Biography

After graduating from the Moscow Film School, the filmmaker, OtarDavidovichIosseliani (Tbilisi, Georgia, 1934), learnt the job as an assistant director and then as an editor of documentaries at the Gruzija Film studios in Georgia before producing his own short films: Akvarel (1958) and Song About a Flower (1959). His third film, April (1962), was censored by the Soviet authorities. He worked as a sailor and as a factory worker for a time.

Synopsis

Some resemblances are disturbing. That between a guillotined viscount, pipe in his mouth, during the Terror; an army chaplain with a tattooed chest like a gangster, baptizing soldiers, looters and rapists, as if on an assembly line; a Parisian tramp flattened by a steamroller, and the highly educated concierge, but also arms dealer, of a large apartment block. A building where the lives of nearly all these characters intersect, except for the homeless who are roughly dragged from one place to the next by the police. And yet in the midst of all this chaos, there are spaces to dream, love stories, firm friendships that perhaps allow hope that tomorrow will be better than today.

Biography

Born in 1969 Tbilisi, Bakur Bakuradze graduated from the directors’ program at the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). His two first feature films, Shultes (2008) and The Hunter (2011) were both selected in Cannes, respectively at the Director’s Fortnight and Un Certain Regard. Bakur Bakuradze also worked as a producer on such films as Intimate Parts (2013) and Russian Race (2014).

Synopsis

The last twelve months in the life of Dejan Stanić, a former general in the Balkan war. For ten years, he was forced to hide from justice, especially the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, on various undisclosed military bases. He finally found refuge with Slavko, an old man living in a small village in the mountains. Suffering from extreme isolation, Dejan will not only have to face a new environment and a new reality but won’t be able to escape his past.

Biography

Born in Shiauliai, Lithuania in 1964, SharunasBartas has been the artistic director of film studio Banga in Kaunas, Lithuania since 1984. He entered the film school VGIK in Moscow in 1986 and graduated in 1991, IrakliKvirikadze master class. In 1989, he founded the film studio Kinema - the first independant film studio in Lithuania. His latest film is PEACE TO US IN OUR DREAMS, selected at the Directors' Fortnigh

Synopsis

One summer day, a man, his new wife and his daughter arrive to their countryside house to spend a weekend. Despite the fact the man and his wife love each other, their relationship is tensed, on the brink of collapse. The daughter befriends a boy who occasionally steals an optical sight rifle from a hunters' company and a big chase in the countryside starts.

Biography

Bartek Prokopowicz (b. 1972, Łódź, Poland) studied film photography at the Polish National Film School in Łódź (1995). He has made more than a hundred programmes for Polish and foreign television companies. He was involved in various documentary and feature films, working alongside Krzysztof Krauze, Filip Bajon and Andrzej Wajda. After his wife’s death he decided to direct his first film. Chemo (2015) is built upon his own experiences and demonstrates the strength of love, determination and faith in a story of a couple having to cope with terminal illness.

Synopsis

After a nontraditional romance blossoms between Benek and Lena, a young couple immersed in questions of life and death, they decide to defy the natural order by having a baby. A mournful yet lightly-rendered tale about the search for identity, finding love, and the battle against a fatal illness that is nearly impossible to win.

Biography

DenizGamzeErgüven (b. 1978, Ankara) was born in Turkey but spent much of her youth in the United States and in France, where she graduated from the prestigious La Fémis film school. Her short graduation film Birdamlasu (2006) – another film about women’s struggle against the authoritarian and patriarchal tendencies in Turkish society – was well received and was shown as part of the Cinéfondation section at Cannes. Shortly thereafter, it won the prestigious Leopards of Tomorrow award for young artists in Locarno. Most recently, she was working on a feature-length debut about the infamous riots in Los Angeles following a case of police violence in 1992. She postponed work on that film to make Mustang (2015), which was premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at this year’s festival in Cannes.

Synopsis

Early summer. In a village in northern Turkey, Lale and her four sisters are walking home from school, playing innocently with some boys. The immorality of their play sets off a scandal that has unexpected consequences. The family home is progressively transformed into a prison; instruction in homemaking replaces school and marriages start being arranged. The five sisters who share a common passion for freedom, find ways of getting around the constraints imposed on them.

Biography

Eva Neymann (b. 1974, Zaporozhye, Ukraine) studied law at university in the German town of Marburg and film direction at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. After her successful short film Friereein, taue auf (2001) she made several documentaries which were screened at various international film festivals (Just Like Old Times / Wsepo-staromu / Allen beimalten, 2004; Das Meer sehen, 2005; God’s Ways / PutiGospodni / WegeGottes, 2007). In 2007 she turned out her feature film debut At the River (U reki), which received its international premiere at the Rotterdam IFF. Her second feature film House with a Turret (Dom s bashenkoy, 2012) was screened in Karlovy Vary’s East of the West competition. Song of Songs is her third feature. 

Synopsis 

The acclaimed work by renowned Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem served as inspiration for the Ukrainian filmmaker, whose third picture offers a markedly stylized vision of the lost world of the Jewish shtetl at the beginning of the 20th century. Poetic scenes created using truly magical images are loosely connected via the motif of childhood love, while the film’s imaginative form is imbued with nostalgia

Biography

Josh Mond has produced four feature films with his production company Borderline Films, Antonio Campos’ AFTERSCHOOL (2008) and SIMON KILLER (2012), Sean Durkin’sMARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE (2011) and Alastair Banks Griffin’s TWO GATES OF SLEEP (2010). He has directed several music videos such as "Kids in Love" by Mayday Parade and commercials for clients as various as Island Def Jam, Atlantic Records, Foot Locker and Ebay. Josh Mond was the recipient of the 2010 Annenberg Film Fellow grant from the Sundance producers’ lab. 
In 2015, his feature JAMES WHITE, won the Audience Award at Sundance FF and the 2nd Junior Jury Prize at FF Locarno.

Synopsis

James White is a troubled twentysomething trying to stay afloat in a frenzied New York City. As he retreats further into a hedonistic lifestyle, his mother's battle with a serious illness faces a series of setbacks that force him to assume more responsibility. With the pressure on him mounting, James must find new reserves of strength or risk imploding completely.

