Thursday, November 3, 2011

CineCologne – 4 festivals in one

This month brings a treat for film fans to brighten up the darker, increasingly colder November days. Under the CineCologne umbrella, four individual mini-festivals are taking place in the city throughout the month. Kicking off proceedings this week are Soundtrack Cologne and Exposed. The former focuses on film music, with screenings of music documentaries and a workshop and concert featuring Scottish composer Patrick Doyle, while Exposed showcases films by first-time directors. GOF is most excited about the European First Films category, which features the directorial debut from the very talented Richard Ayoade (until now best known and loved as the ultimate geek, Moss, in The IT Crowd), Submarine. This film will get its own blog in the very near future, and it’s certainly one of the festival highlights. Other Exposed categories include debut films focusing on Cologne itself and country-of-the-moment Greece, while this festival draws to a close – unfortunately on Sunday already – with a silent movie “Historic Debut”.

Part 3 arrives next weekend, in the shape of Unlimited: four days of European short films, followed at the end of the month by Cinepänz, the children’s film festival. Anyone expecting a week of talking cartoon animals and storybook characters is in for a surprise however, as the programme offers a wide range of films, some tackling weightier issues such as teenage transsexuals (Romeos) and parental mental illness (Überschnappt – "Gone Bananas").

While some of the screenings and events require accreditation, there’s still plenty on offer for film fans in and around Cologne over the next few weeks.

Really not sure about the promo trailer for the event though – has GOF missed a trick or is this just...bizarre?

No comments:

Post a Comment