BEAST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

It is the third time that BEAST IFF has opened space for students’ films from Arts and Film institutions of Central and Eastern Europe.

Within the Focus Country section, that pays homage to Romania in 2021, is the School Visit program.

This year, we have partnered with The Faculty of Theatre and Film of Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca), the largest and most respected academic institution in Romania, which will provide the program seven short films of some of its talents.

The central mission of the faculty is to train professionals at the highest level in the performing arts and film, who can practice in an increasingly dynamic and globalized cultural context. 

The program will be available between the 24th and 28th March, free of charge, in the festival’s online library.

Selected for School Visit:

Obscure
Ervin Szabo | Romania | 2020 | Fic | 17 ‘ | SUB EN

To Grow Under a Wild Cherry Tree
Agata Olteanu | Romania | 2020 | Doc | 11 ‘ | SUB EN

Máscara 
Eszter Szitai | Romania| 2020 | Fic | 5 ‘ | SUB EN

Speranța
Sandra Rad | Romania | 2018 | Doc | 18 ‘ | SUB EN

The Emigrants
Andra Salaoru | Romania | 2018 | Fic | 16 ‘ | SUB EN 

Hellen
Claudia Alexandru | Romania | 2019 | Fic | 21 ‘ | SUB EN 

Self-care
Hunor Pogony | Romania | 2020 | Doc | 15 ‘ | SUB EN 

A collaborative project with the National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Center, in Ukraine.

We present The Mirages of Freedom, our program in partnership with the Dovzhenko Film Center, which pays tribute to Ukraine and its experimental short films produced between the 1960s and 1980s.

Among its titles are works by the school of Ukrainian Poetic Cinema and its leader Sergei Parajanov; student films created by the future icons of Ukrainian cinema, Leonid Osyka and Roman Balayan; and shorts produced by Kyivnaukfilm Studio’s creative team in the 1980s.

These titles present the beauty and the tragedy of late Soviet informal art, ranging from documentary chronicles of family life to parody comedies, which are marked by absurdity and irony.

The program will be available between 24 and 28 March, free of charge, in the festival’s online library.

Selected for The Mirages of Freedom:

A Thief
Roman Balayan | Ukrainian SSR | 1969 | Fic. | 11’ | SUB ENG

A Tour To Yugoslavia
Andrii Tuziak, Oleh Kachmar | Ukrainian SSR | 1987 | Fic. | 2’ | SUB ENG

Asphaltotronic
UPV Art Group, Viacheslav Buhaevskyi | Ukrainian SSR | 1967 | Fic. | 4’ | SUB ENG

Creepy Stories
Volodymyr Honcharov, Valerii Konopliov, Vadym Tiuriaiev, Oleksandr Bubnov | Ukrainian SSR | 1991 | Fic. | 9’ | SUB ENG

A New Route
I. Borysova, O. Holubchyk, V. Stolbovyi, A. Yarmoliuk, V. Malinov, A. Faustov, L. Galkin, A. Gordeiev, V. Khlolokina, A. Sydorenko, P. Imshenetskyi | Ukrainian SSR | 1981 | Fic. | 2’ | SUB ENG

Entering The Sea
Leonid Osyka | Ukrainian SSR | 1965 | Fic. | 16’ | SUB ENG

KVK
Students of the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute, supervised by Arkadii Faustov | Ukrainian SSR | 1965 | FIC. | 9’ | SUB ENG

KYIV FRESCOS
Sergei Parajanov | Ukrainian SSR | 1966 | FIC. | 15’ | SUB ENG

Kyiv Sketch
Eduard Tymlin | Ukrainian SSR | 1966 | FIC. | 9’ | SUB ENG

Mirage
Students of the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute, supervised by Arkadii Faustov | Ukrainian SSR | 1984 | FIC. | 4’ | SUB ENG

