BEAST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The film is part of the V4 Screen program, which promotes cinema of the countries of the Visegrad Group (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia).

“Spiral” is a psychological drama of Hungarian and Romanian co-production by director Cecília Felméri. The film brings a certain magical realism, with doses of suspense and terror, to the countryside of Hungary.

The session is held with the support of the International Visegrad Fund and the Hungarian Embassy in Lisbon. The ticket office will open 45 minutes before the film starts.

Location: Cinema Passos Manuel

Date: May 20th (THU), 8:00 PM
Original screening date (May 6th) has been altered.

Ticketing: the normal ticket will be 5€, while the student ticket and the ticket for Tripass cardholders will be 3.5€.

Program

Spiral (Cecília Felméri, Hungary / Romania, 2021, FIC., 94’, SUB. PT/EN)

An old house and a mysterious lake amid Hungarian nature. An isolated and sometimes magical world, home to fish and beasts. There, a man and two women form a strange love triangle. A story of secrets, regrets, and the unknown.

On May 6th, the actor, transdisciplinary artist and Guinean-Portuguese director Welket Bungué will take over the big screen at Casa das Artes, in Porto.

The Portuguese Abroad section is the product of a partnership between BEAST IFF and Cineclube do Porto, and it will once again promote sessions dedicated to the best of Portuguese cinema with connections outside of Portugal.

In the first session of the program, five short films by Welket Bungué produced between 2016 and 2020 will be shown. As they vary from the experimental field to strong fiction narratives, these films demonstrate an enormous cinematographic sensitivity, reflecting the pleasure of using a camera and the discovery that, through it, it is done.

Location: Casa das Artes

Date: May 6th (THU), 8:30 PM

Ticketing: The regular ticket will be € 3.5, while the student ticket and the +65 ticket will be € 2.5.

Program

Bastien (Welket Bungué, Portugal, 2016, FIC., 20’)

Ex Exploiter Expropriator (Welket Bungué, Cape Verde, 2016, FIC., 17’)

Aginal (Welket Bungué, Brazil / Germany, 2018, FIC., 14’)

Run If You Can, Dance If You Dare (Welket Bungué, Portugal / Brazil, 2019, FIC., 8’)

Cacheu Cutum (Welket Bungué, Guinea Bissau, 2020, FIC / DOC., 7’5’’)

With the country’s new health and safety measures, the winning short and medium-length films make their debut on the big Portuguese screens.

Every year, exciting new short and medium-length films compete for the awards of Best Fiction, Best Documentary and Best Experimental within the ambit of BEAST International Film Festival. With each edition, this competitive programme enriches BEAST IFF and its community, introducing new works, new faces through a diverse selection of style and form.

Location: Maus Hábitos – Espaço de Intervenção Cultural

Date: May 5th (WED), 8:30 PM

Ticketing: Free admission*
*Pre-reservations can be made by purchasing a snack pack at the Maus Hábitos store.

Program

East Wave Award for Best Fiction Film: SH_T HAPPENS (Michaela Mihalyi e David Štumpf, Czech Republic, 2019, FIC., 13’02, SUB. PT)

A caretaker exhausted by everything, his frustrated wife and one totally depressed deer. Their mutual despair leads them to absurd events, because… shit happens all the time.

Experimental East Award for Best Experimental Film: The Close River (Marta Hryniuk, Poland, 28′, 2020, EXP./DOC., SUB. PT)

Shot over the course of three weeks, in various locations in western Ukraine, The Close River is a poetic investigation of a region with multiple overlapping temporalities of colonisation and exploitation. The film traces shifting borders and markers of power, exploring how the histories of coexistence, violence and resistance are carved into the landscape and culture of the region, and ultimately how they shape contemporary ways of living.

Ivana Mladenović’s second work was also the Opening Film of BEAST IFF’s 2021 online edition.

The 4th BEAST International Film Festival returns to theaters in Porto! To start the on-site edition, the festival kicks off at Cinema Passos Manuel, on April 29th with “Ivana The Terrible”. The film was awarded at the Locarno Film Festival in 2019.

In addition to debuting the 2021 on-site edition, Cinema Passos Manuel will also host BEAST IFF sessions every Thursday, until the 3rd of June.

