During Sundance 2023, Universal Cinema Film & TV Journal’s Amir Ganjavie interviewed Maialen Beloki, the Chief Executive and the Deputy Director of the San Sebastian Film Festival. What follows is that interview.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): Can you start by introducing your role at the festival?
Maialen Beloki (MB): I’m the Deputy Director of the San Sebastian Film Festival. And since 2020, I’m also in charge of a new area that we call “festival all year round” because we believe that the festival it’s not only the San Sebastian Film Festival event that takes place in September for nine days to showcase and promote films. We are also an institution that works all year round and with different goals. We work for training and information. We work for research in festival studies and in cinema in general, and also to help new talents develop their projects. So, I’m in charge of this area in addition to being the Deputy Director of the San Sebastian Film Festival.
(UM): What’s the selection process like for your festival? Who makes the final decisions?
(MB): Well, we have a selection committee composed of 12 members. And then there’s the director. So these 12 members plus the director of the festival, José Luis Rebordinos, decide on all the films selected in all the sections of the festival.
I started with the festival 12 years ago, and that part has been changing a lot, because of digitalization we’ve started to receive a lot more films. So when I started, we were only seven members of the selection committee. Sometimes that makes the discussions complicated, but at the same time, it makes them interesting because it’s quite a diverse selection committee. It’s public, it’s on the website, and you can check who is a member of the selection committee. They have different tastes in films so sometimes it’s difficult to reach an agreement. But at the same time, I think that we can offer a diverse selection because of the diversity of the selection committee.
And then there’s something else which is the delegates’ network. We have delegates in different territories. It is also public, on the San Sebastian Film Festival website if you want to check their credentials. For example, Alex Masson, a delegate for France/Belgium/Canada, used to work in PR and he’s a writer, a critic and he has very good contacts in France. He knows the distribution and sales agents.
The delegates are more like scouts. They get to know films and present them to the selection committee though they don’t make any final decisions. The final decisions come from the selection committee.
(UM): Do you have any geographical or language quotas that you try to meet?
(MB): Well, because of our language, we are like the gateway to Latin American Films to Europe. It’s something that we feel makes our festival different from other Film Festivals. So I would say we specifically give more attention to Latin American cinematography. But, the San Sebastian Film Festival is an International Film Festival and I think we cover most geographies. We have Asian Films, obviously Europe and the Latin American States.
But we do have a problem with Africa. Not because we don’t want to program films from Africa, but because we don’t get to see a lot of them. I think it’s a global problem too because there are few productions. Maybe the only productions from Africa have a French Co-Production, so they get into other Film Festivals. But, in general, we try to be like an International Film Festival and try to hype films from as many diverse countries as we can.
(UM): Diversity is big right now in festivals, and some have said they sacrifice quality for diversity. Others say they don’t have to or they won’t sacrifice quality. Where do you fall?
(MB): I’m sorry, but I laughed at the quality argument because at some point there are a lot of different criteria when you are in a selection process, and that means you need to have some countries there, you need to have some different types of movies. So then, why can’t we accept diversity to be another criterion? Maybe not the only one, we don’t have quotas, but we think it’s important to think about diversity and inclusion in the selection process. And yes, why not push some films because of that reason? And the quality reason, it’s something else because sometimes we can accept films that may not be the best quality, but they’re selected because they have a really good start, etc. Not because of diversity.
So I think the quality argument is not a good argument. It’s one or the other. I think you can’t believe in inclusion and use the diversity criteria while selecting projects and also say that you always select quality films. We don’t have quotas. I don’t know if it’s going to be something coming in the few upcoming years, but we do take into account intersectionality and inclusion while we are selecting.
(UM): Suppose I’m a filmmaker, and I make a well-made film on a controversial topic, say abortion, would you still screen it?
