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FESTIVALS / AWARDS Italy

European directors under 35 placed centre stage at the Riviera International Film Festival

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- Following the pandemic, the fifth edition of the festival dedicated to emerging directors is back, unspooling 20 - 30 May in hybrid form and with 20 films and documentaries in competition

European directors under 35 placed centre stage at the Riviera International Film Festival
As Far as I Know by Nandor Lorincz and Balint Nagy

One of the first European film festivals to start back up again after lockdown, the fifth edition of the Riviera International Film Festival is scheduled to unfold between 20 and 30 May in Sestri Levante, offering up a hybrid programme unspooling online and in person.

Young people and the environment have been confirmed as the festival’s themes, but escape is what really unites the ten films in competition this year, all of which are directed by under-35s. “Escape in the sense of emigration, an escape from reality, from social conventions or in an attempt to find oneself. Escape from illness, adolescence, or for love. This common feature aside, these stories are totally different, in stylistic and visual terms too”, explains Head of Programming Massimo Santimone.

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Gracing the line-up, we find Anne at 13,000 ft by Kazik Radwanski (Canada), a film about a woman in her twenties whose precarious sense of equilibrium is thrown into crisis by the social and professional context around her; As Far as I Know [+see also:
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by Nandor Lorincz and Balint Nagy (Hungary), which tells of a couple whose relationship derails in the wake of a traumatic event; Bula [+see also:
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by Boris Baum (Brazil/Belgium), a black/road comedy unfolding between Belgium and Brazil; Eden [+see also:
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interview: Ulla Heikkilä
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by Ulla Heikkilä (Finland), which sees four kids contending with ideologies, a thirst for independence and the ups and downs of love; German Lessons [+see also:
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by Pavel G. Vesnakov (Bulgaria), which homes in on a fifty-something man who decides to cut his ties with the past and up sticks to Germany; Model Olimpia [+see also:
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by Frédéric Hambalek (Germany), in which a mother comes up with a way to change her son’s dark obsessions; A Perfectly Normal Family [+see also:
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by Malou Reymann (Denmark), a film following in the footsteps of an eleven-year-old girl who discovers her father is transgender; Spagat [+see also:
film review
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interview: Christian Johannes Koch
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by Christian Johannes Koch (Switzerland), exploring the double life of a high-school teacher; A Stormy Night [+see also:
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by David Moragas (Spain), which chronicles the 12 hours spent by Marcos with a stranger during a storm in New York, and The Whaler Boy [+see also:
film review
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interview: Philipp Yuryev
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]
by Philipp Yuryev (Russia), telling the tale of a young whaler. The jury will be led by US director and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan, who walked away with 2017’s Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Manchester by the Sea.

Ten documentaries are also set to grace the showcase for the very first time, hailing from four different continents: A riveder le stelle [+see also:
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by Emanuele Caruso (Italy); Citoyen Nobel [+see also:
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by Stéphane Goël (Switzerland); Wood [+see also:
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by Monica Lăzurean–Gorgan, Michaela Kirst and Ebba Sinzinger (Austria/Germany/Romania); Newtopia by Audun Amundsen (Norway); Nuclear Forever by Carsten Rau (Germany); Current Sea by Christopher Smith (USA/Cambodia); Envoy: Shark Cull by Andre Borell (Australia); Kingdoms of Fire, Ice & Fairy Tales by Susan Scott and Bonné de Bod (South Africa/USA); The Magnitude of All Things by Jennifer Abbott (Canada), and Meat The Future by Liz Marshall (Canada).

Last but not least are the various masterclasses organised by the festival, which can be attended in person or streamed online, free of charge, via the festival’s social media channels. Confirmed speakers to date are Kenneth Lonergan; the Managing Director of The Family and producer of the Mediaset series Made in Italy Ada Bonvini; director and screenwriter Carlo Carlei; environmentalist Andrea Crosta, who is joined by SkyTg24’s Daniele Moretti; the producer of Oliver Stone’s Snowden and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Eric Kopeloff, and rock band Mokadelic.

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(Translated from Italian)

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