LET'S CEE Film Festival
The international LET'S CEE Film Festival is one since 2012 once a year in Vienna , Austria held forming Film Festival , the outstanding productions from Central and Eastern Europe ( CEE ), the Caucasus region and Turkey in original shows with English and German subtitles. The program includes a selection of the best current feature and documentary films as well as promising short films that are presented in competitions. There are also various film series, which focus on legendary cinema classics, relevant retrospectives and homages to excellent children's films.
overview
The LET'S CEE Film Festival has been held annually in Vienna, Austria since it was founded (2012). The City of Vienna is considered to be a historical, geographical, economic and cultural interface between Eastern and Western Europe and is therefore the location for an event that focuses on the filmmaking of the CEE region.
A current selection of feature films, documentaries, short films and debut films will be shown in a total of four official competitions. The feature film competition is curated by Polish film expert Michał Oleszczyk, and that for documentary films by Croatian- born filmmaker and lecturer Rada Šešić. The Iranian-Austrian directors Arash T. Riahi and Arman T. Riahi are responsible for the short film competition, the festival directors Magdalena Żelasko and Wolfgang P. Schwelle are responsible for the debut films.
Numerous other categories include a. Classics, retrospectives and homages as well as children's and youth films. The program is supplemented by additional events such as master classes, discussions, readings, exhibitions and get togethers, concerts and parties.
The Talent Academy, which has been taking place since 2017, offers young filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe and Austria the opportunity to exchange ideas and network. Industry experts who have already made a name for themselves pass on their knowledge to the talents and supervise the short films produced as part of the Academy, which are also judged by a jury. In addition, at the Industry Days, also organized by LET'S CEE, numerous practical topics such as financing, production or distribution are dealt with with presentations from national and international guests and in panel discussions.
The LET'S CEE Film Festival also organizes a number of other events throughout the year, which also focus on filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe and their films.
Goals and values
The LET'S CEE Film Festival has four central goals. The first goal is to promote international acceptance and the dissemination of Central and Eastern European films. In addition, the festival sees itself as a forum which, through its diverse activities, would like to initiate and support cross-border cooperation in the film sector. The promotion of promising talents from Central and Eastern Europe and Austria is one of the main concerns as well as the endeavor to make an extremely positive and unique contribution to an intercultural dialogue at national and international level with the festival. The LET'S CEE Film Festival stands for a clear set of values. One of the most important cornerstones of the festival philosophy is a clear commitment to an open, pluralistic, prejudice-free, democratic society based on the rule of law, to a common European identity, to respect for values such as tolerance, solidarity, equal opportunities and justice as well for the unconditional safeguarding of human dignity and human rights.
History and guests
1st Festival 2012
The festival, founded by Magdalena Żelasko and Wolfgang P. Schwelle, took place for the first time from May 28 to June 3, 2012 in Vienna. It started with a competition for fiction and documentary films. The company Cineplexx could be won as a cinema partner . 32 productions were shown and the Oscar-nominated film In Darkness by Agnieszka Holland (in the presence of the director) opened. A total of 32 international guests attended, including the Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca , the Bosnian musician Saša Lošić, the director of the Russian Kinotavr Film Festival Sitora Alieva and the Czech Oscar winner Jan Svěrák . The number of visitors was 5,200.
2nd Festival 2013
In 2013 the LET'S CEE Film Festival took place from September 13th to 21st. The short film competition was included in the program. Prominent guests were the Russian director Alexander Nikolajewitsch Sokurow , the Austrian actor Karl Markovics and three Oscar winners: the director István Szabó from Hungary, the set designer Allan Starski from Poland and the director Stefan Ruzowitzky from Austria.
3rd Festival 2014
The 3rd LET'S CEE Film Festival took place from October 2nd to 11th, 2014. Officially guests were u. a. the Croatian producer and Oscar winner Branko Lustig , the Hungarian director and Oscar winner István Szabó , the filmmakers Milčo Mančevski from Macedonia and Cristi Puiu from Romania as well as the actors Scot Williams (Great Britain), Ana Ularu (Romania) and Jowita Budnik (Poland).
4th Festival 2015
In 2015 the film festival took place between October 1st and 11th. For the first time, a Promising Debuts competition was also on the program. New records were set with 118 films and 15,200 visitors. 138 official film guests came from abroad alone, including the director Želimir Žilnik from Serbia, the Israeli-German author and Holocaust survivor Sally Perel , the Russian filmmaker Yury Bykov, the Romanian producer Ada Solomon and the Canadian-born producer and Raindance Film Festival founder Elliot Grove .
