The programme of the San Sebastian Festival’s 67th edition features a good number of unusual screenings and others that buck the traditional format of a film running from between 90 and 120 minutes.
Two of these extraordinary proposals are due to their serial nature. Vida perfecta / Perfect Life, the series created by Leticia Dolera, winner of an award at Cannes, will be programmed in a screening restricted to accredited guests on Saturday 21 (14:30 in the Príncipe 2 cinema). The screening for the general public, to be attended by its leading characters, will take place in the Velodrome on Sunday 22 at 17:00. In both cases all eight episodes (240 minutes) will be screened, with a 15-minute interval half way through.

The premiere of El fiscal, la presidenta y el espía (The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy,Zabaltegi - Tabakalera), the journalistic investigation developed by Justin Webster, will have two showings. On Monday 23, at 16:00, the full 6-episode series will be screened (360 minutes) with a 20-minute interval. There will be another showing on the 24th and 25th with the particularity that the screening will be divided into two parts: the first three episodes (180 minutes) will show on Tuesday 24 and the last three (180 minutes) on Wednesday 25. The same ticket is valid for admission to the two screenings.

Intervals will also be required during the screening of Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó, in the framework of the Klasikoak section (in Tabakalera room 1, on Saturday 28 at 16:00). The screening of its 450 minutes will have two 15-minute breaks.  

This year’s programme also offers the option of purchasing tickets without knowing to which film they give admission. This is the case of the evening showings on Saturday 28, at which the winning films of the City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award (16:00, Kursaal 2), the Irizar Basque Film Award (17:00, Principal Theatre), the TCM Youth Award (19:00, Kursaal 2), the Zabaltegi – Tabakalera Award (20:00, Principal Theatre), the Kutxabank New Directors Award (22:00, Kursaal 2) and the Golden Shell for best film (23:00, Principal Theatre) will be screened. 

For the first time, the Festival will host a Chinese opera cycle. From Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 five famous opera movies will be screened (The Legend of White Snake, The Bell Tolls for a Dynasty, The Woman of the Mountain, Romance of the West Chamber and Cao Cao and Yang Xiu).

In addition, admission to some of the Festival screenings will be possible with an invitation, with no need to purchase tickets. This is the case of the Concert in the Velodrome (Saturday 21, 12:00), for which invitations can be requested from the Festival information points in the Plaza Okendo, the Kursaal Centre and the Tourist Office from Saturday 14 September.  An invitation will also be sufficient for admission to screenings from the retrospective dedicated to Roberto Gavaldón in the San Telmo Museum: Don Quijote cabalga de nuevo, Flor de mayo, La Barraca and Miércoles de ceniza.

Furthermore, given the organisation’s opinion that the quality of the copy of Flor de mayo is rather poor, admission to screenings of the film at the Príncipe 2 is also possible simply with an invitation (Friday 20 at 18:15 and Thursday 26 at 16:00). Said invitations can be collected from the Zinemaldi Plaza ticket desks in the lower floor of the Kursaal.