Inviting the audiences to be carried away by the expressive charm of the cinematic language of the Baltic Sea region and Scandinavian countries, Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF, 17–27 October) announces the contestants of its main section – RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition. Offering a platform for exquisite cinematic pleasures and highlighting the current impressions of the cinematic landscape of the region, 10 feature films from Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and Ukraine will compete for the festival’s main award – 10 000 EUR and a bronze statue. Tickets to the Feature Film Competition screenings, and other announced RIGA IFF programme screenings are now available on the festival website (rigaiff.lv), and at Biļešu Serviss sales points.

Eschewing film type, genre, or style, RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition combines emotionally charged documentary and fiction films, intricate examples of cinema auteur, and striking genre fusion works from the Baltic Sea region and Scandinavian countries. Embodying RIGA IFF take on the future of cinema today, the special film selection, competing for the festival’s main award – a bronze statue of a rooster and a cash prize of 10 000 euro – continually highlights the horizons of new film language and the use of expressive audiovisual forms.

As part of the festival’s 11th edition, RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition will be a celebration of the world premieres of the latest documentary features by two Latvian cinema masters – Laila Pakalniņa and Māra Maskalāns. On 22 October, 18:30, cinema Splendid Palace Large Hall will be taken over by the eternal dance of life and death during the screening of The End, a new Latvian gothic by nature documentarian and cinematographer Maskalāns. Expertly stimulating the senses of the spectator with flawless aesthetics and both existential and ethical dilemmas, the director reveals the less visible, unconscious, or modified part of life – death – and its transformative light.

Whereas on 24 October, 18:00, the world premiere will be celebrated by the black and white poetic opus Termini, directed by the acclaimed author Laila Pakalniņa. With her longtime collaborator, cinematographer Gints Bērziņš, it will be Pakalniņa’s fourth return to RIGA IFF programme – this time paying a tribute to the final destinations of the streetcars of Riga and public transit as home amongst strangers.

The competition will also include the latest and most promising creations by other Baltic Sea region filmmakers. Lithuanian cinema will be represented by two films just generously awarded at Locarno film festival – the debut film Toxic by Saulė Bliuvaitė, which has reached a status equivalent to that of The Catcher in the Rye in Baltic cinema, and Latvian and Lithuanian co-production, a fine example of contemporary cinema, Drowning Dry, which has been selected as the Lithuanian submission for an Oscar. Meanwhile, the signature styles of Estonian filmmakers will be demonstrated by the unconventional coming-of-age tale Bye Bye Boredom and the poignantly mystical film 8 Views of Lake Biwa, which intermingles Estonia and Japan, West and East, and the visible and the non-material.

Uncovering differing film schools, traditions, and views of form, a contestant for the RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition’s main prize will also be the Ukrainian documentary film Songs of a Slow Burning Earth, which just saw its world premiere at the Venice film festival, and the visually impressive debut of the German director Sophia Bösch, Milk Teeth. Among the contestants are also bold accents of Scandinavian cinema – elegiac horror fairytale Handling the Undead, starring the exceptional Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve, and the nominee for the Palme d’Or, the Danish magnum opus of the year, The Girl With the Needle, an intricately woven, horrifying cinematic tale of a Danish serial killer in a bleak and ruthless world shortly after the end of World War I.

The competition selection will be judged and the festival’s main prize, a bronze statue and a 10 000 euro cash prize, will be awarded by a jury of acclaimed industry professionals – studio Mistrus Media producer Inese Boka-Grūbe (Latvia), one of the leading Scandinavian film critics, Helena Lindblad (Sweden), programme director of Nordic and global film co-production market New Nordic Films at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, Gyda Myklebust (Norway) and film critic, documentary film festival DocPoint curator Tristan Priimägi (Estonia).

RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition screenings will take place during the entire festival run; the winner will be announced at the RIGA IFF closing ceremony on 26 October. Tickets to the Feature Film Competition screenings, and other announced RIGA IFF programme screenings are now available on the festival website (rigaiff.lv), and at Biļešu Serviss sales points.

From 17 to 27 October, RIGA IFF will delight the senses of filmgoers with more than 100 screenings of bold and fresh filmmaker visions, selected from the world’s most prestigious film festival programmes, as well as from the kindred Baltic Sea region cinema. Until the full festival programme announcement on 17 September, RIGA IFF will continue to reveal other highly artistic works of this year’s programme – films awarded at Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and other film festivals, as well as bold hidden gems of contemporary cinema. Follow festival updates on rigaiff.lv and festival social media accounts, as well as by subscribing to RIGA IFF newsletter.

RIGA IFF’s main partner is the media and technology company Tet. The festival is made possible with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation, EU programme “Creative Europe – MEDIA”, Riga City Council, and the National Film Centre of Latvia.