14/03/2017 - 100 films from 30 European countries are on the menu of the 12th edition of the event set to unspool in Paris and the Ile-de-France region from 15 March-16 April

Saint George by Marco Martins

Tomorrow, Carlos Saura’s Fados [+see also:
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film profile] will screen as the opening film of the 12^th edition of the "L'Europe autour de l'Europe” Festival, which will unspool from 15 March-16 April, in around 20 cinemas, schools and universities in Paris and the Ile-de-France region, offering a rich programme of 100 films hailing from 30 European countries. Among other events, the gathering headed by Irena Bilić will present a focus on Portuguese cinema (from Miguel Gomes to Teresa Villaverde, via much-respected figureheads such as Manoel de Oliveira, Paulo Rocha, Joao César Monteiro and João Botelho), a number of "Tributes to the Masters" (such as Andrzej Wajda, Milos Forman and Pierre Étaix, curated by the festival’s guest of honour, Jean-Claude Carrière), and a themed section entitled Migrations, which includes a selection ranging from silent films to more contemporary works (in partnership with the Seydoux-Pathé Foundation).

In competition, nine feature-length fiction films that are as yet unreleased in France will lock horns for the 2017 Sauvage Award, which will be handed out by a jury chaired by Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Szabó. Standing out among the titles vying for the prize (which will be screened from 11-15 April) are Godless [+see also:
film review
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interview: Ralitza Petrova
film profile] by Bulgaria’s Ralitza Petrova (Golden Leopard at Locarno), Saint George [+see also:
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Q&A: Marco Martins
film profile] by Portuguese director Marco Martins (which earned Nuno Lopes the Best Actor Award in the Horizons section at Venice), Mister Universo [+see also:
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film profile] by Italy’s Tizza Covi and Austria’s Rainer Frimmel (Jury Special Mention at Locarno), The Curve [+see also:
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film profile] by Jordan’s Rifqi Assaf (co-produced by French outfit Eaux Vives Productions, among others), Lily Lane [+see also:
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film profile] by Hungary’s Bence Fliegauf (revealed in the Berlinale Forum) and Family Film [+see also:
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interview: Olmo Omerzu
film profile] by Slovenia’s Olmo Omerzu (unveiled at San Sebastián and voted Best Czech Film of 2016 by the national critics). Three documentaries round off the selection: Donkeyote [+see also:
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film profile] by Spaniard Chico Pereira (popular at Rotterdam in January), Spira Mirabilis [+see also:
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film profile] by Italian duo Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti (unveiled in competition at Venice) and Blue Velvet Revisited [+see also:
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film profile] by Germany’s Peter Braatz.

For the second year running, the festival will dedicate a competitive section (dubbed Présent) to documentaries, with nine features set to be screened from 5-9 April. They include Austerlitz [+see also:
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film profile] by Ukraine’s Sergeï Loznitsa (who we may well find at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival with his fiction title A Gentle Creature), which was revealed out of competition at Venice, Normal Autistic Film [+see also:
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film profile] by Miroslav Janek (which has just won the Lion for Best Czech Documentary of the Year) and Woman and the Glacier [+see also:
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film profile] by Lithuania’s Audrius Stonys (which was world-premiered at the IDFA). Also in the running are the Turkish-German co-production The Others [+see also:
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film profile] by Ayşe Polat (awarded at Istanbul and DOK Leipzig), the Portuguese production Maybe Desert Perhaps Universe [+see also:
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film profile] by Karen Akerman and Miguel Seabra Lopes, Brother Jakob [+see also:
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film profile] by Germany’s Eli Roland Sachs, A Bastard Child by Sweden’s Knutte Wester (a 57-minute film) and Thomas Pesquet, l'étoffe d'un héros by Jürgen Hansen and Pierre-Emmanuel Le Goff, which follows the training programme of the titular French astronaut as he prepares for his mission on board the International Space Station. Lastly, we should point out that Italy’s Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti are in fact taking part in both competitions, as they have also been admitted into Présent with The Never Ending Factory of the Duomo [+see also:
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film profile].

(Translated from French)