European Film Awards

For the fifth time, a special edition of the EFA project A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY gathered a group of young film critics and journalists. Organised in co-operation  with the T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival Wroclaw, and while the festival kicked off, the meeting took place at Fregata in Zagórze Śląskie, Lower Silesia. 
The group spent the days watching movies and talking about them, and about cinema and cinephilia in general, cooking and eating together, and networking in a charming old guest house by the Bystrzyckie lake. Expert for this edition was the Dutch critic Dana Linssen from NRC Handelsblad and de Filmkrant.

On Friday the participants watched the Polish-British co-production ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS and discussed with the director Michal Marczak who stayed for the whole weekend. They were joined by two more directors: Mike Ott, whose film ACTOR MARTINEZ (co-directed with Nathan Silver, USA) they screened next, and jury member Gust Van den Berghe from Belgium whose 2010 Cannes debut LITTLE BABY JESUS OF FLANDR the group screened on Saturday morning. After a lively discussion about art and inspiration, they watched INERTIA and then welcomed Israeli director Idan Haguel for dinner and inspiring talks about the role of the critic in a filmmaker's career and the expectations or demands the professions have towards each other. The conversations continued long into the night.
The group was composed of twelve people from ten different countries: Ádám Csiger (Hungary), Klara Cykorz (Poland), Freja Dam (Denmark), Yael M. Danon (Israel), Mirela Delic (Germany), Grzegorz Fortuna (Poland), Iratxe Fresneda (Spain), Anja Krämer (Austria), Andreea Mihalcea (Romania), Rudolf Schimera (Czech Republic), Jelle Schot (the Netherlands) and Hannes Wesselkämper (Germany).  

As a former participant said: "It is not only a weekend of thought provoking discussion of the past, present, and future of film criticism. First and foremost, it provides a unique encounter of like-minded and future friends from all over Europe." 

Other guests included Jakub Duszyński, director at Gutek Film distribution company, Monika Richter from filmPOLSKA’s critics programme “Über Filme schreiben …” (Writing About Films) Robert Dwernicki of b88 Seed and Venture Capital. 

 The project was organized by the European Film Academy and New Horizons Association with the support of the local cultural institutes and the Krzysztof Mętrak competition for young film critics.