Love's a bitch in the Lead As the first weekend came to a close, the thirty degree Celsius weather and blue skies also left, but not for long as the sun reappeared Monday morning. Many screenings have been shown to sold-out audiences, and fortunately opportunities to see these films in other venues the next day are possible. At this point, the barometer in the Zabaltegi venue shows Amores Perros way ahead as the people's choice, while Alaska.de is the slight favorite of the young people's vote. Both are first feature films with the common factor of portraying their region (Amores Perros - Love's a Bitch takes place in Mexico City, Alaska.de in East Berlin) in all its crude and cruel tones creating masterly real fiction works. Invitations have been filling the journalists boxes. The Arts Centre of San Sebastian became the seat of a gay fiesta organized by Gehitu, the association for Gays and Lesbians of the Basque country - "Gehitu" means in Basque "to add" and is also intended as a pun on "Gay-tu" ("Gay-you"). Gehitu will present their Gay San Sebastian Award Friday September 29 to the "film screened in the Official, Zabaltegi and Made in Spanish section of the festival that best reflects the social reality of homosexuality, lesbianism and transsexuality." The specific jury is composed of famous Madrilenian novelist Luis G. Martin (whose most famous novel "Muerte de Taxio" is the story of Taxio's return to Venice after Death in Venice), Ernesto Gasco (a very popular councilor who openly revealed his homosexuality), movie critic Begona del Teso, who works for El Diario Vasco, and other movie specialists. At the Maria Christina Hotel - the hotel hub similar to the Carlton in Cannes or the Park Hyatt in Toronto, the Spanish Cultural Ministry awarded its 1999 National Artistic Award to Felix Murcia, who has worked with such directors as Carlos Saura, Manuel Gutierrez Aragon and Imanol Uribe. Across the street at the Café Altxerri in a more basement underground setting, Christian Agullera held a meeting to discuss his book "The TV Generation: the Liberal Conscience of American Cinema", which explores the television years of 6 great American directors: John Frankenheimer, Sidney Lumet, Robert Mulligan, Arthur Penn, Martin Ritt and Franklin J. Schaeffner. The San Sebastian Festival section named for the book is presenting works by these directors. The Velodrome also began its screenings. This "stadium" sized venue is celebrating its 15th year and saluted the two designers who initiated the buildings transformation to a movie theatre representing one of the largest screening facilities in the world. Among the films screening are X-Men, Dinosaur to be presented by Roy Disney, and Cecil B Demented by John Waters, who was presented at his film's screening by none other than Pedro Almodovar. It was clear that the two maintain a true kindred spirit. John Waters: "This is like being introduced by the pope." Pedro Almodovar: "John proposed to me, but I refused. He deserves better than the likes of me." Another section Made in Spanish offers a large selection of films made in Spain (22 films) and in Latin America (14 films). Since the festival's official language is Spanish, all the films screened have English subtitles for the non-Hispanic folk. It's a bit more tricky when viewing films from other countries as the subtitles are always in Spanish. Although far from ideal, several of the theatres offer headsets for simultaneous translation so that one could see, for example, a German film screened in its original version with Spanish subtitles and then follow the dialogue in English provided by the translator. Confused? Some of the translators seemed to be as well. The press conferences have been quite lively, but that will be the subject of tomorrow's report.