30/01/2024 - The Europe, Now! section, dedicated to contemporary European auteur cinema, will focus on the works of the Danish, Swedish and Slovenian directors

Directors Frederikke Aspöck, Lukas Moodysson and Metod Pevec

The Europe, Now! section of the 42nd Bergamo Film Meeting (9 - 17 March) will present works by Frederikke Aspöck, an emerging Danish filmmaker already recognised internationally, Swedish director Lukas Moodysson, and filmmaker Metod Pevec who is one of the forces behind the rebirth of Slovenian cinema. The three auteurs will be present in Bergamo for the duration of the Festival.

The career of Frederikke Aspöck began with four short films, one of which, Happy Now (2004), won among other awards the First Prize Cinéfondation in Cannes. His debut feature, Out of Bounds [+see also:
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film profile], was presented in a special screening in Cannes and won the Grand Prize at the Marrakech Film Festival. His next feature film, Rosita [+see also:
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film profile], winner of the award for Best Director at the Moscow Film Festival, was followed by Out of Tune [+see also:
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film profile], a success at the Danish box office that had its world premiere at IFFR. All will be playing at the festival, including his latest effort, Empire. Winner of the prestigious Nordic Council Film Prize, the film is a drama set in the Danish colony of St. Croix in the 19th century. 

Lukas Moodysson is best known for his films set in the 1990s and 2000s. His debut feature Fucking Amal is a romantic comedy which was enormously popular in Sweden and was distributed all over the world. After the successes of Together, another comedy, Lilya 4-ever [+see also:
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film profile], a raw and harsh drama, and the experimental films A Hole in My Heart and Container, came Mammoth [+see also:
film review
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film profile], which played in Competition at the Berlinale; the light-hearted We Are the Best! [+see also:
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film profile], adapted from a graphic novel by his wife Coco and selected in Venice Orizzonti; and Gösta [+see also:
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film profile], which reunited the friends from the commune in the original film Together. 

Metod Pevec began his career as an actor, then a writer and screenwriter, before finally becoming a director, with the short film Everything Is Under Control (1992) and the feature film Carmen. In 2003, he shot Beneath Her Window, which premiered in Karlovy Vary, won several awards at al FSF - Festival of Slovenian Film and was a candidate for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Then came Estrellita [+see also:
film review
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interview: Danijel Hočevar
interview: Metod Pevec
interview: Nerina Kocjančič
film profile], followed by Good Night, Missy and Tango Abrazos. Music and dance, female characters with strong personalities and stories from the margins are all elements which define his cinema, and they can also be found in his documentary Home [+see also:
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film profile] and the feature film that came after that, I Am Frank [+see also:
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interview: Metod Pevec
film profile]. 

The Europe, Now! section will be complemented with a selection of graduation films from European film schools belonging to CILECT (directed in collaboration with the Civica Scuola di Cinema Luchino Visconti in Milan), and with the Europe, Now! Film Industry Meetings (12 – 13 March), two days for professionals from the sector that aim to offer an occasion to network and connect.

(Translated from Italian)