The 28th edition of the Astra Film Festival brings together a selection of films screened in world and national premiere, offering a new vision of the realities that shape our lives, through their innovative techniques. Every year, the carefully picked selection for the four competition sections and the judging process highlight the excellence and mastery within the art of documentary film. Furthermore, the programme dedicated to the film industry completes the professional profile of the festival. The 28th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival - Astra Film Festival will take place in Sibiu between September 5th -12th.
The organizers are also announcing that the FULL PASS season ticket, which guarantees access to all the films and events of the festival, subject to availability - except for the opening gala and the awards gala, is now on sale. The access card dedicated to undergraduates, master's students, and PhD students from all faculties in Romania and elsewhere is also available.
For FULL PASS: https://eventbook.ro/other/bilete-astra-film-festival-2021-full-festival-pass
For #AFFStudentPass: https://eventbook.ro/film/bilete-affstudentpass
#AFF2021 is organizing four strong competition sections: Emerging Voices of Documentary, Central and Eastern Europe, Romania and DocSchool. The first two sections present exclusively films screened for the first time. In total, 84% of the films that will be screened in Sibiu are world or national premieres.
EMERGING VOICES OF THE DOCUMENTARY
For the fourth year in a row, the Emerging Voices of the Documentary section will take place at the Astra Film Festival. The selected films belong to filmmakers at the beginning of their careers (their first, second or third film), who are ready to experiment bravely, with the means of expression of the documentary, productions that approach unusual subjects from unusual angles with the purpose of subtly reaching unique results.
This year's selection, which is a true celebration of the genre, stands out both through the exceptional particularities of everyday life that they explore and through the impressive variety of stylistic options used by the authors. The eight feature films, all premieres, present relevant and current topics that would have otherwise been impossible to present to the public without using the documentary cinema’s multitude of resources.
A BLACK JESUS (d. Luca Lucchesi) | Germany – National Premiere, A MAN AND A CAMERA (d. Guido Hendrikx) | The Netherlands – National Premiere, FOR YOUR COMFORT AND YOUR SAFETY (d. Frédéric Mainçon) | France – International Premiere, HANDS OF GOD (d. Barna László) | Hungary, Romania – National Premiere I'LL STAND BY YOU (d. Virginija Vareikyte, Maximilien Dejoie) | Lithuania, Italy, Switzerland – National Premiere, KODOKUSHI (d. Ensar Altay) | Turkey – World Premiere, NIGHT NURSERY (d. Moumouni Sanou) | Burkina Faso – National Premiere, OUR CHILD (d. Marina Belobrovaja) | Switzerland – National Premiere.
The jury of the Emerging Voices of the Documentary section includes Laura Mușat - film producer, editor in chief of Films in Frame, founder of ADFR; Ana Grgic - researcher specializing in Balkan and Eastern European cinema; Mihai Andrei Leaha - audio-visual researcher, anthropologist, filmmaker, and educator currently living in Brazil.
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
The competition section dedicated to non-fiction films with themes and subjects anchored in the space of the so-called Eastern Bloc was launched by the Astra Film Festival 21 years ago. It was the natural result of the main mission undertaken by Astra Film, to promote the production and reception of creative documentaries, whose authors discern and transpose using the language of non-fiction cinema the very particular realities that this part of Europe has gone through since the fall of communism.
After two decades and a pandemic, the rationale behind organizing of this section is still valid. Although the count shows 30 years since the fall of communism, its echoes are very present in this part of the world and continue to concern documentary filmmakers. All 10 movies selected for this section are also premieres.
HOMO SOVIETICUS (d. Ivo Briedis) | Latvia, Lithuania, The Czech Republic – National Premiere, LANDSCAPE ZERO (d. Bruno Pavić) | Croatia – National Premiere, LAST KNIGHTS OF THE RIGHT SIDE (d. Michal Edelman) | Poland – National Premiere, NUN OF YOUR BUSINESS (d. Ivana Marinić Kragić) | Croatia, Serbia, RAMPART (d. Marko Grba Singh) | Serbia – National Premiere, ROSES. FILM-CABARET | (d. Irena Stetsenko) | Ukraine – National Premiere, TAMING THE GARDEN (d. Salome Jashi) | Switzerland, Georgia, Germany – National Premiere, THE LAST TAPE FROM BOSNIA (d. Albert Solé) | Spain – National Premiere, WHERE THE WORLD ENDS (d. Anna Savchenko) | Belgium, Norway, Lithuania, Croatia – World Premiere, WOLVES AT THE BORDERS (d. Martin Páv) | The Czech Republic – National Premiere.
