One of the films headed to this year’s Mediterrane Film Festival, which takes place in Malta from June 22–30, is Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Kinds of Kindness,” which recently had its global premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
Highlights of the festival’s initial lineup include Meryam Joobeur’s Berlinale competition entry, “Who Do I Belong To,” and Jane Schoenbrun’s Sundance standout, “I Saw the TV Glow.”
The second iteration of the festival is the first to be curated by Teresa Cavina, the artistic director who was hired earlier in the year. Cavina divided the festival’s schedule into four sections: Mare Nostrum or Our Sea presents films devoted to sustainability and the environment; In Competition, which features films from throughout the Mediterranean; Out of Competition, which features films from the rest of the globe; and Future Visions, which focuses on experimental VR projects.
This year’s lineup “will demonstrate our commitment to fostering a programme that celebrates the best of cinema from the Mediterranean and beyond,” according to a statement released by Cavina. There is something for every audience in this lineup of amazing directors and creatives, including both established and up-and-coming talent. There will be wide-ranging foreign dramas, compelling psychological horrors, and poignant human stories from all over the world.
The festival’s artistic director, in an interview with Variety earlier this week, stressed that she wanted to “put Malta and its people on the agenda,” promoting and showcasing Maltese indigenous talent. “Mediterrane will seek to establish a forum where local communities can interact with Mediterranean counterparts, exchange skills and narratives, and spark lively debate, particularly regarding remarkable but untold Maltese stories.”
At a buzzy Croisette advertising event, the Mediterrane Film Festival organisers revealed the first wave of selected movies. “At a time of unprecedented instability and division across the world, the Mediterrane Film Festival has a very special role to promote — as our festival tagline says loud and proud — ‘Unity Through Film,'” said Johann Grech, Malta’s Film Commissioner, to the assembled attendees.
Jon S. Baird, Margery Simkin, Mario Philip Azzopardi, Nathan Crowley, Pedro Luque, and Richie Mehta are among the members of this year’s Main Competition Jury; further members will be revealed soon. British director Mike Leigh will receive the inaugural Golden Bee Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cinema.
Entire list of chosen books is shown below:
Principal Rivalry
“Backstage,” Morocco, Tunisia, Belgium, France, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia; Afef Ben Mahmoud, Khalil Benkirane
“Hayat,” Demirkubuz Zeki (Turkey)
“Kindness in Kinds,” Greece’s Yorgos Lanthimos
Brandt Andersen, “The Strangers’ Case” (Jordan)
“Wednesday,” Daina O. Pusić, American and British
“Delightful Dreams,” Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ena Sendijarević
Meryam Joobeur, “Who Do I Belong To” (Tunisia, France, Canada)
AWAY FROM COMPETITION
“To Jassi, dear,” India’s Tarsem Singh Dhandwar
“It Glowed on the TV,” Jane Schoenbrun, American
“The Bath of the Devil,” German-Austrian Veronika Franz
MARE NOSTRUM
“The Last,” Paraguayan Sebastian Peña Escobar
“Zavattini, Luzzara, and the Po River: One Needs a Town,” Nene Grignaffini and Francesco Conversano (Italy)
“Shambhala,” by Min Bahadur Bham (U.S., Qatar, Türkiye, Hong Kong, France, Norway, and Nepal)
