Biography

Parajanov was born on January 9, 1924 in Tbilisi where he finished secondary school. In 1945 he entered the directing program at the VGIK (State Institute of Cinematography) under Igor Savchenko. In 1952 he started to work at the Alexander Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kiev as a film-director.

Before 1963 he directed four non-remarkable full-length feature and three short documentary films. In 1964 his «Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors» («Wild Horses of Fire»), brought him world fame. Paradoxically, his problems started just from this movie.

In 1966 Parajanov was invited to Armenia where he started his work on «Sayat-Nova». With great difficulties this film was released on a screen in 1969 under the title «The Colour of Pomegranates». It is considered to be his best work after which he was deprived of possibility of making movies for 15 long years.

Parajanov was arrested twice because of false accusation in Ukraine (1974-1978) and Tbilisi (1982). These years his talent of brilliant Artist became apparent. He would say: «I was not allowed to make movies and I started to make collages. Collage is a compressed film».

By the end of his life he made another two films at the «Georgia-film» studio: «The Legend of Suram Fortress» and «Ashik-Kerib».

Synopsis

The movie is a free interpretation of Daniel Chonkadze’s famous story. Vardua’s groom Durmishkhan decides to leave home in quest of the work. Durmishkhan turns out to be lucky. He gets a lucrative job and marries a well off woman. Vardua gets desperate by Durmishkhan’s loss and turns into a fortune-teller. After many years she takes revenge on Durmishkhan. At her advice the village entombs Durmishkhan’s son in one of the walls of the Surami fortress alive.

Synopsis                                                      

Beautiful, truly portuguese seascapes swept before my eyes. Tied up in these images was my youth, my paradise lost. The vast sea, the beach, the people, all waiting, all dying gently, sadly, beautifully. Life and death were being recorded here as a whole: death as a part of life, a cosmic change, a transformation.

Biography 

Miguel Fonseca was born in Lisbon in 1973. He studied philosophy in college and in 2008 he directed ALPHA, his first short film. He produced the experimental short film I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME, a film within a film – a film within the first John Rambo film, “First Blood”, directed by Ted Kotcheff in 1982. He’s just finished the short film THE WAVES. He works as a director, as a writer and as a continuity supervisor. Miguel Fonseca lives in Lisbon.

Synopsis

Soldier Nathan Rijckx died during World War I. A strange collector imprisoned his shadow and gave him a new chance: a second life against 10000 captured shadows.

It is love that guides him, as his purpose is to meet Sarah again, the woman he fell in love with before he died. But when he discovers that she’s already in love with someone else, jealousy clouds his mind and pushes him towards a bitter decision, a decision not without consequences…

Biography

Enchanted from an early age by the celluloid dreamscape of film, Tom Van Avermaet (°1982) always aspired to be an audio-visual storyteller. Inspiration was found in the great surrealists of cinematic past & present, as in a love for the fantastic and imaginative.

DEATH OF A SHADOW, his first professional short after the thesis film DREAMTIME (2006),has garnered nominations from both the European Film Awards & the US Academy Awards (Oscars).

Biography

Cathy Brady began her studies in Visual Arts Practice at IADT, before moving on to study and graduate top of her class with a First Class Honours at the National Film School at IADT 2010. During her studies Cathy set up her own production company - CherryRED Pictures LTD. During this time, she has directed and produced several shorts and EPK’s, working with Spyglass Entertainment, LA; Universal Pictures, Ecosse, Element Pictures, Samson Films, RTÉ and Grand Pictures.

Synopsis 

A distraught woman doesn't want to be disturbed, but the front doorbell keeps ringing and the caller won't leave until she answers.

Biography

Born in Elche (Spain) in 1980, city where he is still living and working. He has made the short films “The attack of the Robots from Nebula-5” (2008), and "Protoparticles" (2010), who where selected in almost 500 film festivals, including the Quinzaine du Realisateurs, Sundance, AFI fest, Chicago Film Festival, Ann Arbor or Gijón. Both films have won almost

150 awards, including the Méliès d'Or to the best fantastic european short film and two honorable mentions in Sundance. "Mystery" is his third short film.

Synopsis

They say that if you put your ear to the back of his neck, you can hear the Virgin talk.

Biography

Madrid-based filmmaker, Sergio Oksman was born in Sao Paulo in 1970. He studied Journalism in Sao Paulo and Film in New York. He is a film teacher in Madrid and heads up Dok Films productions. His filmography as director includes  “The Beautician” (2004), "Goodbye, America" (2007), "Notes on the Other" (2009) and "A Story for the Modlins (2012).

Synopsis

After appearing in the film ROSEMARY’S BABY by Roman Polanski, Elmer Modlin ran away with his family to a distant land where they lock themselves inside a dark apartment for thirty years.

Biography

Jamie Stone is UK’s 2012 Screen ‘Star of Tomorrow’. His multi award-winning work encompasses documentaries, animation and live-action drama. He is currently in development on various features including a Loch Ness Monster project for BBC films and a feature length adaptation of Skyborn, his NFTS graduation short for the BFI. He is represented by David Karp at WME (US) and Jago Irwin at Independent Talent (UK).

Synoposis

Earth’s orbit.The distant future. Two star - crossed lovers overcome all probabilities and sacrifice everything they have in order to spend one perfect moment together.

Biography

Omar Robert Hamilton is anBritish independent filmmaker, producer of the Palestine Festival of Literature and a founding member of the Mosireen Collective in Cairo.

Since 2011 he has made dozens of short documentaries on the Egyptian Revolution, helping to make Mosireen the most watched non-profit YouTube channel in Egypt of all time. His third fiction short, Though I Know the River is Dry, premiered in competition at Rotterdam where it won the Prix UIP and is currently nominated for Best Short Film at the 2013 European Film Awards.

His films have appeared on the BBC, al Jazeera and ONTV; his articles in the Guardian, the BBC and the Big Issue and his photographs in the Guardian, the Economist, al Shorouq and the Daily Beast.

Synopsis

He has returned to Palestine. On the fraught road through the country he relives the choice that sent him to America and the forces of history now driving him home.

Biography

Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov work together from 2008. They graduated National Academy for Theatre and Film Art. Their films have won great number of national and international film festivals.

Synopsis

The old bachelor Gosho receives an offer from his rich cousin Joro to take care of Joro's luxurious penthouse while the latter is abroad. For the poor relative, still living with his mother and grand-father, this is the perfect opportunity to have some peace and quiet in luxury and richness. But as early as his second day in the apartment, the water meter reader arrives, performing her monthly inspection. Her visit turns out to be much more than just a simple water meter reading, but the most deceitful, most passionate, the funniest and the saddest love in the world.

Biography

Jochen Kuhn was born in 1954. He is a director and writer, known for Neulich 3 (2007),Sonntag 3 (2013) and Recently 2 (2000).

Synopsis

The third part in a series about Sunday outings. In SONNTAG 3, the protagonist has a blind date in the Grand Café.

Biography

Born in Kiev in 1974, in Kiev (Ukraine) Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy graduated from the filmmaking department of the Kiev State Institute of Theatre and Arts, named after I. K. Karpenko-Kariy, majoring in feature film directing. He has worked at film studios in Kiev (the Dovzhenko Film Studio) and in St. Petersburg (the Lenfilm Studios). He also worked as a script writer on numerous TV films, one of which The “Chernobyl Robinson” which won the prize of the All-Ukrainian Script Contest “Word-2000”. His second film “DIAGNOSIS” has been nominated for Golden Bear. His next short film “DEAFNESS” is his second Berlinale outing and also got a Golden Bear nomination.

In the autumn of 2010, has received a grant for development of his first full-length feature film “THE TRIBE “ from the Hubert Bals Fund of Rotterdam Film Festival.

In 2012, Myroslav won the Silver Leopard of the Locarno Film Festival’s competition program "Pardi di domani" for his film "Nuclear Waste”.

Synopsis

Sergiy and Sveta live in Chernobyl.  Sergiy is a truck-driver at a radioactive wastes utilization plant.  Sveta works at a radioactive decontamination laundry. Their work and their life are dictated by one unchangeable rhythm with clockwork precision. But what sets this mechanism in motion - day by day.

