Panorama Europe Film Festival Returns for its Seventh Year, with a Slate of Sixteen Outstanding New Movies

FESTIVAL to Run from May 29 – June 14, 2015 at Museum of the Moving Image and Bohemian National Hall

Festival Kick-Off Event and Party at Tribeca Cinemas on Thursday, May 28

Panorama Europe Film Festival 2015, the seventh edition of this vital festival of new European cinema (formerly known as Disappearing Act), presented by Museum of the Moving Image and the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), returns to the Museum and the Bohemian National Hall with a slate of sixteen new features from May 29 through June 14. The NY Portuguese Short Film Festival (NYPSFF), who since 2011, has presented  an annual two-day showcase of short Portuguese films (arteinstitute.org/nypsff), produced and hosted by Arte Institute at Tribeca Cinemas. This is the first year the festival is partnering with Panorama Europe.

The festival continues its mission of showcasing the best in European filmmaking by introducing a wide-ranging selection of contemporary cinema in varying genres that cover many current social and cultural themes. Panorama Europe offers New York audiences what may be their only chance to see these acclaimed films on the big screen. Some of the highlights of this year’s edition include Petr Václav’s 2015 Czech Lion best film THE WAY OUT, Panos H. Koutras’s multiple award-winning XENIA (Greece), Virág Zomborácz’s AFTERLIFE (Hungary), Ignas Jonynas’s THE GAMBLER (Lithuania), with star Oona Mekas attending, and BREATHE (RESPIRE) (France), the sophomore feature directed by the actress Mélanie Laurent (INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, BEGINNERS).

Pictured: Greece’s Xenia | Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing

The festival informally kicks off on Thursday, May 28, at 7:30 p.m. with a screening of short European films at Tribeca Cinemas, followed by a party, as part of the NY Portuguese Short Film Festival (NYPSFF). The opening weekend includes special screenings of GODS (Poland, 2014), with director Lukasz Palkowski in person on Friday, May 29, and BOTA (THE WORLD) (Albania, 2014), with co-director Iris Elezi in person, on Sunday, May 31. Both screenings will be followed by conversations with the filmmakers, and receptions. Other festival titles include films from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Spain. The Closing Night film is Bas Devos’s award-winning VIOLET (Belgium, 2014), which screened as part of this year’s New Directors/New Films Series. The screening will be preceded by live musc by the Flemish band St. Grandson in the Museum’s courtyard and followed by a reception.

“This year’s Panorama Europe lineup is exceptional,” said Chief Curator David Schwartz, who programmed the festival. “Many of the films are fascinated with questions of identity and history, on both personal and national levels. And this year, many films use humor, often dark, to explore their subjects.”

The full lineup of Panorama Europe 2015:

 Bota (The World), Albania, Dir. Iris Elezi, Thomas Logoreci / Opening Weekend Film & Reception

Gods, Poland, Dir. Lukasz Palkowski / Opening Weekend Film & Reception

Violet, Belgium, Dir. Bas Devos / Closing Night Film & Reception

Afterlife, Hungary, Dir. Virág Zomborácz

Age of Cannibals, Germany, Dir. Johannes Naber

Breathe, France, Dir. Mélanie Laurent

Cowboys, Croatia, Dir. Tomislav Mrsic

The Gambler, Lithuania, Dir. Ignas Jonynas

I Can Quit Whenever I Want, Italy, Dir. Sydney Sibilia

In the Basement, Austria. Dir. Ulrich Seidel and the short film Exterior Extended

In the Crosswind, Estonia, Dir. Martti Helde

Magical Girl, Spain, Dir. Carlos Vermut

The Tree, Slovenia, Dir. Sonja Prosenc

The Unexpected Life, Spain, Dir. Jorge Torregrossa

The Way Out, Czech Republic, Dir. Petr Václav

Xenia, Greece, Dir. Panos H. Koutras

SCHEDULE AND DESCRIPTIONS FOR PANORAMA EUROPE, MAY 29–JUNE 14, 2015*

Unless otherwise noted, screenings take place in the Sumner M. Redstone Theater or the Celeste and Armand Bartos Screening Room at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue in Astoria, OR at Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73 Street, Manhattan.

*Program may be subject to change

OPENING WEEKEND FILM
Gods
With Lukasz Palkowski in person, followed by reception
FRIDAY, MAY 29, 7:00 P.M.

Poland. Dir. Lukasz Palkowski. 2014, 120 mins. With Tomasz Kot, Piotr Glowacki, Szymon Piotr Warszawski. This enormously entertaining biopic chronicles the groundbreaking work of Zbigniew Religa, the pioneering Polish surgeon who defied the Communist bureaucracy of the 1980s to perform the country’s first heart transplant. Told with wit, verve, and a fastidious attention to period detail, Gods is an engrossing portrait of a larger-than-life personality.

Afterlife
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2:00 P.M.
Also showing: Thursday, June 4, 7:00 p.m. at Bohemian National Hall
Hungary. Dir. Virág Zomborácz. 2014, 93 mins. With Márton Kristóf, László Gálffi, Eszter Csákányi. A pastor and son with a strained relationship get a shot at reconciliation—after the older man’s unexpected death. Part tender coming-of-age tale, part darkly comic ghost story, Afterlife is a surprising, poignant fable from one of the most distinctive new voices in Hungarian cinema.
The Tree
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 4:00 P.M.
Slovenia. Dir. Sonja Prosenc. 2014, 90 mins. With Katarina Stegnar, Jernej Kogovsek, Lukas Matija. A mother and her two sons live as prisoners in their own home. But what is it about the outside world they fear? Told from three points of view, a riveting family tragedy gradually reveals itself in this acclaimed Slovenian chamber drama, which masterfully maintains an air of steadily mounting tension.

I Can Quit Whenever I Want
SUNDAY, MAY 31, 2:00 P.M.

Italy. Dir. Sydney Sibilia. 2014, 100 mins. With Edoardo Leo, Valeria Solarino, Valerio Aprea. A group of underemployed academics hope to earn quick cash by entering the drug racket. But when their new designer drug turns out to be all the rage, can they handle the success? One of the funniest Italian comedies in years, this ultra-entertaining box office smash plays like Breaking Bad meets Reservoir Dogs.

Xenia
SUNDAY, MAY 31, 4:00 P.M.

Greece. Dir. Panos H. Koutras. 2014, 128 mins. With Kostas Nikouli, Nikos Gelia, Aggelos Papadimitriou. A gay teen and his older brother journey across Greece in search of their estranged father in this alternately surreal and stirring road movie. Juxtaposing the realities of present-day Greece with imaginative slips into dream logic, this bold coming-of-age saga swept this year’s Hellenic Film Academy Awards, winning Best Picture and six other awards.