The Warsaw International Film Festival has unveiled the full programme for its 42nd edition, which will take place from 9 to 18 October with 190 films, including 132 features and 58 shorts. The festival will host a total of 330 screenings and will present 102 titles as world, international or regional premieres.
The edition will open with two films: The Debut, directed by Jesse Eisenberg and starring Julianne Moore, and Growth of the Soil, by Hans Petter Moland, both previously presented in Toronto and San Sebastián. The festival will close with The Smell of Apples, by John Trengove, selected for the Platform section at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The two main competitions will bring together 30 films. The International Competition will feature 15 titles, including What Belongs to Others, by Grzegorz Dębowski, which premiered in Venice’s Orizzonti section; February, Seven Days, by Tatjana Moutchnik, which will premiere in San Sebastián’s New Directors section; The Last Farewell, by Koldo Almandoz, selected for the Spanish festival’s Special Screenings; Conversation With the Sea, by Muayad Alayan, presented in Venice Spotlight; and the black comedy Bloody Men, by Jens Sjögren.
The section will also include several European world premieres: Dice-Ching-O-Mat, by Kristijonas Vildžiūnas, about a man trapped inside a mysterious cube; Doubt, by Thierry Besseling, centred on a future priest who begins to question his vocation after falling in love with a young man; The Child, by Linda Olte, about a former swimmer confronting infertility with the same determination she once applied to sport; and Through the Wall, by Maciej Sobieszczański, inspired by the true story of two political prisoners who fell in love while communicating through Morse code across a prison wall.
Among the world premieres is also Confession, the new US film by Václav Marhoul, set in Stalinist Moscow and starring Rob Lowe, James Franco, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Nick Nolte and Emile Hirsch. The competition is rounded out by Mentor, by Japan’s Keisuke Yoshida; The Daughter of Lady Fairy, by Alireza Motamedi; Suzhou Quartet, by Cai Chengjie; Her First Taste, by Yiwen Gong; and Test, by Sam McConnell.
The Grand Prix of the International Competition will be awarded PLN 120,000, approximately €27,500, funded by the Mayor of Warsaw. The jury will also award PLN 10,000 for Best Director and PLN 5,000 for a Special Jury Award.
The 1-2 Competition, dedicated to first and second features, will also comprise 15 titles. They include Hold Onto Me, by Myrsini Aristidou, winner of the Audience Award at Sundance; Lover, Not a Fighter, by Martina Buchelová, winner of the Proxima Grand Prix at Karlovy Vary; Everything That’s Wrong with You, by Urša Menart, presented in Sarajevo; Goodbye Cruel World, by Félix de Givry, selected for Cannes Critics’ Week; and Hugo 24, by Luc Knowles, presented in Málaga.
The section will feature six world premieres: Frieda, by Felix Hassenfratz; The Boatman, by Simão Cayatte; Resonance, by Yordan Dimitrov Petkov; The Bog, by Reinis Kalviņš; Agia, by Lorin Terezi, set in post-communist Albania; and Men Die Sooner, by Federico Montero, a Costa Rican-Uruguayan co-production. The selection also includes The Time That Never Came, by Julia Rogowska; A Free Woman, by Eliza Godlewska and Alan Ruczyński; Backwoods, by Evženie Brabcová; and The Last Day, by Rachel Rose, starring Alicia Vikander. The winner of the competition will receive PLN 10,000.
The Documentary Competition will feature another 15 titles, including Meanwhile in Namibia, by Jonas Spriestersbach; Yugo Goes to America, by Filip Grujić and Aleksa Borković; and Ingeborg Bachmann – Someone Who Was Once Me, by Regina Schilling. The winning film will receive PLN 5,000.
Meanwhile, the Short Film Competition will comprise 26 films across four programmes. The Warsaw Film Festival will also retain its status as an Academy Awards-qualifying festival.
Three films have been selected as this year’s Centrepieces: Ink, by Danny Boyle; The Uprising, by Paul Greengrass; and The Spiral, by Paolo Strippoli. The programme is rounded out by sections including Confrontations, Cinema in the Clouds, Animus. Cinema of Values and Special Screenings, featuring numerous films previously presented at major international festivals.