Albert Serra, Kitty Green, Christian Petzold, Raven Jackson and Lila Avilés, among the conversations and masterclasses at San Sebastian Festival’s 71st edition

At the 71st edition of the San Sebastian Festival, the Thought and Discussion area will organise an extensive programme of conversations, masterclasses and round tables taking a closer look at the creative processes of moviemakers Raven Jackson, Lila Avilés, Albert Serra, Kitty Green and Christian Petzold. Among other subjects, it will also address the strategies to be implemented in order to guarantee an inclusive industry and the new technological challenges facing the film industry.

Thought and Discussion is the area where the San Sebastian Festival emphasizes its position as a place to meet and to generate and transmit knowledge, while also questioning itself and endeavouring to find future solutions for a changing cinematic landscape.

Conversations

To launch the Conversations section, Thought and Discussion proposes a talk with the Catalan moviemaker Albert Serra on Sunday 24 at 12:00 in the Z room at Tabakalera. Here the director of Història de la meva mort / Story of My Death (2013)La mort de Louis XIV / Last Days of Louis XIV (2016) and Tourment sur les îles / Pacifiction (Made in Spain, 2022), winner of a Golden Leopard and the Cannes Jury Prize, will reflect on the documentary-making process. Serra is currently busy with his next movie, Tardes de soledad, about bullfighting and the mental and spiritual states of the bullfighter in the ring.  

Kitty Green, who directed The Assistant (2019) and will compete for this year’s Golden Shell with The Royal Hotel (2023), will give a talk on Monday 25 at 16:30 in the Z room at Tabakalera. At this conversation sponsored by the 2030 Agenda, the maker of several documentaries including Casting JonBenet (2017), The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul (2015) and Ukraine Is Not a Brothel (2013) will give a talk on the transformative power of the cinema.  

On Tuesday 26 at 12:00, in the Z Room at Tabakalera, Deborah Williams will talk about the value of diversity in the audiovisual sector. Williams is Executive Director at Creative Diversity Network and has been working for more than 30 years in television, cinema and the theatre, as well as on policy design in the cultural and creative industries in general; she designed the BFI diversity standards and the equality analysis process at the Arts Council England.   

On Thursday 28 at 12:00, the Z Room at Tabakalera will house an event to celebrate, on the one hand, the 40th edition of the premiere at the San Sebastian Festival of Vestida de azul (1983), a documentary by Antonio Giménez Rico following the experience of transgender women during the Spanish Transition and, on the other, the imminent arrival of the second season of the series Veneno, based on said film. The conversation between Julen Zabala, an activist at EGHAM, and Ian de la Rosa, one of the directors of this second season of Veneno, will revolve around the importance of endorsing the LGBTQIA+ films to have participated in the Festival’s history.

Finally, on Saturday 30 at 12:00 in the Tabakalera cinema, directors Cris Trenas, Rogelio González and Santos Bacana, from the Little Spain production company, and artist C. Tangana, who stars in the documentary project Esta ambición desmedida / This Excessive Ambition to premiere at the Velodrome, will talk about the creative process that led him to embark on this project, and the borders or lack of them when creating.

Meetings with Nest Film Students

Completing the programme are two conversations and two masterclasses programmed inNest, San Sebastian Festival’s international competition for short films by film students. All of these meetings will take place in the Tabakalera cinema.

On Monday 25 at 12:30 there will be a meeting with Christian Petzold, who competed in the Official Selection with Phoenix (2014) and carried off the FIPRESCI Prize. The German screenwriter and moviemaker, fresh from winning the Grand Jury Prize in Berlin, will present Roter Himmel / Afire in the Perlak section of this 71st San Sebastian Festival. Petzold will talk with the Nest students about his creative processes when making his films. In addition, on Friday 29 at 12:30, Artur Tort will talk about his work as a cinematographer and editor. Tort works regularly with the filmmaker Albert Serra and their latest collaboration, Tourment sur les îles / Pacifiction (2022), earned him the César Award for Best Cinematography.

Regarding the masterclasses, on Tuesday 26 at 15:30, there will be a screening of the feature film All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, which, following its premiere in the US Dramatic Competition at Sundance, will compete in the Official Selection at San Sebastian Festival. Its director, Raven Jackson, participated in Nest with her short film Nettles (2018) and will return to the section hub to give a masterclass encompassing, among other subjects, her time at Ikusmira Berriak, the programme under which she developed the film now competing for the Golden Shell. On Thursday 28, at 15:30, the Mexican moviemaker Lila Avilés will give a masterclass following the screening of her second feature, Tótem, also included in the Horizontes Latinos section after having competed at the last Berlinale. Avilés showed her first movie, La camarista / The Chambermaid, 2018, in New Directors.

