Submissions for 2019 SEEfest are Open – Submit through Film Freeway
The 14th edition of SEEfest in 2019 is officially launched! Submissions of feature, documentary and short films are accepted through Film Freeway only. As always, we encourage filmmakers whose storytelling provide context for contemporary events and broader themes that examine South East Europe’s cultural legacies and artistic heritage. NEW in 2019: the festival is adding an exciting sidebar to accommodate Sci-Fi films. Even if your film is ultra-low budget, don’t be shy – it’s the imagination that counts.
Students, non-traditional filmmakers, investigative journalists and reporters are also welcome. If you are not sure whether your film is eligible or have any questions, just drop us a line at: info(at)seefilmla.org.
Turkish Dark Comedy “The Announcement” Wins Special Jury Prize
Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Lobster) was just awarded Grand Jury Prize in Venice for his film set in 18th century England, The Favourite, while Special Jury Prize went to Turkish black comedy about a failed coup d’état The Announcement, directed by Mahmut Fazil Coskun. International sales for The Announcement are handled by Heretic Outreach. In the Horizons program award for Best Director went to Kazakh helmer Emir Baigazin for his third feature, The River.
You can read more about awards and films that premiered at this year’s Venice festival here.
WWII Resistance Hero Immortalized in Iconic Film gets Museum in Sarajevo
During the recent Sarajevo Film Festival (sff.ba) Bosnian Film Center announced plans for a new Museum dedicated to the legendary film about the WWII resistance hero, Vladimir Peric, popularly known by his undercover name Walter. He was killed in the final battle for Sarajevo against the Nazi occupying forces in April 1945.
There is a unique cinematic connection to Walter. Quarter century ago Bosnian and Yugoslav director Hajrudin “Siba” Krvavac made the iconic film Walter defends Sarajevo, the third in his trilogy of WWII movies about partisan resistance fighters. Walter has since gained a cult status even in China (“Some 1.3 billion people now live in China and half of them have seen Walter Defends Sarajevo,”) as well as a reference point for defiant Sarajevans during the siege of the city in the 1990s. The closing line of the film, spoken by a Nazi officer looking down on the city from the hillside vintage point, “Das ist Walter,” (“This is Walter”) has become the defining moment to characterize Sarajevo as the city that will always stand tall in face of aggression and injustice.
Jasmin Durakovic, filmmaker and director of the Bosnian Film Center was joined by Alen Cengic, owner of the Park of the Princes restaurant where the press conference about the Museum was held – at the very spot where the iconic ending of the film took place. “Walter Defends Sarajevo has attained the status of a cult achievement of our cinema,” said Durakovic. “This film is one of the few widely recognized and uniquely Sarajevan reference points which is why the Sarajevo Film Center has decided to create the Museum dedicated to the film.”
The Walter Museum is expected to be completed in two months and will be located in the Film Center’s building (former Sutjeska Film Studio) in downtown Sarajevo. On the site of Park of the Princes restaurant overlooking the city a giant mural backdrop commemorates some of the scenes from the film – with Chinese subtitles. Even before the media event was over groups of Chinese tourists flocked to the site and started taking photographs. Young couples with children instantly recognized the imagery from the beloved film of their parents’ generation and enthusiastically confirmed that Walter still holds his immortal cinematic place in the hearts of the Chinese people. Bathed in the afternoon light the city of Sarajevo was lying below, its spirited citizenry in the party mood for the film festival. Yet quiet echoes of the legendary film live on in Sarajevo where one line of a movie dialogue forever defined its unconquered spirit. After all this is not an ordinary city. Das ist Walter.
Editor’s note:
Hajrudin “Siba” Krvavac (1926 – 1992) is best known for his hugely popular trilogy of war movies about WWII partisans whose heroic resistance became the stuff of legends: The Demolition Squad (Diverzanti, 1967), The Bridge (Most, 1969) and Walter Defends Sarajevo (Valter brani Sarajevo, 1972). Krvavac was also a well known documentary director. He was among the internationally acclaimed Bosnian filmmakers whose movies made the name of the production company Sutjeska Film Sarajevo known well beyond the country’s borders. He died in July 1992 during the Siege of Sarajevo. “However, Krvavac lived long enough to see the people of Sarajevo in 1992 chant, “We Are Walter!” in protest of the conflict.” (wiki)
New York Times Rave Review for the Film “Other Side of Everything”
Congratulations to Mila Turajlic whose film opened in July in New York to rave reviews. We presented it in L.A. at the SEEfest 2018 closing gala in May. The film is NYT critic’s pick this month. It is distributed in the U.S. by Icarus Films. For tickets and showtimes please visit the Museum of the Moving Image.
See more reviews of the film on SEEfest press page.
