74th San Sebastian Festival - 18/26 September 2026
74SSIFF - 18/26 September 2026
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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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Festival Diary
FILM BRANDING &
MARKETING: SOME
WAYS FORWARD
Wednesday, September 21st, 2016
One thing was immediately clear at Tuesday’s San Sebastian Fest round-table on Film Branding and Marketing: For the four panelists, seasoned pros, there is no quick fix or new magic formula ushered in by a digital age for either where the independent industry is concerned.
One audience member pointed out that the average spend of the U.S. industry on marketing is 50% of a budget, that of Europe 7%. “I worked for years for Universal and the studio and independent worlds generally are not comparable,” said Sandro Fiorin, at U.S. FiGa Films, a U.S. sales agent-producer focused on Latin American movies and art films.
One key, Fiorin said, was to place a photo in Variety or other publications building to a film´s launch at an A-grade festival. Niche movies are a challenge. But you can make effective,
realist marketing, he added.
A film has multiple audiences, Paula Gastaud, an aggregator at Brazil’s Sofa Digital, and producer Luis Angel Ramirez, at Spain’s Imval, both argued. One is the industry, another
festivals, a third the general public. All have to be prepared well in advance to optimise results, Gastaud argued.
“It might seem obvious, but the first thing is to make a film which has an audience. If you can’t find a sales agent or distributor, maybe you should revise your project,” said Eduardo Escudero, at Spain’s A Contracorriente Films, who suggested that cinema ticket prices should
vary according to films. As one way forward, he pointed to Argentina’s recently launched initiative of taking primary school children to theaters to watch Argentine films.
Ramirez insisted that producers need much more information about how distributors connect with audiences. For Fiorin, what he wanted from a film was “originality, freshness,” not a film which would just entertain and be forgotten the next day.
JOHN HOPEWELL
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