Entertainment

Having sold more than 65.000 tickets in the first four days, the 57th San Sebastian Festival open its doors today.

The director Atom Egoyan will present his film Chloe at the Festival opening gala today in the Kursaal at 20:00.

A stage converting the lines of this edition into volumes of colour will serve as the backdrop to the opening gala in the Kursaal, presented by Edurne Ormazabal, Francis Lorenzo and Barbara Goenaga.

Appearances will also be made at different moments of the gala by Emma Suarez, Elena Anaya, Marta Etura, Goya Toledo, Aida Folch, Alex de la Iglesia, Martin Rivas and Pablo Rivero, and the directors Lucille Hadzihalilovic and Serge Bozon.

Other participants in the gala will be the members of the Official Jury, chaired by the director Laurent Cantet, consisting of the actors Daniel Gimenez-Cacho, Pilar Lopez de Ayala and Leonor Silveira, and the directors Bong Joon-ho, John Madden and Samira Makhmalbaf. The chair of the Kutxa-New Directors Award, Saffron Burrows, and her counterpart on the Horizontes Award Jury, Manuel Perez Estremera, will also take to the stage.

Furthermore, the Fipresci Grand Prix will be presented to Michael Haneke''s film Das Weisse Band, to be collected by the film''s producer, Margaret Menegaz.

The opening gala will be broadcast today on TVE 2 at 22:00; on ETB 1 live at 20:00; and will be available in www.sansebastianfestival.com from 22:00 on sansebastianfestivalTV.

Tarantino and Brad Pitt

The director Quentin Tarantino, the actor Brad Pitt and the producer Lawrence Bender will attend the screening of Inglourious Basterds at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre, starting at 22:00 and opening the Zabaltegi-Pearls section. A little earlier, at around 21:30, the movie team will make its way along the red carpet running between the Maria Cristina Hotel and the Theatre. The actor Christoph Waltz, who had confirmed his presence in San Sebastian, has had to cancel his visit due to his immediate incorporation to the shooting of Michael Gondry''s new film, The Green Hornet.

This year''s double red carpet at San Sebastian Festival covers a total of 200 metres. In addition to the red carpet leading to the doors of the Kursaal with its 90 metres, tomorrow another one measuring 110 metres will run from the Maria Cristina Hotel to the Victoria Eugenia Theatre.

Other faces

All sorts of top-line moviemakers from all over the world will make their way to San Sebastian at some stage during these nine days. In addition to Atom Egoyan, Quentin Tarantino, Rodrigo García, Laurent Cantet, John Madden, Samira Makhmalbaf and Bong Joon-ho, the San Sebastian Festival will be attended by the directors Ang Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam, Michael Winterbottom, François Ozon, Tom DiCillo, Jacques Audiard, Johnnie To, Bahman Gobhadi, Lee Daniels, Olivier Hirschbiegel, Christophe Honoré, Juan José Campanella, Matthias Glasner, Lucille Hadzihalilovic, Fernando Trueba, Isaki Lacuesta, Javier Rebollo, Nicolas Klotz, Serge Bozon, Bertrand Bonello, Gaspar Noé, Jalil Lespert and Jean Marie and Arnaud Larrieu, among others.

We also expect to welcome the actors Robert Duvall, Naomi Watts, Chiara Mastroianni, Miranda Otto, Brenda Blethyn, Ricardo Darin, Isaach de Bankolé, Carmen Machi, Lola Dueñas, Luis Tosar and Ariadna Gil, among others.

Ian McKellen will receive this edition''s Donostia Award on the 23rd.

The National Cinematography Award, conferred by the Ministry of Culture, will be presented by the actress Maribel Verdu at a celebration on Saturday 19 to take place at 12:00 in the Maria Cristina Hotel''s Elcano Lounge.