A feast of cinema: 22nd Cyprus Film Days International Festival

Taking place over April 12-20, 2024, the 22nd edition of the Cyprus Film Days International Festival promises a cinematic feast for the island’s film buffs.

The five-member international jury

The Festival’s international jury will be made up of five, highly-acclaimed personalities of the film industry. This year’s Jury is presided over by Slovak film producer Katarina Tomkova, and also includes Berlin-based Turkish Cypriot Director of Photography Emre Erkmen, French film critic Sandra Onana, Greek director and writer Asimina Proedrou and Berlin-based Palestinian filmmaker Juna Suleiman.

Jurors will be in Cyprus for the duration of the Festival and will select the winners in all categories among 11 films participating in the Glocal Images International Competition Section and in the Cypriot Films Competition Section. The audience will also enjoy other works of cinema selected by the jury.

The list of winners will be announced on Saturday, April 20, 2024 at the Rialto Theatre during the Closing and Awards Ceremony.

The Awards:

The jury will present the following awards:

• Glocal Images Best Film Award accompanied by the amount of €6,000
• Best Cypriot Film Award accompanied by the amount of €4,000
• Glocal Images Special Jury Award accompanied by the amount of €3,000
• Glocal Images Best Director Award accompanied by the amount of €1,000
• Best Cinematography Award accompanied by the amount of €500, sponsored by Caretta Films
• Best Director Award in a Cypriot Film accompanied by post-production services – sponsored by Authorwave
• Best Performance Award in a Cypriot Film accompanied by the amount of €1,000 – sponsored by Limassol Municipality
• Honorary Distinctions (not accompanied by prize money)

All films screened in the official competition sections automatically compete for the Audience Award, determined by viewer votes cast right after each screening. The Audience Award is sponsored by TFI Markets.

*The awards conferred by the Jury have the shape of a Neolithic human figure. They are replicas of a stone idol found in the Neolithic settlement of Choirokoitia, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, dated to ca. 7000 – 6000 B.C.

The Jury Presents programme:

Making the most out of the International Jury’s presence in Cyprus, this year the Festival presents three parallel screenings as part of  “The Jury Presents” programme.

The three films are:

• Behind the Haystacks (Greece, Germany, North Macedonia), Asimina Proedrou’s social drama set on Greece’s northern border, which stood out for its narrative viewpoint. The film will be screened only in Limassol.
• Aslı Özge’s urban mystery thriller Black Box (Germany, Belgium). The film will be screened only in Nicosia, preceded by a masterclass with director Özge and director of photography Emre Erkmen.
• Mussolini’s Sister, the moving documentary by Juna Suleiman (Palestine, Israel), takes a close look at the director’s idiosyncratic yet ultimately endearing grandmother. The film is screened only in Limassol.

The international jury members:

Katarina Tomkova worked for the Slovak Film Institute as an international promoter between 2009-2015. Since 2015, she has collaborated on several films acclaimed at the festival circuit: 5 October (Rotterdam IFF), Hotel Sunrise (IDFA, Hot Docs), Nina (KVIFF, TIFF), Silent Days (KVIFF, Marrakech IFF), Servants (Berlinale Encounters), 107 Mothers (Venice IFF – Best Screenplay Orizzonti, EFA European Discovery 2022 nomination), Photophobia (Venice IFF – Europa Cinemas Label Award at Giornate degli Autori), often balancing between documentary and fiction. As a tutor, she collaborates with the MIDPOINT Institute and the Thessaloniki IFF’s market Agora. She is an EAVE Producers Workshop graduate. In 2021, she was the Slovak representative in the Producers on the Move programme organised by the EFP.

Emre Erkmen, of Cypriot origin, was born in Istanbul and lives in Berlin. He graduated from Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb) Cinematography. He was Director of Photography for award-winning films such as Lifelong and All of a Sudden (Aslı Özge, Berlinale Panorama Special), Tale of Three Sisters (Emin Alper, Berlinale Competition), Do Not Forget Me Istanbul (Hany Abu Assad, Eric Nazarian), Envy (Zeki Demirkubuz), Men on the Bridge (Aslı Özge) and Two Girls (Kutluğ Ataman). He won Best Cinematographer awards for his work in Lifelong, Tale of Three Sisters, Envy and Two Girls at various film festivals. His latest productions are Black Box and Faruk (Berlinale, Fipresci Award) directed by Aslı Özge.

Asimina Proedrou is a writer and director from Greece. She has written and directed two multi-awarded shorts and her debut feature film, Behind the Haystacks (2022). The film, critically acclaimed, was officially selected, among others, for the Palm Springs IFF. It won six awards at the Thessaloniki IFF, the Debut Film Director Award at the IFF of India, and 10 awards at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards, including Best Film. The film was also selected for the European Film Academy Awards and was the official Greek entry for the 96th Academy Awards (International Oscar).

Born in Paris, Sandra Onana is a journalist and film critic since 2019, now serving as deputy chief of “Service Culture” for the French newspaper Libération. She studied humanities, cultural policy, and cultural journalism, gaining her first experiences at the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), and in the programming team of the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) before returning to writing, her first love. She is also a regular contributor of the France Culture radio show Plan Large since 2022.

Juna Suleiman is a Palestinian filmmaker currently based in Berlin. Her feature-length documentary film Mussolini’s Sister, which debuted at IDFA in 2018, has received international nominations and awards. Since 2008, Juna has served as the casting director for numerous internationally-renowned films, including The Time that Remains and It Must Be Heaven by Elia Suleiman, Omar by Hany Abu Asaad, among many others. She has acquired extensive expertise in the field and pioneered the establishment of film casting as a local Palestinian production department. Additionally, Juna has been closely collaborating as an editor with various academic, archival, and artistic projects. Notable examples include her work with academic and researcher Ariella Azoulay from Brown University on The World Like a Jewel in the Hand (2022), and There is a Baba in our House by Leil Zahra (Centre of Human Rights and Arts, Bard College, 2020).

* The Festival’s detailed programme is posted on cyprusfilmdays.com.

General Festival information:

• €5 per screening | €30 festival pass (for all screenings).
• Free for students upon display of student card.
• Free for children (Children and Youth Section).
• Free for holders of Disability Card.
• All films aside the Children and Youth Section are suitable for 18+.
• All films will be screened in their original language with English and Greek subtitles. Films of the National Competition Section will be screened with Turkish subtitles.

For more information:

• Call Rialto Theatre: 77 77 77 45
• Visit: www.cyprusfilmdays.com
• Follow on Facebook & Instagram: Cyprus Film Days International Festival