Poland’s vibrant production landscape resulted in three competition entries: In the Name of… by Malgoska Szumowska and Michal Englert, Imagine by Andrzej Jakimowski, and the Israeli coproduction The Congress by Ari Folman, along with a fourth hopeful by the venerable Polish director Agnieszka Holland, Burning Bush. The Czech Republic appears twice on the list, with the theatrical version of HBO Europe’s Burning Bush and with the Slovak/Czech coproduction of Mira Fornay’s spare and stunning film My Dog Killer, and Slovenian producer Danijel Hocevar is in the running with two Slovenian coproductions: Circles and An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker.
The selection committee of the EFA awards added three films from countries that are not among the 20 countries that can vote a national film directly into the EFA selection. The committee chose to include Block 12 from Cyprus, Varna Film Festival winner The Colour of the Chameleon from Bulgaria, and Croatia’s box office and festival hit social comedy The Priest’s Children. And although Malta has no film entered, the Nordic mega-coproduction Kon-Tiki was filmed on location there.
In addition, Finland sends 8-Ball directed by Aku Louhimies, Turkey lands a slot with Araf – Somewhere In Between directed by Yesim Ustaoglu, and Austria competes with two films: Crossing Boundaries directed by Florian Flicker and Paradise:Faith by Ulrich Seidl.
The Central European films in competition are:
Cyprus/Greece: Block 12, dir. Kiriacos Tofarides, prod. Kiriacos Tofarides
Czech Republic: Burning Bush, dir. Agnieszka Holland, HBO Europe
Romania: Child’s Pose, dir. Calin Peter Netzer, Parada Film
Croatia/Slovenia/Serbia/Germany/France: Circles, dir. Srdan Golubovic, Vertigo/Emotion
Bulgaria: The Colour of the Chameleon, dir. Emil Christov, Peripeteia
Poland/Israel/Germany/Luxembourg/France/Belgium: The Congress, dir. Ari Folman, Opus Film
Slovenia/Bosnia & Herzegovina/France: An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, dir. Denis Tanovic, Vertigo/Emotion
Poland/France/Portugal: Imagine, dir. Andrzej Jakimowski, ZAiR
Georgia/Germany/France: In Bloom, dir. Nana Ektvimishvili, Simon Gross, Polare Film
Poland: In the Name of…, dir. Malgoska Szumowska, Michal Englert, Mental Disorder 4 www.md4.eu
Slovakia/Czech Republic: My Dog Killer, dir. Mira Fornay, Mirafox
Croatia/Serbia: The Priest’s Children, dir. Vinko Bresan, Interfilm
