American Film Festival in Wroclaw to close with Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra; competition and programme highlights announced.

Scroll down for competition titles

The fourth American Film Festival (AFF) in Wrocław, Poland is to feature 80 films comprising 42 Polish premieres; three European premieres and one world premiere.

The event, which is focused on independent US cinema, will run from Oct 22-27.

It will open with Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive and close with Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, both of which played in competition at Cannes.

Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra recently picked up 11 Emmy awards, including best television movie, best leading actor for Michael Douglas and best director.

Dutch experimental lutenist Jozef van Wissem will conduct a live performance of the soundtrack for Only Lovers Left Alive, which won the Cannes Soundtrack Award, on Oct 23 - the day after its opening night screening.

Competitions

A total of 10 documentaries and 16 narrative feature films will compete for cash prizes, voted for by audiences.

The narrative competitive section, titled Spectrum, comes with a $10,000 audience award for the Best Narrative Feature.

Titles include A Teacher by Hannah Fidell, Blue Caprice by Alexandre Moors, Afternoon Delight by Jill Soloway, Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, The Spectacular Now by James Ponsoldt, and Bluebird by Lance Edmands.

In the second competition, titled American Docs, a $5,000 audience award will be given to the Best Documentary Feature.

The selected films include Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall, The Armstrong Lie by Alex Gibney, Our Nixon by Penny Lane, Northern Light by Nick Bentgen, Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton by Eric Slade and Stephen Silha, and Before You Know It by PJ Raval.

Premieres

AFF will also screen Polish premieres of As I Lay Dying by James Franco, Quentin Dupieux’s Wrong Cops, Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein’s Lovelace, Much Ado About Nothing by Joss Whedon, Touchy Feely by Lynn Shelton, At Any Price by Ramin Bahrani, and Maladies by Carter.

It will also show former US in Progress participants and festival hits I Used to Be Darker by Matt Porterfield and Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone as well as Don Jon by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

US in Progress Wrocław - the festival’s two-day works-in-progress event targeted at US independent filmmakers and European buyers - will run from Oct 23-25.

Competition titles

Spectrum

  • American Milkshake by David Andalman, Mariko Munro
  • Blue Highway by Kyle Smith
  • Coldwater by Vincent Grashaw
  • The Spectacular Now by James Ponsoldt
  • Drinking Buddies by Joe Swanberg
  • Lily by Matt Creed
  • A Teacher by Hannah Fidell
  • Blue Caprice by Alexandre Moors
  • Pearblossom Hwy by Mike Ott
  • Afternoon Delight by Jill Soloway
  • Stand Clear of the Closing Doors by Sam Fleischner
  • Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton
  • The Cold Lands by Tom Gilroy
  • In a World… by Lake Bell
  • A Song Still Inside by Gregory Collins
  • Bluebird by Lance Edmands

American Docs

  • Big Easy Express by Emmett Malloy
  • Off Label by Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher
  • Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall
  • Fall and Winter by Matt Anderson
  • The Armstrong Lie by Alex Gibney
  • Lenny Cooke by Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie
  • Our Nixon by Penny Lane
  • Northern Light by Nick Bentgen
  • Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton by Eric Slade, Stephen Silha
  • Before You Know It by PJ Raval

Topics