For the 16^th year in a row, the Cyprus Film Days International Festival is maintaining its focus on contemporary world cinema with a wide selection scattered across three main programmes. The competitive feature fiction film festival on the island of Cyprus will take place from 19-28 April in two major cities, at the Rialto Theatre in Limassol and the Zena Palace Cinema in Nicosia.

The International Competition Section – Glocal Images, which emphasises the local character of the films and concurrently facilitates open cultural dialogue between different nations, comprises 11 films mainly helmed by first-time directors. The five-member international jury that will hand out the Cyprus Film Days Awards is headed up by acclaimed US filmmaker Abel Ferrara and includes Bulgarian director Ralitza Petrova, Greek filmmaker Elina Psykou, president of the Belgian Film Critics Association Olivier Clinckart and Cypriot director Petros Charalambous.

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The festival will open with a local film, Simon Farmakas’ debut tragicomedy, Sunrise in Kimmeria (Cyprus), which is also taking part in the National Competition. Three of the debuts hail from the Balkans: the multi-award-winning post-war drama Men Don't Cry [+lee también:
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entrevista: Alen Drljević
ficha de la película] (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Slovenia/Croatia/Germany) by Alen Drljević, the well-travelled LGBT drama The Marriage [+lee también:
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entrevista: Blerta Zeqiri
ficha de la película] (Kosovo/Albania) by Blerta Zeqiri and the refugee crime drama More [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Turkey) by Onur Saylak. BAFTA winner (and also a debutant) Rungano Nyoni is participating with I Am Not a Witch [+lee también:
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entrevista: Rungano Nyoni
ficha de la película] (UK/France), as is Roman Zhigalov with his rural drama The Forest (Russia). The Venice-premiered Disappearance (Iran/Qatar) by Ali Asgari, the hip-hop drama Respeto (Philippines) by Treb Monteraw II and the San Sebastián-awarded drama Alanis (Argentina) by Anahí Berneri are the non-European participants in the programme. Finally, the Thessaloniki-awarded indie comedy Too Much Info Clouding Over My Head [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Greece) by Vasilis Christofilakis and Happy Birthday (Greece/Cyprus/France/Germany) by Cypriot director Christos Georgiou top off the Glocal Images international selection.

Three Cypriot films that were supported by the Cyprus Cinema Advisory Committee will compete in the National Films Competition Section. Apart from the aforementioned Sunrise in Kimmeria, Longinos Panagi’s comedy Clementine (Cyprus/UK) and the action-packed revenge flick Chinatown: The Three Shelters (Cyprus/Greece) by Aliki Danezi-Knutsen are included in the section. Finally, the non-competitive section of Cyprus Film Days, Viewfinder, will include six award-winning movies by emerging or well-established directors.

As for the parallel events, the festival regularly organises a series of seminars for professionals, lectures and master classes, this year including one with Abel Ferrara, plus a special section screening the jury members’ films. In addition, the gathering will continue to run the Cyprus Film Days for Children and Youth educational platform.

The Cyprus Film Days is co-organised by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Rialto Theatre in Limassol, under the auspices of the Municipalities of Limassol and Nicosia.