José Luis Rebordinos is closing out his tenure at the San Sebastián International Film Festival after 17 years in charge, telling The Hollywood Reporter in an interview — conducted just hours before Penélope Cruz walked the red carpet — that he does not consider himself proud of his run, only satisfied with the collective effort behind it. "No," he said when asked if he was proud. "I am happy, because I think we did good work. We, not I, because we are a team. We are a lot of people, and we did very good things. I did my work. I have a salary for that. It's a normal thing." He added, with a laugh, "I am very bad [at] interviews!"
Handing Over to Beloki
Starting in 2027, Rebordinos will be succeeded by Maialen Beloki, his deputy director of 11 years and the first woman to lead the festival in its 74-year history. "She is very intelligent and a very good person. She knows the festival very well, and [being a woman], I think it is the perfect direction for the festival [to go in]," Rebordinos said. He described his own decision to step aside as driven by a desire for change: "I took the decision because I want to do new things. It's [been] a lot of years directing the festival. I love it a lot. It's wonderful work, but I want to write. I want to have more time to read. I want to work with Latin American and Spanish cinema, but at smaller festivals, more relaxed." Calling himself "a very relaxed man," he said he felt no extra pressure heading into his final edition, adding, "I think in this moment the festival is better than 50 years ago."
Industry Growth
Rebordinos credited the festival's industry-facing initiatives — including the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, launched in 2012, and the Creative Investors' Conference, running since 2022 — with reshaping the event. "The industry activities changed the festival," he said. "There are some very big films in the competition [now] that 10 years ago, it would have been impossible to have." This year's Golden Shell contenders include Fatih Akin's Ghost Song, Mike Leigh's final project, Tender Loving Care, and Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. The 74th edition also features Brad Pitt's Heart of the Beast premiere and appearances by Diego Luna and Jordan Firstman, while the Creative Investors' Conference at the Tabakalera center is drawing Christine Vachon, Pablo Larraín and Adele Romanski. Vachon, attending her second consecutive CIC, told THR in May: "Everybody thinks of Cannes and Venice and Berlin, but it's the smaller festivals like San Sebastián that people will gravitate toward. Those are the festivals where you actually get to spend time with filmmakers, local artists and financiers."
The festival's Donostia Award went to Werner Herzog the night before the interview. Rebordinos said the selection committee typically balances one "cinephile" honoree with one "star," with Naomi Watts filling that role Saturday evening. "And at some point three [Donostia Awards] were confirmed," he said. "The third was confirmed since May, but they changed their schedule, and this person couldn't come."
Political Statement
The opening ceremony, hosted by Fariba Sheikhan and Mariona Terés, included a direct political statement: "We join the myriad of voices calling for an end to genocide, like the one happening in Gaza. […] And we stand in solidarity with the directors of the film NAZA, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who have been threatened by the Israeli government." Rebordinos noted this was not the festival's first such stance — it previously lost a potential sponsor after he publicly condemned Spain's Vox party, which he called "racist, homophobic, misogynistic." On the Gaza statement, he said: "The genocide isn't a theory. We are watching the genocide. We are a little speaker, but in front of the barbarism, we had to say something. It's not very important, our opinion. But we can say something." He added that San Sebastián is "the only A-category festival that has issued a statement about it," while stressing he does not fault others for staying silent: "I understand other festivals don't want to [make a statement] out of fear, because they're hesitant, and I respect that. I don't like people telling other people what they have to do. It's up to everyone's own conscience."
The 2026 San Sebastian International Film Festival runs Sept. 18-26.
Photo: DONOSTIA KULTURA, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
