Organisation
The organisation „Visos mūzos“ has established Kaunas International Film Festival (Kaunas IFF) in 2007 as a public act seeking to draw attention of audiences and decision makers towards homogenization of film culture in Lithuania and seeking to save the oldest cinema theater in Lithuania. The event during the years developed into a real celebration of film art.
Festival
Today, Kaunas IFF is one of Lithuania’s most appreciated film festivals and the main film event in Kaunas. It presents films which have been acclaimed worldwide and also looks for new discoveries. The main priority of Kaunas IFF is a combination of the artistic and social statements in film. The festival continues its strategy to present exclusively Lithuanian or Baltic premiers. 5th edition, September 27 - October 9, 2011 includes: feature films in the Wide Angle, Identity sections. Mainly documentaries in “Music Moves the world”, “All the Muses” sections, and selection of short films, animations and retrospectives in side-bars . Kaunas IFF is the official festival and distribution partner of the innovative network „Eye on Films“, supported by MEDIA Mundus, a member of the CICAE network, and the Lithuanian representative organisation in the European Network of Young Cinema – Nisi Masa.
Distribution
In 2010 Kaunas IFF started theatrical distribution in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. While major distributors in the Baltic countries mainly present Hollywood studio productions and mainstream 3D films, Kaunas International Film Festival seeks to make space for art-house films in cinemas. The idea is to influence and change the theatrical distribution situation in the Baltic countries by increasing the number of art-house films in the regular cinema repertoire. Kaunas IFF believes in strengthening the film industry by art-house film promotion and distribution.
Objectives
The central objective for Kaunas IFF is to enhance film culture and film industry in Lithuania and to represent Lithuanian film industry for film professionals worldwide. Festival celebrates art-house filmmaking. An important part of the film culture revival in Lithuania is presenting retrospective programmes combined with panel discussions, master-classes, special lectures as part of film education.
