Screening out of competition this coming Saturday 18 January, The Ties That Bind Us [+lee también:
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entrevista: Carine Tardieu
ficha de la película] by Carine Tardieu is set to open the 37th Angers European First Film Festival (running 18 – 26 January), an event which has, since its earliest editions, always favoured the emergence of young talent hailing from the Old Continent, many of whom have now become masters within the European arthouse cinema landscape.

The 10 feature films battling it out in this year’s international competition will be assessed by a jury under the aegis of director and actress Nicole Garcia (supported by Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Anna Novion and Boris Lojkine). These movies include the Venice Jury’s Grand Prize-winner Vermiglio, The Mountain Bride [+lee también:
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entrevista: Maura Delpero
ficha de la película] by Italy’s Maura Delpero, On Falling [+lee también:
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entrevista: Laura Carreira
ficha de la película] by Portugal’s Laura Carreira (discovered in Toronto’s Discovery section and awarded Best Director in San Sebastián), Kneecap [+lee también:
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entrevista: Alfombra roja @ European F…
ficha de la película] by English filmmaker Rich Peppiat (the winner of the NEXT Audience Award at Sundance, screened in Tribeca and triumphant at Les Arcs) and the multi-award-winner To A Land Unknown [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mahdi Fleifel
ficha de la película] by Danish-Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel (unveiled in the Directors’ Fortnight).

Likewise in on the action are Block Pass [+lee también:
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entrevista: Antoine Chevrollier
ficha de la película] by France’s Antoine Chevrollier (well-received in Cannes’ Critics’ Week), Little Jaffna [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lawrence Valin
ficha de la película] by fellow Frenchman Lawrence Valin (unveiled in Venice’s Critics’ Week), September & July [+lee también:
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entrevista: Ariane Labed
ficha de la película] by French-Greek director Ariane Labed (which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section), the animated title Pelikan Blue [+lee también:
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entrevista: Laszló Csaki
ficha de la película] by Hungary’s László Csáki (screened in Tallin and Annecy Contrechamp) and two films discovered in Toronto’s Centrepiece section: The Exiles [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Spain’s Belén Funes and Under The Volcano [+lee también:
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entrevista: Damian Kocur
ficha de la película] by Poland’s Damian Kocur.

The competitive Diagonales section, revolving around markedly audacious works, will notably showcase the feature films Trans Memoria [+lee también:
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entrevista: Victoria Verseau
ficha de la película] by Sweden’s Victoria Verseau, Intercepted [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Ukraine’s Oksana Karpovych, and Maxime Jean-Baptiste’s Belgian-French documentary essay Listen to the Voices [+lee también:
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entrevista: Maxime Jean-Baptiste
ficha de la película] (awarded the Special Jury Prize in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente line-up).

Stealing focus among the French premieres on the agenda are In the Nguyen Kitchen by Stéphane Ly-Cuong, Les Règles de l’art by Dominique Baumard (which is set to close the festival), Last Breath [+lee también:
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entrevista: Costa-Gavras
ficha de la película] by Costa-Gavras, and the documentaries Elementary [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Claire Simon and Ce n’est qu’un au revoir [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Guillaume Brac.

The line-up also includes tributes and retrospectives (dedicated to actress Jeanne Balibar, to the documentary master Nicolas Philibert who’ll be delivering a masterclass, to Finnish filmmaker Juho Kuosmanen and to the legendary Italian director Federico Fellini in partnership with Cinecittà), among other events, alongside short film competitions, a celebration of the Angers Workshops’ 20-year anniversary (notably involving filmmakers Lukas Dhont, Guillaume Senez, Cristèle Alves Meira and Delphine Gleize, together with producer Frédéric Jouve), a Neighbours section boasting 20 titles, another entitled Animation and Ecology (consisting of five feature films and three short film sections) and the usual screenplay readings (this year featuring the full-length movies Corps étranger by Zoé Cauwet, Hôtel Saga by Clara Lemaire Anspach and Le courage des oiseaux by Mathilde Profit).