The first Focus on Glocal Cinemas will be a meeting point for professionals and will mark the start of a brand-new film-industry activity that will take place continuously throughout next year. In conjunction with the Glocal Cinemas Network, and during the upcoming 64th San Sebastián International Film Festival, European movies in non-hegemonic languages (ie, those not shot in French, English, Italian, Spanish or German) and in post-production will be shown in front of producers, distributors, sales agents and programmers so as to facilitate their completion and circulation beyond the borders of each country or region.

The director of the San Sebastián Film Festival, José Luis Rebordinos, and the Basque Government’s Deputy Minister of Culture, Joxean Muñoz, were in the Basque city this morning to unveil this initiative, which aims to boost the visibility of these film industries, as well as fostering cooperation and inspiring and spreading co-productions further afield.

Focus on Global Cinemas will be held in the San Telmo Museum between 19 and 21 September, as part of the fifth Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum (read more), and will welcome representatives from Norway, Iceland and Denmark. It is the result of an initiative that was kicked off in 2014 by the Basque Government, whose Department of Education, Language Policy and Culture promoted meetings between cultural operators and institutions and audiovisual professionals from Switzerland, Ireland and Latvia, among other nations. Those involved then drew up the Glocal Cinemas: Big Stories, Small Countries manifesto.

The above is thus one more addition to the San Sebastián Film Festival’s strong support for creation, as demonstrated by Films in Progress (read more), which since 2012 has been providing backing for the completion of Latin American movies subsequently presented at the most important film festivals. As Rebordinos highlighted today: “Glocal is the commitment to telling global stories in local languages.”