Interview with 2018 SEEfest Legacy Award Recipient Robert Dornhelm
Academy Award, Golden Globes and Emmy-nominated film director Robert Dornhelm, who was the recipient of the SEEfest 2018 Legacy Award, was interviewed by TransAtlantic Panorama (watch the interview by clicking the red play arrow, above).
His 1977 documentary film, The Children of Theatre Street was nominated for an Oscar; 2002 TV miniseries Anne Frank: The Whole Story received 3 Golden Globes and 11 Emmy nominations. He also directed Echo Park (1985), Requiem for Dominic (1990), War and Peace (2007), Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy (2011), and most recently the critically acclaimed international series Hotel Sacher (2016) and Maria Theresia (2017).
13th Annual South East European Film Festival Full Program Line-Up
About the South East European Film Festival (SEEfest):
Not a Cine-Fan yet? Join SEEfest today!
Become a Cine-Fan and engage with other SEEfest members, make new friends and join the journey of cinematic and cultural discovery. Cine-Fan Members receive a 20% discount on Festival Passes and Tickets.
Annual General Membership is $55. Student membership is $30. All are welcome! Click here to join today. THANK YOU!
Robert Dornhelm to be Honored with the 2018 SEEfest Legacy Award
SEEfest will screen “The Crown Prince” (2006) on April 28 at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills.For additional information, trailer, movie stills, and tickets, click here.
About Robert Dornhelm
About “The Crown Prince”
In Prague, he falls in love with a Jewish girl; but when she dies mysteriously after Rudolf’s true identity is discovered, he feels responsible for her death and realizes that his role prevents him from ever finding happiness. He thus resignedly agrees to marry Stephanie of Belgium. It is a loveless marriage that brings the dynasty “only” a daughter… Then, a ray of light brightens his life: Mary Vetsera, a ravishing young baroness who has idolized Rudolf since her childhood. Their passionate affair gives Rudolf new strength and courage, yet trouble continues to brew…
Rudolf clearly sees that without a radical change of policy the Austro-Hungarian Empire cannot survive in Europe’s new balance of power. Together with his liberal friends, he is ready to force his father to abdicate. But the emperor’s spies are faster. In a dramatic confrontation, Franz Joseph tells him that he is not fit to succeed him. And he also forbids Rudolf to divorce Stephanie. Seeing no way out of his dilemma, Rudolf plans to commit suicide in his hunting lodge at Mayerling. Mary is with him. Unwilling to live without him, she begs him to take her life before he takes his…
About the South East European Film Festival (SEEfest)
Not a Cine-Fan yet? Join SEEfest today!
Become a Cine-Fan and engage with other SEEfest members, make new friends and join the journey of cinematic and cultural discovery. Cine-Fan Members receive a 20% discount on Festival Passes and Tickets.
Annual General Membership is $55. Student membership is $30. All are welcome! Click here to join today. THANK YOU!
SEEfest’s Passport to Trieste Festival Opens on April 26th, 2018
SEEfest’s Passport to Trieste Takes Angelenos on a Cinematic Journey to South East Europe
The 13th annual South East European Film Festival (SEEfest), April 26 – May 3, brings a large selection of feature, documentaries and short films to the Writers Guild Theater, Laemmle Music Hall and West Hollywood Council Chambers/Library campus, highlighting a bygone era of 100 years ago centered around Trieste, once a major port of the Habsburg empire and a magnet for artists like Rilke and Joyce.
As a crossroads between Austrian, Italian, Slavic and Jewish cultures on the peripheries of Habsburg Austria, modern Italy, and the Balkan Peninsula, Trieste has been defined by its proximity to borders erased and redrawn with unusual frequency.
Contested and contemplated by poets, scholars, novelists, and filmmakers, it has been depicted as a microcosm of plurinational civility, an uncanny non-place or as a site of mystery and political intrigue, in works of narrative fiction and non-fiction that blur the line between myth and reality.
SEEfest invites you to reflect on this city as a metaphor for the ironies, uncertainties and possibilities that characterize not only the South East European experience, but many facets of our global age; shifting and disappearing borders, fervent nationalisms, placeless places and the multiplicity of identities that are confluent, and sometimes conflicting, in us all.
Festival visitors will be given the facsimile of a passport book and receive a stamp at each event they attend during the program, with prizes awaiting those completing the entire journey.
Pre-festival events include musical theater Gypsy in My Soul starring Irina Maleeva on April 6, 7:30 PM at the WACO Theater Center in North Hollywood, featuring memorable songs and dances from the Gypsy musical tradition. Tickets for this one-night-only show are available on Eventbrite.
Trieste Literary Salon is on April 17 at 7 PM at the West Hollywood Council Chambers with UCLA professor Thomas Harrison, author of “1910” in conversation with John Agnew, distinguished professor of Political Geography; Tzvi Rafael Rivlin, Trieste cultural scholar from Montreal, Quebec; Nina Bjekovic, PhD candidate in Italian studies researching the literature of prominent authors of the Slovene minority in Northern Italy; and moderator MariaCristina Heller, Trieste-born actress and journalist.
