Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival announces the first eight films that will be competing in the festival’s premiere competition programme - the Official Selection.

The Official Selection - Competition has been run in its present form since the festival received it’s ‘A-category’ status from FIAPF in 2014. Since then the programme has been a competition programme without any geographic restrictions, screening world, international or European premieres of films by established filmmakers that the festival’s programming team wishes to highlight for its audience, film critics and the international film industry.

The Official Selection - Competition will be overseen by an international jury of film industry professionals, that will be announced in the second half of October. They will hand out the following prizes: Grand Prix for the Best Film (grant of 10 000 euros from the City of Tallinn, shared by the Director and Producer); Best Director (grant of 5000 euros); Best Script; Best Actress; Best Actor; Best Cinematographer (grant of 1000 euros from Angel Films); Best Music.

The first screenings of the Official Selection will run between the 20th and 29th of November. The full programme of the Official Selection will be announced on the 24th of October.

FILMS

Coming Home Again
BAFTA-nominated (Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, 1986) and Berlin’s Silver Bear winner (Best Director for Smoke, 1995) Wayne Wang’s 22nd film will arrive at its European premiere after a Special Presentation slot at Toronto and Gala Presentation in Busan. The film stars Justin Chon (actor in the Twilight series and the actor and director of Gook) and Jackie Chung (Station 19 and Someone Else). The story follows the young Chang-rae’s as he prepares a traditional Korean dinner for his cancer-stricken mother, his father and sister - for what is to be the family’s last New Year’s Eve dinner, as food, memories, roots, random encounters and quarrels transform this day into an emotional journey as he prepares for the inevitable departure of his mother.

Gypsy Queen
Having won the Black Nights sub-festival Sleepwalkers (now called PÖFF Shorts) special mention award in 2008 with his short film Cheeese…. German filmmaker Hüseyin Tabak returns to Black Nights with Gipsy Queen, a tale of a Roma woman Ali and her two children struggling to survive economic difficulties and social exclusion in Hamburg, while Ali gradually realises her former profession - pro-boxing - could be her only solution to their problems.

Girl With No Mouth
Having screened at numerous genre festivals with his horror films Housewife andBaskin that premiered in Toronto, Turkish director Can Evrenol plays with new genres this time around. Set in an apocalyptic near-future where parts of the world have been devastated by a great war while others are being ruled by ruthless militants who don’t shy away from brutal experiments with children, the film offers us a twisted version of the ‘kids on a mission’ premise.

Gutterbee
Ulrich Thomsen has made dozens of memorable roles as an actor, starring in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration and The Commune, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Weight of Water and Ridley Scott’s The Kingdom of Heaven. Gutterbee is his second film as a director, a grittily awkward and politically allegorical anti-Western set in Gutterbee, the deep South of the US. A German entrepreneur / Bavarian heritage fetishist (Ewen Bremner) teams up with a small town hustler (Antony Starr) to start a German sausage restaurant, an idea that instantly clashes with the xenophobic element of the town that has lost the majority of its population as the racist attitude drives away anybody who doesn’t pass as a white heterosexual American.

Lost Lotus
A young Chinese teacher Wu Yu, searches for the hit-and-run driver responsible for her mother’s death. As she tries to understand her mother’s faith, Buddhist principles gradually grow in her and start appeasing her pain, but a revelation about the cause of the accident creates a new set of challenges for her and her marriage. Director and scriptwriter Liu Shu has achieved a delicate balance in the depiction of mourning alongside the clash of religious and moral values with the cold pragmatic world of power and money. Lost Lotus is her second film after Lotus, which competed in the Venice Film Festival’s Critics week in 2012.

Monster
Director-screenwriter Tom Sullivan offers a hauntingly bleak, slow-burning tale of overcoming grief.  Set in Ireland in 1845 the film centers on Colmán Sharkey, a fisherman, a father, a husband, who takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. Patsy, a former soldier arrives just ahead of ‘the blight,’ a crop disease that caused the Great Plague, killing and displacing millions of Irishmen, while also disrupting the life of Colmán and his family.

Through Black Glass
Russian auteur Konstantin Lopushansky is no stranger to Black Nights, having screened at the festival’s Eurasia Competition with his film The Role that brought the Best Actor award for it’s lead Aleksandr Efremov. He also plays a central role in his new film, the diabolically antagonistic Russian oligarch who pays for the eye surgery of a young nun in exchange for marriage. Lopushansky’s unique directorial style and storytelling offer a story rich with stark social commentary and religious allegory.

