The sixth edition of the Bucharest Jewish Film Festival (BJFF) is to unfold during 11-17 June, at the Romanian National Farmers' Museum, Horia Bernea Hall, the admission being free of charge.
Screenings will also be held at Eforie Cinematheque and on Green Hours Terrace. This year's edition will include over 30 documentary and fiction films, full-length features and shorts, most of them to be premiered in Romania.
The Festival has two competition sections: one for documentary films and one for fiction features. The fiction film competition comprises five titles:
How to Win Enemies (Argentina, 2015, directed by Gabriel Lichtmann),
Song of Songs (Ukraine, 2015, directed by Eva Neymann),
Time to Say Goodbye (Germania, 2015, directed by Vivianne Andereggen),
Are You Joking (SUA, 2014, directed by Jake Wilson) and
She’s Funny That Way (Germany - USA, 2014, directed by Peter Bogdanovich). The Jury is made up of:
Cristina Corciovescu, film reviewer and FIPRESCI member,
Radu Gabrea, reputed director and screenwriter, member of the BJFF Honorary Board, and
Mihai Fulger, film reviewer and Editor-in-Chief of the Romanian Cinematheque.
In the documentary competition, six films were selected:
Shifting Sands (Israel, 2016, directed by Ido Glass),
I Don’t Belong Anywhere: the Cinema of Chantal Akerman (Belgium, 2014, directed by Marianne Lambert),
It Takes a School (Israel, 2016, directed by Tami Gross, Maya Rothschild),
Orphans of the Revolution (Israel, 2015, directed by Igal Bursztyn),
The Venice Ghetto: 500 Years of Life (Italy-France, 2015, directed by Emanuela Giordano) and
Zemene (USA, 2014, directed by Melissa R. Donovan). The Jury of this section is made up of: Dr. Ilan Avisar (Chairman of the Jury), Professor with “Steve Tisch” Film and Television School, “David and Yolanda Katz” Arts Faculty within Tel Aviv University,
Dana Duma, publicist, film reviewer and member of the Romanian Filmmakers Union Board,
Laurențiu Damian, director, screenwriter and Chairman of the Romanian Filmmakers Union.
Outside the competition, the Festival prepared several parallel programs. The
Golden section is to bring two award-winning films,
Saul fia (
Son of Saul, directed by László Nemes) and the documentary
Shomrei HaSaf (
The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh).
A Director's Portrait: Savi Gabizon includes three productions by the said director (
Shuroo,
Lovesick on Nana Street and
Nina’s Tragedies), and
Retrospective: Sidney Lumet includes the films
Find Me Guilty,
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and
Serpico. Within the section
Best of BJFF, Bucharest viewers will have the opportunity to watch again two of the most appreciated titles of the Festival's first edition –
Gainsbourg: Heroic Life (directed by Joann Sfar) and
A Room and a Half (directed by Andrey Khrzhanovsky).
University Films includes shorts made by students and graduates of “David and Yolanda Katz” Arts Faculty, these shorts having won praise in the world-wide festival circuit.
At the Closing Gala, the film
The Man in the Wall (directed by Evgeny Ruman) will be screened.
The guests of BJFF 2016 will be Ilan Avisar, Liviu Carmely (Professor with „David and Yolanda Katz”) Arts Faculty, Savi Gabizon and Evgeny Ruman.
Details at:
www.bjff.ro
