09/10/2009

Kicking off today, this year’s edition of the Warsaw Film Festival is a special one. The event is celebrating its 25th anniversary and has also risen a level in the hierarchy of international festivals.

Warsaw has indeed become affiliated by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) to the select group of 12 major competitive film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Shanghai and Tokyo.

From October 9-18, the 25th Warsaw Film Festival (WFF) will present 150 features and over 100 shorts from 57 countries.

There will be a special focus on animated films, reflecting the growing interest in this genre in contemporary cinema. Two such works will open the festival: Swedish director Tarik Saleh’s debut feature Metropia [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a futuristic study of totalitarianism (unveiled in Venice: see review); and Iza Plucińska’s Polish title Esterhazy, which traces the life story of a descendant of the famous Vienna dynasty, set against the backdrop of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The festival line-up includes five competitions and three non-competitive sections. With a jury presided by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, the international competition comprises 17 films and is dominated by European productions. These include two Polish films (Wojciech Smarzowski’s The Dark House and Robert Gliński’s Piggies [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), and Polish director Urszula Antoniak’s Dutch/Irish co-production Nothing Personal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Urszula Antoniak
interview: Urszula Antoniak
film profile].

Also vying for honours are Austrian director Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jessica Hausner
film profile], Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam’s The Last Days of Emma Blank [+see also:
interview: The Last Days of Emma Blank…
film profile], collective Romanian film Tales From The Golden Age [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Damjan Kozole’s Slovenian Girl [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Miika Soini’s Finnish film Thomas [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and Norwegian director Sara Johnsen’s Upperdog [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The One-Two Competition aims to promote young directors presenting their first or second features, while the Free Spirit Competition includes independent, even subversive, titles that are difficult to categorise. There are two other competitive sections, for documentaries and shorts.

Non-competitive sections include Master's Touch, Discoveries and Family Cinema Days. Meanwhile, film professionals will gather at the CentEast Market (see news).

(Translated from French)