231 films – including 175 full-length films – from several dozen countries are set to take part of the 21st edition of New Horizons. Over 600 screenings await viewers at the New Horizons Cinema, the Lower Silesian Film Center, Capitol Musical Theater and the Wrocław market square. Over half of festival films will also be available online: this year's edition of New Horizons will have a hybrid formula (August 12-22 - stationary screenings, August 12-29 - online screenings). Festival films include bold works that go beyond the usual formulas and present the beauty of cinema in its full diversity. During this year's New Horizons, audiences can enjoy the most important films from prestigious festivals (incl. Cannes, Venice, Berlinale), as well as avant-garde gems unavailable anywhere else. The complete program of the 21st New Horizons International Film Festival is available here.
Tickets go on sale for stationary screenings tomorrow (August 4) at 12:00 noon, followed by ticket sales to online shows a day later at the same time. Note! Through August 10, tickets for stationary screenings can only be purchased online at nowehoryzonty.pl.
Julia Ducournau 's Titane will open and Mahamat-Saleha Haroun Lingui will close the 21st New Horizons
The festival will open with a revelatory film – from this year's Cannes festival French director Julia Ducournau brings her Golden Palm winner Titane. On the first day of the festival, you will be able to see this film at two screenings: at the Capitol, as part of the opening gala, and at the New Horizons Cinema. August 12 will also see the world premiere of My Wonderful Life, a dramedy directed by Łukasz Grzegorzek. The show will be attended by the filmmakers and cast – incl. Agata Buzek and Jacek Braciak. Valdimar Jóhannsson's Lamb, awarded at Cannes, will be presented as part of the opening of the Oslo / Reykjavik 4 section, produced in cooperation with the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, which manages the Norwegian and EEA funds. The screening of the award-winning full-length animation Kill It and Leave This Town will be a special event on the first day of the festival. Its creator, Mariusz Wilczyński, will welcome the audience and introduce the film at the New Horizons Cinema. On August 21, after the festival's awards gala, the Capitol Music Theater will present the hit of this year's Cannes festival – Lingui, directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun from Chad.
The program of the Wrocław festival will also premiere excellent films by native artists: an original production by Netflix, the thriller by Piotr Domalewski Hiacynth and the hit Najmro. He Loves, Steals and Respects by Mateusz Rakowicz. As part of the pre-premiere screenings, you will be able to see Autumn Girl directed by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz – a story about one of the brightest stars of Polish cinema and television, Kalina Jędrusik, with the electrifying Maria Dębska starring in the lead role.
New Horizons International Competition
Uncompromising films by artists looking for new forms of expression – presented in the competition section are the centerpiece of New Horizons. This year, 12 productions from different parts of the world (including Austria, France, Poland, Tunisia, the USA and Vietnam) will compete for the Grand Prix. The winner will be selected by a jury composed of Olga Tokarczuk (chairwoman; winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature) and film directors and directors Catarina Vasconcelos, AdinaPintilie, Jagoda Szelc and Burhan Qurbani. The festival audience will also select their New Horizons favorite. The Audience Award is sponsored by OPPO, a producer of smart devices.
Hits from world festivals, including 20 titles from Cannes
The OPPO Gala Shows and Masters sections will feature the most important films shown and awarded at prestigious festivals. In addition to the aforementioned Titane, festival audiences can enjoy other award winners from the 74th Cannes IFF: Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria, starring Tilda Swinton (Jury Prize), Ahed's Knee byNadav Lapid (Jury Prize),Leos Carax's Annette (Best Director), Drive My Car by Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Best Screenplay) and A Hero by Asghar Farhadi (Grand Prix). Even more cinematic gems from Cannes await viewers at New Horizons including: Gaspar Noé's Vortex, François Ozon's Everything Went Fine, Kirill Serebrennikov's Petrov's Fever, Nanni Moretti's Three Floors, Mia Hansen-Løve's Bergman Island, Paris, 13th District by Jacques Audiard, Panah Panahi's Hit the Road, as well as Manuel Nieto's The Employee and the Boss.
New Horizons audiences will also see the most important films of this year's Berlinale (including Golden Bear winner – Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn directed by Radu Jude); Sundance (incl. Censor by Prano Bailey-Bond); Rotterdam (festival winner – Indian PJ Vinothraj's Pebbles) and San Sebastian (the Prize-winning Beginning by Dea Kulumbegashvili).
