One of North American cinema’s great pioneers, Henry King (1892-1982) started working for various studios in 1917, during the silent movie period, moving in 1930 to 20th Century Fox, with which he was to make most of his subsequent films.

He brought the world of westerns reflections on violence as praiseworthy as The Gunfighter (1950) and The Bravados (1958). He stirred the adventure film world with The Black Swan (1942) or Captain from Castile (1947). He respectfully adapted both Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. In melodrama he swung to and fro between extremely harsh tales like Beloved Infidel (1959) or Tender is the Night (1961), and others earning tremendous popularity in their day, The Song of Bernadette (1943) and Love is a Many Splendored Thing

(1955), both starring Jennifer Jones. He applied his particular style to the so-called American genre and drew a picture of his country in films which always maintained their own point of view despite having to obey production policies at Fox.

This retrospective will come with a book published by the Festival and the Spanish Film Archive in which different experts take an in-depth look at King’s rich, hidden and suggestive work.

1995 saw the birth of what is until now the latest film manifesto to have had international repercussion, leading to the avant-garde movement known as DOGMA 95. This manifesto, born in Denmark, has given rise to around 20 international movies and a revolution in turn-of-the-century filmmaking. But Dogma hasn’t been the only focal point of films from Northern Europe, which has shown itself in the last 15 years to be one of the areas most capable of applying its own personality to depicting the doubts assailing human beings in the early 21st century.

This modern, cutting view of a society returning to the teachings of classics like Carl Th. Dreyer and Ingmar Bergman, has established directors of high international acclaim including Lars Von Trier and Aki Kaurismäki, and introduced a new generation of moviemakers like Thomas Vinterberg, Susanne Bier, Per Fly, Simon Staho, Lukas Moodyson, Hans Peter Molland, Baltsar Kormákur, Anders Thomas Jensen or the new revelations Erik Richter Strand, Peter Schonau Fog and Ragnar Bragason. Cold Fever, which takes its name from the title of the film made by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson in 1995, will showcase this cinema of contained appearance concealing intense personal dramas which uses the new possibilities to investigate an image free of rules, uncovering a volcano of creativity beneath the frozen ground. A selection of some thirty films, made between 1995 and the present time, from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

The person to whom our contemporary retrospective will be dedicated will be unveiled along with the content of the other Festival sections over the coming months.

San Sebastian International Film Festival also acknolwedged the work and collaboration of the different companies and institutions that help this important event to improve year after year. TVE and SCHWEPPES SPIRIT, as its Official Sponsors; TUDOR, Official Collaborator, KUTXA, for the interest with which it backs the Festival as part of the cultural heritage of the people of San Sebastian and Gipuzkoa; ALTADIS, sponsor of the Altadis-New Directors Award; TCM, sponsor of the Audience Award going to the film earning most votes; VOLKSWAGEN, official Festival vehicle; IBERIA, the official Festival airline; EL DIARIO VASCO, KUTXA and the PATRONATO MUNICIPAL DE DEPORTES, which will be present at screenings in the Anoeta Velodrome; THE EU MEDIA PROJECT, ICEX and EGEDA for their backing of the SALES OFFICE; AECI, sponsor of HORIZONTES LATINOS; DHL, official Festival transport; BRUESA, sponsor of Films in Progress; NOKIA NSERIES, CANON and CONSORCIO DE JABUGO for their backing of the Festival.