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Visit and use the archive

The collection

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Inside the Festival’s Customs Department, the warehouse where the films to be screened are kept. In the photograph, the workers in charge of the department. (1981) San Sebastian International Film Festival Archive [+]

The San Sebastian International Film Festival Archive comprises all the collections produced or compiled by the institution over seven decades of history. The collections have diverse origins and characteristics. They include different types of material (paper documentation, photographic objects, posters, films, journals and publications) and are at different stages of processing and accessibility. Safeguarded by the Festival team over the years, in 2018 the project Zinemaldia 70: All Possible Histories began work on the conservation, cataloguing and digitalisation of the collections, allowing them to be consulted from January 2023.

 

  • Paper documents. It includes correspondence with artists, institutions, companies and individuals generated by the San Sebastian Film Festival since its creation, as well as reports, minutes of meetings and other kinds of administrative documents produced by the institution, as well as a range of materials related to other festivals and partner entities.
  • Range of dates: 1953-2022.
  • Instruments for description and accessibility:
    • Material from the historical achieve will only be available for standard consultation, i.e. materials over 15 years old at the time of the request to see them. Materials less than 15 years old are considered as the administrative archive of the San Sebastian Film Festival and are subject to special consultation.
    • Material dated between 1953 and 1997 represents 13,038 document dossiers. All the record cards are accessible on the online catalogue.
    • Material prior to 1997 is described document by document. This catalogue can only be consulted on site. Prepare your visit.
  • Paper documents. It includes materials from the personal collection of José María Aycart Orbegozo (1928-2010), Vice-President and founder of Cine Club San Sebastián (1950-1961), member of the Federación Nacional de Cine Clubs (he was its Vice-President in 1956), member of the Executive Committee of the San Sebastian Film Festival (1958-1964) and Co-Director of the Festival (1963).
  • Range of dates: 1954-1972.
  • Instruments for description and accessibility:
    • The collection contains 709 items, catalogued document by document. The record cards will be incorporated into the online catalogue shortly. The catalogue can be consulted on site. Prepare your visit.
  • Paper documents. It includes correspondence with artists, institutions, companies and individuals related to the organisation of the Video Festival organised by Guadalupe Echevarria from 1982 to 1984 as part of the San Sebastian Film Festival.
  • Range of dates: 1982-1984.
  • Instruments for description and accessibility:
    • The complete collection comprises 170 document dossiers The record cards will be incorporated into the online catalogue shortly. The full catalogue can be consulted on site. Prepare your visit.
  • Paper documents. It includes press kits compiled by the San Sebastian Attraction and Tourism Office (1953-1955), the team of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (1961-1990) and the agencies Hitz (1987-1989) and Info (1987). The dossiers contain press cuttings and other miscellaneous material related to media coverage of the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
  • Range of dates: 1954-2004.
  • Instruments for description and accessibility:
    • The online catalogue contains the record cards of 300 press kits dated between 1961 and 1990.
    • The record cards of material dated between 1953 and 1955 will shortly be included in the online catalogue and will be available for consultation on site. Prepare your visit.
    • Material dated between 1991 and 2004 is currently in storage and is not available for consultation.
  • The photography collection of the San Sebastian International Film Film Festival contains an estimated 55,000 photographs. It covers the following processes and formats, from greater to lesser frequency: colour and black-and-white photographs on laminated or non-laminated paper in different formats, colour negatives on 35 mm cellulose acetate and 5×5 cm colour transparencies.
  • Range of dates: 1953-2008.
  • Instruments for description and accessibility:
    • The online catalogue contains the record cards of 13275 photographs from the Festival’s collection dated between 1953 and 1987. It can also be used to consult the record cards of 2409 objects from the Fototeka collection of Kutxa Fundazioa.
    • The rest of the collection is being processed and is not currently available for consultation.
  • The poster collection of the San Sebastian Film Festival comprises three kinds of material:
    • Posters. Approximately 7,900 copies of 317 original designs on paper (laminated and non-laminated) in different sizes. Based on archiving criteria, a total of 948 copies have been conserved (the three copies of each design that are in the best state of conservation).
    • Creative processes. Prior sketches of some of the posters of the Festival, made using different techniques (pencil, opaque watercolour, ink, mixed technique, collage).
    • Photoliths. 84 designs on transparent film. Each design or model consists of 2, 4 or 5 photoliths.
  • Range of dates: 1960-2022.
  • Instruments for description and accessibility:
    • All the posters and creative processes conserved are available for consultation online in digital collections.
    • The photoliths are not available for consultation.
  • The San Sebastian International Film Festival conserves screening prints of films that won prizes or were programmed in the Festival. The collection was deposited in the Basque Film Library in 1985 and consists of 120 feature films, 36 shorts and 8 newsreels.
  • Range of dates: 1953-1993
  • Accessibility:
    • The Festival’s Film Archive is not currently available for consultation.
  • The official journal of the San Sebastian International Film Festival has been published under different headings throughout its history: Festival (1954-1987, 1990, 1993-2006), Festival de Cine (1988-1989), Moving Pictures (1991-1992, as a special edition of the publication of the same name), Diario del Festival (2007-2009) and Zinemaldia (2010-present).
    • Range of dates: 1954-2022
    • Accessibility: the 724 copies of the diaries kept in the archive have been digitised and are available for consultation.
  • All the catalogues of editions and books published or co-published by the San Sebastian International Film Festival are deposited and can be consulted at Medialab Tabakalera.
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