09/11/2010

The 24th Braunschweig International Film Festival (November 9-15) opens today with Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland’s acclaimed film A Somewhat Gentle Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hans Petter Moland
film profile], which screened in competition at Berlin in February.

Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, who plays the laconic and rather nice reformed gangster of the title, will receive the Europa European Actors Award at the awards ceremony on November 14. He will also be the focus of a seven-film retrospective (including Danish master Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, and films by István Szabó and Milos Forman).

The festival’s main prize, the Heinrich, is awarded by the audience to debut and second films by young European directors and is worth €10,000 to be shared between the director and producer or German distributor to support the film’s release in Germany. Vying for the accolade this year are ten titles representing nine countries chosen from among a record 120 submitted films.

The ten selectees are Sophie Heldman’s German/Swiss co-production Colours in the Dark [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; The Cloud Painting Machine [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Spain’s Aitor Mazo and Patxo Tellería; Mark de Cloe’s Dutch film Life in One Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; Nikola Lezaic’s Serbian title Tilva Rosh, which recently won honours at Cottbus; Bertrand Renaud’s French/Luxembourg co-production Just the Three of Us [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Nabil Ben Yadir’s French/Belgian film The Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile]; Olivier Masset-Depasse’s former Cannes contender and LUX Prize finalist Illegal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile]; Czech director Marek Najbrt’s Protector; Cracks [+see also:
trailer
interview: María Valverde
film profile] by Jordan Scott, daughter of Ridley; and Donatella Maiorca’s Italian film Sea Purple [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Braunschweig, the only German festival to explore year after year the close links between music and cinema through different sections and events, will also present a German panorama and an international panorama whose programme includes Cannes titles Certified Copy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Tamara Drewe [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile] and Sound of Noise [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. The line-up also features a Franco-German section judged by a youth jury with equal representation from both countries, showing the understated yet unbearably violent film Picco and Dear Prudence [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; and short films nominated for the EFA European Film Awards.

(Translated from French)