2016
In 2016, the festival management decided to move the date from autumn back to spring. There was therefore no festival this year. However, there were a number of other activities again, including a large retrospective of films by Krzysztof Kieślowski at the Urania Kino (in the presence of the screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz and the screenwriter Stanisław Zawiśliński ).
5th Festival 2017
The 5th edition of the LET'S CEE Film Festival took place between March 21 and 27, 2017. With 183 screenings and over 16,100 visitors, new records were achieved. More than 200 guests came from abroad, including the Hungarian director Béla Tarr , who was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Bosnian director and Oscar winner Danis Tanović , the Serbian actor Lazar Ristovski and the Croatian actress Ksenija Marinković , who hosted the festival devoted a focus with three films. For the first time the LET'S CEE Talent Academy took place, in which 26 young filmmakers from Austria and the CEE region took part. Two-day Industry Days also took place.
6th Festival 2018
The 6th edition of the LET'S CEE Film Festival took place from April 13th to 22nd, 2018. With over 17,300 visitors and 400 screenings (including the VR cinema), the festival was able to enjoy further growth this year. Among the around 150 international guests there were numerous well-known actors (including Saba Mubarak from Jordan, Dorka Gryllus from Hungary, Sebastian Cavazza from Slovenia, Leon Lučev from Croatia, Milan Marić from Serbia, Karel Roden from the Czech Republic), too numerous other industry greats, including the Hungarian director Márta Mészáros (who shared the 6th edition of the Lifetime Achievement Award with the Ukrainian director Kira Muratowa), the Slovenian director Janez Burger, the Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev and the film financier and director of Natixis Coficiné SA Christophe Vidal, who opened the LET'S CEE Industry Days with his lecture. Another highlight was the visit by the Bulgarian Hollywood producer Yariv Lerner, who for the first time presented the Danny Lerner Award, which he sponsored, as the main prize for the best feature film. With € 5,000 in prize money and € 50,000 in services from the Bulgarian Nu Boyana Film Studios, this award is the highest endowed film festival prize in Austria.
2019
In January 2019, the organizers of LET'S CEE canceled the seventh edition of the LET'S CEE Film Festival planned for May due to the discriminatory funding by the City of Vienna and the Federal Chancellery. In particular, the composition of the advisory boards, the non-compliance with funding criteria, the lack of transparency and lack of traceability of funding decisions and the deadline for granting funding were criticized. The future of the festival remains uncertain.
Prices
Coupled with a cash prize, the winners of the competitions determined by international juries will be presented with a Urania, a statuette designed by the Austrian artist Tone Fink . The crystal star of Urania has been given as a Lifetime Achievement Award to an outstanding personality from the film industry since 2012 . In 2015, an audience award and an award for the best acting performance in one of the competition films were awarded for the first time.
winner
2012
- Star of Urania / Lifetime Achievement Award: Turhan Bey (Austria / USA)
- Feature film: Zenne - Dancer (Direction: Caner Alper, Mehmet Binay, Turkey 2012)
- Documentary: Argentinian Lesson (Director: Wojciech Staroń, Poland 2011)
2013
- Star of Urania / Lifetime Achievement Award: Branko Lustig (Croatia / USA)
- Feature film: Domestic (Director: Adrian Sitaru, Romania 2012)
- Documentary: The Last Black Sea Pirates (Director: Svetoslav Stoyanov, Bulgaria 2013)
- Short film: Distance (Director: Janno Jürgens , Estonia 2012)
- Short Film Audience Award: Home (Director: Ruslan Magomadov, Russia 2012)
2014
- Star of Urania / Lifetime Achievement Award: István Szabó (Hungary)
- Feature film: I won't come back (Director: Ilmar Raag, Russia / Estonia / Finland / Belarus / Kazakhstan 2014)
- Documentary: Pipeline (Director: Vitali Manski , Russia / Czech Republic / Germany 2013)
- Short film: The Chicken (Director: Una Gunjak, Germany / Croatia 2014)
- Short Film Audience Award: 8 Months (Director: Hüseyin Aydın Gürsoy, Turkey / France 2013)
2015
- Star of Urania / Lifetime Achievement Award: Želimir Žilnik (Serbia)
- Feature film: You Carry Me (Director: Ivona Juka, Croatia / Slovenia / Serbia / Montenegro 2015)