Biography

Ole Christian Madsen is one of Scandinavia's top directors. ITSI BITSI being his 7th feature film his previous body of work includes the World War II thriller FLAME & CITRON (2008), which set box office records in Denmark and was eventually sold to more than 60 territories. Debuting in 1999 with PIZZA KING, Ole Christian became part of the Dogme-wave in 2001 with KIRA'S REASON - A LOVE STORY, had a local smash hit with ANGELS IN FAST MOTION in 2005, followed up the year after with the break-up drama PRAGUE starring Mads Mikkelsen and Stine Stengade and most recently in 2012 landed his hilarious culture-clash comedy SUPERCLÁSICO on the US Academy's 9 film Best Foreign Language shortlist thereby almost making the final cut of 5 nominees. Ole Christian has also left a strong mark in tv helming the acclaimed series THE SPIDER (2000) and having directed installments on series such as TAXA (1997) and UNIT ONE (2002-04) and the US series BANSHEE (2013-14). Ole Christian's work mixes critical success with commercial clout making him one of Denmark's most consistently successful film directors.

Synopsis

1962 is the year when an entire generation lives life as though it was their last day. Young activist EikSkaløe has his entire life turned upside down when he falls head over heels in love with the beautiful peace activist Iben Nagel Rasmussen, and she falls in love with him. But Iben is a child of the times, and freely accepts the order of the day: free love and sex. She renounces personal right of ownership and will not settle for one man when she can have several. In typically romantic fashion, he begins a struggle to win all of her love. As a poet, writer and singer he constantly confesses his love to her. But Eik must accept defeat, and in 1968 he travels without his beloved ItsiBitsi to Nepal, the Land of Dreams in the East. A journey from which he will never return.

Biography

Avishai Sivan (born in 1977 in Israel) is a filmmaker and visual artist. His work has been shown in art galleries and musems in Israel and Europe. Prior to his first feature, THE WANDERER, he made experimental films, including the seven-part series "The Soap Opera of a Frozen Filmmaker", which won an award at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2007. 
In 2015, his feature TIKKUN won the Best Israeli Feature Film, Best Script, Best Cinematography and Best Actor awards at Jerusalem Film Festival and was also screened at Locarno Film festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, the Special Mention for Best Cinematography and the Don Quijote Prize. 

Synopsis

Haim-Aaron is a bright, Ultra-Orthodox religious scholar living in Jerusalem. His talents and devotion are envied by all. One evening, following a self-imposed fast, Haim-Aaron collapses and loses consciousness. The paramedics announce his death, but his father takes over resuscitation efforts and, beyond all expectations, Haim-Aaron comes back to life. After the accident, try as he might, Haim-Aaron remains apathetic to his studies. He feels overwhelmed by a sudden awakening of his body and suspects this is God testing him. He wonders if he should stray from the prescribed path and find a way to rekindle his faith. The father notices his son’s changed behavior and tries to forgive him. He is tormented by the fear of having crossed God’s will, the night he resuscitated his son.

Biography

Born 1976 in Moscow, Russia. Graduated from VGIK Film School Moscow in 2001. He made his feature debut with POSLEDNY POEZD / THE LAST TRAIN in 2003. In 2008, his third feature film BUMAZHNY SOLDAT / PAPER SOLDIER had its premiere at Venice international Film Festival and was awarded with the Silver Lion for Best Director and the Ozella Award for Best Cinematography. His film GARPASTUM / GARPASTUM won the Award For Best Director Donated By The City Of Wiesbaden at goEast 2006.

Synopsis

Russia, 2017. The world is on the verge of a great war. A bizarre riverbank in fog and snow. The skeleton of a skyscraper. Unfinished motorway bridges in a flat landscape. And a statue of Lenin whose outstretched right arm points into nothingness. People drift aimlessly through this surreal world. Old certainties no longer count, friends and relatives have disappeared, ideals have been blown away by the wind. Returning home from abroad, Sasha – whose dead father used to own this building site – now has to deal with his legacy: a Kyrgyz worker who is searching his colleagues; an architect with glowing red skin on his forehead; a tour-guide who once stood next to Yeltsin at the barricades in Moscow.

Biography

Chad Gracia has worked in New York theatre for nearly 20 years as a producer and playwright, with a focus on plays in verse. His works have seen productions in various cities in the United States and Europe. He co-wrote Gilgamesh, a drama based on the Sumerian epic, and has long collaborated with the American verse playwright Kirk Wood Bromley.The Russian Woodpecker is his first film

SYNOPSIS                                                                  

FedorAlexandrovich was 4 years old in 1986, when he was exposed to the toxic effects of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown and forced to leave his home. Now he has a singular obsession with the catastrophe - why did it actually happen? Was there more to the story than the Soviet government let on? And, most importantly, what did this all have to do with the giant, mysterious steel pyramid now rotting away 2 miles from the disaster site, "The Russian Woodpecker"? In this documentary thriller Alexandrovich tries to decide whether to risk his life amid growing clouds of Ukraine's emerging revolution and war.

Biography

Born in Kingston-upon-Hull in England in 1965. Leaving school at the age of sixteen, he worked in a number of factories in the north of England before attending the National Film and Television School in Beacons - field, graduating in 1996. After several awardwinning television documentaries he founded his own production company, Tenfoot Films, in the year 2000.

Synopsis

Amer met Ragda, when both were locked up in a Syrian jail for speaking out against an oppressive regime. Twenty years and four sons later, filmmaker Sean McAllister comes into their lives, as Amer is waiting for Ragda, who has once again been imprisoned. When she is unexpectedly released, the family is overjoyed - they need her, particularly three year-old Bob. McAllister and his subjects' lives become irrevocably intertwined when McAllister himself is jailed, and footage of the family is confiscated. Amer and Ragda must flee overnight to Lebanon, with nothing but their children.

Biography

Director, Producer/ Klipu Filmu Darbnïca. Born on March 4, 1981 in Ergli, Latvia. While studying journalistics and PR in University of Latvia, Ugis started to work on weekly environmental TV programme “Vides Fakti”, which lead to an award of Latvian National TV and radio council as the best Tv journalist in 2003. In 2001 Ugis joined Baltic reality TV show “survivor” crew for 3 years. This experience forced him to shift his profile from TV journalism to TV production and directing. As a director he tends to learn every element of filmmaking – from editing to sound design, to expand his creative thinking. Currently Ugis still works for environmental TV programme in addition to directing TV ads, color grading films of other directors and editing every piece of footage that needs to be cut. Future plans are oriented towards making several short fiction films.

Synopsis

The Samtskhe-Javakheti region in South Georgia, with a mostly Armenian population, suffers under silent ethnic tensions caused by a historical burden. A unique place to study the role of the human factor in ethnic conflicts through the eyes of a Georgian photographer and ears of a Latvian film director.

