April 12 – 20, 2024

 

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Sweet Country

Warwick Thornton
113′, 2017 Australia

SCREENING: RIALTO (23/4), 22:00 / ZENA (20/4), 22:00

Sam, an Aboriginal middle-aged man, works the land of a kind preacher, Fred Smith. When Harry March, an ill-tempered and bitter man returning from the Western Front, arrives in town, Sam is sent out with his family to help renovate Harry’s outpost. His relationship with Sam quickly deteriorates. It culminates in a violent shootout, where Sam kills Harry in an attempt to save his own life. Sam, now a wanted criminal for the murder of a white man, is forced to flee into the deadly outback with his wife. A hunting party led by Sergeant Fletcher is formed to track him down, but soon the details of the story start to surface and locals begin to question the justice behind this manhunt.

Awards

  • Best Fiction Feature, Foxtel Movies Audience Award – Adelaide Film Festival, 2017
  • Best Film Award – Asia Pacific Screen Awards, 2017
  • Platform Prize – Toronto International Film Festival, 2017
  • Special Jury Prize – Venice Film Festival, 2017.

The Florida Project

Sean Baker
111′, 2017 USA

SCREENING: RIALTO (22/4), 22:00 / ZENA (21/4), 22:00

Set on a stretch of highway just outside the imagined utopia of Disney World, The Florida Project follows six-year-old Moonee and her rebellious mother Halley over the course of a single summer. The two live week to week at “The Magic Castle,” a budget motel managed by Bobby, whose stern exterior hides a deep reservoir of kindness and compassion.

Even though The Florida Project is a low-budget film, it is nevertheless traveling around the best festivals in the world, from the Cannes Director’s Fortnight to the AFI Awards, where it received the Movie of the Year award. Willem Dafoe was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Selected Awards

  • Movie of the Year – AFI Awards, USA, 2018
  • Best International Independent Film – British Independent Film Awards 2017
  • Critics Award – Hamburg Film Festival, 2017
  • Director of the Year – ALFS Award, London Critics Circle Film Awards, 2018
  • Best Supporting Actor – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2017
  • Icon Award – Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2018
  • SFFCC Award for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor – San Francisco Film Critics Circle, 2017
  • WFCC Award for Best Young Actress – Women Film Critics Circle Awards 2017
  • Nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role – Academy Awards, 2018 and Golden Globes, 2018
  • Nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role – Golden Globes, 2018

Foxtrot

Samuel Maoz
113′, 2017 Israel, Switzerland, Germany, France

SCREENING: RIALTO (24/4), 22:00 / ZENA (23/4), 18:00

Michael and Dafna are devastated when army officials show up at their home to announce the death of their son Jonathan. While his sedated wife rests, Michael spirals into a whirlwind of anger only to experience one of life’s unfathomable twists, which rival the surreal military experiences of his son.

Foxtrot won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, and was Israel’s proposal for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, a fact that sparked several reactions in Israel. The first feature film of Maoz, Lebanon, was screened at the 2010 Cyprus Film Days International Festival.

Selected Awards

  • Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival, 2017
  • Best Director Award – Athens International Film Festival, 2017
  • Best Film, Director, Actor, Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction, Music and Sound Awards – Israeli Film Academy, 2017
  • Best Foreign Language Film – Denver Film Critics Society, 2018
  • Best Foreign Language Film – Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2018
  • Directors to Watch Award – Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2018
  • Best Film Award – Arca Cinema Giovani Award – Venice Film Festival, 2017
  • Audience Award for Best Film – Zagreb Film Festival, 2017

Lucky

John Carroll Lynch
2017, 88′ USA

SCREENING: RIALTO (21/4), 22:00 / ZENA (22/4), 22:00

Lucky is a 90-year-old fiercely independent atheist who, unlike his contemporaries, has lived a full life. When he finds himself at the precipice of life, he sets on a journey of self-exploration. The film follows his spiritual journey and the quirky characters that inhabit his off the map desert town. Acclaimed character actor John Carroll Lynch’s directorial debut, Lucky, is at once a love letter to the life and career of Harry Dean Stanton, as well as a meditation on mortality, loneliness, spirituality and human connection. David Lynch also appears in the film, in the role of Lucky’s friend.

The latest film of the legendary Harry Dean Stanton (for which he received 4 posthumous performance awards) and the first directing work of renowned actor John Carroll Lynch. The ideas explored in the film take therefore another dimension, closing the actor’s long career in an ironic yet romantic way. The filmmaker David Lynch is also featured in the film.

 Awards

  • Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Locarno International Film Festival, 2017
  • Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Satellite Awards, 2017
  • Best Actor and Best Director Award – Film Club’s The Lost Weekend, 2017
  • Best Actor AISGE Award and Best Original Score Award – Gijon International Film Festival, 2017
  • Fedeora Award – Filmmakers of Tomorrow, Haifa International Film Festival, 2017
  • Best Actor Award – Indiana Film Journalists Association, US, 2017
  • Golden Strands Award for Best Screenplay – Tallgrass International Film Festival, 2017

Love Me Not

Alexandros Avranas
2017, 99’ Greece , France, Cyprus

SCREENING: RIALTO (25/4), 20:00 / ZENA (27/4), 20:00

A middle-aged couple hires a young immigrant to be the surrogate mother of their child and moves her to their beautiful villa. While the man is away for work, his wife and the girl start to bond and enjoy the wealthy lifestyle. After a girls night out, the wife goes for a drive. The next morning, her husband receives a call from the police informing him that his wife is dead and that her burned body was found in her wrecked car. The man is devastated and his whole world begins to fall apart.

Love Me Not premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. This year, we will have the honour of having director Alexandros Avranas and the protagonist of the film Eleni Roussinou, as our guests. Alexandros Avranas’ second feature film, Miss Violence, was screened at the 2014 Cyprus Film Days International Festival.

Duty (Wajib)

Annemarie Jacir
96′, 2017 Palestine

SCREENING: RIALTO (25/4), 20:00 / ZENA (21/4), 18:00

Abu Shadi is a divorced father and a school teacher in his mid-sixties living in Nazareth. After his daughter’s wedding in one month, he will be living alone. Shadi, his architect son, arrives from Rome after years abroad to help his father in hand delivering the wedding invitations to each guest, as per local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spends the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head, challenging their fragile and very different lives.

Duty was featured in several major festivals around the world, such as Dubai (Best Film Award and Best Actor Award), Locarno (with a total of 4 awards), London (with 2 awards), and Palm Springs, among others. Annemarie Jacir’s first feature film, Salt of This Sea, was screened at the 2009 Cyprus Film Days International Festival.

Awards

  • Best Fiction Feature Award – Dubai International Film Festival, 2017
  • Best Film Award – Kerala International Film Festival, 2017
  • Don Quixote Award, Junior Jury Award, Special Prize – Locarno International Film Festival, 2017
  • Best Film Award – London Film Festival 2017
  • ACCA Jury Prize – Best Film Award, Mar del Plata Film Festival, 2017
  • Youth Audience Award – Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival, 2017
  • Nominated for FIPRESCI Prize – Best Foreign Language Film, Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2018