The Scanorama European Film Forum readies its 20th-anniversary programme

by Nataliia Serebriakova

09/11/2022 - The Lithuanian gathering's jubilee programme includes a new feature-film competition, and will be opened by Marie Kreutzer's Corsage and closed by Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All

The Scanorama European Film Forum readies its 20th-anniversary programme

Corsage by Marie Kreutzer

The founder and artistic director of Lithuania’s Scanorama European Film Forum (10-20 November), Grazina Arlickaite, points out that any anniversary is a kind of boundary, inviting people to look back on the work that has been done, and evaluate what was done well and what should warrant a new approach. When it opened the very first Scanorama, Lars von Trier's Dogville [+see also:
trailer
film profile] stunned audiences and critics alike. It was accompanied by Thomas Vinterberg's Festen, Kristian Levring's The King Is Alive and Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's Mifune, which became the foundations of the early editions of Scanorama, opening up the broad and unknown horizons of Northern cinema.

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Paying tribute to that very first director, Scanorama will invite audiences to celebrate the 20^t^h-anniversary edition with the first and second episodes of von Trier's The Kingdom Exodus [+see also:
series review
trailer
interview: Asta Kamma August
interview: Hubert Toint and Mark Denes…
series profile] and will continue to monitor the creative rebellion of one of the most important enfants terribles of modern European cinema.

Consistently keeping a close eye on the creative output of its other long-time directors, Scanorama has prepared an exclusive programme of cinema greats for hardcore cinephiles. The festival will be opened by Austrian director Marie Kreutzer's Corsage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
film profile], an original, reckless and playful reconstruction of the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. The lead actress in the movie, Vicky Krieps, won the Best Performance Prize in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

Closing the festival, Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] will once again stand as a testament to the strong combination of this director and actor Timothée Chalamet. This time, they were joined by rising star Taylor Russell, who won the hearts of critics at the Venice Film Festival. In a way, the movie continues the tone established by the opening film, drawing us into an enchanting tale of first love, ingeniously combining elements of romance and horror.

The main novelty of this jubilee edition of the festival will be a feature-film competition presenting works that reflect the important and vital processes going on behind contemporary European cinema. These are bold films with an original style, and although the creative journeys of the directors are only just beginning, they are still characterised by a bright, auteur-driven voice. These filmmakers and their movies have not yet won awards at major film festivals, so the organisers of Scanorama have set themselves the goal of creating a space for them to be seen and appreciated.

Scanorama has established a €7,000 prize for the best film in the competition programme, which will be chosen by an international jury. The jury members are member of the European Film Academy, former director and producer of the European Film Awards, and member of the board of directors of the Wim Wenders Foundation Marion Döring; film director and producer Sergej Stanojkovskis; writer-director Ibolya Fekete; film programme compiler Annina Wettstein; and Fabienne Moris, programme coordinator and member of the Doc Station workshop selection committee at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The festival will also host the national premiere of last film by Mantas Kvedaravicius, Prologos [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The managers of Scanorama emphasise that the gathering consistently adheres to a sustainable strategy when it comes to organising the festival, and strengthens this attitude every year with new steps that are practical and applicable in the day-to-day running of the event. Related to this is not only the decision to update the structure of the catalogue by transferring the film descriptions to the festival's website, but also this year's novelty – an electronic version of the catalogue. Team members and media representatives are encouraged to choose the electronic version of their accreditations, but one of the most environmentally friendly choices is that Scanorama has become the first film festival in Lithuania to use electric cars for logistical purposes. They have been provided by the company SPARK, which provides electric car-sharing services.

This year, Scanorama will be held from 10-20 November in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Siauliai, Panevėzys and Alytus.

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