Biography

Born in 1963. Director, screenwriter, producer and educator.  Graduated from the National Theater Academy in Warsaw, Directing Department. Producer and director of many theatre performances, TV productions and internationally acclaimed documentary films, including “The Forbidden Love. A Story of Bronia and Gerhard” (2002), “The Runaway” (2007), “The Heartbroken Circus” (2009), all played at the PFFA. He now completes “A Touch of an Angel.”

Synopsis

Marek Tomasz Pawlowski's documentary The Touch of an Angel profiles a man who helped get numerous Jews out of Auschwitz before the infamous Nazi concentration camp built there became operational. The filmmakers explore how the policies of many foreign countries kept more lives from being spared.

Biography

Rory Kennedy is an award-winning producer, director and writer. She is co-founder of Moxie Firecracker Films, an independent documentary production company that she runs with partner Liz Garbus ("The Farm"). Kennedy has produced and/or directed documentaries for HBO, PBS, Lifetime Television, A&E, Court TV, The Oxygen Network and The Learning Channel, covering a variety of topics including the global AIDS crisis, human rights, domestic abuse, poverty, drug addiction, labor struggle and political corruption. 

Synopsis

During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront the same moral quandary: whether to obey White House orders to evacuate U.S. citizens only--or to risk treason and save the lives of as many South Vietnamese citizens as they can.

Biography

BAFTA winning filmmaker, Asif Kapadia is known for his visually striking films exploring characters living in timeless, extreme and unforgiving landscapes. His films have been awarded and distributed internationally and shown how versatile and expressive British cinema can be. Asif Kapadia's (b. 1972) award-winning films include his shortThe Sheep Thief (1997), first feature The Warrior (2001), andSenna (2010). His other movies include The Return (2006) andFar North (2007).

Synopsis

An absorbing, moving, insightful and powerful documentary from Asif Kapadia (who directed the Oscar-winning documentary Senna) that charts the amazing highs and terrible lows in the life of the wonderfully talented but terribly troubled Amy Winehouse, who died in 2011. Great use of home video, camera phones, archive footage and interviews combine to craft a mesmerising – and often very sad - film brimming with magical musical moments, offering a remarkable portrait of a wonderful talent.

Biography

Dominic Gagnon is an inventor, director, installer and active performer on the international scene. He considers cinema as a technique for measuring the immeasurable or as a discipline of chaos. Since 1996, he has made public presentations of moving images, invent machines and concepts, performs sound works, built facilities and creates performances in various galleries, festivals and biennials around the world.

Synopsis

In this new film that, like its predecessor, draws on amateur films posted on YouTube, Dominic Gagnon shows the descendants of Nanook in the process of making “their own” cinema. He creates an anti-exotic Vertovian “Kino-Eye”, which reveals trashy and unbridled acculturation and takes apart the existing clichés about the Inuit, too often confined to the borders of the contemporary world.

Biography 

Born in a Polish refugee camp in Africa, Sophia arrived in Australia. She graduated Australian Film, Television & Radio School in 1978 and has mainly worked as a drama director. Her credits include the 1984 feature film "Silver City", which won 3 AFI Awards, and Best Film at the Sydney Film Critics Awards. She lectured in the Directing Department at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

SYNOPSIS

We do not really know our parents. This is what the filmmaker persuades us to believe while trying to find out why her mother left her in an orphanage many years ago. Born in pre-war Poland, Helena experienced orphanhood and homelessness herself, went through a gulag and a period of wandering around the world. Reconstructing her biography at the backdrop of the 20th century history, the director discovers the circumstances that determined the lives of both women. Will she be able to forgive her mother now?

Biography

Matthew Heineman is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in New York. He previously directed Escape Fire, which premiered on CNN. Cartel Land premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Best Director Award.

Synopsis

CARTEL LAND is a harrowing look at two modern-day vigilante groups and their shared enemy – the murderous Mexican drug cartels. In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising against the violent Knights Templar drug cartel. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley, Tim "Nailer" Foley, a US veteran, heads a paramilitary group - Arizona Border Recon - whose goal is to stop Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border. Filmmaker Matthew Heineman embeds himself in the heart of darkness as Nailer, El Doctor, and the cartel each vie to bring their own brand of justice where institutions have failed.

Biography

Student of Philosophy and Russian at Oxford University. Interned at the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theatre Arts and the Rustaveli Theatre, Tiblisi.

Synopsis

Mark has a painful fight with his wife and decides to leave for his parents' in the countryside to make up his mind about a divorce. Whilst going for a walk near his parents' house, he takes comfort from rural freedom, beauty, and spaciousness, and spies a young girl waiting alone. Moved by the girl's sorrow, Mark makes a decision about divorcing his wife.

Biography

Justin Oakey is an award-winning filmmaker from rural Newfoundland, raised on hunting, fishing, and storytelling. His work has screened internationally and has been described as atmospheric and tense, with a quiet sense of naturalism. He received his BFA with Honours in Film Studies from Ryerson University. Justin is currently developing his first feature film, Riverhead, set to go into production in late 2015.

Synopsis

On the eve of a storm in rural Newfoundland, feuding fishermen are forced to set their conflicts aside when an emergency arises.

Biography

Fyzal Boulifa has been selected to screen in Directors' Fortnight at Cannes for the second time with his short film 'Rate Me'. The last time he attended was in 2012 with his Moroccan-set fable 'The Curse', which was screened at BIAFF festival too.  

Synopsis

A portrait of teenage escort, ‘Coco’. 

Biography

The youngest of all the filmmakers in our selection, Behzad Azadi was born in 1990. He has studied Dramatic Literature and has been making short films since 2009. Temporary is his latest work which has been in the official selection of Busan International Film Festival.

Synopsis

Four teenage friends have big plans for their lives. They want to be rich in a short time by dealing drugs in the neighborhood. First, they have to test the drug they’ve got from the smuggler. But there’s an unexpected twist in the plan and the situation goes out of control

Biography

He was born in 1993 Hopa. He lived with Laz culture in Hopa To Collage Age. He began Antalya Akdeniz University, Faculty of Communication, Radio, Television and Cinema Department İn 2012. Making short films as well as a variety of Cinematography.  

Synopsis

The film takes place in 1920's in the village of Sarp which is now the border between Turkey and Georgia. It tells of a family that separates continuously because of the border. As the time alienates the family to the other side of the water, it also accustoms them to the place where they live. The father is aware of the situation, after his wife's death he passes to the other side of the water.

