50 Binge Worthy Films from South East Europe

3 More Days – SEEfest 2020 Closes on August 16

Get the best deal with all 50 films for $55 before our online festival ends on August 16. Don’t miss the boat! Sail away from the pandemic worries and indulge your inner genre fan in Predrag Ličina’s sci-fi horror spoof The Last Serb in Croatia, or urban crime tale in Slovenia’s The Corporation from director Matej Nahtigal. Hungary’s Pilátus from director Linda Dombrovszky touches the emotional core of an aging mother and her successful but emotionally distant daughter, Serbia’s Common Story from director Gordan Kičić navigates modern marriage with much-needed humor, while Esther Turan and Anna Koltay chart Hungarian youth subculture in BP Underground – Electronic Music.

Get your movie travel pass to South East Europe!

 

 

Growing up hard, searching for directions

Renowned Serbian documentarian Ivana Todorović seamlessly transitioned to short fiction in her delicate yet powerfully told tale of surviving domestic abuse, When I’m at Home, while Alexandros Kakaniaris offers his own take on growing up hard in The Dude, a young boy’s attempt to break into the world of adults.

 

 

Making sense of politics

Join Romanian grandfather telling his American grandson about his role in the 1989 revolution that overthrew the Communist dictatorship, My Father’s Revolution by Diana Nicolae;  and pair it up with a satirical animated short turning the notion of freedom and democracy on its head in Moldovan appropriately titled Freedom from directing duo of Mircea Bobînă & Vadim Țigănaș. While browsing our shorts program, stop by Igor Ćorić’s winning short animation Passage (Serbia), and end on a touching note in Henning Backhaus’s delightful, innovative nod to diversity in Austrian live-action and animation short, The Best Orchestra in the World.

 

 

SUPPORT SEEFEST

If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!

FRIENDS OF SEEFEST

 

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

Follow SEEfest on Instagram and Facebook where we post SEE news as it happens!

SEEfest At Home – Spotlight on Short Films, An Inventor and An Acrobat

The clock is ticking…SEEfest 2020 ends it’s run on August 16

With the festival halfway through, make sure you use your passes within the next 14 days! Once we hit Aug 16, our online edition will no longer be available. So get your pass and popcorn, and spend the night with three police units patrolling the capital in Stephan Komandarev’s Rounds (Bulgaria), revisit history in Croatian Schindler’s List-type story, The Diary of Diana B. about the unsung heroine of WWII, follow an orphan’s journey to her long-lost family in Come Find Me (US/Romania) and meet the first-ever indigenous Roma woman to graduate from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in the Bulgarian documentary My Gypsy Road.

Get your movie travel pass to South East Europe!

 

 

The flamboyant inventor, and an old-fashioned acrobat

The Century of Dreams protagonist invented the perfume spray bottle, the plastic zipper, the lighter with a side-button and 400 other patents, was also among the first airbag developers and managed to socialize with movie stars in Monte Carlo. A very different man is the subject of Greek documentary Spiros and the Circle of Death, a throwback to an older, dying art of motorcycle death-rides and family tradition of circus acrobats.

 

 

 

Spotlight on short films: nature, politics, techno absurd, sci-fi, and more!

Spend some time with the poetic and powerful ode to nature Then Comes the Evening (Serbia/Bosnia Herzegovina), devastating political satire Zimnicea (Romania), laugh-out-loud Best Game Ever (Hungary), and Two (USA/Turkey) which tips its hat to sci-fi fans. Each of our three program blocks with diverse short vignettes offers plenty to explore.

 

 

SUPPORT SEEFEST

If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!

FRIENDS OF SEEFEST

 

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

Follow SEEfest on Instagram and Facebook where we post SEE news as it happens!

Movie Marathon at Your Home

A movie marathon curated for movie lovers: Legacy, Zana, Omar and Us, and Open Door

Fans of genre films will find a lot to be appreciated in Dorian Boguta’s debut feature gem Legacy, an atmospheric psychological thriller from Romania with Teodor Corban in the role of the world-weary detective, crime genre’s iconic character.