Biography

Christoph Girardet, born in Langenhagen, Germany, in 1966.

Lives in Hannover. Studied at the Braunschweig HBK.

Matthias Müller, born in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1961.

Lives in Bielefeld and Cologne. Studied at the Bielefeld University and at the Braunschweig HBK.

Synopsis

The body as a wound that never heals. 

Biography

Born in 1981, Cristina Picchi is an Italian filmmaker and writer based in London. She holds a degree in European literature from the University of Pisa and an MA in screen documentary from Goldsmiths University in London. She directed several short documentaries, including Under Your Skin (2011), Fragments of a Dream (2011) and Il disassociato (2013). Her films have been screened in festivals and galleries worldwide.

Synopsis

Biography

Born in 1975 in Baglarbasi, a small village in South-East Turkey. In 2007 Bülent starts film studies at the Belgian films chool Rits in Brussels. In 2011 he obtains his master degree film direction with distinction. During his studies Bülent directs several other short movies Delayed Farewell, Dawn and the documentary film ‘ʻZaman Zaman, Talking Stones of Bakacaikʼ, acclaimed in Turkey.

Synopsis

22-year old Dilan pays for her forbidden love for a young man in a neighbouring village with her life. She has shamed the family and therefore must die at the hands of her own brothers. And as tradition will have it, the killing must be compensated.

Biography

Sandrine Bonnaire was born on May 31, 1967 in Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme, France. She is an actress and director, known for Vagabond (1985), La Cérémonie(1995) and Monsieur Hire (1989). She has been married to Guillaume Laurant since March 29, 2003. They have one child.

Synopsis
After ten years, Jacques comes back to France to handle his father’s succession. He had left France to live in the USA to escape a painful past he shared with Mado, his former wife, who in the meantime, built a new life with Stéphane and their 7 year old son, Paul. Upon his return, Jacques and Mado meet again; he asks to meet her son Paul; Mado hesitates, then accepts but hides it from her husband. Soon, Paul and Jacques get close and they start to see each other secretly.

Biography

KatellQuillévéré was born on January 30, 1980 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. She is a writer and director, known for Suzanne (2013), Love Like Poison (2010) and À bras le corps(2005). She studied film and philosophy at the University of Paris 8. In 2004, she founded and organized with Sébastien Bailly the first three editions of the Rencontres du Moyen-Métrage in Brive.

At the same time, she directed À BRAS LE CORPS, her first short, discovered at the Directors’ Fortnight and selected for the 2007 Césars. Subsequently she made two other shorts, L’IMPRUDENCE, and L’ECHAPPEE, which were seen in numerous festivals.
Her first feature UN POISON VIOLENT was presented at the Directors's Fortnight and awarded with Jean Vigo Prize in 2010.

Synopsis

Suzanne and Maria are sisters who are extremely close. They have a happy childhood despite the absence of their mother, who passed away when they were still little girls. Nicolas, their, at times clumsy, but loving father runs the household the very best he can, until the day that Suzanne gets pregnant. Little Charly arrives and the family gets bigger. Years go by, Suzanne meets Julien, a bit of a bad boy, and they fall hopelessly in love... She runs away with him abandoning everyone and leaving everything behind.

Biography

Nadav Lapid was born in 1975 in Tel Aviv, Israel, and attended the Sam Spiegel Film School, where he produced short films that screened at the Cannes, Locarno and Berlin film festivals. He has directed one full-length feature, Policeman (2011); his shorts are Emile’s Girlfriend (2006), Road(2005) and Border Project (2004)

Synopsis

A kindergarten teacher discovers in a five year-old child a prodigious gift for poetry. Amazed and inspired by this young boy, she decides to protect his talent in spite of everyone.

Biography

Alejandro Fadel was born on January 1, 1981 in Tunuyán, Pcia. Mendoza, Argentina. He is a writer and director, known for Carancho (2010), Lion's Den (2008) and The Wild Ones (2012).

Synopsis

Like in a western, it all begins with an escape. Five teenagers violently escape a reformatory school in an Argentinean province. They must pilgrimage a hundred kilometers on foot, across the hills, for the promise of a home to continue their days. They hunt to feed, rob houses they come across, do drugs, bathe in the river, fight with each other and make love: A progressive voyage into the wilderness that soon becomes a mystic fable about courage and grace.

Biography

Tengiz Abuladze studied theatre direction (1943–1946) at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre Institute, Tbilisi, Georgia, and filmmaking at the VGIK (All-Union State Institute of Cinematography) in Moscow. He graduated VGIK in 1952 and in 1953 he joined Gruziya-film (Georgia Film Studios) as a director. He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1980.

His first film, Magdana's Donkey (1955), which he directed with Rezo Chkheidze won the "Best Fiction Short" award at the 1956 Cannes International Film Festival. He is most famous for his film trilogy: The Plea (The Supplication) (1968), The Tree of Desire (1976), and Repentance (1984, released 1987), which won him the Lenin Prize (1988) and the first Nika Award for Best Picture. Repentance won the Special Jury Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.

Synopsis

A Khevsur Aluda killed Chechen Mutsal in a decent fight. Enchanted by his rival’s bravery Aluda refused to cut off Mutsal’s right hand. For this violation of the Khevsur tradition Aluda was expelled from his family. Chechen Chokhola got acquainted with Khevsur Zviadauri while hunting in the mountains. He brought Zviadauri home paid him homage and let him stay overnight at his place. However the Chechens knew that Zviadauri was a Khevsur. They dragged him out of Chokhola’s house and executed him near a Chechen’s grave. Chokhola could do nothing to defend Zviadauri. He fought back the kidnappers and got killed in the fight.

Biography

Tengiz Abuladze studied theatre direction (1943–1946) at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre Institute, Tbilisi, Georgia, and filmmaking at the VGIK (All-Union State Institute of Cinematography) in Moscow. He graduated VGIK in 1952 and in 1953 he joined Gruziya-film (Georgia Film Studios) as a director. He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1980.

His first film, Magdana's Donkey (1955), which he directed with Rezo Chkheidze won the "Best Fiction Short" award at the 1956 Cannes International Film Festival. He is most famous for his film trilogy: The Plea (The Supplication) (1968), The Tree of Desire (1976), and Repentance (1984, released 1987), which won him the Lenin Prize (1988) and the first Nika Award for Best Picture. Repentance won the Special Jury Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.

Synopsis

Varlam Aravidze, a high-ranking member of the Bolshevik Government is complicit in the death of thousands of innocent people during the period of repression. After many years Ketevan, daughter of the repressed parents, digs Varlam Aravidze out of his grave and tells her story to the dumbfounded society. Aravidze’s grandson Tornike learns the whole truth about his granddad’s deals. The conflict with his father and the unveiled truth bring Tornike to the decision to commit suicide

Biography

Parajanov was born on January 9, 1924 in Tbilisi where he finished secondary school. In 1945 he entered the directing program at the VGIK (State Institute of Cinematography) under Igor Savchenko. In 1952 he started to work at the Alexander Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kiev as a film-director.

Before 1963 he directed four non-remarkable full-length feature and three short documentary films. In 1964 his «Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors» («Wild Horses of Fire»), brought him world fame. Paradoxically, his problems started just from this movie.

In 1966 Parajanov was invited to Armenia where he started his work on «Sayat-Nova». With great difficulties this film was released on a screen in 1969 under the title «The Colour of Pomegranates». It is considered to be his best work after which he was deprived of possibility of making movies for 15 long years.

Parajanov was arrested twice because of false accusation in Ukraine (1974-1978) and Tbilisi (1982). These years his talent of brilliant Artist became apparent. He would say: «I was not allowed to make movies and I started to make collages. Collage is a compressed film».

By the end of his life he made another two films at the «Georgia-film» studio: «The Legend of Suram Fortress» and «Ashik-Kerib».

