Since 2014, the annual Be2Can festival has been bringing some of the highlights from top European film festivals like Berlin and Cannes (hence the name) into Prague cinemas well before their Czech release dates (if, in fact, they get a local release at all).
This year’s festival will take place in Prague cinemas Lucerna, Světozor, and Evald from October 4 through 10, and in cinemas in Plzeň, Olomouc, Ostrava and Zlín from October 12 through 18.
And yesterday, festival organizers gave a glimpse at what’s to come in 2017.
One of the highest-profile films to play will be the latest movie from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Dogtooth), The Killing of a Sacred Deer, starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. The film picked up Best Screenplay at Cannes earlier this year, and will hit Prague cinemas during Be2Can a month before it begins rolling out for a worldwide release.
Another highlight will be the movie that won the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes film festival: Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s The Square, which will screen a week before its general Czech release. The international comedy-drama (primarily in English & Swedish) stars Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Dominic West (The Wire), and stop-motion specialist Terry Notary, who portrayed King Kong in Kong: Skull Island and Rocket in the new Planet of the Apes trilogy.
Also screening will be one of the best-reviewed films from this year’s Cannes fest: You Were Never Really Here, from Scottish director Lynne Ramsey (We Need to Talk About Kevin). The mystery-drama stars Joaquin Phoenix (Best Actor at Cannes) as a man on the trail of a missing girl.
Other films to play at Be2Can 2017:
- The epic four-hour Filipino revenge drama The Woman Who Left from director Lav Diaz, which won the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice film fest;
- On Body and Soul, from Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi, which won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin film festival;
- The Childhood of Joan of Arc, from French director Bruno Dumot (Slack Bay), which premiered at Cannes and also played at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival;
- The German-Bulgarian drama Western, from director Valeska Grisebach, which played in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes;
- A Gentle Creature, from Ukrainian filmmaker Sergej Loznica, which played in competition at Cannes;
- Loveless, from Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, The Return), which won a Jury Prize at Cannes;
- And director Robin Campillo’s 120 Beats Per Minute, which took home four awards at Cannes including a FIPRESCI prize.
Also on tap at this year’s festival will be a complete retrospective of the work of acclaimed director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty, Youth, and the TV series The Young Pope). Sorrentino’s latest, a Silvio Berlusconi biopic titled Loro, is currently filming for a 2018 release.
More details about Be2Can can be found via the festival website.
