This year's festival has lacked glamour but it's still been hot: young talent is in demand and the queues have been long
San Sebastián 'Festival films are like Padrón peppers: some of them are hot and others not,' festival veteran Rosa Bosch was heard to say over dinner at Nicolasa. By this Wednesday, the film tray of the 44th San Sebastián International Film Festival has served up some pretty hot peppers: Sol de otoño, a solid, classy if small romantic drama; Beautiful Girls, liked more in Spain than the US; The Emperorīs Shadow impressed and, of local produce, Bwana, which pleased and Robert Rylands' Last Journey which looks set for some rave reviews in the Spanish press.
But on Wednesday there were still a lot of uneaten peppers on the tray: only Saturday will reveal how hot this year's festival has really been. Young talent in expert hands is the order of the day: for Spanish presshounds have gobbled up the Suárez/Gómez, Rubio/Fuentes combinados rather than the more mature big cheeses, in particular Miró and Saura.
For want of another phrase, festivals, like politics, are also the art of the possible.
Politics cast its first shadow with the interruption of the Opening Ceremony; then the Chinese government's banning director Zhou Xiaowen from speaking at his own press conference for The Emperor's Shadow.
Shooting dates, declared festival director Diego Galán earlier this week, made it possible to choose a heavy bevy of Spanish films for Competition and Zabaltegi, but impossible for the big stars attached to foreign films to roll into town with the exception of Chazz Palminteri (for surprise pic, Mulholland Falls), and the towering presence of Al Pacino.
Less glamour, yes, but more spectators: cinemas have been packed; queues far longer than in recent years. And, captured by last year's high impact edition, the foreign press is ostensibly, if unquantifiably, more present in 1996.
One 'star' no-show was Esperanza Aguirre, Spain's minister of education and culture, who abandoned the tradition of pronouncing at San Sebastián on future film policy. That was taken care of a fortnight ago in Madrid. It has been Spain's private sector which has taken over the baton, and made the industry running with some announcements, in potential at least, of great import indeed.
Alejandro Echeverría, president of private web Tele 5 (ie Berlusconi and Kirch) unveiled the broadcaster's entry into film production, in tandem with paybox Canal + España (ie Canal Plus France and PRISA). Expect more big buddie couplings in digital?
PRISA film arm Sogetel revealed its new production strategies; which, with its co-productions accounting for nearly 50% of Spanish pics' box office, is a very large revelation indeed. PRISA's film distributor Sogepaq has inked deals with producer Gerardo Herrero and distributor José María Morales; Antena 3 TV film production arm Aurum is eyeballing entering English-language productions from Europe.
In Padrón pepper terms, the Spanish film industry seems a hot item indeed.
John Hopewell, María Alvárez & Jonathan Holland
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