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Riga International Film Festival

The Riga International Film Festival (Riga IFF) will for the first time take place in Riga from December 2nd-12th, where viewers will be offered more than 120 films, talks, lectures and workshops, as well as evening mingles.

The festival will offer an European film retrospective whereas the programme is dedicated to the EFA award for Achievement in World Cinema. It will include films from the mid-90s to today. Within Riga IFF, the Film Festival 2ANNAS will present the EFA award nominated short-film programme Short matters, as well as ‘Latvian Transgressors’ – films, which can be viewed as brave turning points in Latvian cinema history.

The National Film Festival Lielais Kristaps – main focus of Riga IFF this year – will praise the best Latvian films and filmmakers for the 26th time already. The competition section will be composed of films selected and nominated for the main award by professional organisations and experts’ commission. Films will be evaluated by an international jury, which for the first time will include members of EFA. The local audience will not only be able to vote for the best Latvian film, but also for the best European movie, so one of the awards – statue of the mythical Great Kristaps – will travel abroad. Closing ceremony of Lielais Kristaps will take place on December 11 and will be broadcasted live on TV.

A programme of Northern European children’s and young people’s films has been prepared for the Festival’s younger audience – featuring 10 films from Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and other countries, which will open the holiday season for students.

The project Cinema 1914 will be realized together with the Riga Film Museum. The hundred year old film selection for the cinema Splendid Palace will be presented as it had been a hundred years ago – without intervals and with live musical accompaniment.

Whereas, in partnership with the leading Russian documentary film festival ARTDOCFEST, viewers will be offered a daring and current documentary film programme Artdocfest Riga with seven films premiering in Latvia. The National Film Centre of Latvia, within the Riga International Film Festival, is organizing a vast relevant section, which will include various events for both cinema locals and foreign guests, as well as a wider festival audience. Meanwhile the 2ANNAS Film Festival team is coordinating an event for scriptwriters as part of the Riga IFF programme. Within Riga’s creative atmosphere the project European Script Meeting will gather known script writers from Europe, from the 11th – 14th of December, to stimulate international cooperation with another key group of guests – film directors and producers. 

venues and more info here
rigaiff.lv/en