The Waiting Point at 10th South East European Film Festival Los Angeles

Every year in the first week of May, in Los Angeles, California, the South East European Film Festival (SEEfest) pioneers the concept of regional, cross-border programming with issue-driven films about the Balkans and South East Europe. 2015 marks the 10th anniversary of the festival, unveiling a robust program of feature films and documentaries, along with animation and documentary shorts.

This year the festival will place the spotlight on the rich cinema of Romania, and to celebrate its milestone year, will present its first ever Lifetime Achievement and Legacy Awards to legendary Romanian actor Victor Rebengiuc and Oscar-winning actor George Chakiris.

"SEEfest salutes Romanian cinema for everything it has given to the world in the last 15 years, pioneering a fresh new style of moviemaking, while making a splash on the international scene," comments Vera Mijojlić, founder and director of SEEfest. "Romanian filmmakers put the region ΄on the map΄ with groundbreaking movies and gave voice to people in a way that has not been seen since the 1960’s Czech new wave and Yugoslav ΄black film΄."

The program is comprised of the following competition sections: Feature Films, Documentary Films, Short Fictionand Short Documentary Films, and the Short Animation section. The awards the festival grants are the Best Feature Film Award, the Best Documentary Film Award (two awards: feature and short), the Best First Feature Film Award, the Best Short Film Award, that of the Best Cinematography and the Audience Award.

Feature Films

The Japanese Dog by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, Romania, 2013 (opening film)

The Woods Are Still Green by Marko Naberšnik, Austria/Slovenia, 2014

It Takes Two to Fence by Andrei Gheorghe, Romania, 2013

Rat Poison by Konstantin Burov, Bulgaria/Romania, 2014

Bota by Iris Elezi & Thomas Logoreci, Albania/Italy, 2014

Cowboys by Tomislav Mršić, Croatia, 2013

Racket by Hamza Ražnatović, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2014

Documentary Films

Consumed by Borut Šeparović, Croatia, 2014

The Cover Story by Silvana Mendjušić, Croatia, 2013

Flowers of the Shadows by Olivier Magis, Belgium/Romania, 2014

Hey Neighbour! by Bingöl Elmas, Turkey, 2014

In the Dark by Goran Stanković, Serbia, 2014

The Land is Hard, the Sky is High by Erich Rathfelder, Amela Maldošević & Philippe Deprez, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2014

Motion to Promised Lands by Miha Erman, Slovenia, 2014

Nadeshda by Anna Frances Ewert & Falk Müller, Germany/Bulgaria, 2014

The Undertaker by Dragan Nikolić, Serbia/Germany, 2014

The Waiting Point by Maša Drndić, Croatia, 2013

Zivan makes a Punk Festival by Ognjen Glavonić, Serbia/Montenegro, 2014

See the Short Fiction, the Short Documentary and the Short Animation Films here.

Furthermore, SEEfest is organising the 7th annual Business Conference, which attracts a contingent of American and expat independent filmmakers who come to see new works and look for opportunities. This dynamic platform is a free event and open to the public. In the past, featured speakers have included representatives from Warner Brothers, Walt Disney Studio, Mace Neufeld Productions and Relativity Media.

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