RSVP is required for the Trieste Literary Salon. Tickets are free.
Featured Films
Highlights of the festival include documentary film Trieste, Yugoslavia by Alessio Bozzer about the 1970-1990 shopping bonanza when Yugoslavs traveled to Trieste in droves to buy jeans and other coveted Western garments; The Nearest Elsewhere. A Journey to Slovenia, by Elisabetta Sgarbi, traveling to Trieste’s next-door neighbor Slovenia.
Men Don’t Cry is the debut feature by Bosnian filmmaker Alen Drljevic about war veterans in a group therapy for PTSD; Bulgarian WWI satire Enemies by Svetislav Ovcharov; The Miner from Slovenia, Hanna Slak’s thriller-like exploration of dark secrets from the past; Twice Upon a Time animated delight about a king with a split personality by the multi-talented Vojin Vasovic; and documentary The Other Side of Everything, portrait of a country by Mila Turajlic (Cinema Komunisto), winner of the top award at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam.
The specific brand of humor and zest for life against all odds make these stories universal, transcending language and borders. They open doors into another experience altogether and by taking us on a journey halfway across the globe help us to better understand challenges in our own backyard.
Festival passes, and tickets to pre-festival events are available on https://seefest18.eventbrite.
About the South East European Film Festival (SEEfest)
SEEfest presents the cinematic and cultural diversity of South East Europe to American audiences and creates cultural connections through films, artistic and social events. It was founded in 2006 by Vera Mijojlić, long-time film critic, and cultural entrepreneur.
Not a Cine-Fan yet? Join SEEfest today!
Become a Cine-Fan and engage with other SEEfest members, make new friends and join the journey of cinematic and cultural discovery. Cine-Fan Members receive a 20% discount on Festival Passes and Tickets.
Annual General Membership is $55. Student membership is $30. All are welcome! Click here to join today. THANK YOU!
The 13th Edition of SEEfest kicks off on April 26, 2018!
Trieste Literary Salon Explores the Cultural Climate of Middle Europe in 1910
You are invited… Trieste Literary Salon
Focusing on the cultural climate of Middle Europe/Mitteleuropa in 1910
Sponsored by Austrian-American Council West
RSVP Required. Tickets are free.
The Panel
Thomas Harrison, author of the seminal book “1910“, and professor in the UCLA Department of Italian. His research focuses especially on Italy and Austria, and the region of Trieste and northern Adriatic from 1860 to the present.
April 17 at 7 pm
West Hollywood Council Chambers (library building) | 625 N. San Vicente Blvd | West Hollywood, CA 90069
Free Validated Parking.
RSVP Required. Tickets are free.
This program is presented with the support of the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Arts program. For more information, please visit www.weho.org/artsor follow via social media @WeHoArts.
Not a Cine-Fan yet? Join SEEfest today!
Become a Cine-Fan and engage with other SEEfest members, make new friends and join the journey of cinematic and cultural discovery. Cine-Fan Members receive a 20% discount on Festival Passes and Tickets.
Annual General Membership is $55. Student membership is $30. All are welcome! Click here to join today. THANK YOU!
The 13th Edition of SEEfest kicks off on April 26, 2018!
Gypsy in My Soul starring Irina Maleeva
SEEfest Kicks Off the Pre-Festival Season on April 6 with a special musical theater performance by Irina Maleeva.
Don’t miss the chance to see a live performance of the celebrated 1970’s ingénue of Fellini’s Satyricon, Spirits of the Dead/Toby Dammit and Roma, and the co-star of Orson Welles’ The Merchant of Venice, Irina Maleeva.
Gypsy in My Soul is a musical theater show directed by Carlyle King under the musical direction of Ed Martel. Choreography is by Maria Del Bagno and Timo Nunez –flamenco, featuring John Paul Batista and Jason Lyke and unforgettable songs Anywhere I Hang my Hat, Dance Gypsy, Play Gypsy, Habanera, Crimes of the Heart, Johnny Guitar, and more!
The show is followed by a champagne reception.
Friday, April 6, 7:30 pm at WACO Theater in NoHo Art District | 5144 Lankershim Blvd | Los Angeles, CA 91601.
Click Here to Get Your Tickets
All the proceeds from the show will support SEEfest 2018 programs.
Not a Cine-Fan yet? Join SEEfest today!
Become a Cine-Fan and engage with other SEEfest members, make new friends and join the journey of cinematic and cultural discovery. Cine-Fan Members receive a 20% discount on Festival Passes and Tickets.
Annual General Membership is $55. Student membership is $30. All are welcome! Click here to join today. THANK YOU!