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 [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] 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 [+lire aussi :
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The rest of the Golden Lynx Competition films are Blue My Mind [+lire aussi :
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interview : Lisa Brühlmann
interview : Luna Wedler
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interview : Rungano Nyoni
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interview : Ioana Uricaru
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interview : Elliott Crosset Hove
interview : Hlynur Pálmason
fiche film] by Hlynur Pálmason (Denmark/Iceland), Impreza – Das Fest [+lire aussi :
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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 [+lire aussi :
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Q&A : Ivo M. Ferreira
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FEST 2018 wraps on 25 June with the screening of Club Europa [+lire aussi :
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