Program 2015
The 15th T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival will be held from 23 July to 2 August 2015. Over 340 films (including 217 feature films) from 54 countries will be screened at the New Horizons Cinema, as well as at Wrocław's Market Square. For the 10th time, the event will be hosted by the city of Wrocław - the European Capital of Culture 2016. For the 13th time, the festival's main partner is T-Mobile Polska S.A.
Opening and closing
The Opening Gala on 23Julywill feature a provocative, Belgian comedy about a resident of Brussels being... the God - The Brand New Testament by Jaco Van Dormael (e.g. The Eighth Day), a smash in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs section at this year's Cannes Festival, starring Benoît Poelvoorde, Yolande Moreau and Catherine Deneuve.
Another film presented to the audience during the festival's first night, precisely on the fourth anniversary of Amy Winehouse's death, will be Asif Kapadia's Amy - a documentary about the brilliant singer, complied from the previously unknown materials.
The third film of the opening night will be one of the most original features of the last Cannes Festival where it was presented with the award for the best director - The Assassin by an outstanding Asian filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, who, for a turn, attempts a wuxia genre - the impressive stories of legendary warriors. However he follows a path completely different from that of Zhang Yimou and Ang Lee.
On Saturday, 1st of August, after the awards gala, we will see the screening of the latest comedy-drama by a prominent Italian director Nanni Moretti (The Son's Room, Habemus Papam) My Mother. It is a contemporary story of a mature woman, a film director, who, led by the life's twists, discovers what matters to her the most. The film stars Margherita Buy and John Turturro.
Polish Films Premiers in Festival Competitions
The New Horizons International Competition will feature 13 films - auteur, unconventional, seeking new forms of expression. Once again, the world debut of the Polish film found its way in the festival's most important section. One of the Grand Prix competitors will be Walser - a feature debut of a prominent artist Zbigniew Libera, starring Krzysztof Stroiński.
Creational documentaries and docu-fiction on art, music and culture will compete in the Films on Art International Competition. The section includes the Berlinale-awarded Performer by Maciej Sobieszczański and Łukasz Ronduda which focuses on Oskar Dawick andThe Wolfpack by Crystal Moselle's - a Sundance festival awarded incredible tale about teenagers stuck in a New York apartment who learn about the outside world from films.
The festival program also includes other competitions: Polish Short Films Competition sponsored by T-Mobile as well as European Short Films Competition. The second edition of Zoom Competition will once again feature films and video clips shot by local filmmakers and visual artists. Awards in this section are sponsored by the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 and Wrocław's Audiovisual Technology Center.
Masters of the cinema, stars on screen and festival laureates
The competition sections present films by new, promising artists while the Panorama and Ale kino+ sections consist of works distinguished at prestigious festivals, made by prominent directors, masters of the world cinema. This year's programme includes the latest film by, among others, Godfrey Reggio (The Visitors), Pedro Costa (Horse Money), Gaspar Noé (Love), Kore-eda Hirokazu (Our Little Sister), Mike Leigh (Mr. Turner), Syllas Tzoumerkas (A Blast), Alain Cavalier (Paradise), Eugène Green (Sapience), Corneliu Porumboiu (The Treasure), Wim Wender (The Salt of the Earth, co-directed with Juliano Ribeiro Salgado), Yorgos Lanthimos (Cannes-awarded for his screenplay for The Lobster, starring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and Léa Seydoux), Larry Clark (The Smell of Us), Paul Thomas Anderson (Inherent Vice, starring Josh Brolin and Joaquin Phoenix, based on Thomas Pynchon), Hong Sang-soo (Hill of Freedom), Guy Maddin (The Forbidden Room, co-directed by Evan Johnson), Lav Diaz (last year's Locarno festival winner, From What Is Before), Alexey Fedorchenko (Angels of Revolution), Naomi Kawase (An), Jia Zhang-ke (Mountains May Depart), Brillante Mendoza (Trap).
This year's festival will present 22 films from the official selection of this year's Cannes IFF. The screenings of the Hungarian László Nemes' debut, Son of Saul, the winner of this year's Grand Prix, are considered an outstanding event of the festival. It follows 48 hours in the life of Saul Ausländer, the member of Sonderkommando - a division of Jewish prisoners forced to assist the Nazis in the Shoah - shortly before the revolt in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
The Ale kino+ section features Pasolini by Abel Ferrara, starring Willem Dafoe. An American director, famous for Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral will be the festival's guest. He will present one of his less known features, the 2001 film 'R Xmas, as well his favourite Pasolini work - the 1964 film The Gospel According to St. Matthew.
