San Sebastián Film Festival Found Its Sweet Spot

If you’ve spent time on the film festival circuit, you’re probably aware of the “hidden gem” reputation of the San Sebastián International Film Festival. The “gem” part is easy to explain: global cinema, glittery stars, enthusiastic locals, a size that allows for real connections, world-renowned cuisine and the inimitable charm of this bay-set Basque city. It’s the “hidden” part of the equation that raises some eyebrows. 

After 73 editions, San Sebastián still remains slightly off the radar for some in the industry, shadowed by its bigger European counterparts. Despite its melding of international auteurs and A-list celebrities, SSIFF is sometimes pigeonholed as mostly focused on Spain and Latin America. Timing is also not in its favor: The September fest comes on the heels of Venice and sometimes overlaps with Toronto, meaning it battles titans for world premieres. 

“I think one of the San Sebastián Film Festival’s strengths is its awareness of its core characteristics and its refusal to try to be anything else,” says SSIFF director José Luis Rebordinos, who will retire after 15 years following this fall’s 74th edition (Sept. 18-26), to be replaced at the helm by current deputy director Maialen Beloki.

“We can’t be a major market, but we can have interesting industry activities like the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum or the Investors’ Conference,” Rebordinos continues. “We can’t have the year’s biggest American releases as premieres, but we can showcase some of them with members of their teams in parallel sections.”

In other words, the event has found its sweet spot. “We are a festival with a large enough audience to interest both the industry and critics, but small enough to feel human and welcoming,” Rebordinos says. “We work with humility, and our slogan is ‘We are the smallest of the greats.’ ”

San Sebastián regulars agree: “Everybody thinks of Cannes and Venice and Berlin, but it’s the smaller festivals like San Sebastián that people will gravitate toward,” says Christine Vachon, co-founder of New York-based Killer Films. “Those are the festivals where you actually get to spend time with filmmakers, local artists and financiers.” 

The festival was recognized with “A” status in 1957, just four years after it launched. Early visitors included luminaries like Federico Fellini, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. The lifetime achievement Donostia Award, created in 1986, has drawn big names like Gregory Peck, Bette Davis, Lauren Bacall, Al Pacino and Anthony Hopkins. 
Last year saw two firsts: the youngest-ever awardee — Jennifer Lawrence — and the first producer honoree (Esther García, Pedro Almodóvar’s in-house executive). Accepting her Donostia, Lawrence called it “really special” to be “at a festival where people genuinely love cinema — the storytelling art and the soul of the movies.” 

The festival’s industry events have expanded over the years. They include the Creative Investors’ Conference (heading into its fifth year, in collaboration with CAA Media Finance), the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum and a host of other initiatives focused on new directors, works in progress, startups and more. Last year’s edition welcomed just over 2,400 professionals accredited from more than 1,500 companies across 65 countries. 

“The Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum has been a great success for years now,” Rebordinos highlights. “Selecting only around 16 projects is difficult due to the high quality of the submissions. More and more members of the industry are participating in this event. The Investors’ Conference has also become a key event, bringing together some of the most important names in global film production and investment.”

SSIFF is also the crown jewel of the fast-growing regional Basque industry. “Its sights are firmly set on filmmaking as an evolving global force,” says longtime observer Rob Stone, emeritus professor of film studies at the University of Birmingham and co-author of Basque Cinema: A Cultural and Political History. Yet it’s still “Basque at heart,” he says.

Since Jose Mari Goenaga and Jon Goraño’s Flowers (Loreak) became the first Basque-language film to premiere in the main competition in 2014, there has been at least one local film in the festival’s official selection every year. Last year, a whopping 37 Basque productions screened at the festival, evidence of the industry’s growth as a production hub thanks to major new incentives. The festival, in turn, had an estimated economic impact of 47.9 million euros ($56.2 million) on the region in 2024.

“There was a lot of very good material to choose from, and last year, many [Basque films] were left out,” says Mar Izquierdo, coordinator of Zineuskadi, a nonprofit co-founded by the regional government to support and promote the Basque industry. But, she adds, “José Luis has always said he wouldn’t want Basque productions to be here for free — he doesn’t want it to seem like just because you’re from here, you automatically get in.” 

Still, “SSIFF is excellent at identifying, attracting and nurturing original talent in Spain and Latin America,” notes Belén Vidal, a reader in film studies at King’s College London and Spanish cinema specialist, underscoring how those talents often end up becoming the year’s biggest films from the regions. “I attend SSIFF to catch the ‘big’ Spanish titles for the year ahead.”

To wit, after Basque filmmaker Alauda Ruiz de Azúa took home the festival’s top Golden Shell prize for her film Sundays (Los Domingos) last year, she went on to sweep the country’s Oscar-equivalent Goya Awards. “Participating in San Sebastián greatly helps position a film and give it exposure, especially in Europe and Latin America, and particularly in Spain,” says Manu Calvo, co-producer of Sundays through Encanta Films. 

Marisa Fernández Armenteros of Buenapinta Media, also a co-producer on the film, adds: “Winning the Golden Shell was a turning point for the film. An award like that opens many doors, because you go from having just another film on the festival circuit to gaining significant visibility in Spain and abroad. It helps with international sales, expands its reach to other festivals, and allows the film to find audiences it probably wouldn’t have reached otherwise, and who, in the case of Los Domingos, connected with it and filled the theaters.”

As anyone who has attended SSIFF knows, theaters at the festival itself are always full. Last year’s edition saw 181,183 spectators attending 666 screenings of 254 titles from 56 different countries, an audience increase of 5.15 percent compared with the previous year. “Ticket prices are kept low and stable to ensure that local audiences can attend screenings,” notes Stone. 
Rebordinos didn’t have to look far for his replacement. “I am immensely pleased that the person appointed … is someone from my team, as well as a fundamental part of the work carried out over these 15 years,” Rebordinos says. 

The transition is already underway. Says Rebordinos: “Now that the appointment has been made, my responsibility in the coming months is to work closely with Maialen so that she arrives in January 2027 with the greatest possible understanding of the festival.”