The Lithuanian filmmakers making their mark on international screens

Lithuanian filmmakers, cast and crew are being platformed to the international industry during the four days of Meeting Point Vilnius at the Vilnius International Film Festival this week.

Dovilė Grigaliūnaitė, the festival’s head of programme and acquisitions, notes an uptick in the number of Lithuanian films that have traveled to international festivals in the last three years – many made as international co-productions – boosting Lithuania’s profile across Europe and beyond.

“Lithuanian films in these past years are significantly more visible not only in international festivals but in theatrical distribution and successful deals with streaming platforms such as Netflix, HBO,” notes Grigaliūnaitė. 

One of the highest profile has been Vesper, co-directed by Lithuania’s Kristina Buožytė with France’s Bruno Samper. It made its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2022 and went on to screen widely on the festival circuit and sell strongly for Anton including to the US’ IFC Films and Signature Films in the UK. Shot in English, the eco sci-fi was produced by Lithuania’s Natrix Natrix with France’s Rumble Fish Productions. 

Grigaliūnaitė says Vesper is but one example of how the country’s gaze is firmly international as its filmmakers make stories that go beyond borders to reach a global audience.

Take Lithuanian filmmaker Marija Kavtaradze and her sophomore film Slow. A Lithuania, Spain and Swedish co-production, Slow is produced by Vilnius based outfit M-Films and co-produced by Spain’s Frida Films and Barcelona’s Garagefilms. International sales are handled by Paris-based Totem Films. Slow follows a sign-language interpreter, played by Kęstutis Cicėnas, who meets a dancer (Greta Grinevičiūtė) with the pair immediately finding a spark between them. But their burgeoning relationship must navigate the revelation that one of them identifies as asexual.

The film made its world premiere at Sundance in 2023 where it won Kavtaradze the best directing award in the World Cinema Dramatic strand. It followed Kavtaradze’s 2018 debut feature Summer Survivors, the story of a psychologist who travels with two patients suffering from mental illness, that premiered in official selection at Toronto that year.

”Slow remains unstoppable after winning at Sundance,” says Grigaliūnaitė, citing a subsequent best Baltic producer nod in Tallinn and awards at the Les Arcs and Arras film festivals in France and Belgium’s Ghent Film Festival, as well as selections at around 50 festivals including Karlovy Vary, Sydney Stockholm, Durban and Istanbul.

The Lithuanian co-production also secured a theatrical release in Spain and France and other countries.

Then there’s debutant director Laurynas Bareiša’s Pilgrims, a drama exploring a mysterious, traumatic crime, that was the first ever Lithuanian winner of the Orizzonti programme at 2021’s Venice film festival.

Bareiša’s took his film to various international festivals including Thessaloniki, Tallinn, Goteborg and Melbourne. Selected as Lithuania’s entry for best international feature for the 2023 best international Oscar, London-based sales agent Reason8 went on to score key deals with Dekanalog for North American theatrical distribution while HBO took rights for Central and Eastern Europe.

Reason8 is also handling Jonas Trukanas’s Pensive, a teen horror dubbed Lithuania’s first-ever slasher was on the wishlists of many genre festival programmers. Cinedigm acquired all North American rights to the film and pushed it onto horror streaming platform Screambox, which is powered by Bloody Disgusting.The film is the story of a mysterious killer who begins picking off a group of high school classmates one by one after they destroy a set of life-size wooden statues during a wild graduation party.

“Let’s not forget the huge and quite unique success of Isaac, by Jurgis Matulevičius which got a rare Lithuanian nomination for a European Film Academy discovery award,” adds Grigaliūnaitė.

Isaac had its world premiere in the First Feature Competition at the Tallinn Black Nights International Film Festival in 2021. It centres on a political activist who is haunted by the guilt of killing a Jew in the Lietukis garage massacre of 1941 and was produced by Lithuania’s Film Jam and Poland‘s Takfilm.

 Remember To Blink was the debut feature of Lithuanian filmmaker Austėja Urbaite and was one of seven films selected by the Smart7 network of European film festivals for the first edition of its competitive showcase of films by emerging filmmakers in 2023. It was produced by Vilnius-based Fralita Films and revolved around a French couple hoping to adopt two Lithuanian children.

Further notable recent Lithuanian films rolling out across recent international festivals include The Poet by Giedrius Tamoševičius and Vytautas V. Landsbergis and comedy Parade by Titas Laucius.

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