BEAST International Film Festival taking place in Porto from 25 to 29 September celebrates the best cinema from Central & Eastern Europe. The 7th edition of the festival is launched under the title “Where do we go from here?” and is composed of five sections: Official Competition, Focus Estonia, Visegrad Film Hub, How to Care for Cosmos and EEFFN – Eastern European Film Festival Network. The curated programme including feature films, documentaries, experimental, short films and animation works, as well as screenings, talks, workshops, exhibitions and much more.
This year’s focus country is Estonia. Among other Estonian films, this year BEAST presents CLUB CLASSICS, a programme comprised of Estonian video art from the 2000s by a variety of artists such as Kadriann Kibus ja Liina Paaksuu, Laura Nestor, Ulvi Tiit, Tarvo Varres, Mark Raidpere, Mari Laanemets and Killu Sukmit as well as the group Valie Export Society. This programme was developed based on the archive of the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA).
This year’s Official Competition showcases 23 short films from 13 countries. The selection is divided into 4 categories: EAST WAVE (fiction), EAST DOC (documentary), EXPERIMENTAL EAST (experimental) and ANIMAEAST (animation). This year’s jury is made up of Heleen Gerritsen (director of goEast), Juliana Julieta (visual artist), Tadeusz Strączek (director of Watch Docs) for the EAST WAVE and EAST DOC categories; Eugen Jebeleanu (director, actor), Jakub Spevák (writer, screenwriter and artistic director of the Anča Festival) and Marika Agu (curator and archive manager at the CCA) for the EXPERIMENTAL EAST and ANIMAEAST categories.
The festival has the support of the International Visegrad Fund and Porto City Council. FOCUS COUNTRY dedicated to Estonia has the support of the Estonian Film Institute, Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Estonian Embassy in Portugal.
More information: https://beastfilm.pt