During Cannes 2023, Universal Cinema Film & TV Journal’s Amir Ganjavie interviewed José Luis Rebordinos, the Artistic Director of the San Sebastian Film Festival. He was assisted by a Lucia Olaciregui, the festival deputy. What follows is that interview.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): Can you tell us about your selection process?
José Luis Rebordinos (JLR): It’s similar to other big festivals. We watch films in different forms. Sometimes, we have to go to the market to watch the films. Sometimes we go to different countries, and we organize screenings. Sometimes the producer or the international distributor sends us the films.
We have a Selection Committee, a team with 12 people, who selects the films. At this moment, we have more than 200 films to watch per week. Every team member watches a film. If that person likes the film, passes it on to another member of the team. That is the process, and I am included in it. I am there and I attend to the screenings, read the reports from my colleagues, and we make the decision normally together.
Lucia Olaciregui (LO): We also have a team of eight delegates all over the world. They track films and we get a lot of fresh information from them. They don’t do selection, but they review the film, so we know more or less what’s going on.
(UM): And what’s your definition of a good film? Do you have one?
(JLR): The selection of films is very important. Normally, the story the film tells is important, but the form is very important as well. How that story is being told.
Sometimes you select a film for some other reason. You need to have some film for the audience, more commercial. You need to have some very big films, because a big film is good for the sponsor, it’s good for the publicity, and for the Festival…
(UM): And in terms of the quota, do you have any kind of quota in race or gender or country?
(JLR): No, we don’t attend quotas, but we work from the first day to have women in the Festival. We only have quotas for the not finished films. We have our Nest competition for cinema students, the Coproduction Forum, the works-in-progress (WIP Europa and WIP Latam), and here quotas exist.
(UM): And how has Covid affected your festival?
(JLR): Our festival is presential and has always been, even during the pandemic. For us, it’s very important that the films are screened in the cinemas. We can have screenings online for professionals with some films, but the main competition, called Sección Oficial, and the New Directors sections, which normally host World or International Premieres, are always screened in cinemas.
(UM): And each year, you usually pick two or three actors and give them an honor. And this year I realized Javier Bardem is one of them. Can you tell us why?
(JLR): Bardem probably is the most international actor in Spain. Winner of an Oscar, he also won the best actor awards in Cannes, Venice, and San Sebastian. It is very clear that he deserves the Donostia Award. In my opinion, at this moment, he’s one of the best actors worlwide.
(UM): I see in the past, you never showed hesitation to promote controversial artists or screen controversial topics. For example, in the case of Woody Allen, you supported his previous film three years ago. Would you still support his new work?
(JLR): I don’t have any problem with Woody Allen. In my opinion, there is a thing that is very important: I am not a policeman, I am not a judge. At this moment Woody Allen doesn’t have any problem with the justice.
(UM): So it is a possibility that you would screen his films at your festival?
(JLR): We screened his last film in San Sebastian. It was the opening film of our 68th edition in 2020. This year we want to watch his newest film, and we want to have the film.
(UM): And considering what you said before, I think that, for example, a movie like Polanski movie is not for you.
(JLR): Well, no, I don’t know. Why? Because Polanski is a man who was judged guilty, and he left. He still has problems with the law in different countries. This is why, for me, Polanski is not a man to be invited to attend to our Festival because he must go to justice and fix his pending issues. But one thing is Polanski, and another thing is Polanski´s work. I don’t have any problem with his work.
It seems that Picasso was not a good man in life, but I still want to admire his paintings. That is the same. I don’t want to have anything to do with Polanski, but I want to watch his films. He’s one of the best directors in the history of cinema. In any case it’s complicated, yes. It’s very complicated.
(UM): And suppose that the film is being funded by the Russian government, will you look at the movie?
(LO): Yes, we will watch it. We will never make a filmmaker responsible for what his government does.
(JLR): We will watch the film. If the film is interesting, and its discourse is not pro-Putin, we could select it without problems.
