Foreign Film Festivals

Exciting though the domestic film industry is at the moment there is similarly some incredible stuff being brought over from all corners of the globe and British venues are all but jumping at the chance to reign you into their seats and see what all the fuss is about.

Exciting though the domestic film industry is at the moment there is
similarly some incredible stuff being brought over from all corners of the
globe and British venues are all but jumping at the chance to reign you into
their seats and see what all the fuss is about.

Argentinean
Film Festival

Held between the 19^th and 22^nd of April at
Brixton’s Ritzy Picturehouse, the
festival has this week announced that it will be opening with Sebastian Borenzstein’s Chinese Take-Away,
one of the country’s best selling films of last year. The event will be hosting
eight award winning films, including road movie Las Acacias directed by Pablo
Giorgelli and gay drama Absent (Marco Berger.)This will be the first Argentinean Film Festival in London and
full details can be found HERE.

Jiří Trnka At BFI Southbank

The
Czech animation pioneer is celebrated throughout April at the Southbank cinema for the centenary of
his birth. Deemed the Walt Disney of
the East, Trnka founded Czech puppet film as well as the basis for the
country’s animation industry. Two programmes of shorts will be put on for the
occasion; Trna for Children and for Adults, which includes adaptations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Emperor’s Nightingale. A Q&A
with Trnka’s protégé Vlasta Pospíšilová will also be held over the whole
of the month. Full details of the programme will be posted HERE.

The Guardian Presents: Le
Havre/Q&A Mark Pagel

The Curzon in Soho plays Aki Kaurismäki’s colourful 2011 feature about an
elderly couple’s life troubled by the wife being diagnosed a serious illness
running alongside the husband caring for an illegal immigrant boy. The French
film will be followed with a Q&A with Mark
Pagel, a leading evolutionary theorist who will be giving his two cents on
the presentation. This special screening will be shown on the 6^th of
April, and you can book tickets HERE.

Wales One World Film Festival

Currently underway is this continental film fest being held across a great range of local venues in Wales. The festival returns for its 12th year and the programme is bringing with it some of the best in world cinema, including Federico Veiroj’s black and white romantic comedy A Useful Life, Karl Markovics’ Cannes winning Breathing and costume drama Mysteries of Lisbon (Raul Ruiz.)The Wales One World or WOW organisation holds regular events; you can read up on what they’re all about HERE.

London Palestine Film Festival

Back
to the capital and the Barbican will
be helping celebrate nearly a century’s worth of Palestinian cinema with the return
of the 2012 festival. Pulling samples from various decades the festival will
present a series of documentaries and dramas addressing subjects relative to
their origin, such as the siege of Beirut, the Iraq war and the Druze minority
in Israel. As well as screenings the festival will be holding panels and
Q&As with artists, filmmakers and scholars discussing the cinematic and
political history of the region.

You
can find a full listing of the programme and booking information HERE.

London Australia Film Festival

The
Australian film industry has proven its worth over the past few years with
exports like Animal Kingdom and Snowtown (Main Picture) stirring critical acclaim over
in the UK. This May a series of films and events surrounding the country will
be showing to the British public at London’s Barbican centre. This is the only
major showcase of Australia’s work in Europe and will include premieres as well
as documentaries, features and a selection of short films. The full programme
has yet to be announced but when it is you can find it Here.

With the
world market imposing more and more upon what we watch in the UK (just see this
year’s award’s season) it’s worth getting up to scratch on your foreign cinema.
With Hollywood remakes based on originals everywhere from Japan to Sweden you
can guarantee to find something to your tastes before it’s remade on a bigger
and usually less appealing scale.