Prague, 6 March 2019 – The 21st annual One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival starts tonight. Under the motto, “Safe Proximity,” the festival explores the subject of identity and the search for what brings us together. “Documentary films often present stories from distant corners of the world, stories of people with whom, at first glance, we have little in common. But we want to show that even distant stories can feel close to us, that they affect us, and that we can learn from them or relate to them,” explains the festival’s director, Ondřej Kamenický. One World is screening 117 films from 51 countries, and will feature 148 international guests.

My Grandpa is an Alien International Premiere

After its international premier and screenings at renown festivals in Belgium, Canada and Sweden, the long awaited Croatian children's SF film My Grandpa is an Alien starts domestic theatrical distribution on March 21.

Croatian children's SF film My Grandpa is an Alien will have its international premier this week at 22nd FIFEM Festival International du film pour enfants in Montreal. FIFEM is renowned for selecting films that stimulate curiosity and encourage critical thinking and informed dialogue, and Grandpa Alien is one of eight films selected in competition.

The same week the film will compete on the other side of the world, at JEF festival, dedicated to broadening views of children and youth in Antwerp and five other Belgian cities from February 23 till March 10.

The first leg of Grandpa Alien's international tour ends at the end of March at a festival which has dedicated this years edition to honoring the efforts of Greta Thunberg and other youth activists and celebrating the future – the key Nordic film festival, BUFF in Malmö.

Domestic audiences will have the chance to see My Grandpa is an Alien on March 5 at 7th International Children's Films Exhibition in Čakovec and since March 16 in previews at multiplexes all over Croatian, where official theatrical distribution starts on March 21.

The SF adventure of a little girl Una and her robot friend Dodo, who have less then 24 hours to save her partly alien family, was inspired by the story My Grandpa is an Alien by Irena Krčelić. The screenwriters are Pavlica Bajsić and Branko Ružić, and film was directed by awarded directorial duo Dražen Žarković and Marina Andree Škop.

The main cast includes 12-year-old Lana Hranjec and one of the most awarded Croatian actors Ozren Grabarić (the voice of Dodo), as well as eminent Norwegian actor Nils Ole Oftebro, Slovak comedy star Petra Polnišova, Croatian actor Frano Mašković, and young rising stars Alex Rakoš, Sven Barac, Tonka Kovačić, Lucija Šango...

DoP was Sven Pepeonik, production designer Petra Kriletić, costume designer Zorana Meić, music was composed by Stein Berge Svendsen and film was edited by Marina Andree Škop.

The film was produced by Darija Kulenović Gudan and Marina Andree Škop from Studio dim in coproduction with partners from six other European countries: Croatian Radiotelevision, Wady Films from Luxembourg, Filmbin from Norway, MasterFilm and MagicLab from Czech Republic, Artileria from Slovak Republic, Senca Studio and Art Rebel 9 from Slovenia and Fabrika from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The film production was supported by Croatian Audiovisual Center, MEDIA programme of the European Union, Film Fund Luxembourg, Norwegian Film Institute, Filminvest, Czech Film Fund, Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Slovenian Film Centre and Cinematography Fund Sarajevo. The film is distributed by 2iFilm in Croatia and the region.

The new feature film of Academy Award nominated director Tanel Toom "Truth and Justice" has performed strongly in local theatres setting a new record for the opening week of any film shown in Estonia.

Romantic comedy ’Oh, Ramona!’, directed by Cristina Jacob, held on to the Romanian top spot in the second week since its release, thus becoming the highest grossing film in 2019, surpassing US blockbusters such as 'How to Train Your Dragon’, ’Ralph Breaks the Internet’, ’Glass’ and ’Alita: Battle Angel’.

During the 25th anniversary edition, the Sarajevo Film Festival will pay tribute to director Pawel Pawlikowski and honour him for his outstanding contribution to the art of film and his lasting friendship with the city of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The acclaimed director will be presented with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award and honoured with a retrospective of his works - including documentaries he made for the BBC and his most recent feature films such as Ida and Cold War - in the Festival’s Tribute to programme. Pawlikowski will be returning to the Sarajevo Film Festival for the third time. In 2010 he presented Ida to the Festival audience and in 2018 Cold War opened the 24th edition of the Festival.

