Lecce European Film Festival 20th Edition

The 20th edition of the Lecce European Film Festival will officially start tomorrow, the 8th of April 2019 until the 13th of April. The festival, directed by Alberto la Monica has been in the last years one of the most interesting Italian film festivals. This year the Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary, offering a huge selection of screenings, meetings with actors and directors but also involving the schools of Lecce as an important key point to spread the passion and the culture for the cinema to the next generations.

One of the main guest of this edition is going to be the Russian Director Aleksandr Sokurov. The Festival every year is hosting important european film directors: Sokurov, which has been awarded in Venice with the Golden Lion (Faust, 2011) during the 68th Edition of the Festival, will be in Lecce the 11th of April speak about his work. Sokurov has been also awarded by the most important film festivals, such as Cannes, Locarno and Moscow.

The 11th of April will be presented a selection of his movies realized between the second half of the ’90 till today. The festival is also going to award Sokurov with the “Ulivo d’Oro” for lifetime achievement.

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There will be also an Italian preview of the movie “A Russian Youth” by Alexander Zolotukhin, former student of Sokurov which has been involved in the creative production and presented in February inside the section “Forum” at the Berlinale.

Marco Müller, former director of the Venice Film Festival and the Rome Film Festival, has been nominated as President of the Jury, which is in charge to decide the winner of the “Ulivo d’Oro”, the main award of the Lecce European Film Festival.

The other members of the Jury are: Guillame Calop, Pippo Mezzapesa, Ana Urushadze and Olena Yershova. As we said the main prize is the “Ulivo  d’Oro” dedicated to Cristina Soldano, but there are also other awards: The special Jury Prize, The Best Photography Prize and the best Screenplay Prize. The International Film Press Association (FIPRESCI) is also giving a special prize award, with his own jury (members: Francesco Grieco, Anders E. Larsson and Georgios Papadimitriou). Other awards are also the prize given by the Italian Film Press Union for the best european actor, the prize Agiscuola given by the students of Lecce and the Audience Award given by the public of the festival.

The movies in competition selected by Alberto La Monica are 12:

Blind spot by Tuva Novotny (Norway, 2018)

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Cronofobia by Francesco Rizzi (Switzerland, 2018)

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Genesis by Árpád Bogdán (Hungary, 2018)

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Her job by Nikos Labôt (Greece, France, Serbia, 2018)

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Journey to a mother’s room by Celia Rico Clavellino (Spain, 2018)

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Jumpman by Ivan I. Tverdovskiy (Russia, Lituania, Ireland, France, 2018)

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Oray by Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay (Germany, 2019).

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Paper flags by Nathan Ambrosioni (France, 2018)

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Stitches by Miroslav Terzić (Serbia, 2019)

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Summer survivors by Marija Kavtaradze (Lituania, 2018)

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The pig by Dragomir Sholev (Bulgaria, 2018)

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Two for joy by Tom Beard (UK, 2018)

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For other informations about the Lecce European Film Festival, which is starting the 8th of April till the 13th,  you can visit their website here.