When the Moon Was Full
Director Narges Abyar returns to the Official Selection of Black Nights after winning the Best Director award in 2016 with Breath, which was later selected as the country’s entry for the Academy Awards as the Best Foreign Language Film candidate. Her latest film is a study of two fundamentally opposite forces - Islamic terrorism and love. Faezeh, a woman from Teheran marries Abdol-Hamid from an Iranian province near the border of Pakistan. Soon after the marriage, she finds out that the man’s younger brother is a religious extremist trying to recruit his brother for his bloody cause, putting the marriage to its ultimate test.

Coming Home Again, 2019, USA / South Korea, director:  Wayne Wang | European premiere
Girl With No Mouth, 2019, Turkey, director: Can Evrenol | European premiere
Gutterbee, 2019, Denmark, director: Ulrich Thomsen | European premiere
Gypsy Queen, 2019 Germany / Austria, director: Hüseyin Tabak | International premiere
Lost Lotus, 2019, China / Netherlands, director LIU Shu | World premiere
Monster, 2019, Ireland, director: Tom Sullivan | World premiere
Through Black Glass, 2019, Russia, director: Konstantin Lopushansky | International premiere
When the Moon Was Full, 2019, Iran, director: Narges Abyar | International premiere

The film stills of the programme can be found HERE. 

Official Selection awards of 2018 can be seen HERE.

Festival TEASER.

PRESS ACCREDITATION

Press accreditation for the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and Inudstry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event is in progress. Please apply by clicking on the link below.

APPLY FOR THE PRESS ACCREDITATION

PRESS OFFICE CONTACTS

The festival's press office gladly helps with any question regarding the accreditation, press screenings and conferences and helps to organise interviews with the festival's guests. 

Press accreditations and events: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Press hospitality matters: Anna-Liiza Izbaš - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
International communication: Hannes Aava - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / +372 555 29 211.
Russian communication: Jaana Kalinistova - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Estonian communication: Tiit Tuumalu - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On Sunday, 22 September, the 22nd Festival of Slovenian Film closed with the awards ceremony to celebrate the highest creative achievements of Slovenian cinema. Over six days, the festival served an audience of 6,200, or more than 1,000 each day, which indicates its growing attendance. In addition to the extensive and very varied line-up of films (106 films, of which 57 were in the running for Vesna awards), FSF offered a range of industry events addressing a whole array of significant issues, as well as opportunities to meet the casts and crews of films in competition at Q&As, which all filmmakers in official competition were invited to attend. A special feature of this year’s festival was a live broadcast of the awards ceremony. Its hosts were actors who appeared in last year’s award-winning feature Consequences: Matej Zemljič, Timon Šturbej and Gašper Markun, who made the ceremony original and dynamic. Adding to the atmosphere was music from Slovenian films such as Mambo Cubano from the legendary Don’t Whisper, performed by Lea Cok. The Vesna Award for best feature film was presented by the Slovenian culture minister Zoran Poznič. 

The big winner of the 22nd FSF, Stories from the Chestnut Woods, won as many as 11 Vesna Awards: for best feature film, best director (Gregor Božič), best actor in a leading role (Massimo De Francovich), best cinematography (Ferran Paredes Rubio), best original music (Hekla Magnúsdóttir), best editing (Gregor Božič, Benjamin Mirguet, Beppe Leonetti), best production design (Giovanna Cirianni), best costume design (Katharina Jockwer, Mateja Fajt), best make-up (Barbara Morosetti), best sound (Jan Vysocky, Julij Zornik), and the Audience Award (with an average grade of 4.69). In addition, the film was also presented with the IRIDIUM Award for best directorial debut (postproduction services amounting to EUR 5,000).

