11/09/2026 - The festival director offers insights into both the programme of this year's edition and the event’s renewed ambitions

(© Santander Film Festival)

The Santander Film Festival marks its tenth edition this year, which will be held from 11-17 September. Its director since last year, Júlia Olmo, shares some notes on the line-up as well as the renewed intentions of the Spanish event.

Cineuropa: This edition of the Santander Film Festival is kicking off with a new programme and has encountered new challenges. What would you say are the main strands that define this edition, and what do you want to offer audiences compared to previous years?
Júlia Olmo: We turn ten this year. Over the last decade, we have defined ourselves as a festival that champions new talent, supporting filmmakers at the start of their careers in both Spain and Latin America. At this edition, we continue to back first and second features from Spain and Latin America, increasingly with European co-production, in the Official Óperas Primas section. We are also shining a light on Cantabrian cinema in the Cantabria Infinita official section, dedicated to movies with Cantabrian production or direction credentials, or those shot in Cantabria.

We also want to be a meeting place and a space for dialogue between emerging filmmakers and audiovisual professionals and those who are more established. That’s why we look back at the beginnings of some of the most relevant Spanish filmmakers, such as Fernando Trueba, Isabel Coixet, Pilar Palomero and Montxo Armendáriz, in the Orígenes section, and we are ramping up the parallel activities we launched at the previous edition, such as the “Diálogos entre cineastas”, where directors and professionals like Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, Marisa Fernández Armenteros, Juan Antonio Bayona, José Luis Rebordinos, Albert Serra and Marta Medina will discuss their careers and creative processes. 

The festival has also consolidated itself as a respected meeting place for the sector. What role do you want Santander to play within the Spanish film ecosystem, and what opportunities does the festival offer professionals, producers and projects?
When thinking about the future, we believe it’s important to analyse who we are and what space we occupy within the film landscape. Our aim has never been, and never will be, to compete with other film festivals. Our approach is to work hand in hand with other events, to complement one another, and to increasingly become a festival with a distinct identity, with characteristics that make us unique, with a space of our own. We want to back films with a strong personality by emerging filmmakers, giving a first opportunity to some who, over time, will become prominent in Spanish and international cinema.

We would also like to bolster the business dimension of these films, turning the festival into a space where the industry can exchange experiences and find avenues for economic opportunity. Little by little, festivals of all sizes are paying attention to industry activities, and we can’t just stand on the sidelines. 

In a context in which festivals are competing to attract both audiences and professionals, how is your strategy evolving to combine discovery, industry and audience engagement?
As I mentioned, our goal is not to grow in size or in the number of films, but in quality - with increasingly interesting movies and filmmakers, with distinctive voices and perspectives. That’s why we are also strongly backing our “Faros”, awards that allow us to pay tribute to sector professionals we admire and whom we believe have interesting things to share. Hopefully, in the coming years, we’ll become a must for the Spanish and international industry, an engaging place to watch films and discuss cinema with the professionals who make it.

(Translated from Spanish)