Press
release19.08.2004
The 19th Odense
International Film Festival (9-14 August) was the kick-off for a number of
Danish film festivals taking place late summer and over the following
months:
CIFF, Copenhagen
International Film Festival (19-28 August 2004)
The 2nd Copenhagen
International Film Festival (CIFF), opens tonight with Walter Salles'
award-winning "Motorcycle Diaries", describing Ernesto "Che" Guevara's
journey across South America with his friend. The festival is a window for
112 feature films, the majority of which are European. The official
competition, which includes 12 European films, all competing for the
Golden Swan, sketches the contours of European film culture today. Two new
Danish films will participate in the competition: Jytte Rex' poetic and
lavishly visual "Silk Road" and talented Nikolaj Arcel's feature film
debut "King's Game". A number of other programmes are
scheduled, including Panorama, National Favourites, The Spanish
Collection, European Talent Spotting, Meet the Middle East, Midnight
Madness, Women on Top, and Tribute to István Szabó. Szabó is also this
year's President of the International Jury. The National Film School of
Denmark is hosting a number of seminars including a work-in-progress
seminar with Thomas Vinterberg and Nicolas Winding Refn, who will talk
about "Dear Wendy" and "Pusher III", respectively.
BUSTER -
Copenhagen International Children's Film Festival (13-19 September
2004)
The fifth BUSTER film
festival, with 120 titles, will open mid-September. This year BUSTER is
introducing an official competition for youth films. These include
Gus van Sant's Palme d'Or winner "Elephant", from the USA, "Somersault" by
debutante Cate Shortland, Australia, and "Love in Thoughts" by Achim von
Borries, Germany.
Besides the five
competition programmes - for documentary films and for children and youth
films within the categories feature films and short films - a number of
side-programmes are scheduled, including Family Pictures, From Comic to
Cartoon, American Mix, Animation, and New Nordic Children's Film (NNCF).
NNFC, introduced in 2003, now functions as the Nordic platform for the
international film and television industry. NNFC will be held 15-18
September.
BUSTER offers films of
artistic quality and its repertoire is a supplement to the films that
normally run in public cinemas. The festival is designed to stimulate
children's ability to see, understand and use moving images. BUSTER acts
as a forum for filmmakers and educators, while also hosting at its
festival a number of seminars for film professionals and workshops for
children and young people.
cph:dox (5-14
November 2004)
At the second cph:dox
festival, opening early November, some 100 documentary titles will be
screened for the cinema-going public. Besides the three established
competitions: the Official Competition, New Vision and the Amnesty Award,
a number of new thematic programmes will be scheduled, such as
State-of-Europe, Transmediale, Sound + Vision. A seminar, focusing on a
number of subjects, from 'form and content', over Dogumentary, to the
political documentary, will be organized in collaboration with the
National Film School of Denmark.
Cph:dox is based on a
wide, international and cross cultural collaboration, and aims to break
away from mainstream works, presenting new, innovative documentary films,
and to encourage and intensify interest in documentary film as an
aesthetic, cultural and political document. The serious and the political,
the weird and the unexpected, the provocative and artistic is all welcomed
at cph:dox.
Another festival event
taking place this year is Copenhagen Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
(15-24 October 2004). Copenhagen's long-standing festival has become a
fixture in the cultural life of Copenhagen, attracting not only the gay
and lesbian subculture of Copenhagen, but increasingly also a
non-homosexual audience. Screenings will also take place in Århus, Ålborg
and Malmö.
Also in October,
Denmark's second largest city, Århus, will be host to Århus Film Festival
(27-31 October 2004), an international film event, and window for awarded
short and documentary films.
For further
information:
BUSTER -
Copenhagen International Children's Film Festivalwww.busterfilm.dk
Copenhagen Gay
& Lesbian Film Festivalwww.cglff.dk
CIFF, Copenhagen
International Film Festivalwww.copenhagenfilmfestival.com
cph:doxwww.cphdox.dk
Odense
International Film Festivalwww.filmfestival.dk
Aarhus Film
Festivalwww.aarhusfilmfestival.dk
Danish Film
InstituteVicki Synnott, +45 5581 2280, +45 5054 5011, vickis@dfi.dk