The San Sebastián Film Festival has a new director. Maialen Beloki will take over the position in January 2027, replacing José Luis Rebordinos after 16 years at the helm. The decision was unanimous in the Board of Directors, made up of Basque institutions and the Ministry of Culture, following a public tender managed by the consulting firm Batea.
Digital transition and new protocols in festival management 🖥️
Beloki's arrival implies an update to the festival's management systems. The implementation of a unified platform for accreditations, programming, and logistics is expected, based on open APIs that allow real-time data integration. Cybersecurity protocols will also be reviewed to protect film metadata and distribution agreements. The streaming infrastructure for virtual screenings will be another key point, with distributed servers to reduce latency in online projections.
Rebordinos leaves, but the red carpet stays 🎬
After 16 years, Rebordinos leaves the post without needing a farewell campaign with a statuette included. Beloki inherits a festival that works, but also the challenge of not turning the red carpet into a runway for algorithms. The only certainty is that photographers will continue asking celebrities to look to the left, and critics, that films last less than three hours.