Location: Cinema Passos Manuel

Date: April 29th (THU), 7:30 PM

Ticketing: 5€

Stay also tuned to the festival’s social media for new dates and information.

Program

Ivana The Terrible (Ivana Mladenović, Romania / Serbia, 2019, DOC., 86‘, SUB. PT/EN)  

By pushing the boundaries between drama, comedy and non-fiction, the plot leads the protagonist, resident in Bucharest, through a tumultuous visit to her small hometown.

In this award-winning docu-fiction, Mladenović proves to be an insightful actress, screenwriter, and filmmaker, guaranteeing her place among the newest and most interesting faces of New East cinema.

The 4th edition of the festival will follow the on-site format between April 29 and June 3, showing new films and highlights of its online program.

Presented by Associação Cultural OKNA in co-production with Câmara Municipal do Porto and with the support of local and international cultural institutes, BEAST International Film Festival will continue its activities after its online edition in March this year.

From films available on VOD platforms, and live activities and discussions with members of the film industry on Facebook and YouTube, the festival surpassed the 10,000 views mark and proved the viability of an enriching online experience.

In view of the recent measures proposed by Portugal health guidelines, BEAST IFF now extends its programming to the traditional cinemas in Porto, which have always welcomed us.

So far, 16 unique screenings are planned between April 29 and June 3. Highlights of the online program will be showcased, as well as new films for those who attended the 4th edition of BEAST International Film Festival from the comfort of their homes.

On April 29, Cinema Passos Manuel will host the premiere session of the 4th BEAST IFF on-site program with the festival’s opening film, “Ivana The Terrible“, by director Ivana Mladenović. In addition to debuting the 2021 on-site edition, Cinema Passos Manuel will also host BEAST IFF sessions every Thursday, until the 3rd of June.

Espaço Cultural Maus Hábitos will also host the festival twice – on the 5th and on the 12th of May. On this first occasion, the event, which will be free of charge, will present the short and medium-length films that won the Official Competition of BEAST International Film Festival this year.

Casa das Artes, in turn, will host two sessions of the new Portuguese Abroad program, on the 6th and 8th of May. Other cultural sites in the city of Porto, such as Cinema da Trindade, Café Candelabro and Livraria Térmita will also screen films from the festival’s program.

During the online edition of BEAST IFF, the Visegrad Film Hub project promoted a series of films, activities, and discussions with members of the industry.

Co-financed by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through the International Visegrad Investment Fund, the Visegrad Film Hub made it possible for BEAST International Film Festival to bring even more novel trends from Central and Eastern Europe to the Portuguese public.

The project pays homage to the cultural alliance of these four countries while also being home to the V4 Screen and V4 Academy sections, in a collaboration with several cultural New East institutions.

In the course of the festival’s online edition, the VFH program proposed not only a diverse selection of films, which took further the artistic discourse of the project but likewise a deeper dive into its features. Through a series of live-streamed discussions with directors and members of the film industry, BEAST IFF was capable of reaching an even broader online audience in these challenging pandemic times. All of these talks are still available to watch on BEAST IFF’s youtube channel, as you will see listed below the article. 

Within Visegrad Film Hub, the festival had the support of the Embassy of Slovakia in Lisbon, Embassy of Hungary in Lisbon, Embassy of Poland in Lisbon, Embassy of Czech Republic in Lisbon, the BRNO16 International Short Film Festival (CZ), the Photon Foundation (PL), the TRAKT Association (SK) and Anilogue International Animation Festival (HU). The VFH project will also take part in the on-site events of BEAST International Film Festival, soon-to-be-announced.

You can watch the BEAST Talks, surrounding the V4 Screen section, clicking below:

BEAST TALKS | I Never Cry | Piotr Domalewski

BEAST TALKS | As Far As I Know | Nándor Lörincz, Bálint Nagy

BEAST TALKS | Spiral | Cecília Felméri

BEAST TALKS | Let There Be Light | Marko Škop

BEAST TALKS | Servants | Ivan Ostrochovský, Katarina Tomkova

Check out below the short and medium-length films announced by our esteemed jury team at the Closing Ceremony, presented live on March 28th.

Every year, exciting new short and medium-length films compete for the awards of Best Fiction, Best Documentary and Best Experimental within the ambit of BEAST International Film Festival. 

