20/10/2010

Partly unveiled yesterday evening in Paris, the line-up for the 2nd Les Arcs European Film Festival (December 11-18, 2010) offers a high-quality panorama of current European production.

Frédéric Boyer (also delegate general of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight) has already chosen nine of the 12 feature film contenders for the Crystal Arrow 2010, which will be awarded by a jury headed by Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg and comprising, among others, actress Connie Nielsen, French novelist Philippe Djian and Belgian actor Jonathan Zaccaï.

Titles in competition include Brit director Peter Mullan’s Neds [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Golden Shell-winner at San Sebastian – see review); Adrienn Pal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnes Kocsis, director of P…
film profile] by Hungary’s Agnes Kocsis (FIPRESCI Prize-winner in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes 2010 – see video interview and review); Spanish director Iciar Bollain’s Even The Rain [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Icíar Bollaín
film profile] (Spanish hopeful for the 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar – see news); and animated film Chico & Rita by fellow Spaniard Fernando Trueba.

Also vying for honours are A Somewhat Gentle Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hans Petter Moland
film profile] by Norway’s Hans Petter Moland; R [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Danish duo Michael Noer and Tobias Lindholm (see video interview); Belgian helmer Hans van Nuffel’s Oxygen [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (winner of the Grand Prize of the Americas at Montreal – see news); The Edge [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Russia’s Aleksei Uchitel; and Oleg Novkovic’s Serbian/German/Swedish co-production White White World: The Miner’s Opera [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Best Actress Award at Locarno).

Les Arcs will also present a Focus on Denmark including Janus Metz’s sensational documentary Armadillo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janus Metz, director of Arm…
film profile] (Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Cannes 2010). Metz will be in attendance at the Alpine resort, as will Paprika Steen, Stellan Skarsgard, Ulrich Thomsen, Christoffer Boe, Simon Jul Jorgensen and Nicolaj Lie Kaas.

Programme highlights also include a panorama of seven features unreleased in France , among which All That I Love [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Poland’s Jacek Borcuch (see video interview); The Albanian [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nik Xhelilaj - Albania
film profile] by Germany’s Johannes Naber; Videocracy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Italian-Swedish director Eric Gandini (see video interview); and Devil’s Town by Serbia’s Vladimir Paskaljevic.

Finally, Les Arcs will also host professional events like the Co-production Village (including a conference on the distribution of Olivier Assayas’s Carlos [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and another on the financing of Lars von Trier’s Melancholia) and DIRE Days.

(Translated from French)