San Sebastián Film Festival Director José Luis Rebordinos On This Year’s Line-Up & Why Festivals “Have To Speak About Human Rights”

With the fall festival season underway, the international film community is now turning its head to Spain’s Basque Coast as the San Sebastian International Film Festival kicks off its 74th edition on September 18. With 263 projects from 47 countries in the official lineup, the program looks set to bring together a mix of established auteurs, emerging filmmakers and star power that continues to make it one of the most interesting European launchpads on the festival calendar.

Tomorrow will see the event open with the world premiere of Fatih Akin’s fantasy drama Ghost Song, which will compete for the festival’s Golden Shell award. Further titles in the competition line up include Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut with Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti; Pablo Larraín’s Netflix horror series My Sad Dead (Mis muertos tristes); the world premiere of Fred Cavayé’s action-skewed adaptation of Les Misérables; Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care; Ah Biao’s Chinese-language feature debut Border; and Nicole Garcia’s Marion Cotillard starrer Milo. The festival will close with Le Faux Soir from Belgian filmmaker Michaël R. Roskam on September 26.

“We are always very eclectic,” says San Sebastián Film Festival Director José Luis Rebordinos about the selection for his final edition at the festival. The well-respected veteran has been running the event since 2011 and is stepping down at the end of the year.

“This year, we have a mix of commercial and more radical cinema,” he says. “I’m really happy that we have Les Misérables in competition because, for me, it’s a good example of popular French cinema. It’s a very good film and a big production that will be really popular with our audiences. At the same time, we have Border, a very radical, but very difficult and interesting film as well as Pablo Larraín’s My Sad Dead (Mis muertos tristes).”

This year’s event will also pack star power, with Naomi Watts, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cotillard, Orlando Bloom, Rami Malek and Diego Luna among expected attendees. Watts will be the recipient of the festival’s prestigious Donostia Award, and she’ll touch down to screen her latest film The Housewife, the directorial debut of Canadian helmer Ben Shirinian.

Director Werner Herzog will also receive a Donostia Award this year, while Pitt and director David Ayer will screen their latest film Heart of the Beast, which is set to play out of competition. It will mark Pitt’s first trip to the festival since 2009, when he and Quentin Tarantino presented Inglourious Basterds there.

“One of the most important sections for the festival is the New Directors section because we are very free and open when we select them,” says Rebordinos. “This year, I think the new directors we have selected in the section are more courageous than ever.”

The New Directors strand includes first or second-time directors from Bulgaria, Chile, Germany, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the UK and Ukraine. It will open with The Bad Son (El mal hijo), the debut feature from Jaime Lorente. The film’s official synopsis reads: When 11-year-old Ruben’s father mysteriously disappears, the boy has to move in with his grandmother, a woman he barely knows. In a rural setting, where time seems to have stood still, the child will learn that family wounds are passed down from one generation to another and will try to find a way to heal them as he grows.

“I think it’s a good moment for the new directors,” continues Rebordinos, pointing to Jordan Firstman’s feature debut Club Kid, which premiered in Cannes and saw A24 acquire the title for $17M in a competitive situation. Firstman rose to fame during the pandemic through is viral satirical impression videos on Instagram.

Club Kid will screen in San Sebastián’s Perlak strand, which comprises a selection of feature films that have yet to be released in Spain but have had critical acclaim at other international festivals. Further titles in that lineup include Pawel Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, Na Hong-jin’s Hope, Olivia Wilde’s The Invite and Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine.

“The lineup really reflects the situation of cinema at this moment, in that it is very complex and different,” Rebordinos says. “Our official selection is definitely one of the most interesting lineups we have had in years. Cinema tends to reflect the society from which it originates and that’s why this year some titles reflect the way people film for Instagram and TikTok and so on.”

Just a few weeks ago at the Venice Film Festival, the Gaza humanitarian crisis became a huge talking point at the festival with NAZA, a documentary about the killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in Gaza, taking a special jury prize at the festival. That film was directed by Israeli journalists Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and just this week, Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to “revoke citizenship for anyone who defames IDF soldiers around the world.”

As a progressive festival, San Sebastián has refused to shy away from the conversation: Last year, the festival issued an open letter calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, a unique move for any film festival. It publicly stated its “rejection of the genocide [and] of the unimaginable massacres to which the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is subjecting the Palestinian people since Hamas perpetrated the terrorist attack of 7 October 2023, which, we of course, also condemn.”

This year, Rebordinos says its stance remains the same and stresses that festivals and individuals who have a platform should be inclined to use it for speaking about human rights.

“I think when you have a possibility to speak to the world, you have to speak about human rights,” he says. “It’s not about taking a position on the left or the right. I have always said that in San Sebastián, all people are welcome. The people who are not welcome are fascists, the people who are against freedom. That is not welcome in San Sebastián. When you are watching Israel kill people – civilian people – I think you have to say something. We can be a small but loudspeaker to the world.

“I don’t have anything against the Israeli people – nothing. In fact, this year’s New Directors section has an Israeli member of the jury – Dana Blankstein Cohen. But at the same time, we can’t deny that in this moment, the government of Israel and the military of Israel are killers.”

The 74th San Sebastian Film Festival takes place September 18-26, 2026.