On day 15 of Black Nights a new dawn full of stars awaits us
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On the day of the Award Ceremony, we invite you for the final three premieres of our Official Competition - Selection, to have them fresh in your memory and share in the joy when the winners are announced in the glorious Vene Theatre tonight.

Some say the air feels different at the dawn of an important day. Hopefulness and dreams fill the atmosphere with certain electricity, that keeps you buzzing throughout the entire morning. Today is no different. The festive end of the competition programmes is no longer a distant place on the horizon. Tonight already; new stars await us on the black carpet and stage of Vene Theatre.

Read about our recommendations below, and check out today's full schedule here

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A Distant Place (International Premiere)

16:00 | Coca-Cola iSense
19:00 | Virtual Hall

Nothing really looks what it is when you look from a distance and so is Jinwoo’s quiet life, far from the hectic, stressful city life, tucked away in the beauty of the Korean countryside, welcomed with open arms by a loving new "family" that has accepted, on their sheep ranch, him and Seol, his wonderful niece whom he loves as if she were his own daughter.

But when Park Kun-young’s careful and precise direction begins to focus on the details of Jinwoo’s existence, slowly revealing his restless soul, we gradually discover the complexity of the reasons that led to Jinwoo’s extreme choice to retire in the countryside to live like a shepherd.

Part of the Official Selection - Competition

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The Dawn (World Premiere)

19:00 | Coca-Cola iSense
23:00 | Virtual Hall

Dalibor Matanić’s mystical drama takes us to the near future where we find anxiety and tension. A family has to decide whether to stay living in a small rural village which has been their home all those years, or to leave like many others. Tensions are also building up inside the family – the father and the mother have not yet found a way back to each other after the loss of their son.

Part of the Official Selection - Competition

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Stars Await Us (International Premiere)

21:45 | Coca-Cola iSense

Set in a city situated between Russia and China in the 1990’s, the story actually seems to take place in a timeless location and seems to depict archetypal figures, suspended in a realm of cinematographic imagery which privileges suggestive ambiences over facts.

And so, special atmospheres, scarce dialogues and suggestive songs immersed in a striking visual setting render with ease the intriguing story of Ma Biao, a man who has served time in prison, and comes back to look for Karinna the woman he has loved and still loves, whom he cannot find but keeps seeing in the features of other women, like the lady who sells bread at a local shop.

Part of the Official Selection - Competition

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Love Song 1980

20:00 | Coca-Cola Plaza 4 LUXE

Fascinating adaptation of the ‘80s novel Lovers by Yu Xiaodan, "Love Song 1980" is the latest movie from acclaimed director and scriptwriter Mei Feng. An ode to youth, love and its drives, the film is set in Beijing in the early 1980s, during that complex decade that forever changed the course of history in China, at a time when the country opened up to the global market letting novel ideas come sweeping in.

Part of the Official Selection - Competition

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February

21:15 | Artis 2

A magical film of exceptional beauty will take you away for 2 hours of wonder, thoughts, memories, nostalgia and fantasies. Truly meaningful, mesmerising, unique journey of one ordinary Bulgarian man towards collision with death was gorgeously shot on 35mm, 16mm and other formats in family’s meaningful places and inspired by grandfather’s tales. Undeniable masterpiece for attentive, patient, curious spectators must be seen, heard and felt only in the cinema space.

Part of Rebels with a Cause Competition

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Teddy

22:00 | Artis 1

A mysterious wolf is frightening the inhabitants of a small village in the Pyrenees. Teddy, a nineteen-year-old without diploma, lives there with his adopted uncle and works in a massage parlour. He is planning to spend a regular summer with his girlfriend Rebecca, who is about to graduate from high school and has a bright future ahead of her. But one full moon evening, Teddy is scratched by an unknown beast. The following weeks, he is taken by strange animal impulses…

Mixing horror and humour, Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma denounce with fantasy the revenge of a victim of social exclusion. Monstrous and charming!

Part of Midnight Shivers