Biography

Emre Kayis was born and raised in Ankara, Turkey. After obtaining a BA in Law, he started to work in the film industry in various production roles and following his acceptance to London Film School, he moved to London. Currently, he is working as a director in Atlantik Film İstanbul. His main interests are to portray moral issues under social circumstances and to explore identity issues and themes such as immigration and the outsider in a community. 

Synopsis

Ysuf is a 13 years old refugee who lives in a small Turkish border town in exile. He works on a sand quarry to support his family. The only two interesting things in Yusuf's life are the tumbling pigeons and a 15 years old girl, Amina, who doesn't know about him. One day she comes to him asking for his help, which makes him excited but after realizing her intention Yusuf finds himself in a position that gives him unique power. He has to make a decision between using this power wisely and abusing it.

Biography 

Born in Molodechno, Belarus, 29.06.1986 Graduated from Belarusian State Academy of Arts Master’s degree (Film-making) Documentary films for TV ("Land Belarussian") 

Synopsis
Every individual has his or her own understanding of an ideal place for living. For some people it is desperation, for others – a norm. Some perish in such environment, others live by virtue thereof. It’s a story of an 80-year old man, Adam by name, remaining alone in the land abandoned by people several decades ago. All hardships and pleasures that Adam experiences in the abandoned and at the same time his dear land. 

Biography

Vakhtang (Tato) Kotetishvili was born in 1987 in Georgia. He finished Cinematography course at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University. Since 2008, he is studying Cinematography at the Polish National Film School (PWSFTViT) in Lodz. Kotetishvili has worked as a cameraman on numerous students’ films. He is also a director and photographer. Kotetishvili has made several shorts films as a director and D.O.P., including AFTER PARTY, VESSEL, TAMAGOTCHI, WATERMELON.

Synopsis

Murad and Masha decide to get married, but before achieving their goal, life has some unbelievable and sad stories in store for them.

Biography

Giorgi Tsilosani is young director, from Georgia. He graduated Georgian film university in 2015, and 2 years of Art Academy in 2009. Now he continues aducation in magister program of Neiro sciences and Psychology and also works in film industry. He made his graduation film, THE Preparation, with the company "Millimeter Film" in 2015.

Synopsis

This is the story of the family living in the small village One evening during the dinner grandmother feels bad, doctor’s diagnose increases tension. Grandmother is afraid of death, sees phantom of the death everywhere, everything predicts that end is very close. Father understands that family is at the edge of financial crisis and starts funeral preparation. Buys coffin and places it in the yard, calls relatives to see her last time. But grandmother is still alive.

Biography

Levan Lomjaria (1984) is a young Georgian filmmaker and artist, who works in different fields of visual culture and new media. The main characteristic of his work is a deep and conceptual reference to the various areas of artistic and philosophical world. 

After working at several TV channels like "Imedi Tv" and "Rustavi 2", in 2012, he established his own production company " Dud Film Company " LTD. During 2013 - 2015, he started and graduated a two-year international filmmaking program (MFA) in Sarajevo at film.factory/Sarajevo Film Academy, under the leadership of renowned Hungarian author BélaTarr.

Synopsis

Most important poems of 20th century, it has different layers of symbolic interpretations and cultural allusions. First of all, it following the legend of the Holy Grail, but at the same time it has also the direct and very close connections on contemporary society. It is an adventure of the poet into different locations, time and space."

Biography

OlesyaMorgunets-Isaenko (born 1984, Kozelets village, Ukraine)Graduated from Karpenko-Kary University and worked as a stage director at Pavlov Studio. In 2011, Olesya made a fairy taleScarecrow and Little Stork "Theater" Elephantine. In 2012, she made an art vіdeo for performance Two Ladies in the Direction of the North for drama and comedy theatre.

Synopsis

Man and woman met during serene autumn day in the middle of Crimean field. It was occasional meeting prevented by many events, which we would know at the end of their journey.

Biography

Nikon Romanchenko was born in 1991 in Kyiv. In 2014 he graduated from TV directors faculty of Kyiv National University of Theatre, Film and TV named by I.Karpenko-Kary. Member of NGO "CUC" ("Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema").

SYNOPSIS

A young couple wants to leave the country. The girl's parents have divorced long ago. They mind her relationship with the young guy. The guy is spied upon. In spite of all that, the girl is trying to find the way out.

Biography

In 2003 graduated from the VGIK of S.A.Gerasimov, operator faculty (masterful V.I.Yusova). In 2012  graduated from Nikita Mikhalkov's Summer Film academy.

Synopsis

A young photographer suddenly catches some strange object with his camera.Dreams and reality trade places.The photographer becomes a fair game for someone.

Biography

Lily was born in Mainland China and grew up in several different universities - the most recent ones being the University of Manchester, London Film School, where she has discovered her passion and talent in screenwriting and directing. She likes to tell stories inspired by interesting people and hope to share such inspiration with people all over the world.

Synopsis

Anne starts to doubt her relationship with Chris, who seems to be more interested in sexual pleasure than spiritual devotion. When she finally breaks up with Chris, would she still believe in romantic love? Would she be ready to turn over a new leaf?

Biography

Ksenia Chertovich Born in Belarus, Minsk. 21 years old Graduated from the Belarusian State Academy of Arts with the major - film and TV directing. She is working as a scriptwriter and production director of the promotional videos in Minsk at the moment.

Synopsis

Two people walk along the road. He is a strolling actor and she is suffering from the psychological blindness. He rescued her from the starvation and now they make their way with the only suitcase and the last piece of bread to the city Misery hoping to survive. Their path goes through the deserted villages, along the empty fields and road, and no one driver stops to pick them up. Except one…

Biography

Originally from European Georgia Avtandil Chachibaia moved to the United States in 2009. He was working as freelance photographer/director for various international brands. His student film “Smell of Old House of Ours,” which he made while attending Brooklyn College, premiered at Cannes in 2012 and was a semi-finalist for the 2012 Student Academy Awards. His second student film has premiered at BCFF and won National Board of Review’s prestigious Grant. Currently Chachibaia is working on his first full length screenplay to be filmed in 2016

Synopsis

A moral fable about a bear trying to get revenge on humans who took the life of his mother. A moral fable about a bear trying to get revenge on humans who took the life of his mother

Biography

UnaGunjak is a Sarajevo born, London based director and editor. Previously she studied Film at the University of Torino and Editing at the National Film and TV School in UK, where she graduated with an MA.

Synopsis

As a present for her 6th birthday, Selma gets a live chicken. When she realises the animal is going to be killed to feed the family, she decides to save it and set it free, unaware of the high stakes such action will lead to. While trying to bring back the missing chicken, Selma's mum becomes the target of a sniper shoot. It's Sarajevo, year running 1993.

