08/11/2007

The first Estoril European Film Festival, a new event for discovering European films and filmmakers, kicks off tonight and runs until November 17. Surprisingly, the festival won't officially open with a film but with a tribute to one of Europe's most celebrated filmmakers, Pedro Almodóvar.

The enfant terrible-turned-respectful director is coming to Estoril to receive a career award and hold a masterclass. Almodóvar brings with him some of the actresses who accompanied him in certain periods of his long career, such as Marisa Paredes, Vitoria Abril and Rossy de Palma. Their performances can be enjoyed in a full retrospective of Almodóvar's works, from Pepi, Lucy, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom to Volver [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustín Almodóvar
interview: Carmen Maura
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
interview: Pénélope Cruz
film profile].

Besides Spanish glamour, the festival will also present the works of young filmmakers, both in competition and out of competition. The 14 titles running for the Golden Nau (€30,000) include Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi's Actresses [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news), Leonard Abrahamson's Garage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ed Guiney
interview: Jean-François Deveau
interview: Lenny Abrahamson
film profile] (see news), Maria Speth's Madonnas (see news) and two world premiere French titles: Cédric Anger's Le Tueur and Alan Raoust's L'été Indien.

Screening out of competition are two representatives of the latest Romanian new wave: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Oleg Mutu
film profile] by Christian Mungiu (see Focus) and California Dreamin' (Endless) [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the last film by Christian Nemescu, both of which won awards in Cannes; as well as Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, Anton Corbijn's Control [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Claude Chabrol's A Girl Cut In Two [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Lobos by Portuguese director José Nascimento.

Although Estoril has no official market, 36 distribution companies from 16 countries, members of Europe Distribution, are attending the festival to hold a conference and also take the opportunity to assist some recently produced Portuguese titles. Those scheduled to attend include Bac Films (France), Artificial Eye (UK), Notro Films (Spain) and BIM (Italy).