- Documentary: The Queen of Silence (Director: Agnieszka Zwiefka, Poland / Germany 2014)
- Short film: The Same Blood (Direction: Mitry Semenov-Aleinikov, Belarus 2015)
- Promising Debuts: For Some Explicable Reason (Direction: Gábor Reisz, Hungary 2014)
- Audience Award: Aferim! (Direction: Radu Jude , Romania / Bulgaria / Czech Republic / France 2015)
- Best Acting Performance: Fatemeh Motamed-Arya (Iran) in Nabat (Azerbaijan)
2017
- Star of Urania / Lifetime Achievement Award: Béla Tarr (Hungary)
- Feature film: Kills on Wheels (Director: Attila Till, Hungary 2016)
- Documentary: A Mere Breath (Director: Monica Lãzurean-Gorgan, Romania 2016)
- Short film: Buzzing of a Bumblebee (Director: Vladimir Beldian, Russia 2015)
- Promising Debuts: Hristo (Direction: Grigor Lefterov & Todor Matsanov, Bulgaria / Italy 2016)
- Audience Award - Long feature or documentary: Train Driver's Diary (Director: Milos Radović, Croatia / Serbia 2016)
- Audience Award - Best Submitted Short Film: Undercooling (Director: Olga Kostnovic, Germany / Austria 2016)
- Best Acting Performance: Ksenija Marinković (Croatia) in The Constitution (Croatia / Macedonia / Slovenia / Czech Republic)
- Talent Academy's best short film: LET'S CEE by Vladimir Beldian, Berin Češkić, Achmed Abdel-Salam and Martina Netíková
2018
- Star of Urania / Lifetime Achievement Award: Márta Mészáros (Hungary) and Kira Muratova (Ukraine)
- Feature film competition / Danny Lerner Award: Ivan (Slovenia / Croatia 2017) by Janez Burger
- Documentary film competition: When the War Comes (Czech Republic / Croatia 2018) by Jan Gebert
- Promising Debuts Competition / UNIQA Promising Debut Award: Secret Ingredient (Macedonia / Greece 2017) by Gjorce Stavreski
- Short film competition / VdFS short film award : Would You Look at Her (Macedonia 2017) by Goran Stolevski
- Best acting by a leading actress in one of the competition entries : Eliane Umuhire for Birds Are Singing in Kigali
- Cineplexx Distribution Award: Ederlezi Rising (Serbia 2018) by Lazar Bodroža
- Audience Award: Best Long Feature Film in Competition: Dede (Georgia / Croatia / Qatar / Ireland / Netherlands 2017) by Mariam Khatchvani
- Audience Award: Best short film submitted: The Story of the Polar Bear that Wanted to Go to Africa (Austria 2017) by Mo Harawe
- Talent Academy's best short film: Dangerously Good… by Rea Lest from Estonia, Nastja Kotnik Minik from Slovenia, Anton Skrypets from Ukraine, Naima Noelle Schmidt from Austria
See also
Web links
- Official website
- Official Facebook page
- official Instagram profile
- official Twitter presence
- official YouTube channel
Individual evidence
- ↑ Festival profile - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved July 12, 2019 .
- ↑ Curators - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ LET'S CEE Talent Academy - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved January 15, 2019 .
- ↑ LET'S CEE Industry Days - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved January 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Festival profile - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved July 12, 2019 .
- ↑ LET'S CEE Winner 2012 - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ 2013: Festival summary - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ 2014: Balance sheet and winners - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ LET'S CEE winner 2015 - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ Krzysztof Kieslowski 75/20 - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ LET'S Winner 2017 - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved November 10, 2017 .
- ^ The quarrel of the film festivals - The press. Retrieved July 13, 2019 .
- ↑ Blatant Discrimination - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved July 12, 2019 .
- ↑ 2019 no LET'S CEE Film Festival -! Ticket. Retrieved July 13, 2019 .
- ↑ Prices - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ LET'S CEE Winner 2012 - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ 2013: Festival summary - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ 2014: Balance sheet and winners - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ LET'S CEE winner 2015 - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ And the prizes go to ... - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ LET'S Winner 2017 - letsceefilmfestival.com - DE. Retrieved September 27, 2017 .
- ↑ LET'S CEE WINNER 2018 . Retrieved April 29, 2018.