The jury of the section includes Joan Gonzàlez - Director of DocsBarcelona, executive producer, filmmaker and editor; Smith Shane - Hot Docs Program Director;
Constantin Pârvulescu - principal researcher of film and media studies at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj.
ROMANIA
The special section on Romania is dedicated to Romanian documentaries, by subject or by author, and this year’s edition includes 10 films that challenge viewers to a deeper understanding of the sensitive realities of the Romanian society.
#NEWTOGETHER (d. Carmen Lidia Vidu) | Austria, Romania, FRAGIL(E) (d. Ioana Mischie) | Romania, HYMN FROM THE HIVE (d. Jacopo Marzi) | Romania – World Premiere, MY UNCLE TUDOR (d. Olga Lucovnicova) | Belgium, Portugal, Hungary - Premieră națională, OCCASIONAL SPIES (r. Oana Giurgiu) | România, STELA, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER (d. Anca Hirte) | Romania – National Premiere, THE CERTAINTY OF PROBABILITIES (d. Raluca Durbacă) | Romania – National premiere, THE MISSING ONE (d. Rareş Ienasoaie) | France – National Premiere, THE SHAWKAT MISTERY (d. Ágnes Maksay) | Romania – National Premiere, US AGAINST US (d. Andra Tarara) | Romania.
The jury of the Romania Section includes Dimitris Kerkones - programmer at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival; Cecilia Felméri - director and professor at the Faculty of Directing of Sapientia University in Cluj; Costi Rogozanu - writer and journalist.
DOCSCHOOL
The DocSchool section includes a selection of documentary films made in different film faculties from all over the world.
ATTENTION ALL PASSENGERS (d. Marek Moučka) | Slovakia – National Premiere DEAR DARKNESS (d. Samuel N. Schwarz) | Germany - National Premiere, DID YOU DO IT? (d. Aditi Bhande) | India - National Premiere, DUSK (d. Bálint Bíró) | Hungary, Portugal, Belgium - National Premiere, FAMILY² (d. Yifan Sun) | Poland - National Premiere, FLIGHT PLAN (d. Gabriel Durlan) | Romania, MILKLESS (d. Lidia Ilie) | Romania, MOTELS (d. Claudia Quigua) | Columbia - National Premiere, POST MORTEM BERLIN (d. Anton von Heiseler) | Germany - National Premiere, THE BEARS (r. Alin Duruian) | Romania, THE DISTANCE TO YOU (d. Rivka Fertig) | Israel - National Premiere, THEN COMES THE EVENING (d. Maja Novaković) | Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina - National Premiere, TRIPLEX CONFINIUM (d. Maria Balanean) | Romania.
The three members of the jury of the DocSchool section are: Monica Sebestyen - producer, director of Cinema ARTA Cluj, co-founder and co-director of the UrbanEye Film Festival; Letenyei László - film producer and professor of cultural and visual anthropology at the Budapest Business School; Liviu Tipuriță - director and film producer in the United Kingdom.
The #AFF2021 prizes are offered by HBO Europe, the German Consulate in Sibiu, The Romanian Filmmakers Union, The Romanian Cultural Institute, Cinelabs and their value is of 20,000 euros.
The 28th edition of the Astra Film Festival - the International Documentary Film Festival in Sibiu celebrates life, in all its diversity through the over 200 cinematographic events. Launched in 1993 as an innovative project in Central and Eastern Europe, the Astra Film Festival stands out as an essential event in the European documentary film community, proving to be the most important festival of its kind in Romania, summing up a culture and a history of documentary cinema for decades.
Organized by: Astra Film, CNM Astra and Astra Film Foundation.
With the support of: The Sibiu County Council, The Ministry of Culture, The National Center of Cinematography, The Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany in Sibiu, The Austrian Cultural Forum, The Filmmakers Union.
Co-financed by the Sibiu Local Council through the City Hall of Sibiu and by the European Union through the Creative Europe Program.
The Astra Film Festival takes place under the High Patronage of the President of Romania.
Media partners: TV5 Monde, Rock FM, Radio România Cultural, RFI România, Hotnews, News.ro, Newsweek, Spotmedia, Avantaje, Liternet, Movienews, All About Romanian Cinema, Films in frame, Turnul sfatului, Sibiu 100%, Tribuna, Ora de Sibiu, Știri de Sibiu, Capital cultural, Zile și nopți, Revista Transilvania, Hermanstaedter Zeitung.
Communication partner: PiArt Vision
