The third edition of the European film showcase sees Westwind launching in St. Petersburg on October 21. The programme of theatrical screenings will serve as the engine for European Film Promotion’s (EFP) first VoD festival on ivi, Russia’s popular online cinema, according to EFP.
Over the course of five days, EFP will present a wide range of European films with their directors, actors and screenwriters to St. Petersburg’s local cinema audiences.
With the change of location from Moscow to St. Petersburg and the extension of the cinema screening programme to include an online festival of 26 European Oscar submissions, EFP is reacting to the present unstable situation for European films in the Russian distribution market.
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Westwind is financially supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and the participating EFP member organisations.
“EFP wants to continue the dialogue with Russian audiences”, says EFP managing director Renate Rose. “However, we have modified our concept to take account of the difficult situation faced by the theatrical distribution of European films in Russia. The two-track approach of an online programme of European films – in partnership with Russia’s leading VoD platform ivi – and the presentation of European films in St. Petersburg will make Westwind into a special endeavour for reaching out to a larger audience.”
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Most of the nine films presented in cinema at St. Petersburg and all of those films available for one year on Westwind’s European Film Festival at ivi., were selected as the national submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The line-up in St. Petersburg includes the Spanish comedy Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed, starring the Spanish Shooting Star Natalia de Molina, the Irish drama The Gift by Tom Collins, and the Swiss docu-fiction The Circle by Stefan Haupt.
EFP also hosts the avant-premiere of the Italian drama Youth by Paolo Sorrentino. Following the Academy Award winner The Great Beauty, Youth is the director’s second English-language film and stars Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, and Jane Fonda.
The EFP member organisations that supported Westwind and selected their national films are: Danish Film Institute, Finnish Film Foundation, Film Fund Luxembourg, German Films, ICAA (Spain), Irish Film Board, Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, Swiss Films.
Photo courtesy: EFP