The New Polish Cinema in Wrocław
Polish films will be presented not only in competitions. In the Panorama section, a Polish/Swedish debut from a graduate of the Łódź Film School, Magnus von Horn, acclaimed at the Cannes festival - The Here After, will be screened. Another film that premiered there and found its way to T-Mobile New Horizons programme is Raging Rose from a French-born Polish director Julia Kowalski, featuring Andrzej Chyra in one of the leading roles.
Three films straight from the prestigious Karlove Vary festival will find their way in Wrocław: Bartek Prokopowicz's Chemo - an unusual love story, inspired by the relationship of the film director and the Rak'n'Roll Foundation founder, Magda Prokopowicz; Red Spider - a feature debut of a well-known cinematographer and documentarian Marcin Koszałka, inspired by the story of a Polish killer from the communist era, starring Filip Pławiak and Andrzej Woronowicz; as well as the latest film from Anca Damian, The Magic Mountain - an animated documentary (another one, after the notable Crulic - The Path to Beyond) which tells an incredible story of a mountaineer Adam Jacek Winkler who in the 1980s joined the Afghans, led by Ahmad Shah Massoud, to fight the Soviet Army.
The programme also presents Śpiewający obrusik by Mariusz Grzegorzek - an experiment diploma project, realized by the students of the Acting Department of the Łódź Film School, the laureate of the Kraków Film Festival Mów mi Marianna (Call me Marianna) by Karolina Bielawska and documentaries: Aktorka (The Actress) a film about Elżbieta Czyżewska from Kinga Dębska and Maria Konwicka, Koniec świata (The End of the World) by Monika Pawluczuk and Bruno Schulz by Adam Sikora.
Lithuania, Konwicki, Garrel, Bartas, self-portrait films - film reviews and retrospectives
The focus of this year's main retrospective is Philippe Garrel - the most uncompromising of the French New-Wave film directors. The programme includes feature and short films, the classics starring Jean Seberg and the singer Nico, Venice festival awarded I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar, Wild Innocence, and Regular Lovers, as well as Night Wind starring Catherine Deneuve and his latest film In the Shadow of Women, which premiered at this year's Cannes festival.
The review of the Lithuanian cinema will be an important event during the festival - 21 feature films, including the Soviet era classics by Vytutas Žalakevičius and Almantas Grikevičius, as well as more recent works appreciated worldwide by both critics and the audience. The section is prepared in cooperation with the Lithuanian Film Centre and the Lithuanian Embassy in Poland. The focus of the retrospective is Šarūnas Bartas - the most famous Lithuanian filmmaker, a mastermind frequently compared to masters such as Andrey Tarkovsky and Béla Tarr, the author of sophisticated treatises about alienation, melancholic allegories and brilliant impressions. The programme also features Three Days (FIPRESCI Award in Berlin), Freedom awarded at the Venice Film Festival, The Corridor and The House.
The focus of the Polish retrospective is Tadeusz Konwicki - a late, outstanding writer, screenwriter and a film director. The programme includes his legendary feature films - starting with the New-Wave debut The Last Day of Summer through the cult Salto, up to the slightly forgotten How Far Away, How Near, as well as Costa-Gavras' The Little Apocalypse, Andrzej Titkow's documentary Passer-By, and a recording of Andrzej Bart's TV play Bezdech which included a special appearance by Konwicki himself.
This year's Third Eye section shall be entitled #selfie: film self-portraits. The programme includes some intimate, years-spanning video dairies, ruthless self-analyses, as well as shameless, narcissist self-admirations, including: the avant-garde Diary by an Israeli guru of the experimental film, David Perlov, the famous Five Year Diary from American Anne Charlotte Robertson, Oleg Mavromatti's shocking No Place For Fools based on a Russian vlog; as well as Berlin Diaries by Przemysław Wojcieszek, and a set of #artselfie, prepared in association with Filmoteka of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
The main theme of this year's New Horizons of Film Language is costumes. Our special guest Dorota Roqueplo, a renowned costume designer will share her experiences working on Hiszpanka (Spanish Flu) directed by Łukasz Barczyk. The programme also features The Fifth Element by Luc Besson, digitally remastered, The Leopard by Luchino Visconti, Sally Potter's Orlando, as well as the British director Peter Strickland's latest hypnotising, visually stunning feature The Duke of Burgundy.
The Midnight Madness will feature a review of the most interesting and original works of modern generic cinema. The programme includes The Editor from the Canadian Astron-6 company, a quote-filled ironic bow to the classic giallo horror films - Mark Hartley's documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films.
The Gdynia on the Horizon section will feature a screening of Paul Mazursky's 1989 film Enemies, A Love Story, based on the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The festival's guest, Małgorzata Zajączkowska played one of the main roles in this heart breaking tale about a group of immigrants in New York struggling with their experiences of Holocaust. The screening will take place on 26 July and the meeting with the actress will be hosted by the artistic director of Gdynia Film Festival, Michał Oleszczyk.
