On 12 October, the Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF), the biggest cinema event in Latvia, will celebrate the opening of its tenth edition. The RIGA IFF 10th anniversary season will be celebrated under the motto "10 is just a number. Adventures are limitless."
The programme is curated by a team of local and international curators and will be screened over the course of 11 days in several cinemas in Riga and online across the country. RIGA IFF will present more than 100 specially selected, internationally acclaimed feature-length and short films that highlight current trends and the most important auteurs of contemporary cinema.
The full festival programme is now available. RIGA IFF unveils daring works of high artistic quality, including notable films that have received acclaim and awards at Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Venice and other film festivals.
The opening night film is going to be "The Invisible Fight". The film is a kung fu comedy charged with Estonian restraint and adventurous daring. The award-winning and dynamic Estonian director Rainer Sarnet directs this film about the fractured existence of Homo soveticus and pop culture's ability to save the soul of the captive.
One of the festival's highlights is retrospective dedicated to the creative output of the American independent filmmaker and musician Jim Jarmusch. It honours the director's 70th birthday, as well as the tenth edition of RIGA IFF, to be widely celebrated between 12 and 22 October in cinemas in Riga and online across the country.
Notable mention goes to the festival's Short Film International Competition. The four screenings include 24 short films – animated, narrative, documentary, and experimental – that challenge the audience and reveal the filmmakers’ signature styles. The RIGA IFF Short Film Programme is curated by French curator and film critic Léo Soesanto.
Festival Selection screenings features a selection of films cherry-picked from the top festivals of the world. Note that tickets for these screenings tend to sell out fast, so secure your seat and get tickets to the festival!
And not to forget one of the coolest festival experiences, where music and image meet - Baltic Music Video Competition. When thinking of what a music video is, festival desribes it likes this:
Sometimes it can be a space for bold experiments, at other times the format can reach new technical peaks and redefine the possibilities of the genre. And then there are those videos that, although they use a familiar audiovisual language, manage to say something completely unexpected. In this festival section, we want to explore and get to know this ever-changing field and the unique interaction of image and music.
On the occasion of the festival's tenth anniversary, a special musical event, RIGA IFF on the Platform, will take place on 14 October — a night of film music in the cultural space Hanzas perons. Canadian Alex Zhang Hungtai, artist, musician, and composer of the soundtrack to the award-winning film Godland (2022), will be performing. The evening will continue with dancing to music by the Bristol-based duo Giant Swan, whose music can also be heard in a film included in the FESTIVAL SELECTION — Joanna Hogg's The Eternal Daughter (2022), starring Tilda Swinton.
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