From international film festival favourites to star-studded blockbusters and subversive works helmed by Europe’s most celebrated auteurs, Europa! Europa is set to bring the very best of European cinema to Australian shores for the first time from February 4 – 27 2022.
Featuring 43 films from 42 countries, the Festival brings Europe’s most innovative, audacious and daring films to audiences down under in Sydney and Melbourne.
“I am thrilled to present Europa! Europa’s incredible inaugural program, brimming with bold and daring Australian premieres which encapsulate the unrestrained spirit of European cinema and span the full cultural breadth of the continent.”
“From terrifying Scandi-horror to acclaimed titles direct from Cannes and powerful ruminations on the experiences of refugees in Europe – the Festival gives Australian audiences the opportunity to see Europe’s hottest titles fast-tracked to their local cinema,” says Europa! Europa Film Festival Director, Thomas Caldwell.
Launching the Festival’s inaugural program is The Souvenir Part II, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg’s (Archipelago) sequel to her acclaimed autobiographical feature The Souvenir. Starring film icon Tilda Swinton (The French Dispatch) and her real-life daughter Honor Swinton-Byrne, Hogg’s film is a shimmering story of a young woman’s formative years during which she attempts to find her voice as a filmmaker in the aftermath of personal tragedy. Audiences will be also able to catch the first installment of The Souvenir which is screening as part of the Festival.
Familiar faces feature in: Zero Fucks Given, starring Adele Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour) as a robotic flight attendant who must confront her repressed feelings; and The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, where filmmaker Mark Cousins (The Story of Film) joins Oscar-winning maverick producer Jeremy Thomas on his annual pilgrimage to the Cannes Film Festival.Fans of historical dramas will be fascinated by Evolution, acclaimed filmmaking team of director Kornél Mundruczó and writer Kata Wéber’s (Academy Award nominated Pieces of a Woman) powerful drama tracing three generations of a Jewish family from World War II to modern day Berlin; and atmospheric anti-war drama Natural Light, delving into the moral issues of complicity and personal responsibility during times of war.
From France comes ultra-dark social satire Bloody Oranges, beginning with a series of intersecting comedic vignettes before brutally transforming into a graphic and provocative critique of moral hypocrisy; and acclaimed filmmaker Gaspar Noé’s (Climax) sobering drama Vortex, depicting the tragedy of an elderly couple in decline due to the onset of dementia.Also screening is ambitious real-time one-shot thriller Nightride, a high-octane ride in the driver’s seat with a small-time dealer through the streets of Belfast.Rounding out the program is acclaimed documentary Cow, British filmmaker Andrea Arnold’s observational portrait of a dairy cow on an English farm. Additionally, the Festival will present special screenings of a 4K restoration of Mike Leigh’s masterwork Naked, and a new edition cut of landmark Italian film Gomorrah, from director Matteo Garrone (Dogman).
For more information and tickets visit: europafilmfestival.com.au