The San Sebastian Festival, the Basque National Orchestra and the SGAE Foundation organise the ‘Concert & Screening’ at the Velodrome on the afternoon of Saturday 21st

Over the years, the Basque National Orchestra has been present at the San Sebastian Festival in different ways. One of its most remarkable participations was in 2012, when the Orchestra gave a live performance of the soundtrack accompanying the premiere of Juan Antonio Bayona’s world famous movie The Impossible, a score carrying the signature of Fernando Velázquez. From the following year, 2013, the Orchestra started to give a regular live concert of film music, first of all at their Miramon headquarters and, from 2015, at the Velodrome, the huge stage remaining in place until today. In this decade of film music concerts, the Orchestra has performed the soundtracks of feature films including Handia / Giant, Errementari / The Blacksmith and the Devil, Arrugas / Wrinkles, Pájaros de Papel / Paper Birds, Los crímenes de Oxford / The Oxford Murders, Tadeo Jones 2 / Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas, Mientras dure la Guerra  / While at War, and Buñuel en el laberinto de tortugas / Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles… In total, over the years, the Basque Orchestra has performed and drawn attention to more than 60 soundtracks of movies from our film world. We must also mention that the Orchestra recorded the Festival theme tune for the 1991 and 1992 editions.

As well as its consolidated collaboration with the San Sebastian Festival, the Basque National Orchestra continues to frequently visit film music. Last week saw the release in cinemas of Jean Reno’s My Penguin Friend, with a soundtrack signed by Fernando Velázquez and recorded by the Basque National Orchestra. Recorded under the orders of Velázquez are the soundtracks, for example, of Momias, Poderoso Victoria / The Mighty Victory, Patria, Maixabel, Un monstruo viene a verme / A Monster Calls —with which Fernando Velázquez won the Goya for Best Original Song in 2016— Ocho Apellidos Vascos / A Spanish Affair, Contratiempo / The Invisible Guest, Submergence, etc.

Since 2012, the SGAE Foundation has been jointly organising the non-competitive section Made in Spain, featuring a selection of Spanish movies produced in the last year, whether or not they have been released, to which the Festival provides an excellent platform for their international distribution. These works will screen from 20-28 September at the Sala Berlanga in Madrid.

The Foundation created by the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) also gives the Dunia Ayaso Award to the Best Screenplay focused on the gender perspective which will, in 2024, celebrate its eighth consecutive edition paying tribute to the director from the Canary Islands who died in 2012.  

For its part, the SGAE Territorial Council in the Basque Country backs the Award going to the Best Basque Screenplay, given yearly by the Professional Association of Basque Screenwriters at the Festival itself.

Alfonso de Villalonga (La librería / The Bookshop)

As well as having a background as a singer and cabaret showman in the USA, Alfonso de Vilallonga is known in our country for his extremely personal soundtracks. The last one, for Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger, 2023), won numerous awards in 2024 (Gaudí Award, Platino Award, Quirino Award, CEC Award for Best Soundtrack), plus a number of nominations (Goya and Oscar Awards).

As a composer, Vilallonga has worked with big name directors including Isabel Coixet, Fernando León de Aranoa and Brad Anderson, as well as having a presence at the Goya and Gaudí Awards (2) for the soundtracks of Blancanieves / Snow White (Pablo Berger, 2013) and La librería / The Bookshop (Isabel Coixet, 2017)

In 2020 he released his latest album of own songs in French, Hors de saison (Satelite-K, 2020), and in November will premiere the movie Nieva en Benidorm / It Snows in Benidorm, by Isabel Coixet, where, as well as having created the soundtrack, he has a part as an actor.

He has also written music for theatre (Turning Point, El Mirlo metálico, Vilallonga At The Edge, Aloma, 84 Charing Cross Road, La note d’à côté) and has published nine albums of his own songs in Spain and the United States, available on digital streaming platforms.   

Joseba Beristain (Kantauri)

Joseba Beristain studied the piano in his hometown of Azkoitia until turning to composition in 2005 with J.C. Pérez and continuing with Aitor Uria. Meanwhile, he studied screenwriting with Isabel Alba at Larrotxene and audiovisual production with Pablo Malo. He also graduated as a computer engineer from the University of the Basque Country.  