Biography

Daniel Drummond is from São Luís, Brazil. In 2010 he received a scholarship from the Institute of International Education, and moved to California to attend Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Through his studies in composition, color and movement, Daniel developed a passion for honest storytelling through striking visuals.

Synopsis

As two organisms compete for the one light amid the darkness, their story reveals the volatile nature of power.

Biography

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1988, studied film and TV. Very early in college, she discovered traditional animation and since then she has developed her own projects experimented with the combination between traditional techniques and digital tools. “old” is her first short film in traditional animation and took near to three years of work.

Synopsis

A bar in which nothing works... the owner sleeps… a dog at her side attends the place… an old man steals the last drops of the drinks left on the tables. At the end everything gets lost, even the reason ... one last drink will make them human.

Biography

Or Tilinger, was born in Kfar Saba and raised in Hadera, Israel. Graduated 4th year animation studies with honors at Minshar Art College, Tel Aviv.Majors in 2d animation, Flash and After Effects.

His short movie “Strangers’ Faces” participated in the “2012 Maratoon”.His work was chosen to be presented in the “MiniArt” exhibition at the Jaffa Antique Museum.

Synopsis

Somewhere on faraway China in a huge rock forest, lives a shepherd named Jasio on the edge of a cliff with his sheep. One day they find themselves stuck far away from home after an earthquake cracks the rock into two separate parts. Jasio would do anything to return home.

Biography

Born in Lisbon Portugal, Nuno cultivated his passion for the visual arts from a very young age. He worked as a designer for several years before starting his filmmaking career in music videos and commercials, where he entered a whole new world of potential for visual creative expression. In 2014 Nuno completed Doce Lar, assuming the roles of writer, director, producer and editor of the film.

Synopsis

In an abandoned prison complex, without any basic conditions, a man survives like a wild animal. When his security and tranquility are threatened, he resorts to violence to defend his home.

Later, confined to a small room without access to the outside world, he longs to return to his cell where he feels safe and free.

Biography

Gabriel Abrantes, born in North Carolina, USA, in 1984, he studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris and at Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing, France. He has made 15 short films and a feature film and his work has screened at international film festivals including Venice, Locarno and Toronto. His work as a visual artist has been exhibited in Boston, Tokyo and Paris.

Synopsis

LuísVaz de Camões, the greatest Portuguese Renaissance poet, struggles creatively while engaging in a hedonistic, coprophagic, and drug-addled lifestyle. The film follows the poet, and his lover Dinamene, as he writes his masterpiece, the epic poem OsLusíadas. He travels from the cacophony of the Indic jungles, surrounded by allegorical elephants and rhyming macaques, to the frontier of Heaven and Hell, where he is confronted by his fantasy: fame and immortality.

Biography

Lea Vidakovic (1983, Serbia) multimedia artist, who works in the field of art installation and puppet animation. 2010 BA in animation,HVO, Norway. 2006-2010 studied graphic art at the Academy of fine arts, Zagreb, Croatia, graduated in 2011. 2012 MA of audiovisual arts - animation, Royal Academy of Arts (KASK), Belgium. She has exhibited internationally on solo and group exhibitions, and animation festivals, and is a winner of several art, and film awards.

Synopsis 

A fox hunter and a porcelain shopkeeper lady, the scientist brothers, a seal, a boy and a music box. Six characters in their rooms filled with traces of longing, separated by a vast and bleak landscape.Four stories on love, contemplation and (self)destruction.

Biography

Lea Triboulet (1987, France). She studied scenography at the art school Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, where she started to make shorts films and got her master›s degree in 2010. After graduating, she worked in various positions in set design / mise en scene for several production companies. In 2013, she joined the Film Factory, international program leaded by the hungarian director Bela Tarr in Sarajevo.

Synopsis

How difficult it to communicate and to know what we want? Eveready’s life creates routines in our lives and we forget what it is that we really need. We become ghosts alike.

Biography

Bachelor in fine arts -painting at faculdade of fine arts of the university of porto (2010-2014)exchange student at the animation department of Moholy-Nagy university of art and design budapest (2012-2014)volunteer at several film festivals like curtasvila do conde, titánicfilmfésztival and frisshúsbudapest.

Synopsis

A dancer loses her rhythm. an expedition through the interior of fear, guilt and shame.

Biography

Born in 1988 in Tbilisi, Georgia. He studied film directing at the State University in Tbilisi. While studding he made three short films: OUR FAMILY, PART OF LIFE and diploma work TRANKING CONNECTIONS. In 2011 he made independent film HOBUN, without any financing. In 2012 he made another short TEMO with help from local film production house, which can't be completed because of lack of funds. I AM BESO is his feature debut. It was premiered at the 20th Sarajevo International film Festival.

Synopsis

Beso is a boy of 14 who lives in an abandoned village. Beso's family has numerous problems: his father is an old man, disabled as a result of the tragedy of Chernobyl. All day long he watches TV and swears at his family. Beso's mother is the bread-winner in the family. Every morning she goes to town for her small retail business. Beso's brother Leri is a gay who gives private dansing lessons at home. Beso and his friend Beka are often insulted by their classmates. Despite these problems, Beso and Beka have a good time and playing childish games. Beso composes and records rap music. His dream is to become rich and famous an to help his family.

Levan Adamia

Born 1972, Levan Adamia studied painting at Nikoladze Art School, Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts and later film & television at Edinburgh College of Art. He graduated with a bachelor degree in 1997. Levan Adamia has made numerous documentary films for different TV channels. One of them, KIDS BEHIND BARS, commissioned by BBC and Discovery channel, won him an Emmy for outstanding individual achievement in research in 2002.

Synopsis 

 The Greek tanker OLIB G was sailing from Dubai to India with a crew of 15 Georgians and 3 Turkish sailors, none of whom knew that the ship-owner had given them false documents and the wrong coordinates. The ship was captured by Somali pirates who demanded 15 million US dollar in ransom. The sailors’ captivity and torture was to last for 16 months.

Salome Alexi (Nutsa Alexi-Meskhishvili)

Born in 1966 in Tbilisi, Georgia. She graduated from Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts. In 1988-1992 Salome worked as a set and costume designer on several feature and short films, as well as for the theatre productions. In 1992-96 she studied film directing at the French state film school La Fémis in Paris, where she shot several short and documentary films. Her short film FELICITÀ (2009) won the Corto Cortissimo jury Special Mention at the 66th Venice Film Festival. LINE OF CREDIT is Salome Alexi's fisrt feature-length film. It was premiered at Venice Film Festival 2014, section Orizzonti.

