The 20th edition of the festival will follow the topic Winds of Change. We will present ten feature films in the main competition, five documentaries, 39 short competition films and five films in the special retro section called Reunion. A novelty is the accompanying program for film professionals called Queering the Industry. What specifically can you look forward to? Go through the entire program or check out some of the most anticipated films and events bellow.
The opening film of the festival will be Adam, a coming-of-age comedy by the American director Rhys Ernst. With authenticity and humour, this feature debut discusses the importance of friendship and mutual tolerance not only within the queer community. Other expected films of the main feature film competition include, for example Oscar-nominated Swedish-Georgian drama And Then We Danced or an unconventional Brazilian road movie awarded with the Teddy Award Brief Story from the Green Planet.
From the documentary section we look forward to a time-lapse documentary by Tom Heymann Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life that follows the pernicious influence of the porn industry on the life of an Israeli porn star, or a portrait of musician Kiddy Smile and his dancers in Burn the House Down by Giselle Bailey and Nneka Onuorah opening the topics of immigrant culture and diaspora.
This year's special section Queer Kino presents will introduce films presented under the newly established distribution brand, which aims to bring quality queer production to Czech cinemas throughout the year. The new acquisition of Queer Kino is Matthias & Maxime, the eighth film by Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan that was screened this year at the Cannes Film Festival's main competition.
To celebrate thetwentieth birthday of Mezipatra, five personalities of the Czech queer culture present their favorite films in the Reunion section. For example, Viktor Heumann, co-founder of Trans*parent, chose the Swedish drama Something Must Break, the winner of the15th Mezipatra.
Even the accompanying program does not stay behind with changes. In addition to traditional events, such as the main party of the festival Golden Times in Ankali club, we have prepared for you one big novelty in the form of a program for film professionals. Under the name Queering the Industry there are several discussions and master classes about the film industry, which are free and of charge and open to the general public. We definitely recommend you to visit some of them, for example the one from the producer and this year's jury Michael Raisler on the topic How To Make Diversity Work.
