16/10/2024 - The leading Latvian film gathering is poised to begin, showcasing new national productions, hosting industry events and screening a raft of favourites from the festival circuit

The Riga International Film Festival (17-27 October) begins tomorrow, with the event based in Latvia’s capital promising a feast of films alongside a raft of industry offerings. Audiences will get the opportunity to discover new works from local talents as well as indulge in some of the latest festival hits, whilst industry guests will be afforded a number of events at which they can unearth new leading lights in cinema.

The centrepiece will be the RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition, with ten striking and diverse films from the Baltic Sea region and the Scandinavian countries. The selection will include world premieres of documentaries from the leading lights of Latvian filmmaking. Māra Maskalāns will unveil The End, a nature-based documentary about life and death, while doyenne of Latvian documentary Laila Pakalniņa will show off Termini [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laila Pakalnina
film profile], which pays tribute to the final destinations of the streetcars of Riga and praises public transport as a home amongst strangers. Other Baltic films in competition include Lithuania’s Toxic [+see also:
film review
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interview: Directors Talks @ European …
interview: Saulė Bliuvaitė
film profile], Saulė Bliuvaitė’s movie that recently won the Golden Leopard at Locarno, and Drowning Dry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurynas Bareiša
film profile], which also garnered Locarno plaudits, with a Best Director gong for Laurynas Bareiša. 8 Views of Lake Biwa [+see also:
film review
film profile] from Marko Raat will represent Estonia.

Other pictures in competition include the Ukrainian documentary Songs of Slow Burning Earth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olha Zhurba
film profile], fresh from its world premiere at Venice, and Magnus van Horn’s hopeful for the Palme d’Or The Girl With the Needle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Besir Zeciri
interview: Directors Talks @ European …
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile]. The festival’s Short Film Competition, meanwhile, will see one film garner the European Film Awards candidacy for nomination for Best European Short.

Out of competition, there’s a surfeit of festival favourites, such as Andrea Arnold’s Bird [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door [+see also:
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film profile] and The Second Act [+see also:
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film profile] by Quentin Dupieux, while movies such as Lukas Moodysson’s Together 99 [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] and Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks [+see also:
film review
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interview: Elín Hall
interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile] will make up a selection of Nordic Highlights.

The focus on German cinema will include a newly restored version of Wim Wenders’ classic road movie Paris, Texas, while a retrospective will also be afforded to legendary Czech animator and surrealist Jan Švankmajer.

For attending industry delegates, the third edition of the Riga IFF Showcase co-production market will be made up of eight features and eight series from the Baltics and Eastern as well as Central Europe. The line-up will feature the second season of the acclaimed TV show Soviet Jeans [+see also:
series review
interview: Kārlis Arnolds Avots
series profile], created by Staņislavs Tokalovs. It will also include the latest work by the aforementioned Laila Pakalniņa, Cat on My Mind, as well as the upcoming feature Times New Roman by Ukrainian director Philip Sotnychenko, whose debut, La Palisiada [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philip Sotnychenko
film profile], was recently announced as Ukraine’s entry for the Oscars (see the news).

Projects included in the line-up will be evaluated by an international jury consisting of Frédéric Lavigne, artistic director of Series Mania; Daria Badior, Kyiv Critics’ Week co-curator and film critic; Marija Razgutė, producer and M-films founder; Geoffrey Macnab, film critic at The Independent and Screen International; and Jānis Kalējs, producer and co-founder of Film Angels Studio. The winning project will receive a cash prize of €5,000. The jury will also select the project to be presented at NEM Zagreb in December.