Synopsis

The movie is a free interpretation of Daniel Chonkadze’s famous story. Vardua’s groom Durmishkhan decides to leave home in quest of the work. Durmishkhan turns out to be lucky. He gets a lucrative job and marries a well off woman. Vardua gets desperate by Durmishkhan’s loss and turns into a fortune-teller. After many years she takes revenge on Durmishkhan. At her advice the village entombs Durmishkhan’s son in one of the walls of the Surami fortress alive.

Biography

Parajanov was born on January 9, 1924 in Tbilisi where he finished secondary school. In 1945 he entered the directing program at the VGIK (State Institute of Cinematography) under Igor Savchenko. In 1952 he started to work at the Alexander Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kiev as a film-director.

Before 1963 he directed four non-remarkable full-length feature and three short documentary films. In 1964 his «Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors» («Wild Horses of Fire»), brought him world fame. Paradoxically, his problems started just from this movie.

In 1966 Parajanov was invited to Armenia where he started his work on «Sayat-Nova». With great difficulties this film was released on a screen in 1969 under the title «The Colour of Pomegranates». It is considered to be his best work after which he was deprived of possibility of making movies for 15 long years.

Parajanov was arrested twice because of false accusation in Ukraine (1974-1978) and Tbilisi (1982). These years his talent of brilliant Artist became apparent. He would say: «I was not allowed to make movies and I started to make collages. Collage is a compressed film».

By the end of his life he made another two films at the «Georgia-film» studio: «The Legend of Suram Fortress» and «Ashik-Kerib».

Synopsis

The Ashik Kerib wants to marry his beloved, but her father opposes since Kerib is poor and he expects rich prospects for his 'daughter from heaven'. She vows to wait for him for a thousand days and nights until he comes back with enough money to impress her father. He sets out on a journey to gain wealth and encounters many difficulties, but with the help of a saint horseman, he returns to his beloved on the 1001st day and they are able to marry.

The entire story is told in a way of Azerbaijan Folklore with music and colour playing a key role. Dialogue is minimal and scripts are used to narrate the plot changes.

Biography

Zurab Inashvili was  born in 1948 in Tbilisi. 1981 graduated Georgian State Theatric and Cinema Institute as a cinema director (Master class of Tengiz Abuladze). 1979 worked as film director at National Studio of „Tele-Film“ after as general director of the Studio. 1996 - 2004 worked at Georgian TV-Radio Corporation, as a Head of the children‘s programs studio, and head Line Producer. Zurab Inashvili is author of many TV Projects, Documentaries and International Film Projects.

Synopsis

Another City is made of the suburbs that sprang up around Tbilisi, Georgia in the 1970s. It bears no resemblance to the typical districts of the capital. Soviet urban planning created specific environment in this part of the city, deeply affecting the inhabitants, their relationships and their daily lives.

The film shows what this ungainly part of Tbilisi looks like, what the challenges are for the locals, what their interest and aspirations are, what moves them and how they manage to face the reality. Ultimately, the film is a portrait of the society, where the close-up of individuals, their emotions and hopes are shown against the background of the concrete jungle.

Biography

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

"Lilliputians" - majority of people call this name to the people, who have a pathologic lack of growth. These people are facing a lot of problems in Georgian reality. Exceptional looks are often the only mean to get paid. The film tells us a story of several small people, who try to somehow change their lives. 

Biography

Levan Koguashvili was born 1973 in Tbilisi, Georgia. He studied film at the Russian State Institute of Film (VGIK) and the New York University Graduate Film Program. Between 2002 and 2007 he lived in New York where he made several short films and documentaries. In 2008 he moved back to Georgia to shoot his first feature length fiction film Street Days. The film is based on his own script, which won the feature script competition organized by the Georgian National Film Center.

Synopsis

Sandro is a 40-year-old Tbilisi teacher who still lives with his parents. His mother constantly bugs him to grow up and get married, but Sandro has little luck with the women he and his single friend Iva contact through dating sites. After yet another unsuccessful match up, Sandro meets hairdresser Manana, the mother of one of his students, and falls in love with her. However, the seemingly single Manana turns out to be married and her hot-tempered husband Tengo is just about to be released on probation.

Biography

Uta Beria, a 26 year old film director and screenwriter. Author of short films: “In The Rain” (2007); “Tea” (2009). Director of a video clip: “Broadlands 10” (2011). Editor of a third issue of a quarterly magazine about Georgian Cinematograph “Film Print” issued by Georgian National Film Center (2011). Co-screenwriter of a feature film “The Last Stroll” (2011). Author of a screenplay for a feature film “Negative Numbers” (2012). Author of a short, fictional film “Ferris Wheel” (2014).

Synopsis

A young boy is trying to find his father, who he has never seen before and who so far was considered to be dead. The boy records everything with a hand video camera and the process of meeting the father turns for him into a movie in which the main character is he himself.

Director

Born in Tbilisi. In 1974 she entered the Tbilisi State Institute of Theatre and Film at the Faculty of Film Directing. Since 1985, she worked there as the head master of the directing workshop. Making films since 1977. In 1987, she shot her first feature film Robinsonada, or My English Grandfather and was awarded with the "Golden Camera" at the Cannes Film Festival for best debut. In 1990 she became head of a directing workshop at the Russian State Institute of Film (VGIK). Since 1994 she is a member of the European Film Academy.

SYNOPSIS

In a wild, beautiful village by the sea a new romantic story is born. Its heroes are the 14-year-old Fedor and 18-year-old Nyurka. It seems that no relationship is possible between a naive boy and a local "actress". However, they are both carried away by the feeling of first love. Nyurka dreams of playing Angelique from her favorite French novel. Her love story with Fedor also reminds the novel "Angelique and the King". In her life Nyurka assigns Fedor the role of Nicolas. Their story shows that love has no age. Pure feelings make an adult into a child, and the child becomes grown up. To awaken courage in one's heart is the true nature of this magic feeling.

Director

Born in Hong Kong, Ben Hopkins is a screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist. Educated at Oxford and the Royal College of Art in the UK, he lives in Berlin and Istanbul. His films include features and shorts, fiction and documentary, and have won awards at numerous international festivals. Among them: SIMON MAGUS (1998), THE NINE LIVES OF TOMAS KATZ (2000), FOOTPRINTS (2003), 37 USES FOR A DEAD SHEEP (2006) and THE MARKET: A TALE OF TRADE (2008).

Synopsis

When down-on-his-luck filmmaker Emil Forester is invited to Karastan for a restrospective of his 2½ films, he jumps at the chance. But Karastan is a far complicated place than he imagined.

Biography

Born 20 February 1943, British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between work for the theatre and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterized by a gritty „kitchen sink realism” style. His well-known films include Life is Sweet (1990), the comedy-drama Career Girls (1997), the Gilbert and Sullivan biopic TopsyTurvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002). His most notable works are arguably Naked (1993) for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the BAFTA-winning (and Oscar-nominated) Palme d'Or winner Secret & Lies (1996) and Golden Lion winner Vera Drake(2004).

Synopsis

 ‘MR. TURNER’ explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851).

Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty.

Biography

After studying drama in the arts institute, Jean Pierre Dardenne and his brother Luc made some videos about the rough life in blue-collar small towns in the Wallonie. After their meeting with filmmaker Armad Gatti and cinematographer Ned Burgess, they decided to enter in the movie business.
In 1978 they shot their first documentary, Le chant du rossignol, about the resistance against the Nazis during the second world war in Belgium. In 1986 they shot their first fiction movie, Falsch, about a Jewish family massacred by the Nazis. After their second movie, Je pense a vous, they released La Promesse, a movie about inmigration in Belgium. The film was a success worldwide winning awards in many festivals.

In 1999 they had another hit with Rosetta, that won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival. The movie tells the story of a blue collar worker with an alcoholic mother who tries to have a better life in a small belgium city.

In 2002, they came back to Cannes with their last movie, Le Fils, that won the ecumenical jury prize and the award for best actor for Olivier Gourmet.

Synopsis

Sandra has only one weekend to visit her colleagues and - with the help of her husband - convince them to sacrifice their bonuses so she can keep her job.

