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FEST ESPINHO 2018

FEST returns to Espinho

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- Portuguese documentary Lupo by Pedro Lino nabs a spot in the main competition, while Asghar Farhadi is delivering a masterclass as part of the Training Ground programme

FEST returns to Espinho
Director Asghar Farhadi

This 14th edition of FEST – New Directors/New Films Festival which kicks off tonight in the coastal town of Espinho, will showcase over 200 titles from emerging filmmakers around the world, and will feature the two events which set this festival apart from the others: the Pitching Forum and the Training Ground. The theme, meanwhile, for this year’s event is “Frontiers”.

The French-Canadian co-production Mobile Homes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Vladimir de Fontenay, which was discovered at last year’s Directors’ Fortnight, is set to open FEST, and the main competition section will feature several first and second, feature-length titles, both fiction and documentary, all of which will vie for the hallowed Golden Lynx. There is just the one Portuguese film competing in this section, the documentary by Pedro Lino, Lupo [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. Produced by Ukbar Filmes, this film depicts the extraordinary life of Italian-born producer Rino Lupo, an icon of Portuguese silent cinema who mysteriously disappeared in the early 1930’s. 

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The rest of the Golden Lynx Competition films are Blue My Mind [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lisa Brühlmann
interview: Luna Wedler
film profile
]
by Lisa Brühlmann (Switzerland), I Am Not a Witch [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rungano Nyoni
film profile
]
by Rungano Nyoni (UK/France/Germany), Lemonade [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ioana Uricaru
film profile
]
by Ioana Uricaru (Romania/Germany/Sweden/Canada), Photon [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Norman Leto (Poland), Sand and Blood [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Matthias Krepp and Angelika Spangel (Austria), Winter Brothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile
]
by Hlynur Pálmason (Denmark/Iceland), Impreza – Das Fest [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
by Alexandra Wesolowski (Germany), Blockage by Mohsen Gharaei (Iran) and Killing Jesus by Laura Mora (Colombia/Argentina).

Also on the FEST programme is a special competition for short films, as well as other events such as FESTinha, aimed at children and families; NEXXT, an award for projects hailing from recent filmmaking graduates; the Pitching Forum, an opportunity for new projects to obtain development assistance, and, last but not least; the Flavours of the World screenings, which this year shines a light on Japanese, Austrian and Swedish works.

However, as in previous years, the real cherry on the cake is the festival’s Training Ground initiative, a series of conferences and masterclasses led by top audio-visual professionals and tending to attract mainly younger audiences composed of filmmakers-in-training. This year’s guest list includes, among others, US producer Roman Coppola, Italian editor Gabriella Cristiani, Portuguese DoP João Ribeiro (Letters from War [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Ivo M Ferreira
film profile
]
) and two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, though his latest film, Everybody Knows [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, is not part of the programme.

FEST 2018 wraps on 25 June with the screening of Club Europa [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile
]
by German director Franziska Hoenisch.

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