Festival sections
Chantal Akerman – one of the most important auteurs of European cinema, a master of recovering screen time, Angela Schanelec – the most radical, most interesting personality from the New Berlin School and Apichatpong Weerasethakul – one of the most important Asian filmmakers: these are the three heroes of this year's retrospectives, each with a special place devoted in the New Horizons program. The Chantal Akerman retrospective will be accompanied by the publication of the Polish edition of her book, My Mother Laughs, produced with the help of the Ministry of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Wallonia-Bruxelles International supports the Chantal Akerman retrospective, while the Goethe Institut is the partner of the Angela Schanelec retrospective.
The Third Eye section presents portraits of the present day from a female, feminist perspective. This year, Third Eye is accompanied by the subtitle Body Snatchers: the directors of the films shown in this section free their protagonists from the usual patterns of looking at female corporeality and sexuality. The intersection of cinema and art will be again redefined by the Visual Front and the latest productions deconstructing genre cinema patterns, playing with conventions, surprising and crossing borders will be found as part of the Midnight Madness. The program will also traditionally include a section co-created with Ale kino+, a long-term New Horizons partner, with hits that won the hearts of viewers at the most important festivals around the world.
As part of Oslo / Reykjavik 4 section, achievements of contemporary films from Norway and Iceland will be presented. As every year, festival outliers and slow cinema gems can be discovered in the Lost Lost Lost section. Polish women rule this year's Shortlist: the program of this section includes a total of 25 Polish short films, of which 20 are films made or co-produced by female directors. Children's films can be found in the Children's Cinema section.
This year will see the happy return of the cult-favorite, open-air Cinema on the Market Square, sponsored by the City of Wrocław. Every day from August 13 to 22 at 10:00 PM, in the heart of Wrocław, you will be able to see excellent films bearing the New Horizons seal of approval. The market square shows are free (seating is limited, first come, first served).
Art scene and special events
In the Studio BWA gallery, from July 23, you can see the Z (don't panic, kiss me) exhibition accompanying the festival, which is an extension of the festival’s cinematographic research. This year's theme is teeth: a movie fetish, a transhuman training ground and one of those parts of our body where what is typically human and strictly animal intersect. On August 13, we invite you to the exhibition midisage, combined with a meeting with the authors of the works presented at the BWA Studio.
Every day, punctually at midnight, at the Neon Side Gallery (courtyard at ul. Ruska 46c), you will be able to admire the fifth installment of the Midnight Show, entitled More Light! The medium of this year's edition is neon – a means of expression deeply rooted both in the cinematographic iconography and in the urban space creating the scenery of nightlife. The co-organizers of the Midnight Show are Krupa Gallery and BWA Wrocław.
Also, for the fifth time, the Ambient Room prepared by the artistic collective IP Group was included in the Nowe Horyzonty program. This year's edition, entitled ifthenelse, is an interactive immersive environment created on the basis of the rules of a conditional statement, common in most programming languages. All will be available at IP Studio at ul. Ruska 46a.
The festival will also feature the Polish premiere of VR Nightsss a virtual, erotic poem designed for viewing in augmented reality. The authors of VR Nightsss are Weronika Lewandowska and Sandra Frydrysiak, and the project will be made available at the Lower Silesian Film Center.
On August 19 (at the Capitol Theater) the recital With Chantal will begin. The outstanding cellist, Sonia Wieder-Atherton, the protagonist of the films and life partner of Chantal Akerman, will present a musical and film dialogue with the icon of Belgian cinema.
Mariusz Wilczyński, mentioned earlier, will appear at the festival in a special role. On August 14, he will prepare a live animated film – The Devil Knows No Boundaries – and the entire performance will be accompanied by the music of Sinfonia Varsovia cellist, Marcel Markowski, also performed live.
Safety first
This year, sanitary safety is of paramount importance for the organizers of New Horizons. The screening rooms will be filled to a maximum of 75% capacity (the limit applies to all people), all festival attendees will be required to wear masks over their mouth and nose and maintain distance, there will be stations for hand disinfection and temperature measurement in the cinemas, and cinema rooms and common areas will be disinfected as often as possible. Find more details on sanitary issues online read here.
Where to chill and talk movies, i.e., recommended places.
The strength of film festivals aren't just the films, but also the talks and discussions about them. During New Horizons, downtown Wrocław turns into a huge discussion club with conversations often lasting until dawn in individual cafes, pubs and restaurants. As the organizers of New Horizons, we are happy to be able to return to the cinema screens, and above all, that Wrocław will glow with cinema again. In order to provide our viewers with maximum sanitary safety, we are making an exception and foregoing organizing the festival club at the Municipal Museum in Arsenal. We invite you to support local restaurants in this difficult year and take advantage of Wrocław’s rich café and restaurant offer, says Marcin Pieńkowski, Director of New Horizons. A list of recommended locations is available online here – the festival participants will be able to take advantage of special discounts.