Challenges and trends in the film industry

Among the activities co-organised by Thought and Discussion and the Industry Department is the event dedicated to series Based on a true story. The success of biopics in serialised Spanish fiction, programmed for Saturday 23 at 17:00 in the Z Room at Tabakalera and which will turn the spotlight on the recent rise in series characterised by dramatizing the biography of a real person. The round table will be moderated by the presenter andseries writer and analyst, Isabel Vázquez, with participation of the creators of the series Selftape, Joana Vilapuig and Mireia Vilapuig, the showrunner and writer of the series Nacho, Teresa Fernández-Valdés, and the author and director of Yo, Adicto, Javier Giner. 

In addition to this conference, Industry will host various presentations and round tables on topics such as inclusion and diversity in the Latin American audiovisual industry or artificial intelligence (within the framework of Zinemaldia & Techonology). It will also conduct an analysis of the European audiovisual ecosystem in the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council.

Moreover, for the second consecutive year, it will organize the Creative Investors Meeting (Spanish Screenings: Financing & Tech), an event that will offer a series of conferences and round tables on current funding and co-production trends.

Programme

Conversations and Masterclasses

Series conference: Based on a true story. The success of biopics in serialised Spanish fiction.

Saturday 23, 17:00, Z Room, Tabakalera. Free invitations can be withdrawn from the Festival website and from the Zinemaldi Plaza and Tabakalera ticket desks from the day before the event. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Albert Serra in Conversation

Sunday 24, 12:00, Z Room, Tabakalera. Free invitations can be withdrawn from the Festival website and from the Zinemaldi Plaza and Tabakalera ticket desks from the day before the event. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Christian Petzold in Conversation

Monday 25, 12:30, Tabakalera cinema. Free invitations can be withdrawn from the Festival website and from the Zinemaldi Plaza and Tabakalera ticket desks from the day before the event. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Kitty Green in Conversation (2030 Agenda)

Monday 25, 16:30, Z Room, Tabakalera. Free invitations can be withdrawn from the Festival website and from the Zinemaldi Plaza and Tabakalera ticket desks from the day before the event. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Deborah Williams in Conversation

Tuesday 26, 12:00, Z Room, Tabakalera. Free invitations can be withdrawn from the Festival website and from the Zinemaldi Plaza and Tabakalera ticket desks from the day before the event. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Masterclass by Raven Jackson and Screening of her film All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

Tuesday 26, 15:30, Tabakalera cinema. Tickets can be purchased through the regular channels. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Conversation on Vestida de azul: transgender memory and activism at the Festival in 1983

Thursday 28, 12:00, Z Room, Tabakalera. Free invitations can be withdrawn from the Festival website and from the Zinemaldi Plaza and Tabakalera ticket desks from the day before the event. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Masterclass by Lila Avilés and Screening of her film Tótem

Thursday 28, 15:30, Tabakalera cinema. Tickets can be purchased through the regular channels. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Artur Tort in Conversation

Friday 29, 12:30, Tabakalera cinema. Free invitations can be withdrawn from the Festival website and from the Zinemaldi Plaza and Tabakalera ticket desks from the day before the event. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Conversación on Esta ambición desmedida / This Excessive Ambition

Saturday 30, 12:00, Tabakalera cinema. Free invitations can be withdrawn from the Festival website and from the Zinemaldi Plaza and Tabakalera ticket desks from the day before the event. Accreditation holders: from the online ticket booking system.

Talks and Round Tables

Given its interdisciplinary nature, the Thought and Discussion area has other activities, which are listed below. These will take place in a variety of venues and join the conversations in making up the department’s public programme for the year.

Thus, this year, the Thought and Discussion team has worked both with the RTVE Equality Observatory and with the Inter-territorial Working Group for Equality in Audiovisual 50/50 by 2025 (GTI): AAMMA Asociación Andaluza de Mujeres de los Medios Audiovisuales, AMMA (Murcia), Dona i Cinema (Comunitat Valenciana), Dones Visuals (Catalunya), (H)emen (Euskadi), MIA (Women in the Animation Industry), and with CIMA, the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media. With these organizations and associations, two round tables have been organized to focus on two key issues faced by women in the film industry, such as abuse and aggression during filming, as well as discrimination when it comes to accessing different roles.

Eradicate gender discrimination and stereotypes in the audiovisual world: the pleasure of recognising oneself on screen

Tuesday 26, 18:00, Press Conference Room, Kursaal. With the participation of Clara Sans, Paz de Alarcón, Arantxa Echevarría and Pilar Rodríguez Pérez. Moderated by Beatriz Aparicio, Deputy of the Observatory of Equality of RTVE. Entry with accreditation.

Best practices for an audiovisual free from abuse

Wednesday 27, 11:00, Function Room, San Telmo Museum. With the participation of Carla Vall i Duran (lawyer), Aina Gimeno (actress) and Maitane San Nicolás (intimacy consultant). Moderated by Virginia Yagüe, president of Dama. Entry with accreditation.