This year, as Lithuania celebrates the centenary of the state’s restoration, the country’s cinema also happens to be travelling the globe. Over the past four months, thanks to support from the Lithuanian Film Centre, the heavy presence of both completed films and projects was evident in almost 20 countries worldwide.

Starting with fiction films, a string of Lithuanian features had their premieres at acclaimed festivals. At Karlovy Vary, it was Giedrė Beinoriūtė’s drama Breathing into Marble [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Giedrė Beinoriūtė
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Moving onto documentaries, Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė’s debut, Acid Forest [+leggi anche:
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Finally, considering short films, Caucasus by Laurynas Bareiša premiered at Locarno and Kristina Buožytė’s VR animation experience Trail of Angels at Venice. Furthermore, Snake by Titas Laucius won the Cineuropa Audience Award at FEST Espinho, Portugal (see the news). Animafest Zagreb boasted an extensive programme on Lithuanian animation, and The Goat Luck by Ilja Bereznickas enjoyed an excellent festival run. By the end of the year, A Piece for Two Hands by Akvilė Žilionytė will have been screened at the Sound & Image Challenge International Festival in Macau.

In terms of industry presence, the Lithuanian Film Centre was one of the partners in the Pula Film Festival’s Matchmaking Forum (see the news), while Lithuania was featured as one of the countries participating in Locarno Pro’s Match Me! producers’ networking programme (see the news). Also, Lithuanian producers Giedrė Žickytė, Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė, Marija Razgutė, Paulius Juočeris and Andrius Lekavičius were included in the selection of the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum and the Glocal Meets the Baltics section of San Sebastián (see the news), where Invisible [+leggi anche:
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The Lithuanian Film Centre has released a more detailed report on all of the important events that have taken place over the last four months, including the special screenings of Lithuanian movies in China and the organisation of classic-film retrospectives across Europe and further afield. You can read more here.