(MB): Obviously, I always think that there are some red lines. It depends on where you put those red lines. For me, this one that you said would be a red line for me and I would say that not only for me but for the San Sebastian Film Festival right now. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t accept things that could be controversial. Because sometimes we feel films are interesting if they push a social debate. I feel like it’s interesting to have controversial films, but then obviously, there are some red lines, and I think that basic human rights are like those red lines for San Sebastian Film Festival. And I’m not very happy with generalizations, because I think you need to study it case-by-case and to see in which case it’s acceptable and which you feel it’s not.
Because you can say one thing, then you find yourself eating your words in a month because you have to study what’s wrong or what’s good in that specific case. If there’s a risk of really going against basic human rights — or it could be like something interesting to push a social debate. But then I would never do propaganda films that are against basic human rights.
(UM): What’s your relationship with marginalized groups? Take for example what’s happening in the Ukraine right now. Do you have support for filmmakers in places like that?
(MB): We don’t have like a specific program, but I would say that we do specific actions in each case. For example, we helped some filmmakers get out of Afghanistan a couple of years back with letters and did our best with the politicians to bring them out of the country.
With Ukrainian, we brought some producers there to help them and to listen. What they need now is something that has nothing to do with films, but we are a film festival, and we always try to consider in what sense we can help.
(UM): Do you take films recommended to you by distributors more seriously?
(MB): No, it depends. I mean, we have films with International sales agents, and sometimes they are already sold to the distributors. So our connection there is a Spanish distributor, and sometimes they are sold while they are in San Sebastian, they only come with sales agents. And sometimes we have films that have nothing. Just a producer because they are in the New Directors’ section. For example, there are some cases that they will find a sales agent or a distributor at the San Sebastian Film Festival, but they don’t come with them.
Usually, it’s not the case for the official selection, but it can be the case for the new directors. Festivals are also a platform where films are sold. So it’s not good to take distributed films more seriously or lightly.
(UM): How important are ticket sales or having a crowd-pleaser for your festival?
(MB): The San Sebastian Film Festival is an audience-oriented Film Festival unlike Cannes, which is only professional. We do have an audience and it’s part of our budget. We have nearly 50/50 public funds and sponsorship and box office. But we don’t try to find box office hits. We are really lucky because there is an audience that is really keen on the film festival, and they are willing to assume some risk during the festival. They go to see nearly everything. Even some radical proposals, that’s what I really like about the San Sebastian Film Festival, that we have an audience willing to take risks. So we don’t feel like we need to push for some films only for the audience. Though I would say our taste is quite eclectic. Sometimes we like more commercial, conventional films, and then some more radical output too. We are lucky to have that type of audience.
(UM): I have been to San Sebastian, and I have noticed that you always have a couple of films from filmmakers with Spanish backgrounds.
(MB): More than a couple. I think it’s a responsibility of Film Festivals to be helpful to the cinema in the industry where they are taking place. I mean you attend the Cannes Film Festival there are a lot of French films. And if you attend San Sebastian Film Festival, you will find a lot of Spanish and Basque films in the different selections. It’s because I think we have strong cinematography. I really believe that right now, the Spanish cinema is really, really strong and really diverse.
If you attend all the Film Festivals around the world, you’ll see that Spanish films are everywhere. So obviously, San Sebastian must be a place for those films too. But also because Film Festivals have to be part of the film industry, and it’s our responsibility to help in the way we can to foster the Spanish and Basque film industry. So yes, we always have between four and five films in the official selection, but then you find the Spanish and Basque craft films in all the sections.
(UM): I noticed your festival takes place around the same time as TIFF, and I will always notice that there will be movies playing at TIFF than at your festival or the reverse. I’m curious how that works.
