Over 120 screenings will be held during the 10-day Valletta Film Festival, which opens on June 8.
Saskia Boddeke and Peter GreenawayOrganised by the Film Grain Foundation, the fourth edition of the festival will be held in four venues around the city: Pjazza Teatru Rjal, the Valletta Talent Campus, Spazju Kreattiv and Embassy Cinemas.
St Bernard Syndicate, a film by Mads Brügger which had its world premiere last April at New York’s Tribeca festival and won for best screenplay and best actor, will open the festival.
The other films on the list also carry strong credentials.
Mug, by Małgorzata Szumowska, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February and won the Grand Jury Prize. Wolfgang Fischer’s Styx was filmed in Malta and won the Europa Cinemas Label award in Berlin.
Don’t Forget Me by Ram Nehari was the winning film at the Torino Film Festival in November.
The special guest will be acclaimed British director Peter Greenaway
Cast and crew from the films being screened will be at the festival to present the titles to audiences and participate in question-and-answer sessions after each premiere screening and at other events held daily in Valletta.
The festival will also include three competitive sections in which seven feature films, seven documentaries and 22 short films will compete for various awards, including best feature film, best documentary and best short film.
The awards will be adjudicated by three juries composed of filmmakers, writers and critics.
The film festival’s special guest this year will be acclaimed British director Peter Greenaway, who will be present for the festival’s opening ceremony and a special screening of the documentary exploring his career The Greenaway Alphabet, directed by Dutch multimedia artist and director Saskia Boddeke.
Peter GreenawayMr Greenaway will also be presenting a two-hour masterclass focusing on the presence and importance of water on our planet and in our lives, and his long relationship with water in his films.
The Valletta Film Festival will be screening a number of Mr Greenaway’s most well-loved works, including The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover, The Pillow Book and his debut, The Draughtsman’s Contract.
The festival will also mark the centenary of Ingmar Bergman’s birth by showing some of his films, including The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. These films were digitally restored by the Swedish Film Institute.
Feature film competition
The selected feature films for this year’s competition are the following:
Anchor and Hope by Carlos Marques-Marcet (Spain/UK)
Mug by Małgorzata Szumowska (Poland)
Pity by Babis Makridis (Greece/Poland)
St Bernard Syndicate by Mads Brügger (Denmark)
Boys Cry by Damiano & Fabio D’Innocenzo (Italy)
Styx by Wolfgang Fischer (Austria/Germany)
Don’t Forget Me by Ram Nehari (Israel)
Official partners
The official partners of the Valletta Film Festival 2018 are HSBC Bank Malta, The Phoenicia Hotel, the Arts Council Malta and Valletta 2018.
Supporting partners include the Malta International Airport, Audi Malta, Malta Contemporary Art, Cisk Pilsner, Campari Tonic, Remax, Cleland & Souchet, UNHCR Malta, Growth Gurus, Transcripta, I Can Do Things and Pellikola.
The Times of Malta is the media partner of the Valletta Film Festival 2018.
www.vallettafilmfestival.com
Styx by Wolfgang Fischer