Fifteen films from seventeen countries will participate in the Zabaltegi-New Directors Section at the 58th San Sebastian Festival. They will compete for the Kutxa-New Directors Award alongside another two titles, already announced, in the Official Selection: José María de Orbe’s Aita and Victoria Galardi’s Cerro Bayo.

San Sebastian Festival maintains its commitment to new talent. The Kutxa-New Directors Award, carrying €90,000 to be shared between the director and Spanish importer, is one of the most important of its kind and goes to moviemakers presenting their first or second film who are participating in their first ever international competition. In addition to the films presented in the Zabaltegi-New Directors section, first or second works by directors screened in the Official Selection will also contend for the Kutxa-New Directors Award.

The fifteen titles in the Zabaltegi-New Directors section will include several representatives of the cinematographies newly emerging from Eastern Europe (Rumania, Bulgaria, Poland), Western Europe (the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and France) and Latin America (Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala and Mexico), not to mention productions from China and the USA. Two Spanish films will also feature: Blog by Elena Trapé and Izarren Argia (Stars to Wish Upon) from the Basque director, Mikel Rueda.

Two of the directors, Federico Veiroj and Julio Hernández Cordón, have already participated in San Sebastian Festival: Acné, directorial debut from Veiroj, was screened as part of Horizontes Latinos in 2008, and La vida útil, the film presented this year, carried off the Films in Progress Industry Award in 2009, the same recognition as obtained in 2007 with Gasolina, his previous film, by the Guatemalan Julio Hernández Cordón, who brings us Las marimbas del infierno. 

Over the last two decades, San Sebastian Festival and its Zabaltegi-New Directors section have drawn attention to numerous filmmakers who have gone one to follow important careers. Later works by these same directors have participated not only in the Festival’s Official Selection but in the most prestigious festivals worldwide. Some of the directors to have participated in Zabaltegi-New Directors with their first or second works and who are now major names on the contemporary movie scene are: Olivier Assayas (Desordre, 1986), Alejandro Agresti (El amor es una mujer gorda, 1987), Isabel Coixet (Demasiado viejo para morir joven, 1988), Nicole Garcia (Un weekend sur deux, 1990), Tsai Ming Liang (Rebels of the Neon God, 1993), Walter Salles (Terra Estrangeira, 1995), François Ozon (Regarde la mer, 1997), Cesc Gay (Hotel Room, 1998), Simon Staho (Vildspor, 1998), Laurent Cantet (Ressources humaines, 1999), Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast, 2000), György Palfi (Hukkle, 2002), Xavier Giannoli (Les corps impatients, 2003), Lee Daniels (Shadowboxer, 2005), Victoria Galardi and Martín Carranza (Amorosa Soledad, 2008), among others.