Unconventional films and industry set to mingle at 10th Era New Horizons

The 10th Era New Horizons International Film Festival gets underway today in Wrocław, Poland with two opening films: Gaspar Noé’s Enter The Void and Xavier Beauvois’ Of Gods And Men.

Grand jury of filmmakers Jonathan Caouette, Piotr Dumała, Gideon Koppel, Mariusz Treliński and Yeşim Ustaoğlu will consider 14 films in the festival’s main competition.

Era New Horizons aims to promote unconventional films and directors who, in the words of festival director Roman Gutek, “go against the current”. Among the films competing for the €20,000 Grand Prix are Le Quattro Volte, Mundane History, Trash Humpers and other films which have already generated buzz at international festivals.

Other competitions sections include Movies on Art, Polish shorts and European shorts. Audiences will have opportunity to attend special screenings of Caouette’s All Tomorrow’s Parties and Tarnation, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Despair, and Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi’s Mondo Cane, among others. And Jean-Luc Godard will attend the festival to present the Polish premiere of his Film Socialism and a retrospective of more than 100 of his films.

The festival also hosts the New Horizons Studio, an initiative which aims to give young Polish filmmakers a better understanding of the international film industry. The workshop, which runs July 26–29, works on pitching, international promotion, festival strategy, and world sales.

This year’s New Horizons Studio program was created by Sandy Lieberson, chair of Film London and a collaborator of the Berlinale Talent Campus. The program will feature presentations by Dan Films producer Julie Baines, LevelK sales agent Tine Klint and Transilvania International Film Festival executive director Rik Vermeulen, as well as master classes by Caouette and Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Along with more than $70,000 in prize money, Era New Horizons guarantees local distribution of the winners of the festival’s various competitions. Six films from the ninth edition were released theatrically and on DVD in Poland in the first half of 2010: Steve McQueen’s Grand Prix-winner Hunger, Ivan Vyrypayev Audience Award-winner Oxygen, Johan Grimonprez’s Double Take, Agnès Varda’s The Beaches of Agnès, Henrik Hellström and Frederik Wenzel’s Burrowing and Piotr Dumala’s The Forest.

The festival concludes Aug 1 with Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro.

New Horizons International Competition

Amer, dir. Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani

Between Two Worlds, dir. Vimukti Jayasundara

Expelled, dir. Adam Sikora

I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You, dir. Marcelo Gomes, Karim Aïnouz

In The Woods, dir. Angelos Frantzis

Le Quattro Volte, dir. Michelangelo Frammartino

Mama, dir. Nikolay Renard, Yelena Renard

Mundane History, dir. Anocha Suwichakornpong

Putty Hill, dir. Matt Porterfield

Refrains Happen Like Revolutions In A Song, dir. John Torres

Shit Year, dir. Cam Archer

The Mouth Of The Wolf, dir. Pietro Marcello

The Temptation Of St. Tony, dir. Veiko Õunpuu

Trash Humpers, dir. Harmony Korine

Movies on Art International Competition

Archipels Nitrate, dir. Claudio Pazienza

Belair, dir. Bruno Safadi, Noa Bressane

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, dir. Tamra Davis

La Danse. The Paris Opera Ballet, dir. Frederick Wiseman

Oil City Confidential, dir. Julien Temple

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, dir. Sophie Fiennes

Reel Injun, dir. Neil Diamond, Jeremiah Hayes, Catherine Bainbridge

The Gertrude Stein Mystery Or Some Like It Art, dir. Philippe Mora

Themerson&Themerson, dir. Wiktoria Szymańska

Traces Of A Diary, dir. Marco Martins, André Principe

Villalobos, dir. Romuald Karmakar

We Don’t Care About Art Anyway, dir. Cédric Dupire, Gaspar Kuentz

New Polish Films Competition

Ewa, dir. Adam Sikora, Ingmar Vilqist

I Am Yours, dir. Mariusz Grzegorzek

If You Go Away, dir. Ewa Stankiewicz

Made In Poland, dir. Przemysław Wojcieszek

Mother Teresa Of Cats, dir. Paweł Sala

Tomorrow Will Be Better, dir. Dorota Kędzierzawska

Venice, dir. Jan Jakub Kolski