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Filmmakers from 25 countries to compete at 14th EU Film Festival in Kaliningrad

The 14th European Union Film Festival will be held in Kaliningrad on December 6-20

© Alexei Konstantinov/TASS

KALININGRAD, November 29. /TASS/. Movie directors from 25 countries have been included in the program of the 14th European Union Film Festival, which will be held in Kaliningrad on December 6-20, Artem Ryzhkov, programming director of the film festival told TASS on Thursday.

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"The festival, which will be convened in Kaliningrad for the 14th time, will offer roughly 40 films, the best and most interesting works for a wide audience, of course. Its sufficient to say that 90% of the participants are nominees and winners of the 2018 European Film Festivals in Cannes, Venice, and Berlin," he added.

Ryzhkov emphasized that this year’s EU Film Festival is remarkable, particularly because several movies on its program have been made with the participation of Russian directors. These include 'Jumpboy', a Russian-Lithuanian-Irish-French co-production, written and directed by Ivan Tverdovsky. Two more dramas to be screened at the festival are the Russian-Slovak-Czech flick, 'The Cellar', and the Russian-Lithuanian 'Core of the World', directed by Igor Voloshin and Natalia Meshchaninova respectively.

"These works definitely prove that Russian and EU filmmakers continue their fruitful collaboration, which brings good films to the wide audience," Ryzhkov pointed out.

Furthermore, the festival’s organizers maintain their tradition of screening films for children. Ryzhkov noted "young movie-goers" would get to see 'The Oddsockeaters', a Czech animated film, which he described as "very funny".

'An outing to Rome', an Italian production, will open the 14th EU Film Festival. "Considering that 2018 has been declared the European Year of Cultural Heritage, launching the festival with a screening of this film is quite logical and symbolic," Ryzhkov noted.

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