Biography

Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istambul, 1959. After graduating from Engineering Department of Bosphorus University, he studied Film Making for two years at Mimar Sinan University, Istambul. Ceylan’s short film Koza (Cocoon) was screened in the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. He received many awards with his debut feature Kasaba (Small Town) and his second feature Mayis Sikintisi (Clouds of May). His third feature Uzak (Distant) received the Grand Prix and award for Best Actor at Cannes 2003, and was praised internationally. His 2006 film Iklimler (Climates) won the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes in 2006 and received international prize by critics and experts. He won the Awards at Festival de Cannes for his last films – Three Monkeys, Once upon a time in Anatolya, Winter’s Sleep .

Synospsis

Aydin, a former actor, runs a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal with whom he has a stormy relationship and his sister Necla who is suffering from her recent divorce.

In winter as the snow begins to fall, the hotel turns into a shelter but also an inescapable place that fuels their animosities...

Biography

Ken Loach was born in 1936 in Nuneaton. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and went on to study law at St. Peter's Hall, Oxford. After a brief spell in the theatre, Loach was recruited by the BBC in 1963 as a television director.

He grabbed the limelight with the TV play Cathy Come Home (1966) and with his first two features, Poor Cow (1967) and Kes (winner of the Crystal Globe at the 1970 KVIFF). Loach spent the next two decades working in TV and making commercially unsuccessful pictures. The turning point came with Riff-Raff (1990), followed by award-winning titles, including Hidden Agenda (1990), Raining Stones (1993), Land and Freedom (1995), My Name Is Joe (1998), Sweet Sixteen (2002), Ae Fond Kiss (2004), The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), It’s a Free World (2007), Looking for Eric (2009), Route Irish (2010), and The Angels’ Share. Loach’s films have snatched up multiple prizes at various IFF (Cannes, Venice, Berlin) and at Britain’s BAFTA Awards.

SYNOPSIS

In 1921, Jimmy Gralton's sin was to build a dance hall on a rural crossroads in Ireland, where young people could come to learn, to argue, to dream... but above all to dance and have fun. JIMMY'S HALL celebrates the spirit of these free-thinkers.

Biography 

Born in Paris, France, on December 3, 1930, Jean-Luc Godard is one of the central filmmakers of the French New Wave movement of the 1960s. Like his contemporaries François Truffaut and Eric Rohmer, Godard reworked the conventions of Hollywood movies and brought new energy and irreverence to film. His romance-crime movie Breathless (1959) is one of the most influential movies of its era.

Synopsis

The idea is simple: A married woman and a single man meet. They love, they argue, fists fly. A dog strays between town and country. The seasons pass. The man and woman meet again.  The dog finds itself between them. 

The other is in one, the one is in the other and they are three. The former husband shatters everything. 
A second film begins: the same as the first, and yet not. From the human race we pass to metaphor. This ends in barking and a baby's cries. In the meantime, we will have seen people talking of the demise of the dollar, of truth in mathematics and of the death of a robin.  

Biography

Ettore Scola (born 10 May 1931) is an Italian screenwriter and film director. Scola was born in Trevico, province of Avellino (Campania). He entered the film industry as a screenwriter in 1953, and directed his first movie, LET'S TALK ABOUT WOMEN, in 1964. In 1974 Scola enjoyed international success with WE ALL LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH (C’eravamo tanto amati), a wide fresco of post-World War II Italy life and politics, dedicated to fellow director Vittorio De Sica. In 1976 he won the Prix de la mise en scène at Cannes Film Festival for BRUTTI, SPORCHI E CATTIVI. Since then Ettore Scola has made several successful films, including A SPECIAL DAY (1977), THAT NIGHT IN VARENNES (1982), WHAT TIME IS IT? (1989) and CAPTAIN FRACASSA'S JOURNEY (1990). Ettore Scola has directed close to 40 films in some 40 years, and he is still active. His film PASSIONE D'AMORE, adapted from a nineteenth-century novel, was adapted by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine into the award-winning musical Passion. In 1988 he was a member of the jury at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.

Synopsis

Combining memoir, archival photos and footage over re-enactments, this film comes in the 20th anniversary of the death of the legendary cineaste Federico Fellini–the unequalled master filmmaker with his unforgettable films such as Amarcord, 8½, La Dolce Vita. Ettore Scola, a great filmmaker himself, had the privilege of being close friends with him, making his acquaintance in the 1950s, when he was merely 16 years old. How Strange to be Named Federico lovingly narrates this amazing friendship, reminiscing their common friends like Marcello Mastroianni and common places like the Cinecitta Studios.

Biography

Iain Forsyth (b. 1973, Manchester) and Jane Pollard (b. 1972, Newcastle) studied at Goldsmiths College in 1992-95 and have been working together ever since. Their live re-creation A Rock’N’Roll Suicide, inspired by David Bowie’s legendary performance as Ziggy Stardust, was the very first example of what is now a common technique in contemporary art, where highly-charged moments from art history are re-enacted and set in an entirely new context. The film 20,000 Days on Earth is their feature film debut, screened at Sundance and in the Panorama section at this year’s Berlin IFF.

Synopsis

The 20,000th day in the life of Nick Cave begins with his alarm clock going off and ends with a walk on the beach. The inner workings of an immensely creative and multifaceted individual – musician, composer, screenwriter and novelist – are laid bare before the audience in this highly original, poetic and distinctive mosaic. Acted scenes alternate with actual footage within a precisely formulated film structure and it’s up to viewers to decide which of the film’s layers they will be gulled by and which they will see for what they are – Cave’s visit to see a therapist, who turns out to be the respected modern philosopher Alain de Botton; the drives along the Brighton seafront; and the witty snatches of conversation between Cave and his colleagues. Nick Cave turns directly to the camera to share his outlook on life and the world, but primarily his views on songwriting and artistic creativity. For ninety-five minutes the viewer finds himself in the exclusive company of a talented and mesmeric personality.

Petr Lom

PetrLom was born in Prague in 1968, and grew up in Canada. A former academic with a Ph.D in political philosophy from Harvard, he gave up his university career in 2003 to become full-time documentary filmmakerspecializing in human rights subjects. His first film was “Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan” in 2004. “Back to the Square” his latest documentary is set in Egypt and examines the lives of five characters after the revolution.

Corinne van Egeraat

Corinne van Egeraat (1966), Netherlands.  An experimental fimmaker with a background in both theatre and documentary directing, Egeraat has long focused on personal storytelling, with a particular interest in working with artists and the subject of creativity.  Selected filmmaker of the year in Holland in 2004, she has made the several feature documentaries broadcast primarily in the Netherlands and shown in international film festivals: Lord of the Jungle (2000), Cowboys in Kosovo (2004), Speeding on the Virtual Highway ( 2007), Bridging the Gap (2008), and Dislocated, an online documentary project for the broadcaster HUMAN (2009/2010). She has also directed programmes on art for Dutch TV, and teaches documentary film and community based workshops within her The Self-Portrait Video Project.

Lom and Egeraat, partners in private life, have worked together in Egypt since the beginning of 2011.

Synopsis

Four Egyptian young women show their inner worlds in a poetic, intimate and brave way as they search for their own identity and creative voice in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Most of the material is filmed by the characters themselves, who all worked with the film’s directors in a process of collaboration and mentorship over a course of two years. They have found creative ways to express what is hidden within their hearts by speaking of their dreams and desires in an extraordinarily open way and by using metaphors to transform the every-day struggles of their lives into the sublime.

Biography

Lidia Duda makes reportage, films and documentary series. She obtained a degree in Culture Studies from Wrocław University. She has made many films broadcast by the Polish television and directed and written scripts to a number of important documents including Tu wódka jest Bogiem, a wiara nałogiem (2001), Nie zgadzam się na świat, w którym żyją moi bohaterowie (2002), U nas w Pietraszach (2002), Hercules (2004), and documentary series such as Tylko tato and Młode rekiny. Her films have won many festival awards.

