17/03/2011

“Celebration, rhythm and blood” will be the keynotes at the opening of the 25th FIFF – Fribourg International Film Festival (March 19-26).

Under the influence of its artistic director the renowned film critic Edouard Waintrop, the event has been completely transformed in the last four years. A festival of third-world movies that once had an air of charity and commiseration, today it exudes the vitality of films from across the world: “Today, it’s a festival which simply gives pride of place to films from faraway lands”, writes Waintrop.

Before we discover what mark his successor Thierry Jobin (also a film critic) will make on the event next year, a quick glance at Waintrop’s new and last selection is enough to spark interest.

Besides Swiss director Thomas Thümena’s documentary about internationally-famed Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, the FIFF line-up brings together about 100 long and short works to be screened in seven Panoramas. These include “Black Note”, focusing on black music; “Tribute to Lita Stantic”, the producer behind the emergence of the Argentinean New Wave; “Sakartvélo”, meaning Georgia in Georgian, a programme of 17 films retracing 80 years of cinema; “The Da Huang Network”, which puts the spotlight on Malaysian production company Da Huang Pictures; and “Being a Terrorist”, an against-the-grain look at September 11, 2001 including a screening of Olivier Assayas’s epic flick Carlos [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

The international jury who will award the Regard d'Or, the festival’s Grand Prize, comprises Spanish director Mercedes Álvarez, Swiss producer Christian Davi, Indian producer-distributor Sunil Doshi, Moroccan filmmaker Izza Genini and Georgian director George Ovashvili.

(Translated from French)