6th Fitimene Art Film Festival – Los Angeles.
At first glance, it may seem unusual to see a film festival in California competing for films that deal exclusively with the fine arts in their subject and theme. In 2019, for the sixth time, the Fine Arts Film Festival was held this spring in Venice Beach, Los Angeles. Of course, the Hungarian participant could not be missed either!
When I arrived to the location of the festival I fell love with the building immediately. Beyond Baroque has a true cultural history in the United States. Founded in 1968, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. Nowadays the Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programs including readings, workshops, exhibitions, new music, education and festivals.
This year the Fine Arts Film Festival featured more than 200 entries from all over the world in 11 announced categories. The top 50 films were participated and screened on the three-days-long festival in the last days of May on a sunny Venice Boulevard. The festival is dedicated to showing the finest films in the world about art, photography, collectors and artists of all mediums in and out of their studios, galleries, museums, public art and alternative art spaces.
The nine professionals of the jury included the versatile co-founder Juri Koll. The director, producer, curator and co-founder owns Estonian roots. His films have screened all over the world, in over 70 festivals including Cannes, and won many awards. The members of the jury Barbara Kolo, Christy Addis-Gutieres, John Hogg, Ionana Matei, Mark Rickard, Raffaella Camera, Dani Dodge, Patric Costell were selected the best 50 movies for the festival.
Director Julian Rosefeldt received ‘Best Director’ award for movie ’Manifesto’ (Australia/Germany) at the FAFF 2019 Awards Ceremony on May 25, in which Cate Blanchett appears as 13 unique characters.
Young talents – actress Jackie Hansen, music coordinator Tasha Ames, Jonny Price, Juan Armitos – also supported the festival by their personal appearance.
As usual, a film festival could not have gone without a Hungarian participant. Ákos Bánki represented Hungary with his 61 minutes documentary film, Illegal Informel. The festival screening was also considered to be the American premiere of the film.
Virág Vida
