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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Viktor Tauš
scheda film] by Viktor Tauš, Father [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tereza Nvotová
scheda film] by Tereza Nvotová, God Will Not Help by Hana Jušić, Little Trouble Girls [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Urška Djukić
scheda film] by Urška Djukić, Milk Teeth [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Mihai Mincan
scheda film] by Mihai Mincan, Two Prosecutors [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Sergei Loznitsa
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intervista: Stefan Đorđević
scheda 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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Gabrielė Urbonaitė
scheda film] by Gabrielė Urbonaitė, Loss of Balance [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Korek Bojanowski
scheda film] by Korek Bojanowski, DJ Ahmet [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Georgi M. Unkovski
scheda film] by Georgi M Unkovski, Sandbag Dam [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Čejen Černić Čanak
scheda film] by Čejen Černić Čanak and Yugo Florida [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vladimir Tagić
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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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dea Kulumbegashvili
scheda film], about an obstetrician in rural Georgia; Vytautas Katkus’ oneiric debut feature, The Visitor [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vytautas Katkus
intervista: Vytautas Katkus
scheda film]; and Radu Jude’s nearly three-hour AI fun-fest Dracula [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Radu Jude
scheda 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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alexandra Makarová
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intervista: Zuzana Kirchnerová
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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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Miro Remo
scheda film] by Miro Remo and the IFFR Tiger Competition laureate Fiume o morte! [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Igor Bezinović; several Ukrainian movies also feature, notably the country’s Oscars submission, 2000 Meters to Andriivka [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Go…
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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.