Over his long career he has composed soundtracks for fiction and animated movies, documentaries, series, short films and advertising, as well as making sound installations for Altos Hornos (a sound and light installation for the improved appreciation of industrial heritage); for Gorliz Hospital (an art installation for patient wellbeing) and for FANT, among others.

Winner of numerous national awards and nominations, particularly including: Aguilar Film Fest, Ciudad Rodrigo International Film Festival, Ibiza Film Festival, Madrid Film Festival, Alcine, Fugaz Awards, XIAF-Ciber Sousa Awards, Tarazona and the Quirino Award going to the best sound design and original music of Ibero-American Animation among others.

He combines this work with teaching, giving several workshops and courses in collaboration with the SGAE, Gipuzkoa Provincial Council and GigiPen, among other bodies. He also gives classes on soundtracks and their creation at the ECPV (Basque  Country Film School), HUHEZI (Mondragon University) and Larrotxene Cultural Centre.

Antón García Abril (El hombre y la tierra)

Antón García Abril has taught several generations of composers, through his Composition Chair at the Madrid Royal Conservatory of Music (RCSMM, 1974-2003).

He has an extensive repertoire: opera, ballets, cantatas, orchestra works, chamber music, concertos for violin, piano, flute, cello, viola, guitar, songs, didactic work… He has written music for the theatre, film and television. In 2014 he received the Gold Medal from the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España. His motto is “Culture is freedom”. His other great passion, poetry, has seen him write more than 130 songs, taking their lyrics from the great poets.  

He has received prestigious awards such as the National Music Prize, the Guerrero Foundation Award, the Tomás Luis de Victoria Ibero-American Music Award, the Aragón Award, the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts and the Grand Cross of Alfonso X the Wise. He is an academic numerary of San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, Honorary Member of the Claustro Universitario de las Artes, of the Alcalá de Henares University and Doctor Honoris Causa from the Complutense University of Madrid and from the Havana University of the Arts.

He is one of the most performed and best-loved Spanish composers by leading Spanish performers and is, therefore, an honorary member of the SGAE. Antón García Abril has “an unmistakable style that captivates those who perform his works, fascinates those who listen to them, and amazes those who analyse them” (Álvaro Zaldívar, Musicologist).  

Xavier Font (Soy Nevenka / I Am Nevenka)

Xavi Font is a singular figure in our film world. He started learning the piano and the guitar at a very early age, going on to participate in alternative pop music groups, while developing a growing interest in film music. He received composition and orchestration classes from José Nieto and Antón García Abril, becoming a film music professional in 2005.

As a composer, he is known for his work in Rapa (2022-2024 Movistar+), Hierro (2019- 2021 Arte/Movistar+), La sombra de la ley (Vaca Films 2018), and many others, including O Apóstolo / The Apostle(2012), on which he collaborated with Philip Glass.

He combined his creative and managerial aspects as one of the main producers of O que arde / Fire Will Come (Oliver Laxe, 2019). As a producer, he has also participated in Ons (Alfonso Zarauza, 2020), Donde acaba la memoria (Pablo Romero Fresco, 2022) and Sica (Carla Subirana, 2023). He is currently producing Oliver Laxe’s latest movie with the Almodóvar brothers and Oriol Maymó, as well as the debuts from Jaume Claret Muxart, Estrany Riu, and Miguel Ángel Delgado, San Simón.

Xavi Font is a member of the European Film Academy, the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España and the Academia Galega do Audiovisual, where is also a member of the Board of Directors.

Alicia Morote (Emilia)

Alicia Morote graduated in Music Composition with First Class Honours at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, and pursued a Master of Music Degree in Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games at the Berklee College of Music Valencia Campus.

She has worked as a composer in productions such as La Estrella Azul, directed by Javier Macipe; Lucía, directorial debut from the actress Marta Etura and Un país en danza, for RTVE’s La 2 channel. She has also worked as a musical orchestrator and coach on productions including Pedro Almodóvar’s Dolor y Gloria / Pain and Glory and Madres Paralelas / Parallel Mothers, Daniel Calparsoro’s Centauro, and the Disney+ series, Cristóbal Balenciaga.

