Febiofest 2020: New Faces and Proven Formats

The 27th edition of the Prague International Film Festival – Febiofest will deliver much that is new. The first big news to be revealed was the fact that Nikolai Nikitin has been appointed artistic director. His team has since been bolstered by another expert, Marta Švecová. And former Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick is Febiofest’s new programme consultant and dramaturge of the popular Culinary Cinema section, of which he is the “spiritual father.”

The 27th edition will see a number of changes, which the new team is currently working on. From this year, artistic directors Nikolaj Nikitin and Marta Švecová comprise the festival’s Programme Department. Nikitin comes to Prague after 17 years working with the Berlin IFF. “For over 20 years, Nikolaj Nikitin has been focused on regional and European cinema. He has a wealth of experience in the field and has connections to all sections of the film world,” said Febiofest director Kamil Spáčil. In the last two decades Marta Švecová has worked in film production, marketing, sales and acquisitions, with a focus on Europe, the Balkans and Asia. She has served as director of the Film Europe distribution company and as a programme consultant for festivals in Eastern Europe. At present she lectures at FAMU. The new leadership of the Programme Department aim to accent progressive dramaturgy offering a balanced combination of audience-friendly titles with arthouse movies. The biggest change in the festival’s dramaturgy will be a reduction in the number of films, which will bring greater attention, and space to reflect on them, to all pictures.

Febiofest’s new programme consultant is Dieter Kosslick, who was director of the Berlin IFF from 2002 until this year. He established the Low Budget Forum in the 1980s, was an executive at Film Fonds Hamburg, co-founded the organisation EFDO and from this year is jury chair for the Carl Laemmle Producers Award. His concept Culinary Cinema, which proved a hit at the Berlinale, will also take place for the sixth time during Febiofest, this time with dramaturgy from its founder. Across three festival evenings three pictures focused on gastronomy will be screened, accompanied by a menu created by a top Czech chef. This format is extremely popular at the festival. Advance ticket sales for Culinary Cinema will begin in December.

Other successful formats are also continuing. For instance, the amateur shorts competition You’re the Filmmaker will take place during Febiofest for the seventh time, in two categories: individuals and school teams. The theme of the seventh edition of the competition, in which films can be of 1 to 5 minutes, is a hot topic today: the environment, climate change and their impact on the world around us. The first three places in both categories come with cash prizes. Information on competition conditions is available on the festival’s website.