MOSAICS
Volodymyr Vrublevskyi | Ukrainian SSR | 1989 | FIC. | 7’ | SUB ENG

Show Us, We’re Interested
Students of the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute, supervised by Arkadii Faustov | Ukrainian SSR | 1980 | FIC. | 10’ | SUB ENG

The End Of Vacation
Serhii Lysenko | Ukrainian SSR | 1985 | FIC. | 29’ | SUB ENG

The Truth Close-up
Volodymyr Honcharov | Ukrainian SSR | 1988 | FIC. | 9’ | SUB ENG

Untitled
Mykola Peretiatko | Ukrainian SSR | 1990 | FIC. | 8’ | SUB ENG

Water Supply
Ada Kviraia | Ukrainian SSR | 1987 | FIC. | 16’ | SUB ENG

The Opening Film session is a part of the Focus Country program.

Special activities, projections, focus on new talents, schools, and other festivals – this is Focus Country, our section that highlights contemporary cinematographic culture by bringing the cinema circuit of a Central and Eastern European country to Portugal.

In this edition of BEAST IFF, Romania is honored by the program, which debuts at the Opening Session of the festival one of the most acclaimed documentaries of 2020: “Ivana The Terrible”, the second feature film by director Ivana Mladenović.

The film challenges the limits between drama, comedy, and non-fiction by accompanying the protagonist, who lives in Bucharest, during a tumultuous visit to her small hometown.

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

Selected for Opening Session:

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

Special activities, projections, focus on new talents, schools, and other festivals – this is Focus Romania.

Every year, our program Focus Country highlights contemporary cinematographic culture by bringing the cinema circuit of a Central and Eastern European country to Portugal. In 2021, BEAST IFF is pleased to bring Romania as the focus of the festival through Focus Romania.

Composed of the Opening Film session and the Doc Highlights and School Visit programs, the section pays homage to long and short films of the new wave of Romanian cinema, which has been attracting the attention of the international awards circuit since the early 2000s. Its realistic tone – sometimes acid, sometimes sensitive – is one of the hallmarks of the works of the country’s contemporary wave, led by great talents of Eastern European cinema.

The Doc Highlight program encompasses three feature films and positions itself at the center of this year’s Focus Country section, serving as a window into Romanian culture through its directors’ attentive eyes.

This special program aims to highlight the power of a narrative based on real events, as well as the talent and creativity of the region’s directors.

Selected for Doc Highlights:

Acasă, My Home
Radu Ciorniciuc | Romania, Finland, Germany | 2020 | DOC. | 85’ | SUB. PT/EN

The Soviet Garden
Dragoș Turea | Moldova, Romania | 2019 | DOC. | 76’ | SUB. PT/EN

The Distance Between Me and Me
Mona Nicoară, Dana Bunescu | Romania, USA | 2018 | DOC. | 89’ | SUB. PT/EN

Get to know our competitive program!

The Competition for Short Experimental Film serves as a platform for works and filmmakers that are focused on narrative, conceptual, and technical experimentation. 

The program presents the liberty of play in terms of aesthetics, technical limits, and semiotic boundaries while breaking the popular standard discourse. 

With 10 selected titles, the experimentalEAST reflects on the freedom of responding to the need of exploring cinematic horizons and finding genuine ways to create audiovisual art. 

Selected for the experimentalEAST Competition:

ALEPH ZETA ( XVII ): The Star
Ana Buljan | Croatia | 2019 | EXP. | 12’ | SUB. PT/EN  

An apple, three toasts, a yogurt
Anita Čeko | Croatia | 2019 | EXP. | 9’ | SUB. PT/EN 

Diaľnica desať
Jozef Eduard Masarik | Switzerland | 2019 | EXP. | 8’ | SUB. PT/EN 

