San Sebastian has announced that from its 2013 festival, its film section Pearls, which was part of the Zabaltegi programme, will now run as an independent section.

The Pearls section will show the best festival films of the year, not yet released in Spain. All of the films in Pearls will compete for the Audience Awards, one for best film and one for best European film.

Zabaltegi becomes a separate section, non-competitive for varied films as an ‘open zone.’

This move comes after the festival launched its New Directors programme as an independent section in 2012.

The 61st edition will run Sept 20-28.