Synopsis

Nino, woman in her 40s, led a comfortable life in the Soviet Union, but in modern Georgia she finds it hard to keep up with the changes. Nino resolves to the most wide-spread practice of getting a mortgage loan at high interest. Little by little she gets deeper into debts, which becomes a vicious circle she cannot escape.

Teona Mghvdeladze 

Born in Tbilissi, Soviet Georgia, She studied Music in Tbilisi and Film in Paris at La Fémis. Her graduation short film MIVITSKEBULI PARTITURA (The Lost Score, 2008) was selected in over 40 festivals throughout the world and won 5 awards.

Thierry Grenade 
Thierry Grenade worked as an assistant director and line producer on a few short films and has also produced a documentary trilogy shot in China. 
Teona and Thierry met ten years ago on the set of a short film and collaborated on various projects. DZMA / BROTHER is their first feature film.

Synopsis

Tbilissi, early 1990's. A few families living in the old part of town must each in their own way confront the changes taking place in their city. Maia witnesses her eldest son, Giorgi, slipping away from her while her youngest son, Datuna, a young and very talented pianist, must cope with the violence that is little by little becoming a part of their daily lives. In the building across the street, another tragedy has struck: young Datuna's dear old friend, Archil, has lost his grandson in the war. The old man is bedridden, sick with grief.

Biography

Zaza Khalvashi  -  Film  Director

1957.05.17, Batumi  (Georgia).

EDUCATION:

1979  -  Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Philology.

1982  -  Tbilisi Theatre Institute, Faculty of Film Directing  –  Tengiz Abuladze and Rezo Chkheidze’s   Studio.

WORKING  EXPERIENCE:

1977-2004 - a director at Film Studio “Georgian Film”.

Since 1997 - teaches film directing at Batumi Art State University;  Professor;  The Head of Film-TV Arts Department of Batumi Art State University.

2004-2005  - The Head of TV-Radio Department of Adjara

2007-2012 - Manager of Batumi Ilia Chavchavadze State Drama Theatre

Since 2013 – Chair of the Board of Public Broadcaster AjaraTV and Radio.

Zaza’s films  include - “Time” (1981) 30’, “Echo” (1985)  30’, “There , where I live…”  (1990)  75’, Miserere“ (1996)  82’, “Roud-Dance  of  Wolves“  (TV - 12 series, 2003), “Solomon”  (2015)  70’

Synopsis 

The film “Solomon” depicts a story of one unknown, talented musician, who is trying to establish himself through his art in one of the provincial Black Sea cities of post-Soviet Georgia, which is characterized by nihilism and indifference.

Solomon’s music can only be heard during feasts, in the basements or on the beach. The only person, who understands him, for whom his existence is essential, is his small daughter, who lives in the orphanage and rarely sees her divorced parents. 

Biography

After graduating from the Moscow Film School, the filmmaker, OtarDavidovichIosseliani (Tbilisi, Georgia, 1934), learnt the job as an assistant director and then as an editor of documentaries at the Gruzija Film studios in Georgia before producing his own short films: Akvarel (1958) and Song About a Flower (1959). His third film, April (1962), was censored by the Soviet authorities. He worked as a sailor and as a factory worker for a time.

Synopsis

Some resemblances are disturbing. That between a guillotined viscount, pipe in his mouth, during the Terror; an army chaplain with a tattooed chest like a gangster, baptizing soldiers, looters and rapists, as if on an assembly line; a Parisian tramp flattened by a steamroller, and the highly educated concierge, but also arms dealer, of a large apartment block. A building where the lives of nearly all these characters intersect, except for the homeless who are roughly dragged from one place to the next by the police. And yet in the midst of all this chaos, there are spaces to dream, love stories, firm friendships that perhaps allow hope that tomorrow will be better than today.

Biography

After studying art in Paris, KIM KI-DUK (1960, Bonghwa, South Korea) returned to South Korea and began his career as a screenwriter. He made his directorial debut with a low-budget movie, Crocodile, in 1996. Since then, he has been hailed by both critics and audiences for his hard-to-express characters, shocking visuals, and unprecedented messages. He continued making internationally acclaimed films such as Samaritan Girl(Silver Bear award for Best Director at Berlin 2004), 3-Iron (Silver Lion Award for Best Director at Venice 2004), Arirang (Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes 2011). Most notably, Pieta won the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the 2012 Venice Film Festival.

SYNOPSIS

A high school girl is brutally raped and murdered and the men responsible for the heinous act get off scot-free.

That is, until one of them gets abducted by a shadowy group of highly trained assailants. Tortured and forced to write a confession of the murder, the abductee is then released. Traumatised by the experience, he later finds out that others involved in the murder have also gone through the same ordeal.

Eager for answers, he tails the next person he expects to be victimised, and discovers the hideout of his tormentors.

Director Kim, known for his extreme themes and unflinching storylines, has said in a statement that this film is about “the country where I live, South Korea” and that “whether you agree with the ending or not ... you should watch it.”

Biography

An Italian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti was born in 1953 in Bruneck, South Tyrol, Italy. One of his first films,Sweet Dreams, got Silver Lion – a Special Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival in 1981. He is The Palme d'Or winner forThe Son's Room in 2001, in 2012 he was the President of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Among his other prizes are Silver Bear at Berlin International Film Festival (The Mass Is Ended, 1986), FIPRESCI Prize at European Film Awards (Dear Diary, 1994), Best Film from Cahiers du cinema (We Have a Pope, 2011). 

SYNOPSIS

Margherita is a director shooting a film with the famous American actor, Barry Huggins, who is quite a headache on set. Away from the shoot, Margherita tries to hold her life together, despite her mother's illness and her daughter's adolescence.

Biography

Iconoclastic provocateur Peter Greenaway creates cinema that is a collage of academia and art. Rejecting devotion to what he considers the vagaries of traditional textual narrative, Greenaway’s paintings, films, novels, operas, exhibitions, and installations instead utilize visual language. The resulting works are richly realizes explorations of death, sexual pleasure, obsession, and architecture. Selected work includes The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Prospero’s Books (1991), The Pillow Book (1996), and Goltzious and the Pelican Company (2012). 