Two SEEfest jury award-winners: Kosovo’s Zana, by newcomer Antoneta Kastrati and starring the captivating Adriana Matoshi as the troubled survivor; and Turkey’s refugee saga Omar and Us by the directing duo Maryna Er Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir Er.

Another strong debut comes from Albania’s Florenc Papas whose women-centric Open Door journeys into a patriarchal society by staying firmly focused on the inner world of its women.

Get your movie travel pass to South East Europe!

The epic wind Bora of Northern Adriatic and Turkey’s Queen Lear

These two films shared SEEfest 2020 Jury award for Best Documentary, and it is easy to see why: Bora, Story about a Wind follows the eponymous gale around the intersection of cultures in Northern Adriatic, while Queen Lear takes us to rural Turkey where local women take part in the production of Shakespeare’s play with their own twist. Both films are blowing much-needed laughter into the cinematic sails and regaling us with entertaining and uplifting stories.

Buy festival PASS to these, and other movies HERE.

 

Poetry behind SEEfest 2020 film: Pumpkin on the hot roof of the world

Celebrated Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014), ‘a leading figure of postwar neo-avant-garde poetry in Central Europe and internationally acclaimed absurdist,’ is the subject of the documentary film featured at SEEfest 2020 – Pumpkin on the hot roof of the world: Poetry and the Eternal Life of Tomaž Šalamun. He believed passionately in the power of poetry to liberate the human spirit, and so do we.

Nine of Šalamun’s books of poetry have been translated into English. He lived in the U.S. for a while, exhibited his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and taught at the University of Pittsburgh.

Watch this entertaining cinematic portrait that bridges Central Europe and America through world-class poetry.

 

SUPPORT SEEFEST

If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!

FRIENDS OF SEEFEST

 

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

Follow SEEfest on Instagram and Facebook where we post SEE news as it happens!

Get the Festival Pass to all SEEfest 2020 films!

Full-scale SEEfest 2020 program is live!

Are you ready to binge-watch the 2020 selection of new films from South East Europe? Travel with movies to a region where diversity and entangled histories lend rich material to filmmakers of all stripes. From WWII dramas to intense chamber pieces, movies about the wind – or Shakespeare plays starring women from rural Turkey; sci-fi political satire, and comic retelling of a marriage headed for divorce. These films take you to remote villages and the pains of acting auditions, atmospheric police procedural, and corporate takeovers of inner-city neighborhoods.

Movies are indeed a great way to travel, especially to a region with dozens of mostly small countries that are still the least known part of Europe for most Americans. Travel with SEEfest pass and visit South East Europe! Note: Available only to patrons in the U.S. All films with English subtitles.

 

TAKE THE JOURNEY ONLINE AND BUY FESTIVAL PASS

Book recommendation: An Armenian Sketchbook, by Vasily Grossman

Discover Armenia from the early 1960s in this wonderful account by Grossman, whose astute observations on human nature are uncannily applicable to our own times. The book is entertaining, a fast read, gripping, philosophical, and intimate, all at the same time. A major 20th-century writer, Grossman wrote about the WWII horrors as well as the horrors of the Stalinist era. His sketchbook on Armenia is a short-form masterpiece and an excellent introduction to Grossman’s other works.

An Armenian Sketchbook is available on Amazon.

Films from Yugoslavia’s storied cinematic past at Cannes Classics 2020:

Two unforgettable films from ex-Yugoslavia are included in this year’s Cannes Classics: Who’s Singing Over There? (1980, Serbia) by Slobodan Šijan; and The Ninth Circle (1960, Croatia) by France Štiglic. Hungarian 1968 Upthrown Stone by Sándor Sára is also featured in the selection, as well as two more Eastern European films: Polish The Hourglass Sanatory (1973) by Wojciech J. Has, and Russian July Rain (1966) by Marlen Khutsiev.

This year’s program will be shown, in whole or in part, by the festival Lumière in Lyon (October 10-18, 2020) and by the Rencontres Cinématographiques de Cannes (November, 23-26, 2020).

Cannes Classics 2020 complete selection can be found HERE.

SUPPORT SEEFEST

If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!

FRIENDS OF SEEFEST

 

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

Follow SEEfest on Instagram and Facebook where we post SEE news as it happens!

