The European Film Festival
This year's edition of the European Film Festival, the 27th, includes 33 films.
Leyla Cheamil, 16.05.2023, 14:50
Bucharest film lovers have the opportunity to watch, until May 23, a selection of 33 films, of which 27 are national premieres, proposed by the organizers of the European Film Festival. The festival started on May 9, on the very Europe Day, in Timișoara, which is European Capital of Culture in 2023, and continued in Oraviţa, between May 12 and 14. In Bucharest, the event was opened, on Monday evening, at the Auditorium hall of the National Art Museum of Romania, with the film “The Pod Generation”, a co-production of Belgium, France, and Great Britain, directed by Sophie Barthes and award winner at the Sundance Festival. “It is a film that poses many questions about the boundaries between artificial and real, it makes us, perhaps, reconfigure the idea which we have ourselves about what is and is not natural, more than that, it touches on a theme that is perhaps the most sacrosanct of all or the most intangible in the public space – the conception of a child”, said the festivals artistic director, the film critic Cătălin Olaru.
He also mentioned the partnership with the European Parliament Office in Romania: quote “Referring to our partnership with the European Parliament Office in Romania, I would like to mention the two films that we will screen at the EFF thanks to this collaboration. These are: Will-o-the-Wisp, directed by João Pedro Rodrigues, and Kurak Günler/Burning Days, directed by Emin Alper, selected in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section of the Cannes Film Festival last year. Will-o-the-Wisp, directed by João Pedro Rodrigues, could be labeled as scandalous after all. It is also a bet that we are making, as organizers, with our partners from the European Parliament Office in Romania, to bring to the festival, in addition to the rich offer that we have, not only warm, decent films, which do not disturb anyone, but also challenging films. And Will-o-the-Wisp is certainly one of them.” said film critic Cătălin Olaru.
The European Film Festival is organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute, with the support of the European Commission Representation in Romania and EUNIC Romania, in partnership with the Union of Romanian Filmmakers, embassies, and European cultural institutes and centers. The theme of this edition is artificial intelligence. “This year, just like in 2022, we proposed a theme that is of interest and very intensely debated at the present moment, because European film also involves debate, besides diversity and balance”, said the president of the Romanian Cultural Institute, Liviu Jicman. He went on to say that European film involves themes or questions that we should ask ourselves, rather than try to give answers, we ask ourselves questions and it makes us think, said Liviu Jicman. From May 18, the festival will continue, for several days, in other localities of Romania such as Curtea de Argeş, Botoşani and Gura Humorului. (LS)
