For the fifth time, a special edition of A Sunday in the Country gathered a group of young film critics and journalists. Organised by the European Film Academy and T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival, during the first days of the festival in Wrocław from July 21st-24th, the meeting took place in Zagórze Śląskie, Lower Silesia.
The group was composed of twelve people from ten different countries: Ádám Csiger (Hungary), Klara Cykorz (Poland), Freja Dam (Denmark), Yael M. Danon (Israel), Mirela Delic (Germany), Grzegorz Fortuna (Poland), Iratxe Fresneda (Spain), Anja Krämer (Austria), Andreea Mihalcea (Romania), Rudolf Schimera (Czech Republic), Jelle Schot (the Netherlands) and Hannes Wesselkämper (Germany).
The group spent three days watching movies and talking about them, and about cinema and cinephilia in general, cooking and eating together, and networking in a charming old guest house Fregata by the Bystrzyckie lake. Expert for this edition was the Dutch critic Dana Linssen from NRC Handelsblad and de Filmkrant.
On Friday the participants watched the Polish-British co-production All These Sleepless Nights and discussed with the director Michal Marczak who stayed for the whole weekend. They were joined by two more directors: Mike Ott, whose film Actor Martinez (co-directed with Nathan Silver, USA) they screened next, and TMNHIFF jury member Gust Van den Berghe from Belgium whose 2010 Cannes debut Little Baby Jesus of Flandr the group screened on Saturday morning. After a lively discussion about art and inspiration, they watched Inertia and then welcomed Israeli director Idan Haguel for dinner and inspiring talks about the role of the critic in a filmmaker's career and the expectations or demands the professions have towards each other. The conversations continued long into the night.
Other guests included Jakub Duszynski of Gutek Film distribution and Monika Richter from filmPOLSKA's critics programme "Über Filme schreiben …" (Writing About Films) as well as Robert Dwernicki of 8bb Seed and Venture Capital.
The project was organized by the European Film Academy and New Horizons Association with the support of the local cultural institutes and the Krzysztof Mętrak competition for young film critics.
