The 21st edition of Astra Film – the International Film Festival of Sibiu will be held between 5 and 11 October 2015.
A record number of 1500 films from over 90 countries were submitted in the 4 competitions of the festival and the official selection gathers 130 films from every corner of the world.
The most important directors of our times - Joshua Oppenheimer, nominated for an Oscar in 2014, Crystal Moselle, awarded at Sundance 2015 for “The Wolfpack” which will be screened for the first time in Romania at AFF, or Justin Schein, a collaborator of BBC, Discovery Channel and HBO, who has made 60 films over his past 20 years of activity – reunite their most recent productions in the International competition. The documentaries from the Central and Eastern Europe competition reflect regional topics of interest. For over two decades, the Romanian production of non-fiction cinema has been analysed and sampled at Astra Film Festival, the ideal environment for Romanian documentary filmmakers to screen their films in an international setting surrounded by field specialists from all over the world. The Student competition includes films of promising upcoming directors, students of the most prestigious film schools in Romania, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Portugal, China or Cuba.
Alongside the competition sections of the festival, a series of special programs round off the official festival programme.
In 2015, Astra Film Festival is taking place under the High Patronage of the President of Romania received as a pledge for a high-end cultural product. Spanning 22 years, AFF has become one of the main festivals for documentary cinema in the world and has aided the consolidation and ascent of Romanian non-fiction cinema outside the Romanian borders. Astra Film Festival is a project of national strategic significance, event attended by the most outstanding directors, producers, journalists, festival programmers or representatives of cultural institutions, both domestic and foreign, that have transformed Sibiu over time into a meeting point of culture and people from all over the world.
Moreover, the 2015 edition will take place under EFFE - Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe, distinction granted to the most remarkable European festivals by the international jury consisting of industry experts.
”All efforts to keep Astra Film Festival on the map of international festivals are highly acclaimed each year. The fact that the 2015 edition takes place under the High Patronage of the President of Romania and EFFE is a clear testimony of the significance and breadth of the event, a 100% Romanian product maintained at international standards, endorsed by both international experts, as well as by the highest authority in Romania.”, said Dumitru Budrala, founding director of Astra Film Festival.
The official 2015 selection is available here.