Watch “The Son” in SEEfest Virtual Cinema

The Son

Handsome adolescent Arman was adopted as a baby. Soon after his adoption, the parents got a biological son. Arman is constantly fighting the demons of his past, and, at the same time, he tries to protect his younger brother Dado (14) from all the challenges of today’s Sarajevo – drugs, guns, or going to war in the Middle East. The film follows a family struggling with internal tensions while fighting to survive in Bosnia.

THE SON is a second feature for director Ines Tanović.  The film is currently playing in the SEEfest virtual cinema.

 

Full scale 2020 SEEfest program is here!

The full festival program is now online. Our team has worked hard to put together an engaging lineup of features, documentary, and short films. Information about all selected films is available on our website, at seefilmla.org. This year you can binge-watch the entire SEEfest selection of 2020 films. Please note that online viewing will be available for patrons in the U.S. only.

 

Classic book behind 2020 SEEfest movie: IZA’S BALLAD, by Magda Szabó

We invite you to read the novel that inspired one of this year’s SEEfest films in competition (Pilate). Written by the celebrated Hungarian writer Magda Szabó, the book, titled IZA’S BALLAD in English translation by George Szirtes, is a mother-daughter story that spans the bygone 20th century past and the new utilitarian age of neo-capitalist Hungary. Find the book HERE.

SUPPORT SEEFEST

If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!

FRIENDS OF SEEFEST

 

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

Follow SEEfest on Instagram and Facebook where we post SEE news as it happens!

SEEfest Launches 15th Edition Online July 15 – August 16, 2020

The 15th annual South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles (SEEfest), postponed in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced the official launch of its 2020 edition which will run from July 15 – August 16, at the dedicated online outlet (athome.seefilmla.org).

“After months of incredible work by our very own dream team, the 2020 festival is happening online,” said Vera Mijojlic, Founder and Director of SEEfest. “It was truly a heroic effort. We battled technical issues, filmmakers reluctance, and lots of night time work – but we did it.”

In a joint statement the SEEfest Board of Directors noted, “While many other festivals have completely canceled their 2020 editions, SEEfest has not only kept up its programming, but managed to produce the full festival on one of the top software platforms in the world which serves the likes of Cannes, American Film Market, and Hollywood studios.”

The 2020 festival edition, SEEfest’s 15th annual, features a rigorously curated program of 57 films highlighting the cinematic expressions of South East Europe’s cultural diversity across twenty countries.

North American premieres in the program include, among others, three remarkable debuts: Romania’s Legacy, a rare psychological thriller from the country known for its trailblazing new wave cinema; Kosovo’s haunting story about motherhood and struggles with war times traumas in Zana; and mother-daughter story about aging in the modern world, Pilate, an adaptation of the novel by the celebrated Hungarian writer, Magda Szabó.

Also on the program are Bulgarian My Gypsy Road whose heroine is the first-ever Roma woman to graduate from the Academy of Dramatic Arts; and Bora, Stories of a Wind, a visually magnificent parable about freedom paying a poignant tribute to the multi-ethnic intersection of Slavic, Italian, and Germanic cultures in the Northern Adriatic.

All program information and links are published here.

Festival passes and individual tickets are available at https://athome.seefilmla.org/.

About the South East European Film Festival (SEEfest)

 SEEfest presents cinematic and cultural diversity of South East Europe to American audiences and creates cultural connections through films, artistic and social events. SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA Foundation, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

 

Celebrating New Writing Voices

SEEfest Accelerator participants are making waves

Two writers who participated in this year’s workshops, part of the festival’s Accelerator platform for the development of new projects, are getting recognition for their work. L.A.-based Amanda Andrei, whose Filipino-Romanian heritage inspires much of her work, is completing her masters in Dramatic Writing at USC with the thesis play “Lena Passes By,” and will have staged readings in Los Angeles and Denver, Colorado.

Toronto-based Ivana Strajin’s feature script “The Immigrants” was announced as one of the semifinalists in WeScreenplay competition Diverse Voices Screenwriting Lab. We wish them success in having their work produced, on stage and on-screen!