Synopsis

Daring, sexually explicit and wildly funny, Peter Greenaway's latest film depicts Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein's visit to Mexico in 1931 to shoot a new film, ¡Que Viva México!. Having been rejected by Hollywood, and under pressure to return to Stalinist Russia, Eisenstein finds himself politically and financially vulnerable. When he arrives in the city of Guanajuato, he finds himself sexually vulnerable too. Together with his Mexican guide, Palomino, he explores the ties between sex and death in the ten days that would ultimately shape his life and career. Greenaway splits screens, shoots from unusual angles, and creates a sensual and visually immaculate world. The result is enthralling, sometimes shocking and raucously funny: a worthy addition to the body of work of one of the most inventive filmmakers of our time.

Biography

Born in 1970 (Fengyang, Shanxi Province), Jia Zhangke studied painting, developed an interest in fiction, and in 1995 founded the Youth Experimental Film Group, for which he directed two award-winning videos. He graduated in 1997 from the Beijing Film Academy, and his first feature, XIAU WU (1998) was very successful at the Berlin, Nantes and Vancouver festivals. The following films ZHANTAI (Platform, 2000), and REN XIAO YAO (Unknown Pleasures, 2002) were selected in competition respectively at Venice and Cannes. He established Xstream Pictures in 2003 in order to promote young talented directors from all over China. He directed SHIJIE (The World) in 2004 and his latest film SANXIA HAOREN (Still Life) received the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival 2006.

SYNOPSIS

China, 1999. Childhood friends Liangzi and Zhang are both in love with Tao, the town beauty. Tao eventually decides to marry the wealthier Zhang. They soon have a son he names Dollar…
From China to Australia, the lives, loves, hopes and disillusions of a family over two generations in a society changing at breakneck speed.

Biography

Gaspar Noé, born in 1963, is an Argentinian film director and screenwriter. He is the son of Argentinian painter, writer and intellectual Luis Felipe Noé. Noé graduated from Louis Lumière College. Later he stated that seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey at the age of seven changed his life, without which experience he would never have become a director. His film Love premiered at the Grand Theatre Lumière in the Midnight Screenings section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

SYNOPSIS:

January the 1st, early morning. The telephone rings. Murphy wakes up next to his young wife and 2-year-old child. He listens to his voicemail: Electra's mother, sick with worry, wants to know whether he has heard from her daughter. Electra's been missing for a long time. She's afraid something really bad has happened to her.

Biography

Born in Moscow in 1949, he studied in the screenwriting faculty at the state film school VGIK in the same city and has worked as a film and television screenwriter since 1976. He has received numerous awards and international prizes, including a Silver Bear at the Berlinale for the "idea and adaptation" of the film "PjessaDljsPassaschira" ("A Play For A Passenger"). His directorial debut, "Soar", screened at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. 

Synopsis

Exceptionally private, full of emotional experiences story of an engineer Hans F. who arrived with a business trip to USSR on the eve of World War II (autumn of 1940 Р spring of 1941). The plot is based on the real life events of prewar period, on the memories of its direct participants. As a matter of fact the film represents little known blank spot of the European history when soon after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact had been signed a short period of friendship, close collaboration and exchange of specialists started between USSR and Germany - before these two countries confronted each other in the mortal combat.

Biography

Pavel G. Vesnakov is an award winning Bulgarian film director born in 1987. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts and a Master's Degree in Film Arts from the New Bulgarian University. He is famous for his highly realistic and provocative ideas exploring the degradation of contemporary Bulgarian society.

Synopsis

Manol - a retired general, a loving grandfather - is a patriarch of firm morals and fixed beliefs, which he has upheld in his household. But on this day he learns that the boy he raised is gay. The life choices of his loved ones challenge his values in a battle he has lost by default.

Biography

Morgan Knibbe graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in 2012 with his short experimental film A Twist in The Fabric of Space selected for the IDFA and awarded with Wildcard by the Netherlands Filmfund. His second short film is Shipwreck. Currently, Morgan is developing a feature-length film which will revolve around the lives of refugees at the borders of Europe.

Synopsis

On 3 October 2013, a boat carrying 500 Eritrean refugees sunk off the coast of the Italian island Lampedusa. More than 360 people drowned. Abraham, one of the survivors, walks through a graveyard of shipwrecks and vividly remembers the nightmarish experience. Meanwhile, chaos breaks loose at the harbour, whilst hundreds of coffins are being loaded onto a military ship.

Biography

Jan-GerritSeyler (*1979), committed to visual as well as performing arts since childhood. He has taken part in a whole number of short film projects in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg (GER) and Denmark within the last six years, including camera and directing work, sound, editing, lighting technician, assistant director, production manager and actor.

Synopsis

Marco and Lisa are in love. Online, they fight side by side against dreadful monsters. Sometimes they die on their mission, but there is always one life to spare. Still, Lisa refuses to meet Marco for real. When one day she stops showing up for the game, Marco decides to go searching for her. But in Lisa's world, they will need all their strength and courage to really meet each other.

Biography

Wojciech Sobczyk animated film director, illustrator and photographer. He was born in 1974 in Piotrków Trybunalski. He graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow where he currently works as an academic at the Animated Film Studio. His animated films A Ladder (1997) and Spring 1999 (2000) have been screened at numerous festivals and film reviews in Poland and abroad.

Synopsis

A pessimistic view of the human fate, a universal tale of the world possessed by evil. The same piece of land is shown multiple times in different scenes. However, the repetition is painful and pessimistic, the world, trapped in a vicious cycle of evil, is unable to break free.

Biography

Gabriel Abrantes, born in North Carolina, USA, in 1984, he studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris and at Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing, France. He has made 15 short films and a feature film and his work has screened at international film festivals including Venice, Locarno and Toronto. His work as a visual artist has been exhibited in Boston, Tokyo and Paris.

Synopsis

LuísVaz de Camões, the greatest Portuguese Renaissance poet, struggles creatively while engaging in a hedonistic, coprophagic, and drug-addled lifestyle. The film follows the poet, and his lover Dinamene, as he writes his masterpiece, the epic poem OsLusíadas. He travels from the cacophony of the Indic jungles, surrounded by allegorical elephants and rhyming macaques, to the frontier of Heaven and Hell, where he is confronted by his fantasy: fame and immortality.

Biography

Eoin Duffy is an Irish filmmaker now living and working in Vancouver Canada. Eoin has created a body of independent work that has gone on to secure multiple accolades including a dozen major festival wins, 3 Oscar accredited festival wins, a nomination for the upcoming European Film Awards, an IFTA nomination and a shortlisting for the 86th Academy Awards

Synopsis

George Takei narrates this multi-award-winning fable about a wise squirrel on an increasingly existential quest to find its scarf.

