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    A Sunday in the Country 2024 Poland

    A Sunday in the Country 2024 in Poland (picture: Wojciech Chrubasik)

    Ever since 2012, the European Film Academy and mBank New Horizons IFF have been presenting a special version of A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY for young film critics & journalists. In 2024, it again brought together eight participants in the Polish countryside for an extended weekend of screenings and discussions.

    They spent the days watching films and discussing them, cinema and cinephilia in general, and life as a film journalist. In between there was cooking and eating together, and networking in a cottage by the Bystrzyckie lake.

    After an introduction circle on Thursday night, the screening programme kicked off on Friday with ZINZINDURRUNKARRATZ by Oskar Alegria and talking to the Spanish director about the reactions to his film which follows him and the donkey Paolo on their pilgrimage into the mountains.

    Next was GREICE which sees the protagonist escape to Brazil from an apparent art fraud. The director Leonardo Mouramateus and main actor Matteo Sousa discussed with the group the complex relationship between film and critic.

    After breakfast on Saturday, the group watched WHERE ELEPHANTS GO by Catalin Rotaru & Gabi Virginia Sarga. The Romanian directors, accompanies by actress Iulia Verdes, shared their experiences with film criticism and audiences in general. The final film was the documentary DO I STILL GET ON YOUR NERVES by Michał Szcześniak from Poland.

    The participants were Max Borg (Finland / Switzerland), Flavia Dima (Romania), Amaia Garcia Gonzalez (Spain), Łukasz Kielpinski (Poland), Alicja Nowacka (Poland), Ieva Šukytė (Lithuania) and Michel Rebosura (Switzerland). Expert for this edition was the Swiss critic Malik Berkati.

    The project was organised by the European Film Academy and New Horizons Association with the support of the Polish Film Institute, the local cultural institutes and the Krzysztof Mętrak competition for young film critics.