Pawlikowski was born in Warsaw in 1957 and left Poland at the age of fourteen first for the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, before finally settling in the UK in 1977. He studied literature and philosophy in London and Oxford. He started making documentary films for the BBC in the late 1980s. His documentaries, which include From Moscow to Pietushki: A Journey with Benedict Yerofeyev (1990), Dostoevsky’s Travels (1991), Serbian Epics (1992) and Tripping with Zhirinovsky (1995), won numerous international awards including an Emmy and the Prix Italia. In 1998, Pawlikowski moved into fiction with a low budget TV film, Twockers, which was followed by two full-length features, Last Resort (2000) and My Summer of Love (2004), both of which he wrote and directed. Both films won British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, as well as many others at festivals around the world. After the 2011 film The Woman in the Fifth, Pawlikowski made highly acclaimed Ida which won the 2015 Foreign Language Academy Award, five European Film Academy Awards, a Bafta and a Goya, among many other prizes. Pawlikowski returned to Poland in 2013 while completing Ida. He currently lives in Warsaw and teaches film direction and writing at the Wajda School. Pawlikowski was born in Warsaw in 1957 and left Poland at the age of fourteen first for the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, before finally settling in the UK in 1977. He studied literature and philosophy in London and Oxford. He started making documentary films for the BBC in the late 1980s. His documentaries, which include From Moscow to Pietushki: A Journey with Benedict Yerofeyev (1990), Dostoevsky’s Travels (1991), Serbian Epics (1992) and Tripping with Zhirinovsky (1995), won numerous international awards including an Emmy and the Prix Italia. In 1998, Pawlikowski moved into fiction with a low budget TV film, Twockers, which was followed by two full-length features, Last Resort (2000) and My Summer of Love (2004), both of which he wrote and directed. Both films won British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, as well as many others at festivals around the world. After the 2011 film The Woman in the Fifth, Pawlikowski made highly acclaimed Ida which won the 2015 Foreign Language Academy Award, five European Film Academy Awards, a Bafta and a Goya, among many other prizes. Pawlikowski returned to Poland in 2013 while completing Ida. He currently lives in Warsaw and teaches film direction and writing at the Wajda School. 
His latest film, Cold War, is a timeless historic romance (inspired by his own parents’ story). It won the Best Director award at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was the big winner at the 2018 European Film Awards where it picked up the prizes for Best European Film, Director, Screenwriter and Actress (Joanna Kulig). Cold War was recently honored with three Academy Award nominations: in the best foreign-language film, best director and cinematography (Lukasz Zal) categories.
Praised by film critics and loved by audiences, Pawlikowski is an auteur whose films mirror his personal experiences, as well as his ethic values and artistic vision. His films reveal an immense talent, deep understating of historic changes and a strong sense of the interaction between personal and historical. In his own words, Pawlikowski is guided in his work by a desire to find new meaning in what is well-known and already seen.  “For me, that’s the essence of cinema: photographing reality and making it mean more. Not going with the flow as realism is supposed to do, but on the contrary looking at reality against the grain, discovering its strangeness.” (Vertigo, November 2007).
Pawlikowski will be presented with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at the opening ceremony of the 25th Sarajevo Film Festival on August 16. ***
Previous honourees of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Tribute to programme include: Nuri Bilge Ceylan (2018), Joshua Oppenheimer, Oliver Stone (2017), Amat Escalante (2016), Brillante Mendoza, Atom Egoyan (2015), Michael Winterbottom (2014), Cristi Puiu (2013), Todd Solondz (2012), Lucrecia Martel (2011), Bruno Dumont (2010), Jia Zhang-ke (2009), Todd Haynes (2008), Tsai Ming-Liang, Ulrich Seidl (2007), Abel Ferrara,  Béla Tarr (2006), Alexander Payne (2005), Dušan Makavejev, Gaspar Noé (2004), Peter Mullan (2003), Stephen Frears (2002), Mike Leigh (2001), and Steve Buscemi (2000)