from Asia, Latin America, the U.S., Spain, Africa and beyond,” notes Rebordinos, adding that shining a spotlight on Latin America is still a major directive for the European event.
“Our idea has always been to be an open door for Latin American cinema in Europe and vice versa,” he says. “But the effects of what has happened in Argentina are already noticeable. This is the first time in the last 20 years that we don’t have an Argentine film playing in our Works in Progress section.”
Rebordinos says that the next “two or three years will be very difficult” for independent Argentine films in a compact to medium budget range and while the platforms will likely step in for the bigger projects, the funding situation in the territory will have a huge impact on the indie sector.
Star power
The festival continues to ramp up A-List guest list and this year San Sebastián will award Jennifer Lawrence with its prestigious Donostia Award. Lawrence starrer Die My Love, from director Lynne Ramsay, will also screen at the festival following its Cannes debut in May. Rebordinos says Lawrence is “one of the best actresses working in cinema at the moment” and her films drive younger audiences to the cinema in Spain.
“That is important because as a festival, we also have a duty to attract young people to the cinema,” he says. “Jennifer Lawrence has had a very impressive career and, at the same time, young people love her.”
Meanwhile, multihyphenate J.A. Bayona will preside the jury that includes Gia Coppola, Mark Strong, Anne-Dominique Toussaint and Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu. Colin Farrell is expected to attend for his film Ballad of a Small Player alongside auteurs such as Richard Linklater for Nouvelle Vague, Juliette Binoche for her directorial debut In-I In Motion and Olivier Assayas for The Wizard of the Kremlin.
The festival is also set to award esteemed Spanish producer Esther García with its Donostia Award, marking the first time the festival will honor a producer with the award. García, who has worked on more than 100 productions, joined Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar’s El Deseo production company in 1986, one year after the brothers founded the outfit. “For me, it’s impossible to think about Pedro Almodóvar without thinking of Esther García,” says Rebordinos.
On the industry side, the festival director is hugely proud of its growing Creative Investors Conference, which it runs with CAA Media Finance and is now entering its fourth year at the festival. “This is one of the most important activities of the festival for us because we can have significant investors and producers unite and that is hugely special to the Spanish industry,” he says of the two-day event.
Meanwhile, a host of glitzy films will decorate the festival’s Perlak Strand, which brings together films from this year’s major international film festivals. Cannes debuts such as Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident will screen in the section while Venice debuts include Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly and Kaouther Ben Hania’s powerful hybrid doc The Voice of Hind Rajab. The latter title, which follows the IDF’s killing of five-year elderly Palestinian girl Hind Rajab and took the Grand Jury prize at Venice earlier this month, was very significant to include in the festival lineup this year according to Rebordinos.
“This film is hugely significant,” he says. “People are watching what is happening in Gaza at the moment and we have to use our position to speak about the reality.”
He continues: “It’s a very complicated time in the world at the moment. People like me, we thought that democracy would always prevail but it’s not true at this moment and we have to work to explain this and fight against it. It’s more important than ever for culture to fight against fascism, even if we only play a small role in that.”
The San Sebastian International Film Festival runs September 19-27, 2025.
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