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CINEAST 2016 BRINGS A CLOSER LOOK AT...
Wajda 90:The Polish film and theatre director, scriptwriter and set designer Andrzej Wajda, widely recognised as one of the world's most renowned filmmakers, marks the year of his 90th anniversary in style: with a new film Afterimage presented at the Toronto IFF. Born on 6 March 1926, Andrzej Wajda graduated from the Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in £ód in 1953 with a major in directing and made his debut two years later with Generation. Inspired by Polish history, literature and art, Wajdas films have often been praised as visual masterpieces for their innovative and stylistically rich imagery, vivid symbolism and dynamic storytelling, together with a modern approach to directing the actors. After Man of Marble and Walesa: Man of Hope screened in previous editions, this year CinEast celebrates Wajdas anniversary with a mini-retrospective - organised in collaboration with Kino 8 1/2 in Saarbrücken - including three of his stand-out films from the 80s: Man of Iron, for which he received the Palme dor at the 1981 Cannes IFF, The Conductor, for which Andrzej Seweryn was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1980 Berlinale, and Danton (1983), a film he made in France with Gérard Depardieu and Patrice Chéreau. We will have the rare privilege of welcoming the main stars of the first two films, the famous actors Jerzy Radziwilowicz and Andrzej Seweryn, who will also share their memories of working with the tireless master, who after more than 60 years of shooting films just refuses to retire.
iga Virc is a Slovenian film and television director whose short film Trieste Is Ours (2010) was nominated for the Oscars. Besides numerous commercials, he has directed many documentaries and fictions and has gathered experience across multiple platforms, with some of his work going viral both nationally and internationally. CinEast presents his latest docu-fiction Houston We Have A Problem, which has recently won the Vesna Award for Best Picture at the Slovenian Film Festival in Portoro and which has been selected as Slovenias Oscar bid, as well as his outstanding short film A New Home.
Michalina Olszañska is a rising star of Polish cinema. This young actress (born in 1992), but also musician, singer and writer, known for her hyperactivity, has appeared in 17 films over three years and unfortunately had to decline CinEasts invitation due to
another shooting at the time of the festival. The festival audience will have the opportunity to admire her performance in the role of a dancing man-eating mermaid, Golden, in The Lure, and the psychologically unstable lesbian and (future) mass murderer Olga in I Olga Hepnarová.
Kinorama is one of the most remarkable film production companies in Croatia. Founded in 2003 by Ankica Juriĉ Tiliĉ, Hrvoje Pervan and Dragan Juriĉ, Kinorama have so far produced and co-produced over 20 features, including titles such as The Reaper, No Ones Child (both screened at CinEast 2015), Mother of Asphalt, Forest Creatures or Hush, as well as numerous short films and TV series. CinEast 2016 is proud to present the internationally acclaimed drama The High Sun by Dalibor Mataniĉ, which won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and the recent Quit Staring At My Plate by the debuting director Hana Juriĉ, which premiered in Venice in September.
25 years of MEDIA: The EUs Creative Europe MEDIA programme has been supporting Europes audiovisual industry since 1991. There is no doubt that without its support, European cinema would not be as diverse and successful as it is today, and many projects by talented filmmakers would not get made, travel less well and reach fewer audiences across Europe. CinEast would like to pay tribute to this initiative and invites you to discover the films supported by MEDIA in the 2016 programme: The High Sun, Mellow Mud, Eva Nová, Houston We Have A Problem, United States Of Love, Lost In Munich, Nightlife, Exiled and The Queen Of Silence.