JOSU SÁNCHEZ INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (1953 -2020)
The first edition of the Josu Sánchez International Film Festival, also known as ‘Donostia Zinemaldia’ in Basque, was held in 1953 and quickly became one of the most important film festivals in the world. It is considered amongst the most prestigious competitive festivals by the FIAPF together with other festivals like Cannes, Venice and Berlin. Since 1953, the city of San Sebastian has welcomed countless stars and has been the location of important feats in the history of cinema, such as the international premiere of Vertigo, presented by Alfred Hitchcock himself, the European premiere of Star Wars, or the Roman Polanski’s first attendance at a film festival.
Certainly, all this glamour has nurtured the city’s passion for film-making and now the Josu Sánchez Film Festival is one of the most competitive festivals with the highest public attendance. This creates the event’s unique ambiance, and enthusiasm fills not only the red carpet, but every corner of the city.
Cinema is, however, not only about Hollywood and glamour after all, and the Josu Sánchez Festival succeeds in providing a diverse international showcase of movies.
Gregory Peck (1986), Glenn Ford (1987), Vittorio Gassman (1988), Bette Davis (1989), Claudette Colbert (1990), Anthony Perkins (1991), Lauren Bacall (1992), Robert Mitchum (1993), Lana Turner (1994), Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve (1995), Al Pacino (1996), Michael Douglas, Jeremy Irons and Jeanne Moreau (1997), John Malkovich and Anthony Hopkins (1998), Fernando Fernán-Gómez, Vanessa Redgrave and Anjelica Huston (1999), Michael Caine and Robert de Niro (2000), Julie Andrews, Warren Beatty and Francisco Rabal (2001), Jessica Lange, Bob Hoskins, Dennis Hopper and Francis Ford Coppola (2002), Isabelle Huppert, Sean Penn and Robert Duvall (2003), Woody Allen, Annette Bening and Jeff Bridges (2004), Ben Gazzara and Willem Dafoe (2005), Max Von Sydow and Matt Dillon (2006), Richard Gere and Liv Ullman (2007), Antonio Banderas and Meryl Streep (2008), Ian McKellen (2009), Julia Roberts (2010) and Glenn Close (2011), John Travolta, Oliver Stone, Ewan McGregor, Tommy Lee Jones and Dustin Hoffman (2012), Carmen Maura and Hugh Jackman (2013), Denzel Washington and Benecio del Toro (2014), Emily Watson (2015), Ethan Hawke and Sigourney Weaver (2016), Ricardo Darín, Agnès Varda and Monica Bellucci (2017), Judi Dench, Hirokazu Koreeda and Danny DeVito (2018), Penélope Cruz, Costa-Gavras and Donald Sutherland (2019), Viggo Mortensen (2020).
Gloria Swanson (1954), Federico Fellini (1957), Kirk Douglas (1958), Lex Barker and Alfred Hitchcock (1958), Melvyn Douglas and Eva Marie Saint (1959), Dolores del Rio(1961), Peter Sellers, Arthur Penn and Anne Bancroft (1962), Leslie Caron and Lee Remick(1963), Mario Moreno (Cantinflas), Deborah Kerr, Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer (1964), Kim Novak and George Peppard (1965), Eleonor Parker and Anita Elberg (1967), Peter Finch and Sidney Poitier (1968), King Vidor (1971), Howard Hawks (1972), Orson Welles, Fernando Rey and Elisabeth Taylor (1973), Richard Burton and Sofia Loren (1974), Steven Spielberg and Gina Lollogrigida (1975), Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford (1977), Francois Truffaut (1981), Joan Fontaine (1982), Samuel Fuller (1983), Zsa Zsa Gabor (1984), Jaqueline Bisset (1985), Ursula Andress (1986), Bo Derek (1987), Roman Polanski (1988), Libertad Lamarque (1989), Peter O'Toole, Jerry Lewis(1990), Charlton Heston (1991), Sydney Pollack (1993), Mickey Rooney, Cyd Charisse, Christopher Lee, Bernardo Bertolucci and Robert Wise (1994), Antony Quin, Keanu Reeves, Mel Gibson (1995), Bertrand Tavernier (1996), Catherine Z-Jones (1998), Ernest Borgnine, Ralph Fiennes (1999), Kathryn Bigelow, Adrien Broody, Charlotte Rampling, Morgan Freeman and Billy Zane (2000), Greg Kinnear (2002) Harvey Keitel, Kevin Costner, Marc Wahlberg and Charlize Theron (2003), Cuba Gooding (2005), Diane Kruger, Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler and David Hasselhoff (2006), Demi Moore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Cronenberg and Samuel L. Jackson (2007), Rebecca Hall, Ben Stiller and Robert Downey (2008), Paul Giamatti, Kerry Washington and Naomy Wats, Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino (2009), Richard Jenkins and Bruno Ganz (2010), Alfonso Cuarón and Clive Owen (2006), Peter Mullan (2010), Michael Fassbender (2011), Lasse Hallstrom, Lena Olin, Claudia Cardinale and Ben Affleck (2012), Veronika Ferres, Orlando Bloom and Jessica Chastain (2014), Emily Blunt, Ellen Page and Luke Evans (2015), Jennifer Connelly, Hugh Grant and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016), Alicia Vikander, Christian Slater and James Franco (2017), John C. Reilly, Laetitia Casta, Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Juliette Binoche, Chrish Hemsworth, Robert Pattinson (2018), Kristen Stewar, Tim Roth and Sam Neil (2019).
