Red Mercury, starring Pete Postlethwaite and Stockard Channing (The West Wing), Gratte Papier from the award winning French director Guillaume Martinez and the controversial Our Own Private Bin Laden by Samira Goetschel are amongst thirty films from over a dozen countries playing at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris on the 25th and 26th of March 2006.
The festival is screening a mixture of feature films, short films, documentaries, experimental, animation, and student films and has unearthed cinematic gems like the French short film Les Bougresses, One Shot Wonder from Romanian director Catalin Leescu and The Trikala Photographer from Greek director Vassilis Kosmopoulos. These films are benefiting from having an arena like The European Independent Film Festival 2006 which has brought the spotlight onto their talents – a spotlight that has not existed until now.
Competing for the Best European Independent Feature Film is Red Mercury (UK) Nachbeben (Austria), Aporia (Serbia and Montenegro) and The Penalty King (UK).
The short film category puts the sensational French short film Gratte Papier head to head with The Trikala Photographer (Greece), A Love Model (Spain), One Shot Wonder (Romania) and Apartment 406 (UK).
Best actress candidates are Stockard Channing (Red Mercury), Gaëlle Brunet (Gratte-Papier), Marta Barrio (Love Model), Tessa Vonn (The Christmas Tree) and Elaine Tan (Apartment 406).
Competing for the Best Non-European Film is the critically acclaimed film ‘The Duck’ starring Philip Baker Hall (The Insider, The Matador and most recently The Shaggy Dog).
The documentary category is screening riveting and thought provoking films. Our Own Private Bin Laden, Grazie Berlusconi, Saudi Solutions and the engrossing Chernobyl film Radiophobia, reveal incredible facets about the real-life drama that the world is leading in 2006.
The jury consists of Nathalie Nell (La Boite Noir, La Vie Moderne), Arthur Jugnot (Les Bronzes 3 et Monsieur Batignole), Scott Hillier (ZS2 Films), Isabelle Mawell (Producer) Franco Pistillo (Diamond Bullet Films) and Roland Gift (ex- Fine Young Cannibals – now a successful director).
For more info, visit the ECU Film Festival website.
