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José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastian Film Festival, has just over a week until opening night when he sits down for an interview with Deadline, and he is still plagued by one niggling organizational issue.
“It’s always so difficult to close the jury,” Rebordinos explains as he rushes out of the room to take a call about his potential jury head.
When he returns, he explains: “A few weeks ago I was speaking with Thierry Fremaux. He said even for him it’s always a problem because jury members have to be at your festival for 10 days, you don’t pay, and it’s complicated because people are often working and when they aren’t, they want to spend time with their families and friends.”
A few days later, the competition jury is finally confirmed, with Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda leading alongside Leila Guerriero, Fran Kranz, Christos Nikou, Carole Scotta, and Ulrich Seidl.
This year San Sebastian, which opens this evening and runs until September 20, celebrates its 72th edition. The festival will screen new films from established filmmakers such as Edward Berger, Gia Coppola, Costa-Gavras, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mike Leigh, Diego Lerman, Joshua Oppenheimer, and François Ozon alongside works from new filmmakers including Laura Carreira and Xin Huo.
Coppola’s The Last Showgirl heads to San Sebastián following a debut in Toronto. The film stars Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Dave Bautista. Also heading to Spain from The Six is Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin. Another Toronto transplant is Laura Carreira’s On Falling. The pic follows the precarious life of a Portuguese warehouse worker in Scotland and is Carreira’s feature directorial debut.
These titles join Emmanuelle, the latest movie from Audrey Diwan, which opens the Official Selection competition this evening. Later in the week, San Sebastian will also hand a world premiere to Modi – Three Days on the Wings of Madness, the latest directorial effort from Johnny Depp.
Below, Rebordinos speaks with us about why he decided to open the festival with Emmanuelle, why he isn’t worried about any Johnny Depp controversy, and how the Spanish festival balances politics with entertainment.
DEADLINE: José, how are you?
REBORDINOS: I’m good. I’m not a nervous man and I’m old, which is the best combination when working through tough situations. The last few months have been very complicated. I am very tired but I’m okay. And I’m very happy because this year, I think we have a good festival, which is much stronger than in previous years. We are very happy with this year’s competition selections.
DEADLINE: Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle is your opening film. That film has been a long time coming. What can you tell us about it and why did you pick it for opening night?
REBORDINOS: Before I was the festival director at San Sebastian, I wrote a lot about pornography and cinema, so I know the story of Emmanuelle very well. For me, this new film by Audrey Diwan is very special. This Emmanuelle is different. It’s a version made by a woman and it’s a feminist Emmanuelle. The film speaks about a woman’s right to consent but also speaks about women’s desires. This Emmanuelle is not the object of desire in the film. She desires other people, which is very interesting. It’s an erotic film, very political, and I love it a lot. To have the film opening night in competition was perfect for us. The first Emmanuel was banned in Spain so many people travelled to France to see it.
DEADLINE: I have always thought San Sebastian was quite politically engaged. How do you balance engaging in wider social issues and presenting an engaging and exciting festival?
REBORDINOS: I don’t know if we’re a particularly political festival. Cinema is always a witness to society. At our festival, we have films focused on many things happening right now in the world. But we also have films that are solely interested in entertainment. But human rights are indeed very important to us. We are not activists. People on both the left and right are welcome here. But people on the ultra-right who don’t respect human rights are not. They are not with us. Cultural work is important because it can define and promote human rights. This year, for example, we will host some events in support of Argentinian cinema because, for us, it’s important. We are not an activist festival, but just a festival in support of human rights.
DEADLINE: Johnny Depp returns this year with ‘Modi – Three Days on the Wings of Madness.’ What can you tell us about that film? And Depp’s presence obviously comes with some controversy. Why invite him back?
REBORDINOS: Johnny Depp for us is a festival friend. He’s coming to San Sebastian. It’s not up to me to say if someone is an abuser. I’m not a police officer or a judge. For me, Modi is a very free film and it’s very special. The film speaks about current changes in the arts. It’s a crazy film and it’s very free. I love it.
DEADLINE: This is the third year of the Creative Investors’ Conference. How well has the event performed?
REBORDINOS: The idea is to bring very big names here to speak about cinema and connect them with Spanish producers. The Spanish industry is very happy with the conference because they have access to a lot of important people over two days at the festival. Morena Films, for example, in the first year, spoke with Anonymous Content and they created a new company in Spain together. That is important. In a few years, we will see more and more projects. This is important because previously in San Sebastian there was no industry. But little by little, we are growing. And it’s becoming bigger every year. This year, we even had to turn some people away because the city doesn’t have enough hotels to house guests. The hotels are full of people. It’s a problem but we are very happy. We are getting more premiere titles are more guests because people want to be in San Sebastian.
It’s not our goal to have all the world premieres. We never ask for world premieres. It is always the producer or filmmaker who says they prefer the world premiere. We are one of the last festivals of the year. If a film goes to Venice or Toronto we can still have the film out of competition. We know very well what kind of festival we want to be. We know our role. We are not here to fight with Venice. We can have more new directors. For example, We Live in Time by John Crowley will be screened this year. Crowley’s first film debuted in New Directors at San Sebastian. We love that. We love to say we are the smallest festival amongst the big festivals. And we are okay with that.
DEADLINE: Laura Carreira’s ‘On Falling’ is the debut British title in competition. What can you tell us about that film?
REBORDINOS: It’s an incredible film. This girl will be in competition at Cannes with her second or third film. Her short films are very good too. We love this film a lot.