(UM): Last year I remember you has some controversy with the film Sparta. Did you have conversations amongst yourselves about it?
(JLR): The film is a story about a paedophile. The German journal Der Spiegel, said that in the film shooting, there was physical violence against children. After the Festival, Rumanian institutions investigated the case and concluded the allegations were false.
If people or mass media say that you are a killer, are you a killer? Not for me. And this is the case. I only accept the verdict of the judges.
(UM): Okay. And in terms of a selection process, does it happen that sometimes, for example, you select a movie that you don’t like, because some festival director they told me that because it is my signature at the end, it is very important that I can approve everything.
(JLR) Normally we select the films among the Selection Committee. Only sometimes, very rarely, depending on different interests of the Festival, I may select a film directly.
(LO): It’s very democratic.
(JLR): The line of the Festival is not mine, is the line on the Selection Committee.
(UM): And in terms of awards, how do you try to support filmmakers? Do you provide financial support, or do you provide training or help with distribution?
(JLR) We offer travel and accommodation, never a fee and, in the parallel sections, cash prizes for distributors.
(LO): For example, the New Directors award, the Kutxabank-New Directors Award of 50,000 euros, is for the distributor in Spain. So, the winner gets distribution in the country always.
(UM): When I watch films at your festival, I liked a lot the Spanish section, Made in Spain’s section. I always discover something very interesting here. I’m just curious what you can say about that section of your festival.
(JLR): For us, this section as well as Zinemira and Horizontes Latinos sections are very important to us. They are a showcase for the part of the professionals who come San Sebastian to watch Spanish and Latin American films. Made in Spain showcases the Spanish production; Zinemira, the Basque production, and Horizontes Latinos, the Latin American production.
If you are interested in Latin American or Spanish films, if you come to San Sebastian, you can watch a selection of the best of the Spanish and Latin American films of the year.
(UM): And I remember I watched, for example, movies about Basque Independence here. I’m just curious to know if this selection has caused any kind of political controversy or put any pressure on you.
(JLR): It is normal that in a Festival that takes place in the Basque Country, films that talk about our most recent past are screened and, in our past, ETA´s terrorism and State terrorism have been very present. Of course, this, like other issues related, for example, to gender violence, has caused controversy. But they also have been used to promote debates and discussion. That is all.
In any case, I have the impression that in Europe citizens are more open to debate than in the US where, almost always, a certain reactionary morality contaminates everything.
(UM): The festival is happening one week after Toronto film festival. So, I’m just curious to know how you deal with the premier status of the movies that was selected at Tiff.
(JLR): This is not a problem at all, because Toronto IFF is a non-competitive FIAPF Festival and, therefore, is compatible with San Sebastian IFF. Toronto can hold the World Premiere of a film and San Sebastian, afterwards, the European Premiere.
(UM): You mentioned that you are trying to balance different aspects when you are selecting the movies. And sometimes you need to take care of a sponsor. I’m just curious about how is important is ticket sales for your festival.
(JLR): Very important, because the last year before the pandemic 178,000 people attended the screenings. Last year, back to certain pre-pandemic normality, we had 154,000 spectators.
Our budget, consist of 55% from public money and 45% from sponsors and tickets.
We are a Festival where the presence of the audience is fundamental and at the same time very important for producers and international distributors of the films. Here in San Sebastian, they can see for the first time the reaction of a real audience to their films, not only the reaction of members of the film industry.
(UM): And how is it important is Cannes for you? When you are here, what you are doing?
(JLR): Cannes is the most important Film Festival in the world. Not only because we can watch some of the most important films of the year, but also because the entire world film industry gathers there. Every year I have around 100 meetings during my stay in Cannes.
(UM): I wonder if there is anything left that you want to add to our conversation.
(JLR): We like to describe ourselves as the smallest of the big festivals and we don’t want to be bigger. We are a small city, and this size allows us to be a human festival. where the industry can do business, exchange experiences and interact comfortably.
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