First contest films announced2010-03-09
Making way with "Easier with Practice" and "The Protector"
Kyle Patrick Alvarez's famous debut and Czech director Marek Najbrt's second picture are the first two films that have been requested to participate in the prestigious OFF PLUS CAMERA festival as part of the feature film competition titled "Making Way". We're hitting hard early on as both "Easier with Practice" and "The Protector" have generated a lot of buzz on the festival circuit.
Qualifying these two pictures for the feature film competition fully reflects the idea of "making way." On the one hand, this presents the most exciting and current aspects of independent film while on the other it promotes young, promising artists, which Alvarez and Najbrt most certainly are and allowing them to take further steps in their careers. This will receive significant help from the Krakow Film Award, which happens to be the most coveted prize of the competition, in addition to presenting their achievements to a wide audience. Along with a CineWoman statuette, the winner will receive a whopping $100,000 as a financial bonus!
The presence of American director Kyle Patrick Alvarez in the theaters can truly be dubbed a grand entry. His debut film "Easier with Practice" made waves at world-wide festivals earning him the top prize at the ever-prestigious CineVegas, which led to its nomination to the Independent Spirit Awards. It received no less attention in Europe, the best proof of which was its success at the Edinburgh Festival. "Easier with Practice" is an intriguing love story that keeps you at the edge of your seat, though quite unconventional. The hero is Davy Mitchell, an almost thirty-year-old under-talented. He and his brother Sean tour rural bars and pubs throughout America presenting their work. Ever-present boredom and apathy get mixed with increasing feelings of frustration until our man receives a mysterious phone call. From a woman, of course. From that moment on, Nicole, as she likes to call herself, rings every now and then while our hero falls deeper in love with every subsequent sex-call. It goes without saying that nothing in his life will ever be the same...
"The Protector", which won the Krzysztof Kieślowski award at the Denver Festival, is the second film by Prague-born Czech director Marek Najbrt. He sets the story in Czechoslovakia overcome with the events of World War II. It is there that the popular radio announcer Emil Vrbata leads his life along with his wife Hanka. The new reality forced upon his countrymen by the Nazi occupation takes on extraordinary significance for him as his true love turns out to be a Jewish woman. He decides to cooperate with a Nazi radio station and in doing so, his voice becomes the symbol of a new era – the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. However, this is only the beginning of the sequence of events that gradually transform into the war that finds a permanent home...in the home of the Vrbatas. Najbrt has shot a dazzling, passionate film about people being forced to live in difficult times and spares us the clichés and the schmaltz. "The Protector" makes one think that history is actually "written" by the fate of ordinary citizens. And that they are the most fascinating.
As is the case every year, the films entered in the OFF PLUS CAMERA feature film competition are submitted for review by a professional international jury consistently composed of prominent film specialists from all across the globe. Juries from the past few years include familiar names such as Zbigniew Preisner, Andriej Zvyagintsev, Fernando Trueba and Max Färberböck. This year's jury will include two-time Oscar nominee Mike Figgis, director of the cult-classic "Leaving Las Vegas", director and writer Thomas Vinterberg, who along with Lars von Trier co-created the famous "DOGMA 95" manifesto changing global cinematography in the process, as well as John Cooper, who some might remember from the most important independent film festival – the Sundance.
More details on the films competing for the Krakow Film Award as well as the jurors reviewing them coming soon!