The classics and last year's hits at the Market Square
Admission-free screenings at the Martket Square will be held every night at 10 pm. The programme features some of the last year's most prominent films, including Richard Linklater's Boyhood, Damián Szifrón's Wild Tales, Ruben Östlund's Force Majeure, Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan and Jerzy Stuhr's The Citizen. On 29 July (exceptionally starting at 9:30 pm) will be screened a digitally remastered Potop Redivivus by Jerzy Hoffman and on 30 July at 10 pm an orchestra conducted by Krzesimir Dębski will be performing live music during the screening of Henryk Szaro's The Call of the Sea. Both screenings are prepared with the cooperation from the National Film Archive. Federico Fellini's La Strada and Janusz Zaorski's The Mother of The Kings are also to be shown on the grand screen at the Wrocław's Market Square.
Music Stage
Every night from 24 July to 1 August the Festival Club in Arsenal will host special concerts and DJ-sets. The line-up's header is a Lebanese artist Yasmine Hamdan, a musical discovery of Jim Jarmusch himself who invited her to appear in his film Only Lovers Left Alive. The artist surprises with unusual, personal interpretations and blends new cultural codes into arrangements which can be described as a form of folk-pop mysteriously rooted in the Persian Gulf with a hint of acoustic guitar sounds, classic synthesizers and a mystical atmosphere. Her concert will take place on 25 July at 10:30 pm.
The festival will also host the performances by the classics of the American rock. Pere Ubu is a cult music band set up by David Thomas in the 1970s; her songs originated the New Wave genre and inspired such artists as Joy Division, the Pixies and the Sisters of Mercy. Beside Pere Ubu's leader on 26 July the stage will host Keith Moliné, Michele Temple, Robert Wheeler and Steve Mehlman. The concert is set for 26 July, 10:30 pm.
On 24 July, at 10 pm the Festival Club will host Kormorany with their brand new music programme prepared exclusively for the occasion. Considered a legend of the Polish avant-garde, audio-visual performers, masters of the theatre and film music, they have been intriguing their fans for over 25 years not only with the style and form of their gigs, but also with uncompromising approach to their own art as honest and deep stream of impressions which are able to shake a man out of his routine and mental schemes.
The New Horizons stage will also host Zimowa, Stefan Wesołowski, Martyna Kubicz, Der Father, Rysy and Pustki. The full programme, including the calendar and the bands' descriptions can be found at www.nowehoryzonty.pl
Performance stage
The third edition of the Midnight Show exhibition will be held as a part of the Festival at the Dizajn BWA Wrocław gallery. This year's Porwani takes place in complete darkness. It is the invisible exhibition. On stage of Midnight Show the eyesight will be used to look out in the dark. Nine artists will present their individual shows on an invisible set designed by Aleksandra Wasilkowska. The authors propose to truly experience art with your senses instead of just seeing it. We would like to make you perfectly aware that you will share room with people and works of art that cannot be seen. Instead, the invisible works can be touched, stroked, smelled, and heard. In programme: Oskar Dawicki, Michał Frydrych, Igor Krenz, Robert Maciejuk, Honorata Martin, Wojciech Kucharczyk, Witek Orski Karol Radziszewski, Anna and Adam Witkowski, Zorka Wollny.
The exhibition is open for one hour only every night from 24 July starting at midnight. Katarzyna Roj and Stach Szabłowski are the curators.
Moving pictures will be shown at BWA Awanagarda Wrocław Gallery - a retrospective exhibition of exhibitions that served the purpose of testing exhibition medium, and investigating unapparent ways film and exhibition interpenetrate each other. The presented exhibitions/films include Seans kinowy. Film-performans (2007), Experimental artworks (e.g., collective movies [filmy asemblingowe] from the 70s) Wyborne trupy. Filmy asemblingowe (składkowe) artystów polskich (2007), Cameo (2009), Widmowa filmoteka (2010), Mydlana operacja (2014/15). Among the artists whose works will be available for viewing are Paweł Althamer, Oskar Dawicki, Maurycy Gomulicki, Ilian Gonzalez, Bożena Grzyb-Jarodzka, Grzegorz Królikiewicz, Paweł Kwiek, KwieKulik, Zbigniew Libera and Józef Robakowski. Michał Woliński is the curator. The exhibition starts on 17 July and will be open until 23 August.
And on 24, 25 and 26 July the Large Stage of the Polski Theatre in Wrocław will present Black Sun # 3D will - an audio-cinema where visual perception is excluded from use. The spectator is left with the words and sounds. The audience located within the space of the Large Stage of the Polski Theatre in Wrocław will become actors acting in a theatre play of their own imagination, partaking in the personal production of afterimages, hallucinations and delusions. Text by Anka Herbut, directed by Łukasz Twardowski.