2016 is a particularly significant year for San Sebastian, a city holding the title of European Capital of Culture since January. An event such as the Film Festival is an enormously important part of the fabric of a city with that cosmopolitan appetite. The defence of cultural diversity has become more necessary than ever today, when it is essential to prevent differences between languages, societies and nations from becoming instruments to intensify hatred, hostility and intolerance: quite the opposite, it is vital to stress their potential as means of communication, discussion and understanding for achieving improved coexistence between all of us.

That’s why the official selection of this 64th edition of the Festival gathers an impressive raft of moviemakers from several continents who express themselves through the wealth and variety of their respective cultures: the Korean Hong Sang-soo, the Japanese Lee Sang-il and Makoto Shinkai and the Chinese Feng Xiaogang; the Chilean Fernando Guzzoni; the French Bertrand Bonello, Emmanuelle Bercot, Jérôme Salle and Arnaud des Pallières; the Icelander Baltasar Kormákur; the North Americans Antoine Fuqua and Oliver Stone; and the Spaniards J.A. Bayona, Alberto Rodríguez, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Jonás Trueba, Nacho Vigalondo, Diego Galán and Jo Sol. Also in the official competition, you can discover first works coming from all corners of the world; from the directorial debut by the Scottish actor Ewan McGregor to the works of Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (USA), Johannes Nyholm (Sweden), William Oldroyd (UK), Emiliano Torres (Argentina) and Bartosz M. Kowalski (Poland).

Equally interesting is the list of names to be found in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section, which turns competitive this year thanks to the Festival’s collaboration with one of the city’s most active cultural hubs, the Tabakalera International Centre of Contemporary Culture. Tabakalera’s cinemas will house the premieres in our country of the latest works by Koldo Almandoz, Aaron Brookner, Terence Davies, Lav Diaz, Paz Encina, Felipe Guerrero, Jim Jarmusch, Jia Zhang-ke, Hayoun Kwon, Jean-François Laguionie, Jeff Nichols, Marilia Rocha, Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Thorsten Schüte, Todd Solondz, Deborah Stratman, José Luis Torres Leiva and the first work by Ivan I. Tverdosky, not forgetting the latest short films by María Elorza and Maider Fernández Iriarte,Chema García Ibarra and Mikel Rueda. And if Horizontes Latinos will serve up its usual selection of the best Latin American movies of the year and Zinemira will bring an overview of Basque production, the New Directors competition will unite the spectacular letters of introduction by new talents from Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. The retrospective The Act of Killing. Cinema and global violence, programmed this year in collaboration with San Sebastian, European Capital of Culture 2016, Filmoteca Vasca and CulturArts-IVAC, similarly addresses violent conflicts around the globe and the possibility of finding paths to discussion and understanding through film.

The Festival cannot forget its function as a meeting point for film industry professionals, including those taking their first steps, as is the case of the Film Students Meeting on fostering contacts between up-and-coming promises from all over the world, thanks to an intense programme of coexistence, of exchanging ideas and experiences. But filmmakers who already have a proven track record can also participate with their films at the post-production stage in the Films in Progress programme, or with their projects in the Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, which will celebrate its fifth edition this year and today represents a bridge that connects two continents to encourage joint creation between talents on both sides of the Atlantic. This year the Forum also launches a new initiative with participation of the Basque Government Ministry of Culture, the Focus on Glocal Cinemas professional meeting: here the objective is the future creation of the Glocal in Progress programme for the screening of European films in non-hegemonic languages at the post-production stage, yet another manner of promoting cultural and linguistic diversity in the field of film. If this year will include a meeting between representatives of the audiovisual industry in three Nordic countries (Norway, Iceland and Denmark), coming editions will create closer ties with other European cinematographies. Grains of sand which, gradually, every year, the Festival unfailingly contributes to ensuring that cinema continues to act as the arm of the understanding, solidarity and commitment we need so badly.