Biography

GudmundurArnarGudmundsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1982. He has a Fine Arts Degree from the Icelandic Art Academy and studied screenwriting in Denmark. He now works as a filmmaker and a part time teacher in screenwriting, directing and video art.

Synopsis

The film shows a strong bond between two brothers that live in a remote fjord with their parents. We look into their world through the eyes of the younger brother and follow him on a journey that marks a turning point in the brothers’ lives.

Sinopsis

A new episode in the acclaimed series 'Panique au Village'! Cowboy and Indian experience the longest Christmas Eve of their life.

Biography

Ida Hubel is an Israeli film maker. He graduated from the “Sam Spiegel School of Film and Television” in Jerusalem. He wrote and directed two student shorts that have been screened at festivals all over the world, and won several awards. His first feature film “The Cut Off Man” was premiered in “Venice FF 2012-Orizonti” and got great reviews both in Israel and world wide.

Synopsis

Jonathan loves chocolate. One day he steals the last remaining chocolate in the jar. When his stepmother catches him and his brothers ostracize him, he decides to run away.

Biography

Born in 1986, in Georgia, Mariam Khatchvani studied Film Directing at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film State University. She directed many short documentaries: Verdzoba (2006), Beyond the Window (2007), and Lichanishi and Kvirikoba (2009). Dinola (2013) is her first fiction short. It has been invited on many important film festivals: 36th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, 37th Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad nominee to EFA...

Synopsis

The mountains, strict law doesn't give a chance to be together mother with her child. In the harsh mountainous countryside of Svaneti (Georgia). Happiness is brief and the love of life of the Dina dies. Tradition says she must marry to the first man who offers his hand and leave her child.

Biography

Hannes Vartiainen, born in 1980, graduated as a film director from the Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia in 2004.

PekkaVeikkolainen, born in 1982, studied graphic design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. He has worked with animation and illustrations since 2000.

Synopsis

Being human is a fragile and fleeting opportunity to experience life and the universe around us. In the face of overwhelming darkness all we can do is to rely on and find solace in one another. The film is based on authentic emergency calls and radio traffic.

Biography

Jorge Lopez Navarrete: Born in Barcelona, after working on advertising for several years he start developing personal video projects. During this time, he attend a Filmmaking International Workshop in the San Antonio de losBaños Cinema School and complete a Master in Digital Video at the PompeuFabra University of Barcelona.

Synopsis

A dog and a mare embark upon a voyage together. With every step they take, the differences between them become inevitably clearer, and yet the profound mutual knowledge they develop over time shows the potential to suddenly produce a luminous moment between the two. 

Biography

UnaGunjak is a Sarajevo born, London based director and editor. Previously she studied Film at the University of Torino and Editing at the National Film and TV School in UK, where she graduated with an MA.

Synopsis

As a present for her 6th birthday, Selma gets a live chicken. When she realises the animal is going to be killed to feed the family, she decides to save it and set it free, unaware of the high stakes such action will lead to. While trying to bring back the missing chicken, Selma's mum becomes the target of a sniper shoot. It's Sarajevo, year running 1993.

Biography

Born in 1979 Simon Szabó is a well-known actor, director and musician/DJ. He won the price for the best short film for his film Let’s Roll at the Hungarian Film Week in 2008 and in 2009 he took home the Sándor Simó Award for his first feature Paper Planes.

Synopsis

Laci is a 16-year old gypsy boy, who lives off casual jobs. The film follows the various stages of the construction as Laci helps out the other workers. In the end, Laci is asked to complete the work. He now takes his first look beyond the wall, which holds an unusual revelation for him.

Biography

Lana Ghoghoberidze was born on October 13, 1928 in Tbilisi. In 1950, she graduated from Tbilisi State University, the faculty of philology and later from Moscow State University, the faculty of cinematography. In 1954, she earned degree of candidate of philological sciences. Has worked in “Georgian Film Studio” since 1957 and was leading the film directors’ studio at Rustaveli Theater since 1975. In 1988, she became the director of “Georgian Film Studio”. Later she started her political carrier and in 1992 became the member of the parliament. Since 1999 was the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Georgia to the Council of Europe and in 2004, she was appointed as an ambassador of Georgia to France.Her fiction and documentary movies have won several international awards.

Lana Ghoghoberidze is the co-author of the screenplays for all of the films she has directed – “Under the Same Sky” (1961); “I Can See the Sun” (1965); “The Transfiguration” (1968); “When Almonds Blossomed” (1972); “The Turmoil at the Feast” (1975); “Few Interviews on Personal Issues” (1978); “The Night has Changed by Day” (1984); “The Turmoil” (1986); “The Waltz on Pechora” (1992).

Synopsis 

Young newspaper staffer SofikoChiaureli is passionately involved in her work — interviewing people who have sent letters of complaint to the editor. One of the women she converses with is her mother, and the pair’s onscreen relationship evokes the tragic early life of the filmmaker and her own mother, making this a very personal project. Combining documentary technique and psychological drama, this becomes a powerful testament about women, work, family and marriage, earning international acclaim as the first feminist film of Soviet cinema, as well as the first to overtly mention Stalin’s camps.

Biography

Harutyun Khachatryan (born 1955, Akhalkalaki, Georgia), is a director, producer, scriptwriter, and Honored Artist of RA. Since 2006, Khachatryan is a voting member of European Film Academy, Director of Golden Apricot FCD, and since 2004 the Co-founder and the General Director of Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival. Khachatryan was awarded with the Prince Klaus Award in 2007. In 2008, he became a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture of France.

Synopsis

Between 1988 and the early 1990s, three events shook Armenia: a terrible earthquake, the Nagorno-Karabakh War and the break-up of the Soviet Union. As a consequence, part of the population chose to live in exile. The filmmaker follows the path of one of these men, recounting a deeply moving epic tale of an indocile man and an extraordinary storyteller. 

Biography

Harutyun Khachatryan (born 1955, Akhalkalaki, Georgia), is a director, producer, scriptwriter, and Honored Artist of RA. Since 2006, Khachatryan is a voting member of European Film Academy, Director of Golden Apricot FCD, and since 2004 the Co-founder and the General Director of Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival. Khachatryan was awarded with the Prince Klaus Award in 2007. In 2008, he became a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture of France.

Synopsis

An unflinching statement about the hardships of making a film that sticks as close as possible to reality and truth. By highlighting the moral ambiguities of the documentary director, Khachatryan approaches the contradictions of a whole country that is facing hardships and challenges. An acute snapshot of Armenia shortly after the collapse of the USSR, the film is a haunting portrait of a country at a crossroads.