DANES IN ZLÍN
The audience of this year's Zlín festival can look forward to two new sections as well as the introduction of the cream of the crop of Danish production as part of Days with Danish Cinematography.
The audience of this year's Zlín festival can look forward to two new sections as well as the introduction of the cream of the crop of Danish production as part of Days with Danish Cinematography. Before we begin to introduce you to the films to be projected in these sections we would like to invite you to ''meet'' some of the Danish guests who will honour us with their presence this year.
From 2013, young acting hopefuls will be introduced in the new section Young Stars, which hopes to follow up recent visits by American actresses AnnaSophia Rob (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Dakota Blue Richards (The Golden Compass) and actor Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense). This section also wants to pay attention to so called young shooting stars from around the world. This year's festival is wrapped in red&white colours of the Kingdom of Denmark, hence one of the Young Stars will be Danish actor Cyron Melville who will personally present several Danish films (Timetrip, You & Me Forever, Fighter). However, the main feature film where he played the leading role is Love & Rage (2009) directed by Morten Giese. In this psychological drama, he portrays a talented piano student who aspires to be internationally renowned virtuoso. However, his new relationship with his school friend leads him onto a path to hell as his extremely obsessive jealousy begins to destroy his promising career as well as his personal life.
Tales of The Thousand and One Nights is the name of another new programme section which will every year present fairytales from around the world, respectively their film adaptations. The imaginary opening ribbon will be cut by film adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen's workswhich play an undeniable part in the realm of Danish Days. One of the introduced films will also be Hans Christian Andersen and the Long Shadow (1998) directed by Jannik Hastrup. This legend of Danish animation will also be on the international judging panel for animated film and apart from the previously mentioned film, he will bring more of his gems to Zlín - The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear (2002) and War of the Birds (1995).
In 1988 the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Oscar) went to Pelle the Conqueror directed by Danish Bille August (The House of the Spirits, Les Miserables, Similla's Sense of Snow). This epic saga has gained world recognition not only because of its remarkable storyline of Swedish emigrants in Denmark at the end of 19th century but also due to the unforgettable acting performances by Max von Sydow and Pelle Hvenegaard in leading role. It is precisely Pelle Hvenegaard who is coming to Zlín to personally present the film and reminisce about the shooting that took place more than 25 years ago.