Synopsis

Teresa is an 80-year-old Polish woman who likes to travel. She hitchhikes wherever the winds of fate take her, and along the way she encounters all sorts of people in many different cultures. A language barrier doesn't exist for this extrovert senior in sprightly good health. She gets by with some German, a little "brushed up" Russian, a few words of English, sign language, or simply intuition. This leads to lovely conversations, with each person talking in his or her own language. But these journeys are not the reason for the camera to be following this spirited character. It's something too painful for her to explain herself. Her husband explains what drove her away, and the film alternates scenes of her encounters with her life at home, revealing a tragedy and the anatomy of an unconventional marriage.

Biography

Gia Diasamidze was born in Batumi in 1971. In 1985-1989 he studied at the Batumi Maritime Academy. In 1990-1994 - at the Tbilisi Independent University, at the faculty of Diplomacy. In 2002-2004 he studied in moscow, at the russian state film institute, faculty of directing. In 2004 he funded studio MIFASI film. he shot several documentaries, including World Peace Dance, The Star (short film), Insight (International film festival BIAFF-2010, special prize of the jury), Adila (Lvov international film festival, "KINOLEV" - best documentary and special prize of the jury). 

Synopsis

Film is about the authentic traditions of Adjara dance. Eldest Adjara dancers show their original moves and tell about the origins of dances. film shows us Adjara's way of life and traditions. 

Biography

Teodora Ana Mihai (b. 1981, Bucharest) left her native Romania for Belgium in 1989 to rejoin her parents, who had left the seven-year-old behind a year earlier to emigrate. Some years later she was given the opportunity to study in the United States, and she graduated from a San Francisco high school. She also attended her first film workshops in the Bay Area, gradually developing her relationship to filmmaking. After returning to Belgium she worked at scriptwriting and as an assistant director; for television she cooperated on the program “Man Bijt Hond,” among others. Recently, she has concentrated on her own projects. She cowrote the script for the feature Little Lies and she directs documentaries. This year she debuted with the feature-length doc Waiting for August, which draws on her own experiences as a child left alone. At present Mihai is at work on The Disposables, a film about children orphaned by the Mexican drug war.

Synopsis

A grim atemporality has infiltrated the lives of seven Romanian siblings. Their mother has gone to work in Italy, and the responsibility for caring for the household is placed entirely with 15-year-old Georgiana. The girl doesn’t lack determination but in the coming months she will have to contend with her brothers’ and sisters’ complicated personalities, as well as with the personal weaknesses lying in wait for her during this premature test of adulthood. The subject matter was inspired by the debuting director’s own childhood: her parents left her in communist Romania for an entire year as they sought asylum in Belgium. She focuses, in her intimate and sensitive motion picture, on the limited possibilities of the plot situations, surprising the viewer with the wide range of emotions she is able to record. With a flair for detail and atmosphere, she poetically portrays both the specific lives and a more general story about Romania today where families are affected by economic rather, than political, issues.

Biography

Sergei Loznitsa was born on September, 5th 1964 in Baranovichi (Belarus, former USSR). He grew up in Kiev, and in 1987 graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In 1987-1991 he worked as a scientist at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, specializing in artificial intelligence research. He also worked as a translator from Japanese. In 1997 he graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), where he studied feature filmmaking. Sergei Loznitsa has been making documentary films since 1996, and he has directed 11 documentaries. He has received numerous international and national awards, including festival prizes in Karlovy Vary, Leipzig, Oberhausen, Paris, Madrid, Toronto, Jerusalem, St-Petersburg, as well as the Russian National Film awards “Nika” and “Laurel Loznitsa’s feature debut “My Joy” (2010) premiered in the main competition at the Festival de Cannes and his second feature, «In the Fog” (2012), was awarded with the FIPRESCI prize.

Synopsis

MAIDAN chronicles the civil uprising against the regime of president Yanukovych that took place in Kiev (Ukraine) in the winter of 2013/14.  The film follows the progress of the revolution: from peaceful rallies, half a million strong, in the Maidan square, to the bloody street battles between protestors and riot police. MAIDAN is a portrait of an awakening nation, rediscovering its identity.

Biography

Heilika Pikkov (b. 1982) studied film and television directing in Tallinn University and spent a semester at the University of Central Lancashire in UK. In 2005, she worked for a few months in a small TV station in Israel and directed her first documentary Cherubs‘ Revolt, which was screened on Estonian Television and at several festivals. Since then, she has been deeply in love with documentaries and has worked as a freelance filmmaker (directing, filming, editing), co-operating with different Estonian film production companies. Besides making documentary films Heilika is also internationally well-known animation curator. For 8 years she was the manager and programmer of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival‘s animation festival Animated Dreams.

Synopsis 

Right alongside Jerusalem, in a Russian Orthodox Convent in Mount of Olives, lives the 82 year-old Estonian nun Mother Ksenya. Although inside the convent’s cement walls the clock is never set and life still follows the Julius calendar, the 20 years that Mother Ksenya has spent there have passed by in a flash. In the hierarchy of the nunnery she has now achieved the second-to-last level. She is heading towards complete silence, the Great Schema.

Biography

Olli Waldhauer lives and works in Cologne and Tel Aviv. He has been directing and producing commercials, music videos, and documentary films for 13 years. His 2012 documentary portrait of a world-renowned oncologist was an international success. Waldhauer’s work is focused on contemporary society, music, and football. He always tries to get as close as possible to his subjects while presenting a visually powerful story. He has been a die-hard football fan for many years. stanbul United is his feature-length documentary debut. Farid Eslam, originally from Frankfurt, lives and works in Prague, where he graduated from FAMU. He, too, has had a lot of experience working on commercials, award-winning videos, and documentaries which have taken him around Europe and the Middle East. He is currently planning his second feature-length documentary,Yallah! Underground, about underground Arab culture.

Synopsis

Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, and Beşiktaş – the three biggest football clubs in Istanbul, rivals come hell or high water. The fans of each team are united by a boundless love for their home club and an indescribably rancorous hatred toward the other two. But last year’s mass demonstrations in Turkey disrupted the normal routine. After the brutal police crackdown, the original disagreement with the renovation of Taksim Square grew into a nationwide statement of opposition to the direction the country was headed in. When the time came for the greatest courage, the core of the three irreconcilable fan clubs stood at the head of the march. The moving audiovisual component places us in the midst of tumultuous street scenes that create a striking parallel to the abrasive atmosphere of Turkish football stadiums. Moreover, this highly emotive documentary contemplates the mentality of Turks and football ultras, also demonstrating how quickly a fervent desire for open protests can evaporate.

Biography

Born in 1973 in Lucerne, Switzerland. 1993-98 Attends ZHdK (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste), Film and Video Department. 1998 Receives degree from ZHdK. Receives numerous awards for “Hotel Belgrad” and “Yugodivas”. 2006 Awarded Golden Leopard in Locarno for “Das Fräulein”. 2007 Swiss Film Award, Best Screenplay for “Das Fräulein”. 2007 Cofounds Okofilm Productions together with director and producer Thomas Imbach. Member of the European Film Academy.

Synopsis

Siege of Dubrovnik. 14-year-old Linda has moved back to Croatia from Switzerland with her father. Her new best friend Eta takes her up to the forbidden forest above the city. The two girls become entangled in an obsessive, sexually charged game of swapping identities that leads to a fatal fall. The following morning Linda comes back alone; slowly she begins to take Eta’s place in her family. Ivo, Eta‘s boyfriend, is drawn in as well. In troubled times dominated by women and the losses they have suffered in the war, Linda threatens to lose her footing, becoming entrapped in another world on the edge, a world in which Eta keeps coming back to confront her with herself.

Biography

Tinatin Kajrishvili graduated from Georgia's State Theatre and Film University in 2001 as a film director and made several shorts before continuing her studies as a producer at the IFASC* and EAVE workshops. Since then, Tinatin has produced more shorts and documentaries and co-produced the feature film PARAJANOV. This year saw the world premiere at the Berlinale's Panorama of her directorial debut BRIDES which she also produced. Tinatin is now developing the black comedy ONE WAY TICKET as her second feature.