The Vesna Award for best screenplay went to Katja Colja and Angelo Carbone for Rosa (directed by Katja Colja). Vesna for best actress in a leading role was awarded to Liza Marijina for her role in Half-Sister (dir. Damjan Kozole), Vesna for best actress in a supporting role to Jana Zupančič for her role in Corporation (dir. Matej Nahtigal), and Vesna for best actor in a supporting role to Milivoj Roš for his role in Oroslan (dir. Matjaž Ivanišin). The Vesna Award for best documentary went to Daughter of Camorra, directed by Siniša Gačić, Vesna for best short film to Paradise by Mitja Ličen and Sonja Prosenc, Vesna for best minority co-production to God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya, directed by Teona Strugar Mitevska. Alzheimer Café by Martin Draksler won the Vesna Award for best student film, Liliana by Milanka Fabjančič won the Vesna Award for best animated film, and Man with Shadow by Ema Kugler won the Vesna Award for best original / experimental AV work. 

Two Vesnas for special achievements were awarded to Pumpkin on the Hot Roof of the World, directed by Nejc Saje and Jeffrey Young, and to Martin Turk for his achievements as director and screenwriter in Good Day’s Work.

The award presented by the educational programme Sharpening the Gaze, run by KINO! Society for Expanding Film Culture, to the best student film in the official competition went to Sandra Jovanovska for Soma. The programme also gave a special mention to Alzheimer Café.

The Kosobrin Award for priceless film professionals, presented by the Directors Guild of Slovenia, went to production manager Matija Kozamernik Jojo.

Photos of the closing night and the awards ceremony are available //www.flickr.com/photos/151251060@N05/albums/72157711024131466">here.

The list of winners with jury commentaries is available here. 

Part of the tradition of EnergaCAMERIMAGE Film Festival is helping young filmmakers and film school students to improve their skills through numerous workshops and seminars led by recognised film professionals. To support student attendance at the Festival, the organizers offer a special price for STUDENT Entry Cards and free accommodation for students through the Homestay Program.

Homestay was established in 1997. According to its guidelines, students from all over the world can find free of charge accommodation in the private flats and houses of families from Toruń who, in return, take part in the festival events for free. This initiative often proves to be a great opportunity to start an unbreakable friendship and learn more about Polish culture, tradition and hospitality.

To enrol for the Homestay Program: 
● purchase your Student Entry Card online HERE 
● fill out the Homestay entry form HERE by October 13th 
● wait for your Homestay offer* (will put you in touch with your Host) 
● arrange your arrival and your stay with the Host individually

*Please note: 
● We can only provide accommodation offered by those Toruń families that decided to take part in the program. 
● Since there are always more students than families interested, we cannot guarantee that accommodation will be found for everyone. 
● Accommodation will be granted on a "first come first served" basis. 
● The deadline for applying for Homestay Program is October 13th.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival announces the first eight films that will be competing in the First Feature Competition programme of the festival. All the films will be having their world premieres in Tallinn.

Running since 2015, the First Feature Competition is the festival’s international competition showcasing films that are the feature debuts of talented new filmmakers. The programme embodies the festival’s mission to discover emerging creative voices from all over the world, offering them a first launchpad and help them to gain international recognition.

The competition will be overseen by an international jury of film industry professionals, that will be announced in the second half of October. They will hand out the following prizes: Best film and a 5000 euro grant shared by the director and producer of the film, along with two Special Prizes for specific artistic achievements.

The first screenings of every film in the programme will run from the 21st until the 30th of November at the Sõprus cinema. The full lineup will be revealed next week.

FILMS

Looted
Born in the Netherlands, working in the UK, director-co-scriptwriter Rene Pannevis’ first feature-length work follows a working-class youngster caring for his bedridden father, trying to find legal work to pay the bills, while also getting dragged into illegal activities as the household’s financial situation gets more dire by the day. The director’s success lies firmly in his ability to work with the talented lead actors Charley Palmer Rothwell (Dunkirk, Legend), Thomas Turgoose (This is England) and Morgane Polanski (Vikings).

Mother 
Director Jure Pavlović’s short films have screened at numerous festivals including Berlinale and Clermont Ferrand, with his film Pinkik earning him the European Film Award in 2015. Black Nights Film Festival presents the world premiere of his debut feature Mother, the first-person-told story of a Yugoslav expat Jasna, returning to the home of her dominating mother in Croatia, after learning she’s terminally ill. 

Saul At Night
Labelled as ‘lo-fi sci-fi’ US director Cory Santilli introduces an original vision of a world that has gone to extremes to secure proper sleep cycles for its citizens. Kentucker Audley (Christmas Again) and Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning actress Suzanne Clement (Laurence Anyways) carry the story forward as characters isolated from the rest of society as part of a voluntary experiment. Instead of grand socio-political narratives, we get an introverted vision of the future where the all-controlling power is an abstract and fully anonymous entity.