Films from SEEfest archives

Two years ago Mila Turajlić’s documentary THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING enjoyed tremendous success at international festivals garnering nominations and awards from, among others, IDFA, ZagrebDox, SEEfest and San Francisco festivals, as well as Creative Recognition Award from International Documentary Association.

It was New York Times critics pick and noted as one of the best films of the year by the New Yorker’s Richard Brody. The film is a searing portrait of an activist in times of great turmoil, questioning the responsibility of each generation to fight for their future. THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING screened at SEEfest 2018.

Available for streaming on Amazon.

 

** available for streaming in Europe – not available in the U.S. ** SUMMER BROTHERS is a heartfelt gem from the Netherlands, filmed on location in Turkey with an all-Turkish cast and directed by Mustafa Duygulu. It is a story about a Turkish-Dutch teenager on the last day of his summer vacation in Turkey with his ‘summer brothers.’ He clumsily tries to overcome his insecurities and fit in with the young crowd frolicking on the beach. SUMMER BROTHERS screened at SEEfest 2019.

https://www.vpro.nl/speel~VPWON_1280831~zomerbroeders~.html

 

Here are links to the previous SEEfest At Your Home posts: Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part  3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.

Support SEEfest

If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!

Friends of SEEfest

 

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

Follow SEEfest on Instagram and Facebook where we post SEE news as it happens!

Enjoy SEEfest at Your Home – Part 6

Missed the Salon? Watch the Video!

The video of our 2020 Cultural & Literary Salon, Boundaries of Belonging, is now available online. If you like wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating conversation, we invite you to join in by posting your comments, suggestions, and critique!

Congratulations to all Accelerator filmmakers, with our thanks to panelists and actors

The 2020 SEEfest Accelerator for new projects in development concluded on May 3rd, after two weeks and seven sessions. Huge thanks to industry advisors and talented actors for their contributions.

We are proud of our Accelerator alumni from the past four years who have successfully completed one feature film and one narrative documentary, one short animation with a feature animation in development, and three docs currently in post-production. We hope 2020 participants will follow a similar path!

Films from SEEfest Archives

We pay tribute to a great friend of SEEfest, the late Albanian writer/director Artan Minarolli whose film ALIVE! screened at SEEfest 2010 and was subsequently Albania’s Oscar submission. A carefree Albanian student gets drawn into an ancient gjakmarrja, or blood feud when he returns to his native village for his father’s funeral. This fascinating drama considers how deeply the traditions of one’s forebears can affect one’s life. Lead actor, Nik Xhelilaj , was one of the actors named European Shooting Stars at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011.

 

Here are links to the previous SEEfest At Your Home posts: Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part  3, Part 4 and Part 5.

You can now deduct 100% of your contribution in 2020!

If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!

Friends of SEEfest

 

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Art and Culture; and presented with the support of the City of West Hollywood. For more info on WeHo Arts programming please visit www.weho.org/arts or follow via social media @WeHoArts. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

Enjoy SEEfest at Your Home – Part 5

The pre-festival events that launched the 2020 SEEfest

The 2020 edition of SEEfest officially began last week with the Cultural and Literary Salon, our now traditional pre-festival event. A wide-ranging discussion covered many aspects of this year’s festival theme, Boundaries of Belonging. We paid tribute to Fellini’s centennial and his magical cinematic universe, announced the upcoming BRIDGES book about the cultural bridges of South East Europe, touched on the French 1920’s famous court case that still challenges our conceptions of identity, and discussed minority cultures and language as homeland.

The presentation also gave SEEfest viewers a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the 3D design work on Black Panther, a film that featured an altogether imagined universe. Note: the video replay of the Salon will be posted online soon. 

We are grateful for the support of the City of West Hollywood, the Instituto Italiano di Cultura Los Angeles, the Austrian Consulate General Los Angeles, and UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies.

Concurrently SEEfest launched the 2020 series of workshops for this year’s participants of the festival’s industry platform, Accelerator for new projects in development. The second round of workshops took place towards the end of April, with 15 participants from Eastern Europe, Canada, and the U.S.

Thank you to European Languages and Movies in America (EMLA), Hollywood Foreign Press Association, International Documentary Association, Film & Ink, Synergetic, California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts & Culture, and the City of West Hollywood for their ongoing support of SEEfest programs.

