Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris

The competition programme "New Europe - New Names" at the Vilnius International Film Festival "Kino Pavasaris" has selected a formidable collection of Eastern and Central European films. The audience is invited to 11 thrilling, refreshing brand new films thoroughly selected by an international jury. These particular foreign films are all contenders in the line to become the highlights of the festival. They have already proved their potential at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Pusan, San Sebastian, Locarno and Warsaw film festivals.

The competition programme "New Europe - New Names" will kicked start in the second half of the festival programme on the 26th of March at "Forum Cinemas Vingis" with the romantic comedy "Hello! How Are You?". This film once again proves that Roumania is a country of unfading talents. The best film will be screened on the closing day of the festival (31st of March), which will be decided by the five member jury. 

Jury members at the Vilnius international film festival are: Milcho Manchevskij, macedonian director; Nadya Turyncev, producer, Gary Mc Vey, director of American cinema foundation, Alante Kavaite, lithuanian director and script writer, currently living in France and Fred Kelemen, director and cinematographer.

CICAE jury will also evaluate the films and will search for the one, that would fit into repertoirs of European independent cinemas. The members of CICAE jury, who came to Vilnius, are - Tejinder Jouhal from Institute of Contemporary art (ICA) London, Peter Muscatics, communication director of Hungary's leading international film festival CineFest and Christopher Gatt, General Manager of St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Malta.

"Woman With the Broken Nose" is a playful film starring Braca Katič, who has also appeared in the famous Emir Kusturica comedy "Black Cat White Cat". This film debuted at the Novi Sad and Karlovy Var film festivals and won the Grand Prix at Zurich Film Festival in 2010.

Marek Lechki‘s drama "Erratum" received the Best Debut award at Gdynia Film Festival in 2010 and continues to fetch awards all over the world. This Polish film was given a second place title at Pusan Festival, triumphed at the Chicago Film Festival and was awarded for the Best Debut at Thessaloniki International Film Film.

Polish cinema will be represented by "The Christening" -  Best Film award winner at Gdynia Film Festival. Loosely based on the biblical story of Cain and Able, the film is a chilling story about the underground Warsaw, governed by mafia rules. This film has been screened at Toronto, San Sebastian, Reykjavik and Hong Kong Festivals.

You will not see any real fights in the Hungarian kung-fu comedy "Children of Green Dragon", but rather sincere conversations between two oddballs. This film began its festival tour with Pusan, Valladolid and Warsaw.

The most awarded contestant of the "New Europe - New Names" is the famous documentary director Sergej Loznica, whose first feature is about a lory driver and his adventures on the tricky roads of Russia. The film‘s scandalous debut earned invitations to Toronto, London, New York and Rotterdam, and won main prizes at Kiev, Minsk and Tallinn.

Rightly acknowledged by the New Directors programme, the Bulgarian director Dragomir Sholev drama "Shelter" tells a story about rebellious teenagers‘ struggle through adolescence. The film is co-written with the screenwriter of the famous "Death of Mr. Lazarescu" Razavan Radulescu. Irena Hristoskova, who convincingly played the teenage punk, will be coming to Vilnius to present the film.

The audience of "Kino Pavasaris" will also have a unique opportunity to meet  the European Cinema Academy nominated Croatian National Theatre actress Zrinka Cvitešic.  She played a dramatic role in the Jasmila Zbanič film "On the Path", where her character fights the pressures of fundamentalist religious community, that is destroying her love. Jasmila Zbanič has previously been awarded a "Golden Lion" at Berlin Film Festival for  "Grbavica", which was show in "Kino Pavasaris" in 2007.

Awarded a "Future Lion" at Venice Film Festival, "Majority" is a feature that tackles the issues of hierarchy in the domestic life of a traditional Turkish family. Usurping father forbids his grown up son to date a girl of Kurdish decent.

Similar problems occur in the Slovakian family drama "The House", where a despotic father stands in the way of his daughters happiness. This Zuzana Liova film premiered at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival.

Both Romanian contestants in "Kino Pavasaris" started off at Locarno Film Festival, which opened the doors to international audiences. Marian Crisan, who debuted with the comedy drama "Morgen" fetched four prizes - Special Jury, Ecumenical Jury, Youth Jury Diploma and an International Film Club Award "Don Quixote". Shot on the border between Roumania and Hungary the film is about a Romanian sheltering a Turkish immigrant, who hopes to cross the border and escape to Germany.

Columbia graduate film director Bogdan George Apetri co-wrote his award winning debut scrip with the famous writer Cristianu Mungiu ("4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days") and two other co-writers. "Pacific" -  the "Golden Alexander" prize winner at Thessaloniki Film Festival  - is a film about a woman who is released from jail for 24 hours, but has no intention of coming back. Ana Ularu received the Critic‘s prize at the Locarno Film Festival for the phenomenal portrayal of the prisoner; she later received Best Actress prizes at Warsaw and Thessaloniki.