SEEfest South East European Film Festival today unveiled a sneak peek of what’s in store for the 14th annual event, scheduled from May 1-8, 2019 in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
Each year, the festival presents a wide selection of feature, documentary and short films and this year will explore the theme of ‘cinematic audacity’ by drawing attention to South East European filmmakers whose works grapple with complex existential, ethical and historical questions in innovative and provocative ways. The festival will spotlight unconventional forms of artistic expression and cinematic representation that inform a diverse body of films that is made more difficult by the region’s unique border dynamics.
Highlights of 2019 include the North American premiere of multiple award-winning film from Albania, Bujar Alimani’s The Delegation that probes the layers of oppression between a prisoner and his unlikely entourage; Bosnian documentary Re-Generation by Emir Kapetanovic about a group of adolescents from all ethnic groups in search of a future that is not held hostage by the past; the North American premiere of the Austrian Romeo & Juliet inspired love story with Roma protagonists titled Crush My Heart by Alexandra Makarova; Slovenian Together by Marko Santic featuring a gay partner’s fight for custody of his deceased lover’s daughter; Scopophilia from Greece, Natalia Lampropoulou and Ilektra Aggeletopoulou’s homage to Hitchcock’s Rear Window, and the first Georgian short documentary to be nominated for European Film Academy Awards, Rati Tsiteladze’s Prisoner of Society about a transgender woman who can’t leave home.
The majority of 56 films in competition are North American premieres, with four world premieres and 16 directed by women. New this year is the addition of a sci-fi sidebar program, including the 1986 classic Kin-dza-dza from Georgia. Inaugurating the festival’s theme on April 17 at the West Hollywood Library is the literary and cultural salon Audacious Storytellers, offering a thought-provoking, interdisciplinary discussion of audacity in all of its forms. Through personal anecdotes, literary perspectives and geopolitical histories, the panel will discuss the nature of audacity in a region of the world where borders continuously challenge national and cultural paradigms.
Festival passes are on sale through eventbrite. Individual tickets to go on sale by the end of March.
Bujar Alimani
SEEfest founder Vera Mijojlić
SEEfest presents cinematic and cultural diversity of South East Europe to American audiences and creates cultural connections through films, artistic and social events. The festival was founded in 2006 by esteemed film critic, scholar and cultural entrepreneur Vera Mijojlić.
