KARLOVY VARY: The Bulgarian film The Father / Bashtata (Bulgaria, Greece) directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov took home the Crystal Globe and a cash prize of 25, 000 USD at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, held from 28 June to 6 July in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary.

FNE spoke to Karlovy Vary jury member and Austrian director Andreas Horvath and Polish actress Patrycja Planik about Lillian, a film based on the true story of a Russian woman walking across America to get home to Russia. The film is screening out of competition in KVIFF 2019.

KARLOVY VARY: FNE teamed up with European Film Promotion again this year to speak to the ten European film school students and recent graduates participating in the EFP Future Frames to find out what they think about the future of European film.

KARLOVY VARY: The short list of the 10 films that will compete for the LUX Prize of the European Parliament this year has been announced during the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

CANNES:Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu has scored a slot in this year’s competition with The Whistlers / La Gomera, a Romania/France/Germany coproduction a clever film-noir romp that is as full of twists and turns as his highly successful earlier works like Police, Adjective and The Treasure but more facile and in some ways more audience friendly and entertaining.

CANNES: Director Quentin Tarantino is back in Cannes competition with Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood probably one of his best efforts since his 1994 win here with Pulp Fiction which shot him to international fame overnight.  It is also ten years since another highly successful Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds had its premiere in Cannes. The intervening years have not seen much from the director that measures up to this earlier work by then how many directors have ever produced a film like Pulp Fiction that defined a whole era of cinema? Perhaps that is a once in a career event.

CANNES: The 82 year old British director Ken Loach is back in competition again with Sorry We Missed You his first film since his 2016 Cannes Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake.  Loach has won the Palme d’Or twice and if Sorry We Missed You does not win him a third Palme d’Or this film is at least a serious contender for the festival’s main prize.

CANNES: Director Terrance Malick arrives in the Cannes competition with his latest offering and a Malick film is always an event no matter what the final decision of the jury. Malick won the Cannes Palme d’Or with his profound The Tree of Life and since then this unique auteur and given us To the Wonder and other films that have not had the impact of his Tree of Life although he has not moved away one bit from this lack of fear to tackle the most profound questions of morality and of life.

CANNES: Director Ira Sachs has assembled an exquisite cast lead by Isabelle Huppert for this film that owes much Eric Rohmer and that makes Frankie a strong contender in this year’s Cannes competition especially for the prize of Best Actress.

KRAKOW: The 59th Krakow Film Festival of documentary, short and animated film held 26 May - 2 June 2019 awarded its top prize in the International Documentary Competition to Advocate (Israel, Canada, Switzerland)  directed by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche about Leah Tsemel, an Israeli activist for human rights, who has been a defender of the Palestinians. The film becomes the KFF recommendation to the European Film Awards in the documentary category. In the Short Film Competition the Golden Dragon for Best Film went to Portrait of Suzanne (Poland, Germany, France) directed by Izabela Plucińska.