Synopsis

In the suburbs of Tbilisi, Georgia, seamstress Nutsa shares an apartment with her two young children and awaits the return of her lover, Goga, who has six years left on his prison sentence. Following a surreal wedding ceremony in the confines of the prison, the couple is only afforded rare visits and phone calls to keep their relationship alive. Confronted with the prospect of raising her children alone, Nutsa faces difficult decisions about her life and livelihood. Should she keep her family together or maintain her own freedom?

Biography

Director, writer, and producer Huseyin Karabey was born in 1970 to a Kurdish family and studied at Uludağ University and Marmara University. After making over a half dozen documentary films from the 1990s through the 2000s, he made his first feature, MY MARLON AND BRANDO (2008). The film premiered at Rotterdam, won the prize for Best New Narrative Filmmaker at Tribeca, and earned him praise as a director to watch.

Synopsis

In a remote Kurdish village in the mountains little Jiyan is worried about her father who has been arrested by the Turkish police as a suspected guerilla. He will only be released when his family surrenders his gun. The problem is: he has never possessed one. And so Jiyan’s grandmother Berfé has no choice but to set off in search of a weapon. A long march on foot leads Berfé and Jiyan through breathtakingly beautiful mountains to their relatives and beyond, into the unknown. On their journey Berfé displays courage and tenacity and Jiyan learns what it takes to survive in the adult world. With remarkable serenity the film depicts a life in which being subjected to sanctions and humiliating controls is almost a daily occurrence. Yet warmth and quiet humour also pervades this intricate odyssey. Grandmother and grandchild meet traditional storytellers and become a part of their narratives as well as themselves contributing to the poetic weave of this multi-layered film.

Biography

Lenny Abrahamson (b. 1966, Dublin, Ireland) began making short video films for Trinity Video Society, the production company he cofounded while studying physics and philosophy at Trinity College Dublin; he graduated with honors in 1991. He has shot numerous commercials both in Ireland and the UK. In 2004 his feature debut Adam & Paul earned Best Debut at the Galway Film Fleadh and, a year later, the Grand Prix at the Sofia IFF. In 2007 he followed it up with Garage, screened in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes IFF and awarded a number of Irish film and television prizes. The film What Richard Did was included in the program of the 2012 Toronto IFF.  

Synopsis

This untraditional, stylistically bold tragicomedy follows an eager yet untalented musician named Jon, who, in his attempt to extricate himself from his small-town life and everyday work routine, joins the alternative music group The Soronprfbs. The unpronounceable band is organized by the eccentric, talented, and unstable Frank, a musical genius who hides behind an enormous papier-mâché head that he never takes off. Although the weekend gig Jon signed up for results in permanent band membership, and despite the ill will of the other band members and even the loss of all his money, Jon sticks with the band. This playful movie was freely inspired by the life of cult musician Frank Sidebottom (comic legend Chris Sievey) and by Daniel Johnston and Captain Beefheart, other music-world outsiders. The director pays tribute to them all, as does the excellent Michael Fassbender in the role of Frank. The film premiered at   Sundance IFF in 2014

Biography

Born 1953, Katowice, Poland. Lech Majevski is a film and stage director, screenwriter and author, and is regarded as a leading filmmaker of our time. In 2006 the Museum of Modern Art in New York organized a major retrospective of his work; Majewski was the first Polish artist to be honored in this way. He began as a film director at the end of the 1970s. After martial law was declared in the early 80s, he left his native Poland and emigrated to England and subsequently to the USA. He became celebrated not only as a filmmaker but also as an important opera director. He received considerable critical acclaim for The Garden of Earthly Delights (2004), which took away the Grand Prix from the Roma Independent Film Festival. Other more recent films include Wojaczek (1999), Angelus (2000) andGlass Lips (2007)

Synopsis

Father ploughs a supermarket with oxen, the plough ripping the tiles. A forest full of dead and Niagara falling onto a cathedral altar. These are the visions of Adam, a poet who ha lost his beloved in a car crash. A national tragedy imposes on a personal one. It is 2010, a Biblical year for Poland with floods, fires, landslides and the catastrophe of the presidential plane being torn apart i mysterious circumstances along with the nations elite. Adam gives up his job as professor of literature to work at a supermarket checkout. Yet all he wants is to sleep, escaping from the painful reality.

Biography

Ritesh Batra created a world sensation in 2013 with his wonderful The Lunchbox (2013), a bittersweet romantic comedy as well as a sensitive portrait of the city of Mumbai, torn between tradition and progress. Loved by all and everywhere on the planet, "Dabba" is strikingly the young director's first feature film. A great start for Batra, which augurs well for his career to come. Born in Mumbai in 1979 and raised there, Mr. Batra moved to New York where he studied cinema. Before his now famous "Dabba", he tried his hand at making shorts which were shown in many an international film festival. His latest to date,Café Regular, Cairo (2012) earned him the International Film Critics Association Award (FIPRESCI) and received special mentions from the jury at the Chicago and Tribeca Film Festivals. In 2009 his project then titled "Story of Ram" was selected by the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab later to bloom into "Dabba" (The Lunchbox). After shooting the film, Batra chose to stay in Mumbai with his wife Claudia. In 2013, he was working on a series of shorts and on "The Photograph", his next feature.

Synopsis

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system (Mumbai's Dabbawallahs) connects a young housewife to a stranger in the dusk of his life. They build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.

Biography

György Pálfi was born in 1974, Budapest, Hungary. He is a film director and screenwriter who, from the outset of his career, was hailed the great promise of contemporary Hungarian cinema, owing to his unique and bold style.  

His debut feature-length film, Hukkle (2002); a film that is almost entirely devoid of dialogue has earned over 20 international awards, including European Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards and Best New Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. His second feature film, Taxidermia (2006), which showcased a bizarre, original script alongside a breathtaking aesthetic, was screened in over forty international festivals, where it received scores of awards, including Best European Film Project at the Sundance Film Festival. Pálfi next went on to make I Am Not Your Friend (2009), a docu-feature film based entirely on improvisations by a cast of amateur actors and Pálfi himself, earning him a special award during Hungarian Film Week.

Synopsis

“What tea do you want? We’ve got some mint tea,” an old woman mutters to her apathetic husband, with whom she shares her cluttered home. She then goes up to the roof of her apartment block, from where she surveys the evening skyline over smog-veiled Budapest. And she jumps. We catch a fleeting glimpse of the other flats as the woman plunges past their windows – but we’ll be seeing them again, one after the other, long enough to put a name to the “diagnosis” which shapes their inhabitants, all of whom are – regrettably, it has to be said – typical models of modern society. While given clear distinctions, the stories present numerous parallels. Seen in grotesque hyperbole, we are presented with a mockery of idle messianism and indifference – a spit in the face of hypocrisy. This highly imaginative, fine-tuned and, at the same time, unassuming film comes up with provocative ideas, while nothing about it would superficially cause the least offence. Sometimes not even jumping off a roof will do any good.

Biography

Mohammad Rasoulof born 1972, is an Iranian independent filmmaker. He studied sociology. In 2010 Rasoulof was arrested by security service on set. He was sentenced by the government of Iran to six years in prison. This was later reduced to one year. Right now he is out on bail, and is waiting for the sentence to be carried out. In september 2013, once again he was held by the government in Iran, due to his film Manuscripts Don't Burn.

Synopsis

Clandestinely produced in disavowal of a 20-year filmmaking ban passed down by the Iranian authorities, the scathing Manuscripts Don't Burn brings a whole new level of clarity and audacity to Mohommad Rasoulof's already laudable career. Drawing from the true story of the government's attempted 1995 murder of several prominent writers and intellectuals, Rasoulof imagines a repressive regime so pervasive that even the morally righteous are subsumed or cast aside. A lacerating and slow-burning thriller filmed in a frigid palate of blues and greys, Manuscripts Don't Burn is perhaps the most subversive and incendiary j'accuse lodged against an authoritarian regime since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Biography

Ivan I. Tverdovsky (b. 1988, Moscow) graduated from Moscow’s Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK, 2011). His documentaries have earned accolades at Russian and international festivals, among them As If Waiting for a Bus (short doc., 2009), Pianism (doc., 2012), and Space Dog (short doc., 2013). He holds the job of curator of short Russian films at the Moscow IFF. Corrections Class, inspired by the novel of the same name by psychologist Ekaterina Murashova, is his feature debut.

