The Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture hosted the presentation of the San Sebastian Festival's new image and the sections posters for its 66th edition. The graphic identity revamp has the goals to update the brand and increase its visibility; the San Sebastian studio TGA, author of both the new image and the posters, has chosen to use a conch shell of more synthetic lines and greater visual punch to announce a modern Festival, constantly renovated and adapted to a changing context.
The posters for all of the sections, dominated by energy, light and liveliness, share a same graphic treatment and identity combining photography and illustration to lend an overall feeling of harmony and consistency. Furthermore, each section maintains its identity with a characteristic colour. The Official Selection poster will be presented at a later date, pending the confirmation of image rights.
The logo is composed of the conch shell, the acronym – for which the Helvetica font was used – and the Festival name in three languages (Basque, Spanish and English).
The design studio from San Sebastian, TGA, headed by Nagore García Pascual, Julen Cano Linazasoro and Txema García Amiano, combines the fields of graphic and interactive design, architecture and interior design. During their fifteen years of existence, their amalgamation of functionality and aesthetics and their characteristic visual language has shaped the identity of Donostia Kultura, Fundación Kutxa, Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola and the Aquarium. Among their posters are those created for the 75th anniversary of the Classical Music Fortnight, the 2017 Concha Flag rowing competition, the staging of Midsummer Night's Dream or the image of Culinary Zinema at the last edition of the Festival.
José Luis Rebordinos, forwarded some of the keys to the edition, its consolidated pledge to the industry and new talent and the excellent situation of Basque and Spanish cinema, also mentioning the challenges faced by the Festival, such as opening of the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola and turning the spotlight on women filmmakers.
NEW DIRECTORS
Two impersonal faces, upright and defiant for the section of first and second works by their makers and their new approaches.
HORIZONTES LATINOS
A palm tree, a dog and a boy looking over a wall to prompt the idea of a double reality or point of view illustrate the section which seeks to reflect Latin American reality without stereotypes by means of feature films totally or partially produced in Latin America, directed by filmmakers of Latin origin or who set their works against the backdrop or subject of Latin communities all over the world.
ZABALTEGI - TABAKALERA
Freestyle trampoline and the death-defying triple somersault, the most difficult swimming discipline, represent the most open of the Festival sections, where there are no rules, no limits of style or running time: shorts, medium-length, full-length, fiction, non-fiction, animations, series, audiovisual installations, new discoveries and contemporary classics.
PERLAK
The poster plays with the idea of special pieces, a grid featuring birds on square, triangular or circular pedestals, for a section where the jury is the audience and the films competing for the award already have the backing of critical acclaim and/or accolades at other festivals.
NEST. FILM STUDENTS
The pure enthusiasm of childhood, added to their imagination and talent free from obstacles of the mind, represents the Festival's competitive short film section, signed by students from film schools all over the world, this year renamed 'Nest', a word suggesting a phonetical play on the word 'next'.
CULINARY ZINEMA
In the forefront, two Japanese chefs slice ingredients; in the background, a camera. These are the two angles of Culinary Zinema, a section presenting fiction and non-fiction films looking at gastronomy and food from fields including education, science, agriculture or the restaurant world in general, accompanied by themed dinners.
RETROSPECTIVE
The image of the British director and screenwriter Muriel Box and the characteristic closing of one eye to obtain a clearer view when looking through the camera preside over the poster for the retrospective, which plays with illustration in the part of the cinematographic equipment.
