A Sunday in the Country 2015 - another successful meeting of young critics near Wrocław

A Sunday in the Country, a retreat-like event for young critics was organized as a part of the T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival in Byków, near Wrocław for the 4th time on the last days of July 2015 (July 30th - August 1st).

A Sunday consists of 3 days spent on cooking together, networking, watching movies and talking about them and cinema and cinephilia in general in a charming house by the woods and is organized by the European Film Academy and New Horizons Association with the support of the local cultural institutes and Krzysztof Mętrak Award.

On Friday the participants watched Polish-Swedish co-production The Hereafter and H. (Argentina, USA). The director-producer duos of both films (Magnus von Horn and Mariusz Włodarski and subsequently Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia) were present for lunch and dinner and engaged in a discussion about the role of the critic in filmmakers' career and the expectations or demands the professions have towards each other. On Saturday the Sunday the participants watched Ruined Heart by a Philippino filmmaker Khavn de la Cruz, a juror of this year's New Horizons competition, who joined us for lunch and discussion.

On Saturday evening Kaleem Aftab, A Sunday's expert and established British critic and author introduced The Inside Man by Spike Lee. The conversations continued long into the night.

The group was composed of 8 people from 8 different European countries: Anka Herbut (Poland), Andrey Arnold (Austria), Astrid Jansen (Belgium), Katerina Lambrinova (Bulgaria), Pete Wu (the Netherlands), Tara Karajica (Serbia), and Thomas Sejersen (Denmark). One of them commented: "It is not only a weekend of thought provoking discussion of the past, present, and future of film criticism. First and foremost, it provides a unique encounter of like-minded and future friends from all over Europe."