The films that were screened:

Approved for adoption / Couleur De Peau: Miel by Jung & Laurent Boileau

Jung. Cartoonist. 42 years old according to his civil status, Jung prefers to place his birth at the age of 5, when a policeman found him wandering alone in the streets of Seoul. He is one of those 200 000 adopted Koreans spread around the world. Jung decided to return for the first time in South Korea, in order to breathe the air of his home country, tread the land of his ancestors, and maybe find traces of his biological mother. This trip of reconciliation with his roots and with himself leads our character to recall – in animation – the child he once was and the winding path that made him grow up. Approved for adoption is a very original animation film for an original topic. The characters were developed and created in 3D, the landscapes and decorations are in 2D and the drawings are originally made by Jung. The film deals with adoption issues with tenderness and humor.

Awards/Festivals

Audience Award, Annecy, Official Selection, France 2012
UNICEF Award, Annecy, Official Selection, France 2012
Special Mention, Rencontres Internationales de Vincennes – Prix Henri Langlois, France 2013
Great Award of Montreal and the INIS Award, FIFEM, Canada 2013
Rencontres Internationales de Vincennes – Prix Henri Langlois 2013

Reviews

“It’s impossible not to be charmed on some level by Jung Henin and Laurent Boileau’s “Approved for Adoption…” Variety

The film is screened with English and Greek subtitles

Title: Approved for adoption (Couleur De Peau: Miel)
Director: Jung & Laurent Boileau
Country: France/Belgium
Production: 2012
Duration: 71’
Language: French
International sales: Wide Management

Cowboys/Kauboji by Tomislav Mrsic

Cowboys is a comedy based on a Croatian hit theatre play. It is a story of eight outsiders who try to create a theatre play while breaking every rule of theatre craft. It tells the story of Sacha, a relatively successful theater director, who returns from the big city to his home town without a clear notion of what that change might bring, leaving behind his career to re-start the neglected local theater. The call came from the mayor and Sasa’s school colleagues. However, the play will be a succession of hurdles, as the city does not have any actors or anyone who would know anything about the theater business. The candidates will all be amateurs, and as the play will seem even more impossible to set up, they settle on a common ground: Western.

Cowboys represents Croatia in the Oscar competition for best foreign film

Awards/Festivals
Pula Film Festival 2014
Shanghai International Film Festival 2014
Les Rencontres des Cinémas d’Europe, Aubenas, France, 2014
Festival of European and Mediteranean Films (FEMF), Piran, Slovenia, 2014
Festroia Festival, Portugal, 2014
Jagran Film Festival, India, 2014
International Film Festival Cinematik Piestany, 2014
Eurasia International Film Festival, Kazakhstan, 2014
Hamburgh Film Fest, 2014
Mill Valley film Festival, US, 2014
Cinedays Festival of European Film, Macedonia, 2014
Chennai Film Festival, 2014
18th Annual European Union Film Festival, USA , 2014

Reviews

“Croatia’s foreign-language Oscar entry is a nifty blend of social drama and absurdist comedy.” Variety

The film is screened with English and Greek subtitles

Title: Cowboys (Kauboji)
Director: Tomislav Mrsic
Country: Croatia
Production: 2014
Duration: 104’
Language: Croatian
International sales: Wide Management

Hide your smiling faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone

Hide Your Smiling Faces vividly depicts the young lives of two brothers as they abruptly come of age through the experience of a friend’s mysterious death. The event ripples under the surface of their town, unsettling the brothers and their friends in a way that they can’t fully understand. Once familiar interactions begin to take on a macabre tone in light of the tragic accident, leading Eric, 14, and Tommy, 9, to retreat into their wild surroundings. As the two brothers vocally face the questions they have about mortality, they simultaneously hold their own silent debates within their minds that build into seemingly insurmountable moral peaks. Hide Your Smiling Faces is a true, headlong glimpse into the raw spirit of youth, as well as the calluses that one often develops as a result of an unfiltered past.

Awards/Festivals

Berlinale – Generation section 2013
Official Selection Tribeca 2013 – World Narrative Competition
Champs-Elysées Film Festival – Official Competition 2013
GALWAY FILM FLEADH 2013
T-MOBILE NEW HORIZONS International Film Festival, Poland 2013 – Panorama section
Sarajevo Film festival 2013 – operation Kino section
London BFI Film Festival 2013 – FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION
Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2013 – Open Horizons section

Reviews

“Brilliant drama that captures the uncertainty of youth.” Guardian

The film is screened with Greek subtitles

Title: Hide Your Smiling Faces
Director: Daniel Patrick Carbone
Country: USA
Production: 2013
Duration: 80’
Language: USA
International sales: Wide Management