The Official Competition presents works of emerging filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe, a pillar to the festival offer. With each edition, this competitive programme enriches BEAST IFF and its community, introducing new works, new faces through a diverse selection of style and form. 

From impressive visuals to candid portraits, the Official Competition gives perspective on The New East while being at the core of our festival.

This year, we counted on an esteemed team of judges: Elsa Cerqueira, Irina Trocan, Pedro Ferreira, Rita Capucho and Anton Yaremchuk. You can read more about the 2021 jury team HERE.

After a thorough evaluation, the judges announced the winners of this edition of BEAST International Film Festival. Check out the results and the video of our Closing Ceremony, presented live on Sunday, March 28th:

EAST WAVE

Jury Mention: NINA, Hristo Simeonov

East Wave Award: SH_T HAPPENS, Michaela Mihalyi and David Štumpf

EXPERIMENTAL EAST

Jury Mention: MATERNITY, Nataliya Ilchuk

Experimental East Award: THE CLOSE RIVER, Marta Hryniuk

EAST DOC

Jury Mention: A CAT IS ALWAYS FEMALE, Martina Mestrovic and Tanja Vujasinovic

East Doc Award: PURE ART, Maksim Shved

AS PART OF A SPECIAL SERIES OF ONLINE DISCUSSIONS, WE TAKE A DEEPER DIVE INTO THE FEATURES OF THE SCHOOL VISIT SECTION THROUGH ITS DIRECTORS. WATCH BELOW.

As part of the School Visit program, we had a discussion with the students from the Faculty of Theatre and Cinema, part of the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, who are the directors of the short films included in the program.

In this talk you’ll find out more about how they developed their projects, how was it to be studying cinema and what career perspectives await young film directors in these pandemic times.

Guests: Daniel Iftene (head of the Cinema Department of the Faculty of Theatre and Cinema) and the directors Ervin Szabo, Agata Olteanu, Eszter Szitai, Sandra Rad, Andra Salaoru, Claudia Alexandru and Hunor Pogony.

The talk is moderated by Simona Constantin and is created in partnership with “Spotlight: Romania Film Fest, The Hague“.

You can watch the discussion below:

BEAST IFF has promoted two different panels within the Focus Romanian Section. Find out more below.

The festival has broadcasted live the panel Documentary Matters, as a part of the Focus Country section, that pays homage to Romania in 2021.

“Documentary Matters” is a project initiated by the speaker Monica Lazurean Gorgan, aiming to shine a light on the emergence of the documentary in the Romanian film scene. The goal of the project is to create awareness about the importance of this genre and the challenges that the documentary has been facing over the years.

Guest speakers included the producer Monica Lăzurean Gorgan herself, and filmmaker and political researcher Ruxandra Gubernat. If you want to watch the whole discussion, mediated by Simona Constantin, contact us at info@beastfilm.pt

Also within the Focus Romania section, BEAST IFF has broadcasted live another panel: “Women In The Romanian Film Industry”.

Dedicated to gender dynamics in the European film industry, with a specific focus on Romania, the conversation included professionals from different sectors of the cinematic ecosystem, in an attempt to assess, analyze and discuss the past, present, and future situation. The discussion was moderated by Teresa Vieira.

Guest speakers included the producer Ada Solomon, the film critic and professor Irina Trocan and the producer Corina Burlacu. Watch it all below:

AS PART OF A SPECIAL SERIES OF ONLINE DISCUSSIONS, WE TAKE A DEEPER DIVE INTO THE FEATURES OF THE FOCUS ROMANIA SECTION THROUGH ITS DIRECTORS. WATCH BELOW.

Within BEAST TALKS and the Focus Romania section, we had a chat with directors Dana Bunescu, Mona Nicoară, and producer Ada Solomon about “The Distance Between Me and Me”.

From the perspective of the iconic figure of the Jewish artist, political refugee and femme fatale, Nina Cassian, the filmmakers reflect on the ambiguities of present reality versus the different notions a person can have about their former self.

This Romanian-American co-production is also included in the Focus Romania section, available until April 4th on Filmin Portugal. The conversation was moderated by Teresa Vieira.

Its screening was supported by Instituto Cultural Romeno Lisboa. Watch the discussion surrounding the film below: