Maialen Beloki will be the director of the San Sebastián Festival from 2027, replacing Rebordinos

Maialen Beloki will be the director of the San Sebastián Festival starting in 2027. The Festival’s Board of Directors has unanimously chosen her as successor to José Luis Rebordinos through a public competition.

Beloki (San Sebastián, 1983) will direct the San Sebastián Festival from January 2027 after being appointed to the position by the entity’s Board of Directors, made up of the San Sebastián City Council, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, the Basque Government and the Ministry of Culture.

The decision was adopted this Monday afternoon unanimously at an extraordinary meeting of the Council held in the capital of Gipuzkoa, and is the result of the public competition called on March 4 to name the person who will succeed Rebordinos, who has held the position of director of the Festival since 2011 and will leave that responsibility on December 31, 2026. Batea, a human resources consulting company specialized in selection and headhunting, has been in charge of managing the process.

Deputy Director of the Festival since 2016, Maialen Beloki has been one of the key figures in the recent evolution of the event, contributing both to its international positioning and to the expansion of its activity throughout the year.

In this context, it has promoted the year-round Z365/Festival model, a strategic initiative focused on the development of new talents, cinematographic training and the generation of thought around cinema.

Beloki has a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Navarra and a Cum Laude PhD in Film Theory, Analysis and Documentation from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). She has a career that combines cultural management, teaching and research.

She is part of the Academic Directorate of Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, where she is also a teacher, and has collaborated as a teacher at Mondragon Unibertsitatea.

Throughout her career she has participated in strategic projects such as Donostia/San Sebastián European Capital of Culture 2016, and has developed an outstanding activity as a lecturer and author in the cinematographic field.

Likewise, it has been part of different programs and initiatives to support the audiovisual sector, collaborating with institutions such as the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA).

With the replacement of José Luis Rebordinos by Maialen Beloki, the aim is to reinforce the commitment to a profile “that combines strategic vision, knowledge of the sector and commitment to cultural development”, the Festival has stressed.