Dune
Gabor Ulrich | Hungary | 2019 | EXP. | 4’ | SUB. PT/EN

Maternity
Nataliya Ilchuk | Ukraine | 2019 | EXP./DOC | 17’ | SUB. PT/EN

Phoney Sights
Ana Čigon | Slovenia | 2019 | EXP./DOC | 19’ | SUB. PT/EN 

Shooting Stars
Magda Jaroszewicz | Germany | 2019 | EXP. | 17’ | SUB. PT/EN  

The Close River
Marta Hryniuk | Poland | 2020 | EXP./DOC | 28’ | SUB. PT/EN

Unfold
John Graham | Canada | 2019 | EXP. | 6’ | SUB. PT/EN 

Where The Sun Never Lights
Terezie Unzeitigová | Czech Republic | 2020 | EXP. | 12’ | SUB. PT/EN  

Get to know our competitive program!

Through the EAST DOC Competition for Short & Medium-Length Documentary, selected works stand as clear windows towards real stories and the tumultuous New East. 

The official selection presents compelling narratives through carefully crafted titles with an exciting range of creativity and dedication in examining the subject. 

The program includes 4 titles inviting the viewer to discover through the eyes of young emerging filmmakers from the region.

Selected for the EAST DOC Competition:

A Cat Is Always Female
Martina Mestrovic, Tanja Vujasinovic | Croácia | 2019 | DOC. | 16’ | SUB. PT/EN

INVISIBLE PARADISE
Daria Yurkevich | Bielorrússia | 2019 | DOC. | 52’ | SUB. PT/EN  

Pure art
Maxim Shved | Polónia | 2019 | DOC. | 52’ | SUB. PT/EN  

Time is
Zaur Kourazov | Bélgica | 2019 | DOC. | 21’ | SUB. PT/EN

Get to know our competitive program!

Twelve titles are selected for the EAST WAVE Competition for Short & Medium-Length Film, representing a new generation of young talents and exhibiting enthralling narratives, an ode to creative approach in storytelling. 

Through powerful, sometimes provocative gazes, the selected works tackle topics and situations through a wide scope of types of the fiction genre. 

The program brings forth a special selection of recent films made in the Central & Eastern Europe context, with a highly curated line-up, aimed towards supporting young promising directors.

Selected for the EAST WAVE Competition:

ESCAPE VELOCITY
Tamás Rebák | Hungary | 2019 | FIC. | 8’ | SUB. PT/EN 

FIREWORKS
Nikita Grushin | Russia | 2020 | FIC. | 19’ | SUB. PT/EN 

LISTEN PAPA!
Olga Poliektova, Tatiana Poliektova | Russian Federation | 2019 | FIC. | 13’ | SUB. PT/EN 

NINA
Hristo Simeonov | Bulgaria | 2019 | FIC. | 19’ | SUB. PT/EN 

NOT ALIVE YET
Liene Rubane | Latvia | 2020 | FIC./DOC | 6’ | SUB. PT/EN

PROM NIGHT
Gvozden Ilić | Servia | 2019 | FIC. | 20’ | SUB. PT/EN

SH_T HAPPENS
Michaela Mihalyi, David Štumpf | Czech Republic | 2019 | FIC. | 13’ | SUB. PT/EN 

SUMMER FRUITS
Josip Lukic | Croacia | 2019 | FIC. | 20’ | SUB. PT/EN 

THE BED OF PROCRUSTES
Andrian Împărățel | Romania | 2018 | FIC. | 18’ | SUB. PT/EN 

THE NEWS
Lorin Terez | Albania | 2020 | FIC. | 23’ | SUB. PT/EN 

THE TURTLE CAVE
Klaudia Folga | Poland | 2019 | FIC. | 20’ | SUB. PT/EN 

TO THE STARS
Štefánia Lovasová | Slovakia | 2019 | FIC. | 19’ | SUB. PT/EN

Less than a month before the festival, BEAST IFF hopes to remind the public to explore the exciting Wild Wild East through our special program.