Synopsis

Lena is a bright, disabled girl who, after years spent studying at home, is keen to get back to school. She is assigned to a special class for disabled pupils who have to present themselves before a school commission at the end of the year in order to prove that they merit being moved back into a “normal” class. Her enervated teachers, however, show absolutely no desire to motivate the students and help them improve; on the contrary, they try to quash right from the start any interest Lena shows in more complex study material. Nevertheless, Lena soon involves herself in the school routine and gets together with classmate Anton. Yet their transparent happiness isn’t to everyone’s liking and repercussions soon follow. Adopting a documentary perspective, young debut director Ivan I. Tverdovsky avoids embellishment to unfold an entirely credible drama portraying the unequal struggle of the individual in the face of institutional torpor, human prejudice and a society that tries to trip up people who are different.

Biography

Luis Miñarro (b. 1949, Barcelona) from 1980 worked as a film critic and shot commercials. In 1995 he founded the production company Eddie Saeta S. A., and since that time he has helped a number of directors make movies which have found their way to international festivals. His company has supported works by Albert Serra, Marc Recha, José Luis Guerín, Lisandro Alonso and Manoel de Oliveira. KVIFF has shown various films which he produced: Fuente Álamo (2001), Butterfly (2007), In the City of Sylvia (2008) and The Mosquito Net, which won the Crystal Globe in 2010. Karlovy Vary also screened his feature documentary debut Familystrip (2009). After two documentaries, he returns to Vary with the feature film Falling Star, which competed in Rotterdam this year.

Synopsis

Few people are aware that, in the last third of the 19th century, the Spanish throne was briefly occupied by Amadeo of Savoy, an Italian duke. This episode from Spanish history provided Catalan producer Luis Miñarro with the theme for his first foray into feature film. Far from attempting a realistic assessment of the historical contexts, the filmmaker presents the situation of a man filled with good intentions to further Spain’s prosperity, yet the struggles of various groups to gain power for themselves prevented him from actually governing. This surrealistic film, fully reflecting the artistic and musical tastes of its director, could be taken as a study of a helpless man who lacks sufficient strength of will to be able to summon respect in a foreign environment. Luis Miñarro endeavoured to reveal the humanity of a sovereign who was unable to rule, or was perhaps incapable of doing so, yet he also captured elements of Spain’s heterogeneity that endure to this day.

Synopsis

Invisible Spaces is an intimate glimpse into the world where family hierarchy, religion and the place of the woman are uncontested. The film asks us to shift our wandering gaze on the faces we tend to overlook and the voices we so often opt to shut out of our experience of the “modern” society.

Biography

Dea Kulumbegashvili was born and raised in Georgia. She grew up in the remote Caucasus Mountains, in the small town of Lagodekhi. Her upbringing in this historic melting pot of various cultures and nationalities is a primary influence in her vision as a filmmaker.

Biography

Born in Batumi, Georgia in 1979. 2000 – 2004 Batumi Art Institute, Faculty of Television Directing, ZazaKhalvashi’s Class and 2004 – 2007ShotaRustaveli Theater and Film Georgian State University, Faculty of Film Directing, RezoEsadze’s Class..

Synopsis

This film evolves around a mother and a son and their day on May 17, 2013. The story starts in the morning, when a woman discovers her son wearing her red dress.

Biography

Amiran Dolidze was born in 1987 in Tbilisi. In 2009 he graduated from Film and TV Direction Department of the University of Theatre and Cinema of Georgia majoring in direction of clips and commercials. In 2011 he graduated from the University of Theatre and Cinema with a masters in Scriptwriting.

Synopsis

The documentary is about Irakli who fled Georgia during the 1990s due to an insecure and unappreciated future lying ahead of him as an artist in his home country. Irakli represents an artist with an uncompromising character and in this documentary we follow his story told by himself.

Biography

Giorgi Varsimashvili was born in 1986 in Tbilisi. Graduated: Paris 8 University film direction faculty (License and Master degrees), ESRA Paris. He has shoot 3 short films.

Synopsis

One deaf man looks for a girl, who is supposed to work as a prostitute somewhere in Tbilisi.

Biography

Giorgi Kavtaradze was born in 1990, Tbilisi, Georgia. In 2009 he won admission to Shota Rustaveli Theater and Film Georgian State University (Class of Levan Kitia). Giorgi Kavtaradze shot 4 short films.

Synopsis

The Movie is about people and about the communication problems between them. After the death of a granny, grandfather and grandson are left alone. Grandson blames himself in grandmothers death, meanwhile grandfather is waiting for some action from the grandson.

Biogrpahy 

Born in 1988, in İzmir, Selin Güngör is a final-grade student (4.year) of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Fine Arts Faculty, Department of Cinema-Tv. As part of her university training, she directed and written two short films as school projects. One of them is “Letter of Love” and “The Game of Love”.  

Synopsis

A story about a young woman, who immigrated from Georgia to İstanbul through illegal ways and works in a textile workshop. She struggles, but manages to keep her humanity in every situation she encounters in her struggle. Finally she risks her life during one of the situations and becames a hero, but eventually gets sent back to her country.

Biography 

Diana Kardumyan was born in NagornoKarabakh. She moved to Armenia with her parents in 1992. She has studied film directing at the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinematography. She has participated in different film festivals, workshops, and master classes.  She was a jury member for «ReAnimania» (2011) and «One Minute, One Shot» (2012), «WebApricot» (2014) festivals, she also worked as the pre-selection jury at the «Golden Apricot» (2011, 2014) and «ReAnimania» (2010, 2013) international festivals.

Synopsis

Yerevan turns beautiful when under its nocturnal embrace, two lovers meet once again. What difference can a single cool summer night, a brief encounter, an incomplete conversation bring to their lives...? Conversations: happy, accusatory, saddening, full of memories and an inexplicable emptiness which can't be filled with any words.

Biography 

Nikon Romanchenko was born in Kiev. He graduated from the Kiev National University of Theatre and Cinema and TV. Loves to travel and shoot.

Synopsis 

Scenes from Kiev Maidan fixed between November 2013 and February 2014.A collective portrait of the people who came to the Maidan to protest against the dictatorship .Faceless crowd here has specific faces of those who fight for dignity.

Biography

Masha Kondakova is a 25 years old writer/director born in Kiev and currently living in Paris. In 2012 she graduated from The Ukrainian National University of Theatre, Cinema and TV. During her studies, she played the main role in a tv series and worked as an assistant director in numerous commercials, short-films and feature films.

Synopsis  

A lonely 40 years old woman meets a man in the wood near the building where she works as a caretaker. They spend the night together. Early in the morning the police knocks at her door. They just found a dead body in the woods...

Biography

Tatiana Dubickaia is studying at State Art Academy of Belorussia on facluty of  Film & TV.  She gained second place at Moscow International Film Festival among the film schools of the world «Telemania» for her film «My Love will save me».

Synopsis 

 A psychological drama about the fate of the retired officer experiencing war trauma, about the role of love in a person's life and age-related complexes. The main character wants to forget the past and to return the lost youth.

Biography

Born in Yaroslavl in 1976, graduated from the Yaroslavl State Theatre Institute. Since 2000, he has been working for Yaroslavl Youth Theatre and has staged a huge number of plays, both for children and adults. Sergey is well known for directing TV series and sitcoms, and “The Last One” marks his feature film debut. Sergey used his grandfather, a World War II veteran, as inspiration for the protagonist.

Synopsis

The old man had outlived everyone. His friends, his wife, his children... But he wasn't lonely. A dilapidated old fridge buzzed in the corridor. The old man couldn’t remember the last time he’d spoken to anyone. Every evening, he lay down to die.

