September means that the San Sebastian International Film Festival is around the corner. This will be our 6th festival, and, as always, we are excited to enjoy our favorite San Sebastian event.
This year the festival is celebrating 70 years. Earlier this week we went to see a special exhibit in the Tabakalera (the former tobacco factory turned cultural center) that provided a pictorial and video history of the festival. While it was entertaining to see the number of celebrities who have attended the festival during its lengthy history, having lived in Los Angeles for so many years, that kind of celebrity worship isn’t that appealing to us.
Preparing for the festival is time-consuming. The list of movies that will be shown trickles out during the weeks before tickets go on sale. I had a running list of movies that seemed interesting and when it came time to cull the list down, there were some movies I couldn’t remember why I included and others I couldn’t believe I had omitted.
About a week before tickets go on sale, the program is released, which includes an important detail – each movie's run time. This year there were several movies that had caught our eye but that turned out to be well over 2 hours long. When you are planning to see more than a dozen movies in 9 days, a super long movie is not an attractive option. Those movies were the first to drop off the list.
Each movie generally has between 3 and 5 showings over a couple of days at different locations and times. Putting together your schedule is like a puzzle. We prefer certain theaters and do not like late start times. We spent hours figuring it all out, including having alternative times for certain movies if tickets sell out for those that will be in high demand.
Finally, tickets go on sale over three days and every year we cross our fingers that there won’t be a system glitch or screw up.
We’re pleased to report that while there was frustration with the process, as usual, overall things went well. We’re going all out this year – I’m seeing 16 movies over 8 days; Jeff is seeing 19 movies over 9 days. And one of the movies is part of the culinary films section with a corresponding dinner at the Basque Culinary Center. When all is said and done, we will post our usual wrap-up post when it is over.
Viva la cinema!
Shana & Jeff
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