Cape Winelands Film Festival, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 18th - 26th April 2008

[Al-khiyal]

Cape Winelands Film Festival

[Al-khiyal]

First edition of Cape Winelands Film Festival

March 4, 2008 -- The first edition of the Cape Winelands Film Festival will take place in Stellenbosch from the 18 till the 26 April.

The festival is dedicated to exposing more people to the world’s great cinephiles and to create a window on world cinema. In total 87 productions from 21 countries will be screened in seven venues.

The festival organisers were motivated to stage the festival due to the fact that in the past 15 years, more than in any previous period in film history, filmmakers around the world have explored the quality of their medium. “Revivals in diverse film cultures such as China, Iran, South Korea, Thailand, Mexico, Argentina and Taiwan brought joy to cinephiles across the globe. In Africa and Central and South America, new filmmakers emerged who selectively engaged with the themes of their forebears, for example, Salles and Meirelles in Brazil, Gonzáles Inárritu and Del Toro in Mexico, Dani Kouyaté in Burkina Faso and Abderrahmane Sissako from Mauritania."

A part of this year’s programme is to feature award-winning films that Capetonians and South African haven’t seen on our big screens: Ozon’s Time to Leave, Tavernier’s Safe Conduct, Dumont’s award-winning dramas, Humanity and Flandres, Kiarostami’s poetic The Wind will carry us, Olivier Assayas’s Sentimental Destinies, Téchiné’s The Witnesses, Szabo’s Relatives, Pupi Avati’s The Second Wedding Night and many more. Apart from a focus on the vibrant French film industry movie lovers will have the chance to see wonderful films from Algeria, the Netherlands, UK, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Sweden, Senegal, Egypt, Nigeria, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Thailand and Tunisia.

Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe winner Marion Cotillard and director Olivier Dahan will attend a special screening of La Vie En Rose in the Oude Libertas Amphitheatre.

The event by festival directors Leon van der Merwe and Karen Meiring will also pay tribute to two giants of the cinema that passed away last year – Ingmar Bergman and Ousmane Sembene. There will be a rare chance to see two classics of the Egyptian cinema, master filmmaker Youssef Cahine’s film The Earth and Shadi Abdelsalam’s unforgettable masterpiece The Night of the Counting of the Years. These great films will be screened in their original 35mm versions. Several of Chahine’s best films will also be screened.

The festival is also proud to feature a selection of outstanding new short films (by local and international filmmakers), as well as documentaries such as the Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side.

The festival includes a competition component.