Every morning when he woke up, he would shuffle to the fridge. That day started as usual. The old man woke up alive, and headed to the terrace. But this time, the fridge was dead...

Synopsis

Aïssa is Congolese and is presently residing illegally on French territory. She claims to be a minor however the authorities believe she is over 18. In order to establish whether or not she can remain in the country a doctor must give her a physical examination.

Biography

Marjan Riahi studied Cinema Directing at Iranian Young Cinema Society. Founder & Manager of Short Film News, the first news network on short films and documentaries in Iran & Asia. She’s participated in numerous film festivals as a jury.

Synopsis

In the heart of Tehran, a community of female ninjas is kicking butt and changing lives. Led by the charismatic Khatereh, these martial arts enthusiasts teach young girls how to twirl nunchucks, launch dropkicks and break the bonds of their patriarchal society. With its eye-popping fight scenes and intimate character portraits.

Biography

DomenicoModafferi began his career doing amateur short-movies in Reggio Calabria. He  graduated in modern literature at Messina’s University. He has realized many works as a screenwriter (his “Chameni” won the first prize at RIFF 2014 for the best screenplay), as a director (“GULP!”, third prize at “Corti di Memoria” 2012; “A normal story”, special prize at “Golden Elephant World” 2013) and as assistant director.

Synopsis

A young girl is sitting on the parapet of a building’s roof, intending to commit suicide. Suddenly an odd  long-winded old man burst into the terrace: he is blind and don’t understand how much dramatic the situation is! During this fun and ambiguous dialogue something, in both characters, will change…

Biography

Marissa Viani Serrano was born in Mexico City. She studied Philosophy at the UNAM and Filmmaking at Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC). As director she has madefictional, documentary and experimental short films. Herwork includes video installations, performances, plays and interdisciplinary pieces. She acquired different art residencies such as EMAN /EMARE in Bourges, France and TAIR in Singapore.

Synopsis

After a silent retreat, Daniel, a young seminarian, begins to have sexual fantasies with a woman. The upper Father, seeing his religious estrangement, sends him to do a task. Daniel arrives to a mysterious house where he finds the woman of his fantasies and his sexual desireis so strong that the boundaries between good and evil cease to exist.

Biography

David Bagaric, 32 years old. Writer, director and editor of over 50 short films  from Croatia.

Synopsis

Adrenaline is a strange short film that shows rush in a unique way.

Biography 

RuiFalcão, born 1989, is a Portuguese filmmaker. He graduated in 2010 from Lisbon Theatre and Film School (ESTC), where he studied Film, and in 2013 he achieves a master's degree in Film Directing at Oporto School of Arts (ESAP). Ruim made his first fiction short film "Balança”, 2013, as his graduation film.

Synopsis

Down at "Balança", a fetish-bar with copious amounts of food and debauchery where the admission is exclusive to patrons of substantial sizes, a young, overweight man looks for company of the female persuasion.

Biography

Hu Wei was born in China, Beijing, in 1983, but is based in France. He lives and works between Beijing and Paris.Filmmaker and visual artist, he followed several courses in these arts, successively in Chinaand France, in particular at LA FEMIS, in the National School of fine arts in Paris, and in LEFRESNOY.

Synopsis

A young photographer and his assistant suggest to Tibetan nomads to photograph  them. On diverse and more or less exotic backgrounds, families appear to the photographer. Through these shots, the photographer will weave unique links with each of the various villagers.

Biography

Born in Cairo, in 1991. Egyptian/Swiss nationality. He graduated from an American College in Cairo in 2009. He then completed a short school of digital filmmaking in the U.S before being admitted in the University of Arts and Design of Lausanne in the Cinema section in 2010. Discipline is his diploma film.

Synopsis 

It’s 9:30pm in a grocery store in Lausanne, Switzerland. The place is run by Egyptians. In a moment of anger, a father loses patience and disciplines his disobedient child. A shocked customer immediately intervenes to express her concern. This discussion turns into a debate, which into quarrel. The situation gradually gets out of hand and into chaos…

Biography 

Isvtán Borsody works as an editor-reporter at the tv channel RTL Klub for 14 years. In addition to  television works he wrote and directed advertisements and reference films.  

Synopsis 

The experimental short film portrays the life from the perspective of a hand. We see the happy moments and the conflicts of daily life. The touching movie tries to draw attention to the importance and beauty of the small, everyday events in life, supposed to be insignificants.

Biography

Alexis Barbosa is a French actor and director. After studying theatre at high-school, he trained as an actor in Paris. He has also acted in many short films. He studied at the national theatre school ENSATT, in Lyon. In 2013, he studied cinema at University Paris 1 and directed Mona in colaboration with LA FEMIS.

Synopsis

Gary, a robotics engineer, has developed a domestic android named MONA. He brings the humanoid robot home to carry out some tests. How will Gary's wife Marie react?

Biography

Ruth Paxton is an impassioned Scottish filmmaker and visual artist. In 2007, she graduated with an MA in Film and Television from Screen Academy Scotland, having gained her honours degree at Edinburgh College of Art.  Her films are bold and powerful and she has a unique way of visualizing, stylizing and capturing the intimacy and complexity of people and their stories. 

Synopsis

Commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, PULSE brings together Grammy-nominated British/Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova and Scottish film-maker Ruth Paxton to create a new score and film for the PRS for Music Foundation’s New Music Biennial in 2014. PULSE is a noir-like expressionistic short about peril, rescue and the basic human need to connect. Two strangers share a brief yet profound exchange that evokes sympathy, understanding, recognition and hope.

Biography

Daniel Jewel took degrees in modern history from Oxford and Bristol University and has worked as a producer and director for his own production house, Third Man Films. Among his producing credits: ALLEGIANCE (2005) and Sidney Turtlebaum (2009). His Drone was in competition at the 2013 MWFF.

Synopsis 

The Secret World of Foley', takes us on a journey into the little known world of Foley Artists, who bring films to life by adding sound effects and as we watch them work it becomes a film about the magic and wonder of Cinema itself.

Biography

Saul Cantero is a filmmaker graduate in Audiovisual Arts Degree by the Image and Sound Department of the University of Guadalajara. He has served as an editor and sound designer, in Film, TV & Advertising, part of the winning team of the Mexican Ariel Award for Best Sound Design for the film "KM 31". He is currently involved in creating documentaries and films in both Mexico and the United States.

Synopsis

Javier is a street artist who presents a show of ventriloquism with his best and only friend, Chuy, a wooden dummy. who chose not to speak again, causing the show and his friendship with Javier gets tough. Then one afternoon, a mysterious guitar player who they considered their rival, changes their lives in unexpected ways, making them reflect on their friendship and life itself.

Biography 

Nazan Kesal completed her primary, secondary, and high school education in Manisa/Salihli. She worked for private theatre companies in Istanbul. She played parts in TV series, TV films (short and feature), and commercials. Having completed her Postgraduate Education in Beykent University Cinema Department, Nazan Kesal presently lives in Istanbul, is married and mother of one child.  

Synopsis 

This is a house situated in the center of but never have been recognized by the city. In the house, a young woman with one child is trying to continue her life under the impositions of mores, pudicity, and other sorts of social assertiveness. Young woman is laying the groundwork for a radical decision after a violent beating she was subject to recently.

Biography

George Ovashvili (b. 1963, Georgia) studied at the Georgian State Institute of Film and Theatre (1996) and at the Hollywood branch of the New York Film Academy (2006). He is involved both in documentary and feature film work, which he frequently also produces himself. He has made several remarkable short films, with Eye Level (Mzeris Doneze) winning awards at Berlin and Odense in 2005. In 2009 KVIFF’s East of the West competition section screened his feature debut The Other Bank (Gagma Napiri, 2008), which garnered around fifty awards and was nominated for the European Film Academy’s European Discovery of the Year.

Synopsis

Corn Island" is a psychological drama. The action in the film takes place at the natural border of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict – the Enguri River. The spring floods create a small island in the middle of the river, where an old peasant grows corn. Later a Georgian border policeman comes to the island and changes the seemingly ideal life of the old peasant and his 16-year old granddaughter.