The Seeker
Working actively as an actor, writer, producer and Brazilian director Bernardo Barreto’s first feature-length direction The Seeker follows a 30-something couple living in a commune of free spirits on a nerve-wracking Father’s Day visit to the girl’s parents home. The gathering of the wealthy family belonging to the societal elite is under severely stressful circumstances as an angry crowd has gathered behind the villa’s gates to protest against the family head’s corruption charges that have just emerged.

A Dog’s Death
Uruguayan director Matías Ganz showcases his skill of off-kilter storytelling, presenting a veteran dog veterinarian whose decision to hide his fault in the death of a client’s dog leads to unforeseen results for him and his family, as they enter into psychological warfare with an unknown opponent.

Dust and Ashes
Having screenwriting experience from several series and film projects already, including the disaster thriller The Flu, South Korean director-scriptwriter Park Hee-kwon’ s debut is a completely different affair. The minimalistic documentary-like character study follows the socially isolated 20-something Hae Su doing rough jobs, while also organising her mother’s funeral and the legal processes that goes with it, gradually unravelling the secret social tragedy that is behind it all.

Lorni – The Flaneur
Indian director Wanphrang Diengdoh presents the story of Shem (played by Adil Hussain of Life of Pi fame), an out of work private investigator with a sharp sense of the streets who gets a chance to escape the lethargy of his current life when he is asked to investigate an unusual robbery. Navigating narrow streets and dark alleys, he embarks on an emotional and mental journey as he navigates the city of Shillong - in far-flung North East India - an area rife with acute race tensions and an even more diverse cultural identity when compared to the rest of the country.

The Names of the Flowers
Born in Iran, working in Canada and South America as a journalist and filmmaker, Bahman Tavoosi’s poetically quirky first feature studies the effects of political nostalgia and personal cult in a rural area of Bolivia that is preparing for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Ernesto "Che" Guevara’s death. As an old countryside teacher is invited to share her historical story with the world: giving a bowl of soup to the captured guerrilla in her classroom, a few hours before his death. The invitation is withdrawn soon after, as other women step forward claiming the story of “the soup and the flower” as their own.

A Dog's Death (La muerte de un perro), 2019,  Uruguay / France / Argentine Director: Matías Ganz | World premiere
Dust and Ashes (축복의 집), 2019, South Korea, director: Park Hee-kwon | World premiere
Mother (Mater), 2019, Croatia / Serbia / France / Bosnia-Herzegovina, director: Jure Pavlović | World premiere
Looted, 2019, UK, Director: Rene Pannevis | World premiere
Lorni - The Flaneur, 2019, India, director: Wanphrang Diengdoh | World premiere
Saul at Night, 2019, USA, director: Cory Santilli | World premiere
The Names of the Flowers, 2019, Bolivia / Qatar / USA / Canada, director: Bahman Tavoosi | World premiere
The Seeker (O Buscador), 2019, Brazil, Director: Bernardo Barreto | World premiere

MATERIALS

PRESS ACCREDITATION

Press accreditation for the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and Inudstry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event is in progress. Please apply by clicking on the link below.

APPLY FOR THE PRESS ACCREDITATION

PRESS OFFICE CONTACTS

The festival's press office gladly helps with any question regarding the accreditation, press screenings and conferences and helps to organise interviews with the festival's guests. 

Press accreditations and events: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Press hospitality matters: Anna-Liiza Izbaš - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
International communication: Hannes Aava - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / +372 555 29 211.
Russian communication: Jaana Kalinistova - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Estonian communication: Tiit Tuumalu - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The sixth edition of Cartoon 360, a pitching event totally dedicated to transmedia animation, will take place in Lille (France) from 2 to 4 December 2019. The programme will consist of more than 20 pitching sessions as well as speakers sessions, and many networking opportunities.
Cartoon 360 is open to all professionals who want to improve their knowledge about how to pitch a project and how to develop a transmedia strategy. This is also a great opportunity to meet other professionals (producers, broadcasters, game publishers...) from all over Europe.

