Cinema and Science Series

A festival that combines scientific and cinematographic culture

The Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), the Basque Film Archive and the San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF) have been organising the Film and Science Cycle since 2018 with the aim of transmitting cinema and scientific culture.

The screenings consist of a selection of approximately 10 films that are presented weekly by expert scientists and arouse the public's interest in science. The presentations and talks are thought-provoking and update our knowledge with the latest scientific developments, and the programme is rounded off by the organisation of scientific talks and the successful special sessions for schoolchildren.

Between January and March, people can enjoy the full programme at Tabakalera in Donostia / San Sebastián and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, and the Artium Museum was recently added as the new site of the Basque Film Library. In addition, commercial cinemas such as Cinéma Le Sélect (San Juan de Luz) and Cines Golem (Pamplona) - in collaboration with the Pamplona Planetarium - have joined the cultural project, offering film and science in their cities as well.

The cycle always features new subjects to generate new connections with science and branches of knowledge. While the inaugural Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014) celebrated general relativity and the recent discovery of gravitational waves, La guerre du feu (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1981) served to provide evidence and open the debate on humans' violent or supportive nature throughout history, and the screening of Gorillas in the Mist (Michael Apted, 1988) paid homage to the impressive life and work of pioneering primatologist and conservationist Diane Fossi.

Pedro Miguel Etxenike, María Martinón, Maria Blasco, Rafael Rebolo and Juan Ignacio Cirac are just some of the prestigious scientists who have shared their particular vision and knowledge with an enthusiastic audience.

In six years, the Cinema and Science series has spread to five cities, with around forty five screenings and the same number of presentations and debates. Hopefully, this scientific look at the stories of cinema will now be of equal interest to film buffs and science enthusiasts, who are often, and happily, one and the same.