EuropeNow Film Festival is the first edition of a film event, supporting the annual International Conference of Europeanists, held this year in Glasgow on July 12 to 14. The festival is co-produced by the Council for European Studies (CES), the University of Glasgow, and the World of Film International Festival in Scotland. This year, the festival will also give an inaugural audience award for Best Feature and Best Short based on voting during individual screenings. The awards will be announced on July 14, and winning films will be featured here on EuropeNow.
It creates a new cultural platform where through the art of cinema we can explore issues that affect citizens of the European continent and beyond. The films present problems unknown and suggest solutions – from local communities to entire countries, from individual stories to movements that create change and have greater impact. They all give stage to the public and generate discussion – each carrying an important message and artistic value.
With submissions from 12 European countries, the selected films represent the concerns and interests of the majority of Europeanists – ranging from topics like Brexit, refugee crisis, economic recession, national and European politics, unemployment and many more.
Among the titles to be screened is Brexitannia, a documentary on Brexit featuring speakers like Noam Chomsky and Saskia Sassen; The Islands and the Whales, documenting the life in the Faroe islands, and a compilation of short films from Greece, explores various aspects of the everyday life of people in a country suffocating in the wake of a deep economic recession.
The festival will take place at the CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts in the City Centre of Glasgow. All selected films will compete for an audience award – one for Best Short Film and one for Best Feature Film – based on votes cast by audiences after individual festival screenings. The winning films will be announced on the last day of the festival and will be featured on the Visual column of EuropeNow, an interdisciplinary publication from CES that features research, commentary, and journalism on Europe, alongside visual art, literary nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and translations.
*PLEASE NOTE that the EuropeNow Film Festival is hosted offsite at the Centre for Contemporary Arts. To reach the venue, you can take the simpliCITY4 (firstbus) bus from the bus-stop on University Avenue at the Boyd Orr Building OR University Library and get off on Sauchiehall Street at the Dental School (which is next door to the CCA). Buses are every 10 minutes and the journey is 13 minutes. Alternately, it is a 25-minute walk or a 7-minute taxi ride to CCA. The nearest Subway stop to the CCA is Cowcaddens and it is a 7-10 minute walk. For more information about the CCA venue please see its website.
Film screenings are free to attend.
Published on June 20, 2016.
Photo: World of Film: International Festival Glasgow
