The San Sebastian Festival has its head offices at the following address:

FESTIVAL DE SAN SEBASTIÁN
Tabakalera
Centro Internacional de Cultura Contemporánea
Plaza de las Cigarreras, 1-2º planta
20012 Donostia – San Sebastián (Spain)
Tel. 34 943 481212
ssiff@sansebastianfestival.com

Detailed information can be found on the official Festival website, www.sansebastianfestival.com, which also explains how to contact the Festival and its different departments.

The Public Limited Company FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE DE DONOSTIA-SAN SEBASTIÁN S.A. is made up in equal parts of the Donostia-San Sebastian City Council, the Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the Spanish Ministry of Culture, Education and Sport. Its President is the Mayor of Donostia-San Sebastian, Eneko Goia. The San Sebastian Festival organisation is headed by its Director, José Luis Rebordinos.

The San Sebastian Festival is recognised by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations, F.I.A.P.F. www.fiapf.org, in the “competitive film festival” category.

ARTICLE 1

The San Sebastian Festival seeks to make a positive contribution to the development of the film culture and industry.

ARTICLE 2

The 71st edition of the San Sebastian Festival will take place in the city of Donostia-San Sebastian, from 22-30 September 2023.

ARTICLE 3

All of the films shown at the 71st edition of the San Sebastian Festival will be chosen by its selection committee, headed by the Festival management and advised by a network of international delegates, made up by a group of professionals, specialists in the world of film and film festivals.

ARTICLE 4

All of the films selected for the 71st edition will receive a certificate of participation from the San Sebastian Festival management.
 

ARTICLE 5

Culinary Zinema is a section organised jointly with the Basque Culinary Center with a view to uniting cinema and gastronomy and to developing a variety of activities related to food in the fields of education, science and agriculture.

All of the selected films are eligible to compete for the Culinary Zinema Best Film Award, which will come with 10,000 euros for the film’s Spanish distributor (and if there is none, for the production company(ies) of the film), who will have to release it within one year from the date of receiving the Award.

The Festival selection committee reserves the right to decide which films in the Culinary Zinema section will compete for the Culinary Zinema Best Film Award, given that the section may include titles screening out of competition.

ARTICLE 6

The Culinary Zinema Best Film Award will be decided by a jury specifically appointed for this purpose and chosen by the San Sebastian Festival management.
The jury must meet the following conditions:

• It must be made up of a minimum of 3 professionals from the world of gastronomy and/or film.

• Its members cannot include people with a vested interest in the production and/or exploitation of the films presented in the Culinary Zinema Section.

ARTICLE 7

The Award cannot be declared void or be given to more than one film.

ARTICLE 8

The Award will be announced and presented at the closing dinner of the Culinary Zinema section and will be presented at the Festival's Closing Ceremony.

ARTICLE 9

The producers or representatives of films to have received the award promise to mention the accolade in all publicity and press material referring to the winning film, stating the exact wording of the Jury decision and using the Festival logo. The logo will be available in several languages on the official Festival website: www.sansebastianfestival.com.

ARTICLE 10

The deadline for submitting feature films for pre-selection in the Culinary Zinema section is 19 June 2023. The Festival management will reserve the right to accept feature films submitted after this date.

ARTICLE 11

Participation in the Culinary Zinema section is open to feature films or series that meet the following conditions:

• They must have a minimum runtime of 60 minutes.

• They must not have been released more than 12 months prior to the Festival dates.

• They must not have participated in a Spanish festival prior to their presentation at the San Sebastian Festival.

• They must not have been commercially released or publicly screened in Spain prior to their official presentation at the Festival.  

• Films and series in the Culinary Zinema Section will only be accepted in DCP format. The Festival’s technical department will send the server certificate to the producers or representatives of the films, together with the coordinates for KDM generation.

ARTICLE 12

All of the films selected by the Festival will be presented in their original language.

The films can be subtitled in Spanish or English.

