Prague, March 15 (CTK) – Serbian director, actor and musician Emir Kusturica, 62, will be guest to the 24th Febiofest international film festival to be held in Prague on March 23-31, its programme director Anna Kopecka told reporters on Wednesday.
Kusturica will present the film On the Milky Road (2016) to which he wrote the script. He also played the leading role along with Monica Bellucci.
Kusturica is one of the most famous graduates from the Film Academy (FAMU) in Prague.
His film Do you Remember Dolly Bell? (1981) won the Golden Lion award at the Venice International Film Festival. Kusturica also competed at the Cannes Film Festival several times and he won the Golden Palm twice, for When Father Was Away on Business (1985) and Underground (1995), as well as the Best Director prize for Time of the Gypsies (1988). He also received the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Arizona Dream (1993), the first film he shot in English, and the Silver Lion at the Venice festival for Black Cat, White Cat (1998).
Another famous festival guest will be German cinematographer of Czech origin Peter Zeitlinger, 56. He has cooperated with director Werner Herzog since the 1990s, including on his latest thriller Salt and Fire (2015) that Febiofest will screen along with Kusturica’s new film in the Masters section.
“We have selected a dozen films for this section, such as those by Andrzej Wajda, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Andrei Konchalovsky,” Kopecka said.
Besides, film fans will have an opportunity to see the restored digital version of David Lynch’s cult movie Blue Velvet.
The festival’s budget is 42 million crowns this year like in the previous two years. The Culture Ministry subsidised it with 8.5 million crowns and Prague with eight million, festival director Kamil Spacil said.
The Febiofest award in the New Europe competition of young, starting film-makers carries 5000 euros.
Eight films focused on human rights issues will compete for the Amnesty International Award. This year, the AI highlighted the case of imprisoned Iranian film-maker Keywan Karimi.
The festival has again issued golden medals, this time with a portrait of Czech actor Vladimir Mensik (1929-1988). They were given to his wife and daughter at the press conference on Wednesday.
Febiofest will present its Kristian award for the artistic contribution to world cinematography to Czech-born actor Jan Triska, living in the United States, U.S. film maker Abel Ferrara and British cinematographer Peter Suschitzky this year.
The festival will offer a total of 155 films from 55 countries in Prague and then in 13 other Czech towns until the end of April. The tickets will be sold as of Thursday.
