International Competition 3
As always, this year’s international competition offers a diverse range of films – twenty-seven entrants from around the world, divided into five blocks. Besides live-action and animated works, new this year is the inclusion of documentary films. As at past editions, audiences can expect a strong Czech contender.
If you’re wondering what kinds of things you might find in the deepest recesses of the mind of your new boyfriend or girlfriend, Britain’s best animated film of the past year, Curiosa, has the answer. The surreal Daydreaming so Vividly about Our Spanish Holidays, which was nominated for an award from the European Film Academy, looks at the strange phenomenon known as “balconing.” Working with brilliantly composed shots and images, the visually captivating documentary Calls explores the work of operators at an emergency call center and the complicated situations that they deal with every day. The Greek film The Parade captures, with uncommon sensuality and sensitivity, the complicated emotions and relationships among a group of secondary-school students as they hang around Athens one summer day. A Study of Empathy, the Danish winner at the Locarno film festival, takes a lightly ironic tone as it questions our real capacity for empathy. And the colorful Indonesia fantasy Basri and Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy explores the secrets of a married couple who own a carousel that is constantly crowded with children but who have no kids of their own.
The international jury will present one award for Best Film, which comes with a financial prize of 3,000 euros; it will also name two Special Mentions.
