Conceived as an International Film Week for the purpose of screening and marketing films, it was not long before the IFFPA granted it B status (non-competitive), thanks to the success of its first edition. A year later it was called the International Film Festival, and in 1955 the IFFPA recognised the festival as competitive, specialising in colour films. In other words, it could now grant official prizes. This marked the emergence of the "Concha", or shell - at the time only awarded in silver - determined by an international jury.

In 1957 the festival was granted "A" status and the Shell awarded in the main categories turned to gold. The festival symbols became increasingly recognisable, as did the direction the festival was aiming for and still strives for to this day. That is, a tendency towards liberalisation, shying away from the corseted censorship of the past, still alive today. The festival's primordial role is to serve as a showcase for each year's most disquieting and innovative films.

The list of personalities making an appearance at the Festival ever since its early days is endless. Their names have given San Sebasti·n Back its cosmopolitan splendour and have bestowed it with a certain dose of glamour, always connected to fine filmmaking. Federico Fellini, Gloria Swanson, Alfred Hitchcock, Kirk Douglas, Jean-Luc Godard, Deborah Kerr, Leslie Caron, King Vidor, Monica Vitti, Anthony Mann, Bernardo Bertolucci, Anhony Quinn, Audrey Hepburn, Franco Zeffirelli, Francis Ford Coppola, Fritz Lang, Francisco Rabal, Robert Altman, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray, Elizabeth Taylor, FranÁois Truffaut, Orson Welles, Fernando Rey, Luis Buñuel, Steven Spielberg, Joseph von Sternberg, Imperio Argentina, Richard Burton, Gina Lollobrigida, Harrison Ford, Nikita Mikhalkov, Pedro Almodóvar, Victoria Abril, Sergio Leone, Roman Polanski, Sam Peckinpah, Jacqueline Bisset, George Peppard, Louise Rainer, Alberto Sordi, Sydney Pollack, Peter O'Toole, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Charlton Heston, Glenn Close, Anjelica Huston, Sophia Loren, Stanley Donen, Mel Gibson, Keanu Reaves, Matt Dillon and Ethan Coen, Antonio Banderas, Bertrand Tavernier.., And they are only a few of the celebrities that have come with their their films and have left an indelible stamp on the Festival's memory.

For the purpose of rendering due recognition to those who have contributed their lives to the motion picture world, in 1986 the Donostia Prize was created. This tribute, named after the city, has so far been placed in the hands of 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), Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich (1998), Fernando Fernán-Gómez, Vanessa Redgrave and Anjelica Huston (1999), Michael Caine and Robert de Niro (2000), Francisco Rabal, Warren Beatty and Julie Andrews (2001), Jessica Lange, Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper (2002), Isabelle Huppert, Sean Penn and Robert Duvall (2003), Woody Allen, Annette Bening and Jeff Briges (2004).

Finally, we cannot talk about the Festival without mentioning the city that has lent its now globally-recognised character and image. San Sebasti·n plays an important part in the Festival's devotion toward rediscovering cinema, turning both daylight and cityscapes into brilliant collaborators. Facades come alive with posters evoking different moments in the Festival's history, with the Official Poster as the highlight. Each year this poster creates a special atmosphere, and in the last few editions has taken us Back to particularly special moments in the Festival's history. Being one of the most welcoming cities in Europe, an enjoyable stay in San Sebastian is virtually guaranteed: go for walk along the city streets and delightful beaches, enjoy the excellent cuisine, and above all, take in some good cinema.