(MB): San Sebastian is one of the 15 Film festivals in the world, which is from the FIAF. So there’s a category in the FIAF, which is competitive non-specialized Film Festivals. And in this category, there are only 15 Film Festivals. San Sebastian is one of them. Toronto is not. That’s why we can accept films that have been in Toronto and then come to San Sebastian because we do ask for a World or International Premiere in the official competition and new directors. And that makes a kind of circuit that is reasonable for us because it’s not only because we can do it, it’s because the professionals and media in Toronto and in San Sebastian are not usually the same because they don’t get to travel from one festival to the others because it’s just a nearby. So it’s kind of a circuit for the films which we feel can help them to go, maybe do like the Canada/United States Premiere and then come to Europe through San Sebastian. I have to admit that we use it to push to get some films. They can go to Venice, but then if they go to Venice, they cannot go to San Sebastian. But they can do Toronto and San Sebastian. So we feel like it’s a good offer to release a film internationally.
(UM): Can you talk about your awards?
(MB): We have the Donostia Award. It’s an award for people who’ve had really interesting film trajectories and filmographies in their lives. For the past few years, it’s been an honorary with the recipient decided by the Artistic Director of the Festival, José Luis Rebordinos. It’s a special moment in the city.
(UM): How do you help filmmakers attending your festival? In terms of promotion or prizes.
(MB): In the Official Selection, they compete for the Golden Shell. But it’s not an economic prize. But it is for New Directors it is an economic prize because we feel we can help more with those films than the other ones. Obviously, I think the best way of helping promote them is to give them the platform, to bring the press, to bring the filmmaking team here, and to make that encounter. Help them have the interviews. Help them have good connections with the professionals so that they can sell the film. So I feel like the festival’s part is not the cash prize but the promotion work we can do. It’s the most important part of the Film Festivals because the film will begin here and then aim to go to the theatrical release or sometimes only streaming platforms. I always hope for a theatrical release first. I think the festival’s mission is to help these films to be released in the best conditions. We can help them with the press (international, national, and local), bringing the cast/crew here, making good space for diverse interviews, and helping in that type of promotion.
(UM): You attended Sundance online. What’s your relationship with Sundance? How important is their festival to you?
(MB): On the one hand, it’s the way for us to get to know a certain type of indie movie that we wouldn’t get to see easily otherwise. Because the “big films,” we are going to watch them through the other festivals or even when they are released. But there is a type of American Indie Film that we don’t usually get to see. So Sundance is a good way to watch those films. And then for the American films that had been released in the American competition, we can bring them back to San Sebastian.
But it’s not only that, we contact the people of the Sundance Institute. Because when we were trying to launch our strategy for the “festival all year round”, we were inspired by the Sundance Institute method of work. The training, the programs, etc. So we were having a lot of conversations with them. Obviously, we have different structures and capacities but it was quite inspiring for us to build and launch our strategy of the “festival all year round”.
(UM): Can you tell me more about the “festival all year round”?
(MB): Well, we are lucky enough that we’re located in a huge International Centre for Contemporary Culture. And here, we have all the resources we want. We have a hotel, we have exhibition rooms, we have cinema rooms, and also residencies. It’s an incredible space where we live with other institutions such as the Centre for Contemporary Culture or an International Film School, which is Elias Querejeta Film School, or the Basque Film Archive (housed in the same building). Alongside them, we can manage to have a lot of programs with different goals. For example, once a month we program something in the theater and it’s a nice way to expand our programming and to engage with your audience. To work year-round with them, to have a connection, not only for nine days but all year. Then we have residencies for new talents called Ikusmira Berriak.
We take part in the film school because there’s a degree in curating films. So we are part of the managing direction of the film school and we teach there too, for the future programmers of Spain, but not only Spain because the school is international.
We have academic research projects. For example, we have a project with our own archive from 1953, which has been restored. Until now, all the documents and photographs, were stored in a storage room. We brought them here and we restored them, digitalized them, and made a website out of them.
We also have an academic newspaper where we write about film studies. So there are a lot of different programs. We don’t do it on our own because we couldn’t manage to. We don’t have the budget or the resources. But the possibilities of this building and having other institutions working with the same objectives made it possible to have a lot of different programs.
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