The 14th edition of CinEast, the Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Luxembourg, which is taking place in a hybrid format from 7 to 24 October 2021, will present around 110 in-cinema screenings of 55 feature films and 35 short films; the full programme is now available at www.cineast.lu.
The festival's opening film is the Sundance triple winner Hive by Blerta Basholli, which will be screened after the official opening ceremony at neimënster cultural centre on Thursday 7 October 2021.
The main thematic cycle of the 14th edition "Dreams of Escape" provides a reflection on various forms of our hopes for a change, distraction or getaway. The programme features films from 20 countries of the former Eastern bloc, screened at various venues across Luxembourg City (Cinémathèque, neimënster, Ciné Utopia, Kinepolis Kirchberg), as well as other towns in the the Grand Duchy. Most of the films will also be available online (with a limited number of views and geo-blocked to Luxembourg) through "CinEast Online Cinema", a dedicated video on demand platform (cineast.eventive.org).
The seven films in competition this year are: Celts by Milica Tomović; Forest - I See You Everywhere by Bence Fliegauf; Inventory by Darko Sinko; Miracle by Bogdan George Apetri; Murina by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović; Never Gonna Snow Again by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert; Saving One Who Was Dead by Václav Kadrnka.
The Romanian director and this year's Golden Bear winner Radu Jude will preside over the International Jury of the 14th CinEast. The other members of the jury that will award the Grand Prix and the Special Jury Prize are Czech director Michaela Pavlátová, Luxembourgish producer and director Nicolas Steil, Luxembourgish actress and director Larisa Faber and Belgian co-director of the Brussels IFF Céline Masset.
The Press Jury, which will award the Critics' Prize, is composed of journalists Teresa Vena (Cineuropa), Tobias Kessler (Saarbrücker Zeitung) and Gabrielle Seil (Revue).
The newly introduced Young Talents Jury, composed of students of the BTS Cinema film studies at Lycée des Arts et Métiers (Luxembourg), Alix Andries, Luca Mahnkke, Nikola Ozimkiewicz and Elsa Schweitzer, will choose the winner of the new Young Talents Award (for the director of a first or second film) from the following selection: Love Tasting by Dawid Nickel; Mirrors in the Dark by Šimon Holý; Sisterhood by Dina Duma; Stop-Zemlia by Katerina Gornostai; #dogpoopgirl by Andrei Hutuleac.
The programme also includes a "Focus on Slovenia" (organised in collaboration with the Slovenian Film Centre and the Embassy of Slovenia in Brussels), four discussions (ciné-debates) on current topics, five concerts, a photography exhibition entitled "Dreams of Escape", two film poster exhibitions, youth programmes, special themed evenings and more.
The festival will feature around 30 guests, including Radu Jude, Blerta Basholli, Dénes Nagy, Ioana Bugarin, Izabela Kuna, Michaela Pavlátová, Stefan Arsenijević and others.
The CinEast Festival 2021 is being organised by CinEast asbl in collaboration with the Cinémathèque, neimënster and the Kinepolis group, among others. Its main partners and sponsors are the City of Luxembourg (Ville de Luxembourg), the Ministry of Culture, Film Fund Luxembourg and Kulczyk Investments.
