Romania’s longest-running film gathering, the Astra Film Festival (20-27 October, Sibiu), seems more determined than ever to attract the local audiences with what the organisers call “the cinema of truth”. Besides four competitions, detailed below, the festival offers various thematic sidebars – for example, “East to West”, “Family Portraits” and “Vulnerable Destinies”. The event also provides a generous selection of documentaries for children and teenagers, with other films being screened in a full-dome cinema.

Ten first, second or third features will be vying for the Astra Trophy, the top award in the New Voices in Documentary Cinema Competition: Alexander Horwath's Henry Fonda for President [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alexander Horwath
scheda film] (Austria/Germany), Farahnaz Sharifi's My Stolen Planet [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Germany/Iran), Narges Kalhor's Shahid [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Germany), Klára Tasovská's I'm Not Everything I Want to Be [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Klára Tasovská
scheda film] (Austria/Czech Republic/Slovakia), Maka Gogaladze's Ever Since I Knew Myself [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Georgia), Maria Stoianova's Fragments of Ice [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Norway/Ukraine), Oksana Karpovych's Intercepted [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Canada/France/Ukraine), Paulo Carneiro's Savanna and the Mountain [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Paulo Carneiro
scheda film] (Portugal/Uruguay), Nelson Makengo's Rising up at Night [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Nelson Makengo
scheda film] (Belgium/Germany/Burkina Faso/Congo/Qatar) and Elizabeth Nichols' Flying Lessons (USA).

A further 11 films will be locking horns in the Central and Eastern European Competition: Elvis Lenić's Ship (Croatia), Luka Beradze's Smiling Georgia [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Luka Beradze
scheda film] (Georgia/Germany), Kristine Nrecaj and Birthe Templin's House with a Voice (Germany), Grit Lemke's We Call Her Hanka (Germany), Olha Zhurba's Songs of Slow Burning Earth [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Olha Zhurba
scheda film] (Denmark/France/Sweden/Ukraine), Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčík's Photophobia [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol P…
scheda film] (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Ukraine), Aslkod Kurov and Anonymous1's Of Caravan and the Dogs [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Germany), Lidia Duda's Forest [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lidia Duda
scheda film] (Czech Republic/Poland), Radu Ciorniciuc and Lina Vdovîi's Tata [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc
scheda film] (Romania), Apolena Rychlíková's Limits of Europe [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Apolena Rychlíková
scheda film] (Czech Republic/France/Slovakia), and Ioana Grigore's Leo Records: Strictly for Our Friends [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Romania).

The Romanian Competition comes with four world premieres, among them Tudor Platon's sophomore directorial effort, An Almost Perfect Family [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Romania), and veteran director Copel Moscu's Bloodied Photographs (Romania). Anelise Sălan's Forbidden (Romania), Dan Curean's Family Movies (Romania), Ana Lungu's Merman [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Romania), Harald Friedl's 24 Hours (Austria), Ruxandra Gubernat's Imaginary Youth (Romania), Ilinca Călugăreanu's A Cautionary Tale (Romania/UK), Adrian Dohotaru's Zagor's Death (Romania), Diana Nicolae's Between Silence and Sin (Romania), Isabela Tent's Alice On & Off [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Isabela Tent
scheda film] (Romania), Alexandra Gulea's Maia – Portrait with Hands (Germania/Romania) and Fecső Zoltán's As the Clock Runs (Romania) will also be in the running in this competition, which traditionally consists of films either produced or shot in Romania, or having a topic related to the country.

The festival also has a student-film contest, the Docschool Competition, which is mainly composed of short films produced by various European film schools. This year, there will also be a feature competing for the award, Jaroslav Beran's Return to Life (Czech Republic), and a medium-length documentary, Daniel Țîcu's Night All Day (Moldova).