52nd SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW
17-25 September 2004

The Festival made the official presentation of its 52nd year at its traditional meeting with friends from the press and the world of culture on Friday 7 May, during which it announced some of its proposals for the forthcoming month of September and revealed the posters representing the different sections.

The official poster emerged in tribute to the centenary of a person whom, although principally connected to the world of painting, actively collaborated with cinema. The result of his collaboration with the master of masters Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most disturbing oneiric sequences in the history of cinema. The person in question is Dali and the unforgettable scene from Spellbound (Recuerda).

Retrospective: ANTHONY MANN
Considered as the author of some of the most beautiful westerns in the history of film, Anthony Mann demonstrated his skill in all of cinema’s classic genres (thrillers, musical comedies, war and historical films). But despite this, many of his masterpieces are still unknown to the general public. This season will introduce us to a complex, personal author, who outgrew the ranking of “classic moviemaker par excellence".

Retrospective: INCORRECT
A selection of movies that ventured to challenge the bourgeois social principles still considered as being in bad taste by the single thinking of the politically correct. Advocated by Michael Moore, Dusan Makavejev, John Waters, Pedro Almodóvar, the Marx Brothers, Luis Buñuel, Trey Paker, Ulrich Seidl, Todd Solondz, among others...
Besides, -The Official Section features the very best global cinema, unscreened at any other festival, with winners being chosen by a renowned international jury.

- Zabaltegi
Festivals’ Top, a showcase for the best films from other festivals. The audiences vote for the winner of the TCM Audience Award, carrying a cash prize of 30,000 euros for the Spanish importer of the winning movie.

New Directors
Unscreened movies competing for the Altadis-New Directors Award carrying 90,000 euros.

-Horizontes Latinos, divided into three parts:

Horizontes Selection:
Latin American films never previously released in Spain. A jury will confer the Horizontes award of €18.000.

Made in Spain:
A carefully made selection of the year’s most interesting Spanish movies, with English subtitles.

Films in Progress / Cinéma en Construction:
In collaboration with Rencontres Cinémas d’Amérique Latine in Toulouse, this section offers Latin American films at the post-production stage the opportunity to be presented and obtain funding.


-VELODROME:
Big releases of much awaited films will take place on the enormous 400 m2 screen in Anoeta Velodrome, disguised as a spectacular film theatre during the Festival. Its seating for 3,000 means that the audience can share moments of unforgettable emotion.
This is also the special venue at which over 25,000 school kids discover, some for the first time, the magic of cinema the big way.