25th Ljubljana International Film Festival

The LIFFe Film Festival in Slovenia has just celebrated a jubilee – a quarter century of film held between the 12th-23rd of November 2014. The weather in Ljubljana was to the advantage of all its film enthusiasts, permanently cloudy with occasional rain, in my opinion the most ideal weather for spending a whole day visiting cinemas and watching good movies.

Ljubljana is a delightful small city which has always been an important crossroads of trade routes and at the same time offers all the comfort of a capital, just like any other European metropole. In the streets of Ljubljana, except for the ubiquitous architecture of Jože Plecník, a clash of cultures (German, Italian, Slavic and Balkan) is apparent and this diversity is positively reflected in the varied program of the 25th Ljubljana International Film Festival.

The program gives film lovers the opportunity to see over one hundred movies from 43 different countries in 6 cinemas divided into more than 10 sections, including features, short films and documentaries. 

To mention just some of the sections – “Kings and Queens” – films by notable and award-winning virtuosos of contemporary cinema. This section was composed of some brilliant movies, for example Charlie’s Country by Rolf de Heer or Jealousy by Philippe Garrel. The “Retrospective” was devoted to the production of two major filmmakers, Russian legend Aleksei German and Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund.

The festival offers considerable space to domestic filmmakers and filmmakers from countries of former Yugoslavia. Unfortunately not all films had English subtitles, so if you do not speak Slovene or some of the Balkan Slavic languages – tough luck, mate.

The 25th Ljubljana International Film Festival featured four competition categories, first of which was the KINGFISHER award to the best film of the Perspectives section. Perspectives is the official competitive section of the festival, offering a thoughtful selection of first and second feature films from emerging young directors who have had their international première at important film festivals around the world. The DRAGON audience award to the best film that has not been released in Slovenian cinemas yet, the FIPRESCI PRIZE and the BEST SHORT FILM AWARD.

The International Competition was comprised of 10 feature films. The Kingfisher award for best film went to Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh, Ich seh) by Austrian directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala.

The organizers of the festival rated the 25th edition of the LIFFe very positively, expressed satisfaction with the visitor attendance and the course the festival has taken this year.  (Miroslav Lanik)

Ljubljana International Film Festival: www.liffe.si