Vilnius International film festival pays tribute to great Lithuanian film makers, which are better recognized internationally than locally.

Jonas Mekas was born in Lithuania, but immigrated to New York in 1949. That same year, he made his first films, using a 16mm Bolex camera. Jonas Mekas is a filmmaker, journalist, teacher, curator and author, and is considered one of the most important representatives of US avant-garde cinema.

Special screenings of his new film "Sleepless nights stories" are scheduled on the big screen during Vilnius International film festival.
The movie was shown in this year's Berlinale. For two hours we stroll with Jonas Mekas through New York nights, through apartments, studios, backstage rooms, galleries, bars and clubs. We meet his old acquaintances like Ken and Flo Jacobs, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Carolee Schneemann, Marina Abramovic, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pip Chodorov, Bjork and others.

Another special screening, dedicated to Jonas Mekas - film "Visionaries" by Academy award winner Chuck Workman.
In 1962 together with his fellow colleagues Mekas founded The Film Makers' Cooperative, and in 1964 he founded The Filmmakers' Cinematheque, that gradually developed into Anthology Film Archives, one of the biggest American avant-garde film archives in the world. Film "Visionaries" is dedicated to the Anthology film archives.

Šarūnas Bartas is Lithuanian film director, one of the most outstanding representatives of cinematographers.
He is a graduate of the Moscow Film School (VGIK). He made his directorial debut with his diploma film, the short documentary Tofolaria and mediocre-length film For the Remembrance of Last Day (1989). The author further "purified" the specific cinema language in the full-length film Three Days (1991), which was awarded the prize of oicumene committee at Berlin Film Festival in 1992, and FIPRESCI Prize for the originality of the style. Film The Corridor (1994) was shown at International Berlin Film Festival; Few of Us (1995) and Home (1997) shown in Cannes Film Festival, in the program Other Point.Šarūnas Bartas retrospective at Vilnius International film festival shows 8 out of 10 his movies.