The cost of subtitling the copy will be paid by the producers or representatives of the film.  

The Festival will provide, at its own cost, additional electronic subtitling to the English or Spanish as required. For films subtitled in Spanish whose original language is not English, we will require a DVD or link of the final original version of the film with subtitles in English and the corresponding list of subtitles in English.

The screening of this electronic subtitling will be carried out by the subtitling company hired for this purpose by the Festival.

ARTICLE 13

Accepting this Award implies:

Acceptance of these rules and regulations.

Having duly completed the online film submission form, which can be found on the official Festival website: www.sansebastianfestival.com

Having paid the fee for each feature film submitted. The fee will be payable in euros during the film submission process and can only be paid by credit card (Visa, American Express or Mastercard). Spanish films are exempt from this fee.

ARTICLE 14

Once the film has been officially invited by the Festival Director, the producers or representatives of the selected films must sign their confirmation on the submission form, previously submitted and duly completed, no later than 31 July 2023.

The Festival will consider the person who signs this confirmation to be the sole intermediary for negotiating all aspects related to participation of the film in the event and to be the only responsible party as opposed to other companies or persons who may have participated in producing the film.

Confirmation by the producers or representatives of the selected film means that they cannot withdraw their film from the programme and that they irrevocably accept all of the rules and regulations stipulated by the Festival Management.

ARTICLE 15

The invitation made to each film selected by the San Sebastian Festival will remain strictly confidential between the Festival Management and the producers or representatives of the invited film until the Festival decides to make an official announcement in this regard.

The complete San Sebastian Festival programme and all screening times are exclusively decided by the Festival Management Committee.

ARTICLE 16

The documentation required by the Festival for its press releases, official catalogue and website (synopsis, technical and artistic credits, bio-filmographies, pictures of the director/s and film stills) will be taken from the online submission form, which must be duly completed no later than 31 July 2023.

All promotional material for the selected films requested by the different Festival departments must be submitted without delay by the producers or representatives of the film.

ARTICLE 17

The producers or representatives of invited films must send the selected copies to be screened at the Festival, 15 days prior to the date on which it is due to begin, to the Festival Film Department at its head offices:

FESTIVAL DE SAN SEBASTIÁN
Departamento de Películas
Tabakalera
Centro Internacional de Cultura Contemporánea
Plaza de las Cigarreras, 1 -2º
20012 Donostia – San Sebastián (Spain)
Tel. 34 943 481212
ciclos@sansebastianfestival.com

The producers or representatives are free to send the Festival as many copies of the film as they wish.

The Festival management reserves the right to reject copies found to be unsuitable for screening during control by its Technical Department. In the event of irregularities in the copies, the Festival management will issue the film owners or representatives with the corresponding technical report.

ARTICLE 18

The transport and insurance costs of the copies of selected films will be paid by the participants until their arrival at the Festival offices or at the premises of its customs agent.
The San Sebastian Festival will insure the copies from the moment of their arrival at its head offices or at the premises of its customs agent, until they are returned.

When to the DCPs, the cost of KDM generation will also be paid by the producer or representative of the film.

The cost of returning the copies of films selected by the Festival will also be paid by the participant. Returns will only be made after the Festival closing date.

In the event of damage to a copy during the event, the Festival limits its responsibility to the cost of having a new standard copy made at current laboratory rates.

ARTICLE 19

Accredited industry professionals attending the Festival will be attended to at the Industry space, where a team of professionals will provide them with all possible means to facilitate their work, including the viewing of films in its library, after having obtained the corresponding written authorisation from their producers.

ARTICLE 20

In the event of unforeseen disagreement (related to organisation or running of the event) or of failure to comply with these rules and regulations, the Festival Management reserves the right to the final decision based on the FIAPF regulations for international film festivals.
In the event of discrepancy in the interpretation of these rules and regulations, the Spanish version will apply.

All doubts arising from the interpretation of these rules and regulations will be solved by the San Sebastian Festival Management.