Fugue by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, We the Animals by Jeremiah Zagar and An Elephant Sitting Still by Hu Bo are in competition at the 18th New Horizons IFF. Nadine Labaki’s Capharnaum will be the opening film, while Happy As Lazzaro by Alice Rohrwacher will close the festival.
The 18th New Horizons International Film Festival is Poland's biggest film event, held in Wroclaw for the thirteenth year in a row. During 11 days of screenings, from July 26 to August 5, 2018, audiences will see 225 full-length films, of which three are world premieres and 147 will be shown for the first time in Poland.
New Horizons International Competition
Bold, uncompromising films by artists seeking new forms of expression - these are the hallmarks of the New Horizons International Film Competition. This year, 12 productions from around the world will compete for the Grand Prix, including the Polish Fugue by Agnieszka Smoczyńska (director of the hit film The Lure) - a psychological thriller about a woman who has lost her memory, while My Friend the Polish Girl by the directing duo of Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek, is a provocative story about the extent film may interfere in other people's lives. The competition will also include films from the Dominican Republic (Cocote by Nelson Carlo de los Santosa Arias, which screened in Locarno), from Denmark (perversely feminist Holiday by Isabella Eklöf and The Return by Malene Choi Jensen from Rotterdam), France (Milla by Valérie Massadian, which won an award in Locarno, The Wild Boys by Bertrand Mandico, in which the cinema of Roger Waters meets the Lord of the Flies), Serbia (quiet and at the same time powerful - The Load by Ognjen Glavonić), Argentina (The Bed by Mónika Lairana - a tragicomedy about the final amorous exploits of aging bodies), Portugal (The Dead and the Others by João Salavizy and Renée Nadera Messory - awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes), USA (We the Animals by Jeremiah Zagar - praised by American critics as a revelation not seen since the likes of Moonlight) and China (An Elephant Sitting Still by Hu Bo - FIPRESCI award winner at the Berlinale).
Hits from Leading Festivals
This year's repertoire will include hits from the world's leading festivals. In addition to Capharnaum byNadine Labaki, and Cannes best screenplay winner Happy As Lazzaroby Alice Rohrwacher, viewers will enjoy the winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale - Touch Me Notby Adina Pintilie, the winner of the Golden Palm - Shoplifters by Hirokazu Koreeda, and the prize-winning Girl by Lukas Dhont. New Horizons invites you to watch the latest masterpieces of intelligent provocation, like The House That Jack Built by Lars von Trier and Climax by Gaspar Noé, as well as Everyone Knows, a psychological thriller by Asghar Farhadi, the two-time Oscar winner for A Separation and The Salesman. The repertoire also includes other titles from Cannes: Grand Prix winner BlacKkKlansmanby Spike Lee, The Wild Pear Tree by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (director of the Golden Palm Winner Winter Sleep) or the legendary film which took a quarter-century to produce, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote by Terry Gilliam.
Festival Sections
"Cinema goes OUT" is this year's New Horizons slogan. We are looking for alternative narratives, ways to go outside the system and look at the activities of outsiders. That is why the festival program includes retrospectives of cinematic visionaries and revolutionaries - the Portuguese João César Monteiro and Pedro Costa, as well as Nicolas Roeg - the famed outsider from Great Britain who shares his artistic imagination with David Bowie, among others. Ingmar Bergman is the special hero of this year's festival. On the centenary of the birth of one of the most important directors of all time, New Horizons joins the Bergman100 international project, partners of which include the Embassy of Sweden in Warsaw, the Swedish Institute and the Swedish Film Institute. Audiences will have an opportunity to view the master's most important films (and films dedicated to him), the exhibition entitled Bergman Style: Cinema, Fashion, Art (curator: Anna Maria Bernitz) and the interactive installation Ingmar Bergman 100 by Annmari Kastrup and Anders Rabenius (the exhibition and installation will be available for viewing at the New Horizons Cinema until October 14). In a separate section, we will also look at contemporary Iranian film. In the Iran: Iran cross-section review, viewers will find enigmatic political allegory (Kupal by Kazem Molaie), snapshots from the lives of the Islamic Republic's hipsters (Atom Heart Mother by Ali Ahmadzadeh), as well as brilliant film essays (Writing on the City by Keywan Karimi). The review is accompanied by the We Only Live Twice exhibit, consisting of projections and video installations by Iranian artists.
During the 11 festival days, in addition to film screenings, all participants can enjoy exhibitions, masterclasses, as well as concerts. The complete festival program is available at www.nowehoryzonty.pl. Tickets for individual screenings go on sale July 17. The 18TH New Horizons International Film Festival runs from July 26 through August 5.