This year, sections such as EastWave, EastDoc, experimentalEAST, Focus Country, and V4 Screen will be available online through the streaming platform Filmin Portugal, between March 24th and April 4th. 

The structure of the festival was designed to enable a diverse collection of films within the scope of the official competition and special programs. The EastWave program, for instance, aims to support young rising directors, bringing forth the best short and medium-length fiction films of the last two years made in an Eastern Europe context. 

Moreover, the EastDoc section stands as a clear view of the New East’s culture, taking into consideration the delicate work around constructing motion pictures based on reality. The experimentalEAST program, on the other hand, aims to defy audiovisual standard rules, looking for directors who were able to create their own. These three categories form the Official Competition, which has functioned as the core of BEAST International Film Festival since its first edition. 

Furthermore, the Focus Country section will be paying homage to Romania this year, which debuts at the Opening Session one of the most acclaimed documentaries of 2020: “Ivana The Terrible“, director Ivana Mladenović’s second feature. 

Finally, the V4 Screen program highlights feature-length films from the V4 countries, as part of a project co-financed by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through the International Visegrad Fund in collaboration with various cultural institutions. 

Stay tuned to our website and social media to know all about the films featured in our program. This year, stay online with us – here, there, and everywhere. 

BEAST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IS EXTENDING ITS PROGRAM UNTIL JUNE 1ST

Presented by OKNA (PLUSEAST) Cultural Association, BEAST International Film Festival has been proving itself and the public since 2017 as an event that shines an important light on the East European cinema landscape.

This year, our edition will be held online between March 24th and April 4th through the Filmin Portugal platform. Alongside the Portuguese streaming website, other platforms such as Vimeo, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and Instagram will also host BEAST IFF’s screenings, events, live streams, and Q&As. 

But that’s not all of it – after the end of the edition, BEAST IFF will continue until June 1^st through special monthly screenings, events, and the Visegrad Film Hub, an industry event dedicated to the V4 countries. 

This will include even more screenings, masterclasses, and workshops, with an online and possibly on-site offer. In case it’s safe for festival spectators in the nearby future, limited screenings and activities will be held in the city of Porto at venues such as Cinema da Trindade, Cinema Passos Manuel, Casa das Artes, and Almeida Garrett Municipal Library.
Since its existence, BEAST International Film Festival has presented over 300 short, medium-length, and feature films, several world, European and Portuguese premieres, and more than 150 screening sessions, including special line-ups of national and international guests. Stay tuned to our website and social media to know about it all!

4TH BEAST IFF IN PARTNERSHIP WITH STREAMING PLATFORM FILMIN

With the challenges generated by the pandemic and the viability for an enriching online experience, BEAST International Film Festival will first kick off from the 24th to the 28th of March in partnership with the Portuguese streaming platform Filmin.

Born from a collaboration and dialogue initiative between Portuguese cinematographic operators, critics, festivals and national as well as international cultural institutions, Filmin is the main independent cinema streaming platform in Portugal.

This year, Romania is the focus of BEAST IFF through the Focus Country program, which debuts at the Opening Session one of the most acclaimed documentaries of 2020: Ivana The Terrible, director Ivana Mladenović’s second feature.

The section will also include sessions dedicated to other documentary films from Romania, such as the critically praised Acasa, My Home, a film by director and investigative journalist Radu Ciorniciuc, and The Distance Between Me and Me, a feature-length documentary by directors Dana Bunescu and Mona Nicoară, which elicits deep reflections around the iconic figure of Romanian artist Nina Cassian.

Besides Focus Country, the EastWave, EastDoc and experimentalEAST competitive sessions are also highlights of the festival, featuring mid-length and short films that show the work of emerging young talents from Central and Eastern Europe.

These sessions will be available until April 4th for Filmin subscribers or via the platform’s pay-per-view model. Along with the Portuguese streaming website, other platforms such as Vimeo, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Instagram will also host BEAST IFF’s exhibitions, events, live streams and Q&As.