Originally the event was devised as an International Cinema Week in order to boost tourism in the capital of Guip�zcoa along with its hotel and catering industry. It started out with a cinematographic and commercial vocation achieving category B recognition (non-competitive) from the FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) thanks to the success it achieved in its first year.

 

The following year, it went further down the road to stardom and became known as the International Cinema Festival, and in 1955 the FIAPF awarded it competitive status specialising in colour films: now official prizes could be awarded. This led to the emergence of the �Concha� or Seashell, at that time still made of silver, the winner of which had to be selected by an international jury.

 

When in 1957, it was finally awarded category �A� status, and the Concha was made of gold in the main categories, the main competition icons had already appeared, still the benchmark for today�s progress, that is, that of opting for a liberal tendency, beyond the constraints of the censorship of that time, and which still exists today. What matters most to the San Sebastian Cinema Festival is being a showcase for the most thought-provoking and innovative cinema of the time.

 

Many important people have visited the Festival since those early years, returning San Sebastian to its cosmopolitan splendour and giving it a certain dose of glamour, always linked to good cinema. Federico Fellini, Gloria Swanson, Alfred Hitchcock, Kirk Douglas, Jean-Luc Godard, Deborah Kerr, Leslie Caron, King Vidor, Monica Vitti, Anthony Mann, Bernardo Bertolucci, Anthony Quinn, Audrey Hepburn, Franco Zeffirelli, Francis Ford Coppola,...to name but a few.

 

This year a good measure of glamour is present once again and a list of outstanding figures from today�s cinema will walk down the red carpet on 15 September to mark the opening of the 53rd San Sebastian International Cinema Festival, during which four Spanish films will compete against each other for victory and recognition. The competition will boast the distinguished presence of the actress Angelica Huston who will chair the official jury.