Uherske Hradiste, South Moravia, July 28 (CTK) – The 43rd Summer Film School (LFS) festival, which started in Uherske Hradiste on Friday, focuses mainly on Swedish cinematography and it will offer more than 200 films, its director Radana Korena has told CTK.
The event will run through August 6.
Last year, the festival attracted 5700 people and the organisers expect a similar number of film fans this year, Korena said.
However, not all of them stay for the whole nine-day programme. They often come for three or four days only, she added.
This is why they can for the first time buy festival passes for any number of days, from a one-day pass to the whole festival. The passes serve as cinema tickets and enable their holders to see any festival screenings.
Swedish directors Jan Troell, 85, and Daniel Bergman, 54, son of the legendary film-maker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) will visit the LFS this year.
Another Swedish guest to the festival will be film director, animator and journalist Tarik Saleh, 45, known for his graffiti art in the 1990s and his videos to songs of pop star Lykke Li. His latest film, The Nile Hilton Incident (2017), was awarded at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
Swedish film historian Jan Holmberg will give a series of lectures on Swedish film history at the festival. Erik Hedling, professor of film studies at the University in Lund, will also visit the event.
The festival will end with a preview of the latest film directed by Czech Oscar-winning Jan Sverak and written by his father Zdenek Sverak.
The festival screenings take place in six halls and two outdoor cinemas.
The accompanying programme of the LFS traditionally includes concerts, theatre performances, debates, creative workshops and events for children.
The festival’s budget of some 17 million crowns is about two million higher than last year. The LFS gains three million crowns from sales, while the rest is covered by subsidies and sponsors.
A significant partner is the town of Uherske Hradiste that contributes with two million crowns to the festival.
This is a great promotion of the town, its mayor Stanislav Blaha said.
The cooperation agreement between the town and the LFS expires in 2019, but the Town Hall would like to extend it, he said.