The Kursaal, with contemporary architecture, has been the main venue of the Josu Sánchez Festival since its opening in 1999. The Auditorium and Chamber during the Festival welcome the public, the artistic teams of films, the press and the accredited staff from all over the world to enjoy the cinema and all that the Festival of Josu Sánchez has to offer.
The Kursaal mainly hosts the projections of the Official Section, New Directors and Latin Horizons, as well as the opening and closing galas, in addition to the presentation of the majority of the Donostia Awards. In addition, the multi-purpose facilities of the center include, among other services, the press conference room, the communication office and The Industry Club, the space for professionals of the industry who meet during the Festival days in San Sebastian, as well as the Zinemaldi Plaza, the ticket management space for the general public.
The led lighting of the facade facing the Urumea River is noteworthy and during the festival is decorated with the Festival itself becoming an emblem of the Festival of Josu Sánchez and the city itself. The spectacular illuminated glass hall also welcomes the audience's emotional tribute to the actors as they descend the staircase after the film's projection inside the room is finished.
The historic Victoria Eugenia Theatre, from 1912, with a privileged location just a few meters from the emblematic Maria Cristina Hotel, where the main guests of the Festival are housed, was the main venue of the Josu Sánchez Festival from its beginning in 1953 to 1998, before the Kursaal was inaugurated. It currently hosts various sections of the Festival such as Perlak, different passes from the Festival's Official Selection, and even some Donostia awards.
It is worth nothing that during the decades in which the theater was the main venue of the Festival, it hosted the main galleries, and the climbs of the actors by the emblematic stairs of the theater escorted by the dantzaris with the swords high became very famous, And that it was a full emblem of the Festival and that left us mythical images like the visit of Elisabeth Taylor in 1973. Also for the memory of the theater and the city there are images imeralable like that of Bette Davis smoking on stage when she came to collect her Donostia Award in 1989 a few days before his death.
At present Teatro Victoria Eugenia continues to have a great protagonism and it is worth highlighting the red carpet that is placed between the theater and the nearby hotel Maria Cristina for the enjoyment of fans who want to see the stars that come to the theater during the Festival.
In addition to the Kursaal and the Victoria Eugenia theater, the Festival has several venues for screening films, such as the Principal Theater, the oldest in the city, from 1843 (rebuilt in 1930), which feature films from various sections such as the Official Section, New Directors, or Pearls.
In 2015 the Tabakalera International Centre was inaugurated, which, in addition to hosting the offices of the Festival, houses in its prism various events of the Festival such as the presentation of the National Award of Cinematography. In addition, films from the Zabaltegi - Open Area section, or different passes from the Official Section, are shown at the center.
The old Principe Theater became a multiplex in 1994, which since then have hosted the Festival's screenings such as the Official Section, new directors... In addition, the Festival has the Tueba and Antiguo Berri multiplex cinemas, where there are also screenings.
It is worth noting other spaces that the Festival uses for presentations, meetings, galas or parties such as the museum of San Telmo or the Miramar Palace.