You can either present a transmedia project in front of a panel of experts who will help you develop your project and concept or just attend the event as an observer.
The submission of the projects is now fully running with a deadline coming soon: 24th October 2019. If you are interested in submitting a project, please have a look at this page in order to see if your project can be eligible or download our toolbox.

Special offer for participants from low audiovisual production countries
If you are a citizen of one of the following countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria,  Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, Republic of Serbia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tunisia & Ukraine), you can apply for a scholarship in order to attend the event (with or without a project).
For the successful applicants, there will be no registration fee, and accommodation (3 nights) & travel expenses (up to 100€) are offered.

In order to apply, you will have to:
1/ If you have a project to pitch:
> Submit the project by Thursday 24th October at the latest specifying your country of origin (nationality) through our online form (My Cartoon > My Projects > Cartoon Springboard > Submit a new project).
> Fill in and send us the scholarship form by Tuesday 5th November
Note: Should your project be accepted by the Springboard Selection committee (end of October), your scholarship request will automatically be validated.

2/ If you want to attend without pitching any project:
> Fill in and send us the scholarship form by Tuesday 5th November at the latest, together with a motivation letter and CV.

The applications can be sent directly to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The 23rd edition of the Ji.hlava IDFF will kick off in two weeks! New films from the region, world documentary debuts, a showcase of works by Ukrainian director Feliks Sobolev, documentary experiments, films made by women about women, and a special reflection of 1989. 

From the total of 277 films screened at Ji.hlava, 91 will be shown in their world, 47 in their international, and 17 in their European premiere. 3700 films altogether have been submitted to the Ji.hlava IDFF 2019. 

Ji.hlava’s official spot: After Godard, Dvortsevoy

“Ji.hlava has always strived for discovering and interconnecting original filmmakers across countries and regions,” says Marek Hovorka, the festival’s director. “Unlike last year, when we presented a large retrospective of direct-cinema-verité, combining the filmmaking production of the USA, Canada and France, we this year decided to dedicate substantial attention to Eastern European filmmakers”, adds Hovorka. This year’s author of the official festival spot – after Jean Luc Godard who honored Ji.hlava in 2018 – will be Kazakhstani director Sergei Dvortsevoy. The festival will present also a comprehensive retrospective of his films. The work by Ukrainian director Feliks Sobolev can literally be called an international discovery. His profile will be complemented with a unique showcase of Ukrainian experimental films from the 1960s until 1990s. 

Woman in Change: Films by and about women

Another important program theme of this year’s edition will be “Woman in Change”, a topic introduced also in the festival trailer. This year, the trailer consists of a single take: a look on the face of actress Samal Yeslam. “Dvortsevoy captured her face just by chance; the scene was not scripted, shot outside the set of his last feature film, Ayka. Although Yeslam won the best actress award in Cannes for her role in the movie, she is being ‘just herself’, standing on an underground platform,” explains Hovorka. And he continues: “In the recent years, the role of women in the society has been becoming more prominent, and not only in the society, but also in documentary filmmaking.” Hovorka believes that films created by women draw our attention by evocatively opening painful issues, being formally innovative and lending an empathic ear to the stories of others. These include the exploration of female identity in the film essay by German director Pia Hellenthal (Searching Eva), the topic of rape brought up by French director Alexe Poukine (That Which Does Not Kill), and the world-known Harvey Weinstein case investigated by British director Ursula Macfarlane (The Untouchable). 

Opus Bonum, Best Central&East European Docs and Remarkable World Debuts

What else can festival visitors look forward to? The Opus Bonum section dedicated to international documentary titles will this year offer nine selected films from France, the UK, India, Madagascar or Palestine. One will be an adaptation of the globally successful novel, Europeana, by Patrik Ouředník, first published eighteen years ago and since then translated into thirty-six languages. The filmic “pun” made by French director Arnaud de Mezamat called Wishing You the Same calls for the “contemplation on various aspects of humanity”.

The Between the Seas section focusing on the region of Central and Eastern Europe will introduce sixteen film titles. It includes a cinematic portrait of famous Slovak photographer Andrej Bán, Earthly Paradise, directed by Jaroslav Vojtek and an original collage 365 Days Also Known as a Year by Ukrainian director Dmytro Bondarchuk. The section will present world and international premieres of outstanding films also from Romania, Hungary, Estonia, Serbia and Latvia. The awarded film will receive a cash prize of 10,000 EUR.