Films from SEEfest Archives

Back in 2012, the festival traveled to Austin, Texas for a special presentation of the cinema of South East Europe – thanks to the legendary director of programming and one of the founding board members of the Austin Film Society, Chale Nafus. It was an honor to be included in his long-running signature series, Essential Cinema. Some of the films SEEfest presented can be viewed on Prime Video. Here are links to the previous SEEfest At Your Home posts: Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part  3, and Part 4. 

Friends of SEEfest

 

You can now deduct 100% of your contribution in 2020!

Consider making a donation to SEEfest and taking advantage of the provisions in the COVID-19 stimulus package regarding charitable giving, specifically aimed at non-profits: Charitable Giving Tax Deduction The stimulus legislation lifts the existing cap on annual contributions for itemizers from 60 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) to 100 percent of AGI for contributions made in 2020.

Additionally, an “above-the-line” or universal charitable giving incentive for contributions made in 2020 of up to $300. This provision will now allow all non-itemizer taxpayers (close to 90% of all taxpayers) to deduct charitable contributions from their tax return, an incentive previously unavailable to them.

Click the donate button or send a check made out to the South East European Film Festival, and mail to 7119 W. Sunset Blvd., Unit 306, Los Angeles, CA 90046. Thank you!

 

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Art and Culture; and presented with the support of the City of West Hollywood. For more info on WeHo Arts programming please visit www.weho.org/arts or follow via social media @WeHoArts. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

 

Enjoy SEEfest at Your Home – Part 4

The SEEfest retrospective continues! Following is part four in the series of posts SEEfest at Your Home, featuring films that were included in previous Festivals.

You can find Part 1 here,  Part 2 here and Part 3 here. And, please let us know which films you’re revisiting or watching for the first time. We’d love to know which are your faves.

Glory

The second feature by the Bulgarian directing duo, Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov, focuses on a quiet, undemonstrative railway worker who happens to find a large amount of money scattered around the railway tracks. His decision to report the find to the police triggers disturbingly hilarious chain of events. Winner of 19 awards at international festivals including Best Film in Kolkata, Hamptons, Boulder, Gijon, special mentions and nominations for top prizes in Locarno and Ghent, and other awards. GLORY screened at SEEfest 2017.

GLORY is available free of charge on Tubi.

Watch Wonderful New SEE Movies & Support our Indie Cinema Friends!

For the price of a ticket you can:

1. discover excellent new films from South East Europe;
2. support shuttered cinemas that are the lifeline of indie filmmakers, and
3. increase your coolness factor.

Filmmaker News

Vojin Vasović’s Project @ Bordeaux Market Winner of Best Pitch at 2016 SEEfest Project Accelerator, Vojin Vasović was selected to present his new feature animation project at the Cartoon Forum in Bordeaux last month. It is based on his animated short “Twice Upon a Time,” screened at SEEfest 2018.

THANK YOU and STAY SAFE!

We appreciate all of you who continue to be engaged with SEEfest and have given us great feedback on our weekly virtual program offerings. The feedback we have received and support from organizations and individuals are more important than ever. Thank you, be safe and enjoy the company of movies from all over our beautiful world.

You can now deduct 100% of your contribution in 2020!

Consider making a donation to SEEfest and taking advantage of the provisions in the COVID-19 stimulus package regarding charitable giving, specifically aimed at non-profits: Charitable Giving Tax Deduction The stimulus legislation lifts the existing cap on annual contributions for itemizers from 60 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) to 100 percent of AGI for contributions made in 2020.

Additionally, an “above-the-line” or universal charitable giving incentive for contributions made in 2020 of up to $300. This provision will now allow all non-itemizer taxpayers (close to 90% of all taxpayers) to deduct charitable contributions from their tax return, an incentive previously unavailable to them.

Click the donate button or send a check made out to the South East European Film Festival, and mail to 7119 W. Sunset Blvd., Unit 306, Los Angeles, CA 90046. Thank you!

 

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Art and Culture; and presented with the support of the City of West Hollywood. For more info on WeHo Arts programming please visit www.weho.org/arts or follow via social media @WeHoArts. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.