The 18th annual CinÉast (Central and Eastern European Film Festival, 10-26 October) is about to kick off in Luxembourg, rolling out over a fortnight with more than 120 screenings lined up. The festival will open formally on 15 October with the international premiere of Chopin, A Sonata in Paris by Michał Kwiecinski.

Sixty-five feature films and 50 shorts from 20 Central and Eastern European countries will screen during the festival. CinÉast’s Focus on Poland will include 14 features, three shorts, two concerts and more, while the special Ukrainian programme highlights five documentaries, a cine-concert and a charity project. The gathering also champions five Luxembourgish co-productions within its line-up.

Seven acclaimed films are competing in the official competition for a slate of prizes: Girl America [+lire aussi :
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interview : Viktor Tauš
fiche film] by Viktor Tauš, Father [+lire aussi :
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interview : Tereza Nvotová
fiche film] by Tereza Nvotová, God Will Not Help by Hana Jušić, Little Trouble Girls [+lire aussi :
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interview : Urška Djukić
fiche film] by Urška Djukić, Milk Teeth [+lire aussi :
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interview : Mihai Mincan
fiche film] by Mihai Mincan, Two Prosecutors [+lire aussi :
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interview : Sergueï Loznitsa
fiche film] by Sergei Loznitsa and Wind, Talk to Me [+lire aussi :
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interview : Stefan Đorđević
fiche film] by Stefan Đorđević. The international jury consists of Polish director Maria Zbąska, Luxembourgish actress Sascha Ley, Georgian director Akaki Popkhadze and Luxembourgish producer Adrien Chef, with the jury chaired by Bosnian helmer Danis Tanović. They will bestow the Grand Prix and Special Jury Prize upon two films at the end of the festival. The press jury, consisting of Olivia Popp, Hendrik Warnke and Valentin Maniglia, will hand out the Critics’ Prize for the competition.

Five debut or sophomore features will compete in the Young Talents Competition, with a jury made up of students from the BTS Cinéma et audiovisuel du Lycée des Arts et Métiers preparing to crown the winner of the section. The competing films are Renovation [+lire aussi :
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interview : Gabrielė Urbonaitė
fiche film] by Gabrielė Urbonaitė, Loss of Balance [+lire aussi :
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interview : Korek Bojanowski
fiche film] by Korek Bojanowski, DJ Ahmet [+lire aussi :
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interview : Georgi M. Unkovski
fiche film] by Georgi M Unkovski, Sandbag Dam [+lire aussi :
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interview : Čejen Černić Čanak
fiche film] by Čejen Černić Čanak and Yugo Florida [+lire aussi :
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interview : Vladimir Tagić
fiche film] by Vladimir Tagić.

The festival’s non-competitive Cinéscope programme chronicles what the gathering calls “a selection of the most interesting recent films” from across the region, including Dea Kulumbegashvili’s stylistically idiosyncratic April [+lire aussi :
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interview : Dea Kulumbegashvili
fiche film], about an obstetrician in rural Georgia; Vytautas Katkus’ oneiric debut feature, The Visitor [+lire aussi :
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interview : Vytautas Katkus
interview : Vytautas Katkus
fiche film]; and Radu Jude’s nearly three-hour AI fun-fest Dracula [+lire aussi :
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interview : Radu Jude
fiche film]. Meanwhile, the East Goes West strand features films that blur the titular boundary in different ways, including Alexandra Makarová’s 1980s-set return-to-homeland journey Perla [+lire aussi :
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interview : Alexandra Makarová
fiche film] and Zuzana Kirchnerová’s liberating road movie Caravan [+lire aussi :
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interview : Zuzana Kirchnerová
fiche film].

It’s also been a strong year for documentary winners around the world, as evidenced by the festival’s Cinédocs section. It includes the Karlovy Vary winner Better Go Mad in the Wild [+lire aussi :
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interview : Miro Remo
fiche film] by Miro Remo and the IFFR Tiger Competition laureate Fiume o morte! [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Igor Bezinović; several Ukrainian movies also feature, notably the country’s Oscars submission, 2000 Meters to Andriivka [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], along with My Dear Théo [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] and Militantropos [+lire aussi :
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interview : Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Go…
fiche film].

The festival is rounded off by a hearty handful of debates, concerts, exhibitions and more celebrating the breadth of cultures and creativity from across the region.