This year’s First Lights section will again be prominent with nine noteworthy film debuts ranging from Colombia to Turkey. The Set Off by Turkish director Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun recalls the destinies of thirty-three people killed in Syrian city of Kobane, while the Canadian author Loic Darses examines the Quebecois identity in his Where the Land Ends.

Twenty-one Czech films: from Václav Havel to the Antarctic

The Czech Joy section will include unprecedented twenty-one competition titles. Director Adéla Komrzý will introduce Viva video, video viva about her grandfather Radek Pilař who takes on a surprising role of the founder of Czech video-art. Věra Čákanyová will present her doc FREM that was made in the extreme conditions of the Antarctic and is described as an “audio-visual requiem for homo sapiens”. Radovan Síbrt will introduce his film, Two Roads, dedicated to the famous Czech band, The Tap Tap, composed of handicapped musicians. The thirtieth anniversary of the Velvet revolution is the focus of director Robert Sedláček whose film is asking the question: Have the goals of the revolution in 1989 been met?

“Thirty years after the fall of the Communist regime in former Czechoslovakia, we have come up with a special program section entitled Studio 89,” says Marek Hovorka, and he continues: “Three different programs will offer a look on the figure of Václav Havel, an intellectual icon of political transformation: underground films, a portrait made by Juraj Herz which has never been released in Czechia, and a preview of an upcoming film by Petr Jančárek about Havel’s final years. These documentary films will explore conspiracy theories and offer a microstudy of the revolution, in this case directly at Prague’s FAMU.” A six-hour-long opus Communism and the Net by Karel Vachek, the legend of Czech cinema searches for the roots of today’s crisis of democracy.

Testimonies and Experimental Cinema

The festival’s Testimony section will include eleven films, notably The Cave by Syrian director Feras Fayyad who won an award for his Last Men in Aleppo two years ago at Ji.hlava. The film was then nominated for the Academy Awards. His latest film narrates a powerful story of Doctor Amani Ballor who with her colleagues treated patients in an underground hospital in besieged Syrian town of Ghouta.

The non-competition section Special Event will bring a unique documentary title, Crisis by the Czech-American photographer and film director Alexandr Hackenschmied – a film made in 1939 in the United States that closely observes the political and social events in Europe in 1938.

Experimental documentary films are a fixture of each year’s festival program. The Fascinations is a section dedicated to world cinema, EXPRMNTL.CZ, in turn, focuses on Czech experimental titles. “Fascinations introduce films that are seeking for new concepts of reality,” says the programmer, Andrea Slováková, who has selected the program for both of these sections. For example, the Chinese title Action, Almost Unable to Think captures the inner world of a soldier killed by explosion. The Wilds is a film that incorporates performance, land-art and artistic installation. Last but not least, Czech visual artist Zbyněk Baladrán will present his essayistic film called Powerless Source of All Power. Together with the award, the winner of the EXPRMNTL.CZ section will this year receive a prize of 50,000 CZK (2,000 EUR, in partnership with The Art Zone 8smička).

Translucent Being: Feliks Sobolev

In addition to experimental films by versatile avant-gardist Man Ray, one of the big discoveries of this year’s Ji.hlava IDFF will be the work by Ukrainian filmmaker Feliks Sobolev (1931–1984). His oeuvre will be presented in the section Translucent Being. “Our aim is to introduce directors who have pushed the boundaries of documentary film reflection,” says Andrea Slováková, the section’s programmer. She calls Sobolev a legend: since 1960s, he has been considered one of the greats of Soviet documentary filmmaking, his films were sold-out, and yet he is still completely unknown outside Ukraine. “He discovered new creative techniques: working with animation, time-lapse footage, and inventing technologies to capture otherwise elusive phenomena,” continues Andrea Slováková, adding that this year’s edition of the Ji.hlava IDFF will showcase seven of Sobolev’s films. These will include Animals' Tongue (1967) that points out parallels between the world of humans and that of animals, and Keep at It, You’re Talented (1979) which studies the possibilities of overcoming psychological obstacles.

Masterclasses by Puiu, Georgiev, Dvortsevoy

The 23rd Ji.hlava IDFF will also bring traditional masterclasses – lectures by film professionals. Notable Romanian director, screenwriter and instigator of the Romanian New Wave, Cristi Puiu, or Macedonian producer Atanas Georgiev will both introduce their work. Floor will also be given to Czech documentarian Barbora Chalupová, who teamed up with Vít Klusák as one of the authors of Caught in the Net that focuses on the issue of online abuse of children. The author of this year’s festival trailer, Sergei Dvortsevoy will present a masterclass in which he will discuss his creative approach.