In 2018 she composed the music for the Spanish National Ballet video game Bailando un tesoro. She also won 2nd prize at the Montreal International Film Music Competition. In 2022 she received the Berklee College of Music’s VALE Award in recognition of her professional excellence.

In 2023 she landed the Alfonso X Culture Award from the Murcia Region in the Other Music category for her soundtrack of the film Emilia, directed by Miguel Ángel Calvo Buttini. In 2024 she has been selected from among the 10 participating composers of the Spot the Composer programme at the Festival de Cannes.

She is currently composing her work Sigh, as part of the SGAE Foundation’s Programme of Incentives to Symphony Creation, to have its premiere with the Murcia Region Symphony Orchestra in 2025. 

Paula Olaz (Suite)

Paula Olaz is a composer of soundtracks for the cinema, television, theatre, dance and video games. She studied at the Berklee College of Music, where she completed her postgraduate course cum laude. Meanwhile, she pursued clinical neuropsychology studies enabling her to specialise in the cognitive psychology of soundtracks.  

After studying in Spain, the US, Switzerland and Germany, under Javier Asín, Bingen Mendizabal, Cornelius Schwehr, Lucio Godoy and the famous composer Wolfgang Rihm, she began working with Pascal Gaigne in 2017.

She is co-founder of the United Love Movement, a universal movement serving through choir and orchestra music to reflect on human nature and the ability of music to change today’s society. Apart from her extensive career in film music composition, she has received commissions from numerous choirs, such as the Vocalia Taldea, Ganbara Faktoria and the Gipuzkoa Choir Federation.

An astronomy aficionado and researcher into the sound world of the universe, in 2017 she recorded and directed, at London’s prestigious Air Studios, a work based on the real images received from the Hubble Telescope for the European Space Agency (ESA). Since then, she has focused on research in the field of data sonification, working for CERN and HEAD (Geneva, Switzerland) with European physicists and astronomers. She also gives classes on soundtracks and music technology at Larrotxene and is an expert on music and science at the EITB.

More recently, she has received the Lorca Award for Best Soundtrack for the film  Alguien que cuide de mí / Someone Who Takes Care of Me. Also worthy of note is her current work on the animated series Kima & Amik, the Disney+ series Olimpia and the musical composition for dance of Atxine, by Janire Etxabe.

Manel Gil-Inglada (D’Ortagnan eta hiru mosketxakurrak)

Manel Gil-Inglada is a well-known and multi award-winning soundtrack composer with more than 60 international recognitions to his name among nominations and awards racked up in the last 15 years alone. With more than 35 years’ experience in the audiovisual sector, apart from the same number as a performer, he pursued his studies at Barcelona’s Aula de Música Moderna y Jazz, a school recognised and approved by Boston’s Berklee College of Music. He specialised in Film Scoring at a variety of seminars and courses under José Nieto, Armando Trovaioli, as well as Ennio Morricone at the Accademia Musicale Chigana – Siena. 

A professor and collaborator on several master’s degree courses above all related to the application of soundtracks in the world of animation, such as the International Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Animation at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, on Animation at the Visual Image Laboratory of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial de Barcelona LIVE-UPC, the Barreira Animation Week, the Escuela de Arte y Diseño, FIMUCS, the First Seville International Music Festival, and the Degree in Audiovisual Communication, Creation and Musical Production and the Performing and Cinematic Arts at Loyola University in Seville. He contributes to the magazine specialising in animation Renderout, and to that of the Cinematic Composing Academy.  

In 1990 he co-founded the music production company Quadrophenia and the Vadeaudio studio in 2008. He is currently working single-handed on scoring for films, orchestras and video games, such as the recent Endling - Extinction is Forever, whose soundtrack boasts the participation of the great Tina Guo, and of Rusanda Panfili, both regular collaborators with Hans Zimmer, the band to have harvested widespread excellent international acclaim and recognitions.