Astra Film - Sibiu International Film Festival 2019 is a revealing experienceboth for general audiences who are willing to explore new realities from the entire world based on the proposed film selection and for young directors, through the programme for developing documentary film projects. DocTank, the special programme dedicated to industry professionals, will take place during Astra Film Festival between 17 and 19 October and it includes debates, workshops, events, presentations and networking opportunities.
Over the course of 3 days, theDocTankprogramme will bring together renowned directors and beginners, students from profile faculties, producers, distributors and buyers, festival representatives and other industry professionals from Europe and all over the world for a series of productive meetings.
DocTank also includes Astra Film Lab, an intensive workshop in which 10 ongoing projects of young filmmakers from Romania, Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Moldova, Czech Republic and Ukraine will be screened for several outstanding industry representatives: Gabriela Bussmann (producer), Olivia Cooper-Hadjian (representative of Cinéma du Réel), Alina David (HBO producer), Aleksandar Govedarica (distributor), Martin Horyna (representative of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival), Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan (producer), Hanka Kastelicová (executive producer of documentaries for HBO Europe), Irina Malcea (producer), Sorin Manu (producer), Cornelia Popa (manager CineLab), Adam Paplinski (producer), Katarzyna Szarecka (consultant for Pitch the Doc), Elena Santamaria (producer) or Valentina Miu (coordinator MEDIA Desk Romania). This year, the tutors of the Astra Film Lab programme are Irina Maldea (who has over 30 years of experience working in the industry), Brendan Culleton (producer and director) and Michael Treves (producer and distributor). The winners will receive prizes for development, post-production and digital marketing.
This year, DocTank teams up with Pitch the Doc, an online pitching platform, in a workshop that maximizes the success rate of directors with an ongoing project, which will take place on Thursday, 17 October. On Friday, 18 October, ”Making your first documentary”,a roundtable discussion,will bring together the interested students andsome of the directors whose films are part ofthe official selection of AFF 2019. This meeting aims to encourage the sharing of personal experiences, advice and development opportunities, workshop and scholarship applications, the ways in which you can organize a project and the steps you have to take after the production of a film has ended. ”Creative Europe MEDIA” will also take place on Friday, during which European development opportunities for documentary filmmaking will be presented, as well as”From Script to Screen: best practices of documentary development”, a panel discussion which will detail some of the current conditions, opportunities and issues that European filmmakers must take into account. The discussions and meetings on Thursday and Friday will be heldin the Glass Hall of Filarmonica de Stat Sibiu. On Saturday, 19 October, at the Dome in the Large Square, there will be a discussion entitled”Interface. Comunication between machines and humans” about how messages converse with the space in which they are exposed to be fully integrated into the architecture through digital techniques, which allows a total video adaptation of the three-dimensional space. In each of the three days of DocTank, the guests will have access to the Video Bar at the Filarmonica de Stat Sibiu, where they can watch over 100 documentaries from the official programme of this edition of the festival.
The AFF 2019 Awards will be held on Saturday, 19 October, 7 PM, at Filarmonica de Stat Sibiuin the presence of hundreds of guests. The winning films of the 2019 edition of Astra Film Festival will be announced. A prestigious jury made up of 10 professionals had the difficult mission of evaluating the 46 films in the 4 competition sections: International, Central & Eastern Europe, Romania and DocSchool. The award ceremony on Saturday will end with a live music performance of Om la lună.
Astra Film Festival Sibiu is held under the High Patronage of the Romanian Presidency.
Astra Film Festival 2019 is coordinated by Astra Film, CNM Astra and the Astra Film Foundation, with the support of the Sibiu County Council, the Ministry of Culture and National Identity and the National Center of Cinematography. The event is co-financed by the Sibiu Local Council through the City Hall of Sibiu.