Juries of the 23rd Ji.hlava

The Opus Bonum competition section will, as always, have a single juror: this year, the honour will be given to the aforementioned Cristi Puiu. The five-member jury of the Between the Seas section will be composed of the likes of Serbian filmmaker Srđan Keča and Professor Emeritus of Cinema Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Timothy Corrigan. Among those who will be selecting the best Czech documentary title, will be last year’s winner of the Czech Joy section, Karel Žalud, and Slovak writer Monika Kompaníková. The award for the best debut in the First Lights section will be granted based on a decision by international festival representatives, including Emilie Bujes, the art director of Visions du Réel, a film festival based in Nyon in Switzerland. Curator of the London’s Tate Modern Andrea Lissoni and Spanish filmmaker Carlos Casas will select the best experimental film. Clifford Coonan, journalists specializing in Europe-Asia relations and editor of the Czech Referendum daily, Fatima Rahimi, will be among the jurors of the Testimony section. Last but not least, our secondary school jury will this year uniquely be composed of teachers.

How Not To Be Afraid (of the climate crisis)?

The 23rd Ji.hlava IDFF will also dish out a rich off-screen program, including the extended Inspiration Forum hosting over 100 personalities from outside the film world. Among those who accepted this year’s invitation were Isabella Salton, director of Brazilian environmental organization Instituto Terra (topic Climageddon); Dagestani writer Alisa Ganieva who wrote her debut Salaam, Dalgat! under a male pseudonym to avoid the label “story for women” (Women in Transformation); Croatian philosopher and political activist Srećko Horvat (Re:Democracy); and American of Mexican descent, writer and former border guard Francisco Cantú, whose novel The Line Becomes a River has become a bestseller (How Not to Be Afraid?). The Inspiration Forum’s events take place during the whole festival. More information at www.inspirationforum.com.

Short Joy: already available online!

Short Joy is the name of a competition section that showcases docs from the whole world whose short running time underscores the possibilities and power of documentary film. This year, all nominated films are available from October 7 to 22 online on DAFilms.cz. You as viewers can also become the section’s jurors; after watching all of the films for free, you can vote for the best title until midnight of October 22. The winning film will obtain assistance with online distribution and promotion services in the amount of 3,000 EUR. Moreover, it will be nominated into the pre-selection of the US Academy Awards in the documentary category.

IDF will present prominent documentary filmmakers and hand out the Silver Eye Award

In line with tradition, the Institute of Documentary Film (IDF) will be an important feature of the Ji.hlava IDFF. Its international workshop Ex Oriente Film, organized during the festival, brings together directors and producers who work on their documentary projects with the help of renowned directors, producers, editors and other film professionals. The workshop’s program open to public attracts fans of cinema and expert public to masterclasses and lectures held in English.

This year, Ji.hlava will welcome Danish editor Niels Pagh Andersen, renowned for his collaboration on The Look of Silence and The Act of Killing by director Joshua Oppenheimer. Another of the workshop’s guests will be director and producer Audrius Stonys who won the European Film Awards for his Earth of the Blind, and director, and cinematographer Erick  Stoll, who will introduce his award-winning film América. Producer and editor Atanas Georgiev will disclose the success story of his festival hit, Honeyland, the winner of this year’s Sundance festival.

Ji.hlava will see the eleventh Silver Eye Awards given to the best films from Central and Eastern Europe registered for the East Silver Market. International juries will select winners in two categories: short- and feature-length films. Film professionals will be able to use the services of the East Silver video library consisting of almost 300 film titles that are annually available on-line on dokweb.net.

Inspiration Forum - searching for new topics in documentary cinema 

The 23rd Ji.hlava IDFF will again offer a unique experience, which is not common at film festivals around the world. Next to over 1,100 arriving film professionals, the festival this year will be attended by over 100 personalities from all walks of life outside the film realm. 

Scientists, politicians, artists, social reformers, and journalists will take part in a full six-days programme of the Inspiration Forum, to discuss the complex problems of today's world with documentary filmmakers and the public attending the Ji.hlava IDFF.

Selection of guests of the Inspiration Forum 2019

Fawzia Koofi / Afghanistan 

Afghan politician and author. Outspoken advocate for the rights of women, children and democracy. Head of the Parliament’s Women Affairs Commission and former candidate for the President of Afghanistan.

Friday, October 25, 12PM–2PM 

 

Jonathan Ledgard / United Kingdom

Creator of the concept of cargo drones and droneports in Africa. His novel Submergence was named Book of the Year by the New York Times. He explores the relationship between artificial intelligence and nature. 

Monday, October 28, 2:30PM - 4PM

 

Karolína Koubová / Czech Republic

Trainer of aerial silks and aerial acrobatics, former curator of Jihlava’s DIOD theatre. Leader of the local political organisation Fórum Jihlava and since 2018 the mayor of the city.

Friday, October 25, 2:30PM - 4PM

 

Christian Weissgerber / Germany

A leading figure of the German militant Neo-Nazi scene until 2010, when he dropped out and deradicalized. Since then he is working in the line of prevention and elucidation of racist and nationalistic politics at schools and universities.

Monday, October 28, 2:30PM - 4PM

 

Sophie Howe / Wales

The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. Her role is to act as a guardian of interests of future generations in Wales and general public well-being. The world’s first future generations’ representative with statutory powers.

Saturday, October 26, 12PM - 2PM

 

Francisco Cantú / USA

Former US border patrol agent, essayist and author of the book The Line Becomes a River in which he reflects on his experience of patrolling the US-Mexican border. Recipient of the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Monday, October 28, 4:30PM - 6PM

 

Isabella Salton / Brazil

Executive director of Instituto Terra, a community non-profit environmental NGO, which has been over 20 years restoring the vast and devastated areas of the Atlantic Forest and its ecosystem.

Sunday, October 27, 4:30PM - 6PM

 

Bill McKibben / USA

American author and environmentalist. Founder of 350.org, the first planetwide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized more than 20,000 rallies around the world.

Sunday, October 27, 12PM - 2PM

 

You can look forward to over 30 lectures, discussions and presentations, which will take place at Jihlava's Horácké Theatre on October 24–29. Each of the six days of the Inspiration Forum will be dedicated to one topic and their titles are the following: God & Co. / Woman in Change / Re:democracy /  Climategeddon / How Not To Be Afraid? / Made in China.

Read the full programme and profiles of the Inspiration Forum guests here. The Inspiration Forum is accessible to holders of any type of accreditation for the 23rd Ji.hlava IDFF.  

Applications are now welcome for the 14th FIPRESCI Warsaw Critics Project – a training programme for young critics and film journalists from Central and Eastern Europe coordinated by the Warsaw Film Foundation in a partnership with International Federation of Film Critics. The Workshop will be held during the 35th Warsaw Film Festival between 11 and 20 October 2019. A group of young critics will be invited to the festival and have a unique opportunity to take part in one of the most prestigious film events in the region and meeting high-profile film professionals. Under the guidance of tutors, participants will be covering the festival and industry events, delivering film reviews and conducting interviews with directors and filmmakers. They will be encouraged to use their own initiative and will receive constructive, positive feedback about their work. 

Warsaw Critics Project is devised and coordinated by British film journalist Amber Wilkinson and Italian critic Tommaso Tocci. 

Amber Wilkinson is a journalist with more than 20 years experience. She is the co-founder and editorial director of UK-based website Eye For Film. Her byline has appeared in The Times, Daily Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald and Filmmaker Magazine among others. She also contributes as a freelance film critic on BBC Radio Scotland. She has run several FIPRESCI young critics' workshops and mentored student critics at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2018 and 2019. 

Tommaso Tocci has so far contributed to various publications on cinema, including Indiewire, RogerEbert.com, CinemaScope, Filmkrant and Ioncinema. 

Workshops are designed for critics under the age of 30 with proficient skills in written and spoken English. All participants are granted with shared travel and accommodation grants. 

Selected works of the participants will be published on FIPRESCI, Ioncinema and Film New Europe websites. 

Previous participants have gone on to contribute to major international film publications like Screen International, Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter, Cineuropa and Film New Europe. 

Please send your application including CV, self-introduction, and three samples of your published work in English, to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Deadline: 30 September 2019.