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    • New Talents Open Call
      Eastern Neighbours Film Festival (ENFF) began in The Netherlands in 2008 with the idea to offer Dutch and international audiences a unique glimpse into the cinema of their neighbors from Eastern and Southern Europe. This annual event presents the most recent, exciting, and thought‐provoking films, from countries with small, but often powerful film industries, that… Read more: New Talents Open Call
    • ENFF 2023 On Demand!
      Unable To attend the festival in person? No problem! From November 27th to December 3rd, we’re thrilled to bring you a curated selection of this year’s films available for online viewing! Catch our captivating Opening Film Ivan’s Land, or the touching Closing Film Seventh Heaven. Or explore a collection of shorts from the New Talents Competition! Follow along… Read more: ENFF 2023 On Demand!
    • What’s up in Slovak Cinema? A conversation with Monika Lostakova
      We talked with Monika Lošťáková about contemporary Slovak cinema.
    • ENFF and the Eastern European Film Festival Network!
      The Eastern European Film Festival Network brings together five film festivals dedicated to promoting and showcasing Eastern European cinema, alongside one partner organisation.
    • Masterclasses
      Through these masterclasses we approach two memory in film from different angles: memories from a personal or collective recollection through archive material.
    • Work in Progress
      In Work in Progress, emerging filmmakers and artists will present their works in development to the audience and engage in discussions with Dutch experts.
    • Festival Timetable Available!
    • Check out the catalogue for our 2023 edition!
    • Music at ENFF
      Every year, ENFF brings special musical guests who bring beauty to the program and further represent the rich cultures of their countries to a Dutch audience.
    • Film Marathon
      Join us for the Film Marathon, a new concept in which we merge two components, Short Films, Big Stories, and New Talents Competition into a whole-day screening of short films!

ENFF brings a strong female line-up in this year’s special focus program Romani Stories by Romani (Female) DIrectors. Join the debate with three talented filmmakers of Romani origin, from Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. Moderated by Margje de Koning, director of Movies that Matter Festival. Showcase: 18 & 19 March in Kriterion Amsterdam and Filmhuis Den Haag. Read about full program here.

Katalin Bársony is a sociologist, filmmaker ED of Roma NGO Romedia Foundation, and CEO of BAXT Films Ltd from Hungary. She created Mundi Romani – the World through Roma Eyes, the first-ever news documentary series on Roma communities broadcasted on a mainstream TV channel. The series consisted of 42 episodes shot in 28 countries, winning worldwide recognition for its innovative quality, cinematography and the untold stories the films unravelled. In 2010, it was awarded the UNESCO Prize for the Rapprochement of Cultures. Awards and nominations at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, the FIPA, the CIVIS Prize led to the creation of independent media campaigns and films such as Uprooted (2011), nominated at the 8th Aljazeera International Documentary Film Festival, and the upcoming documentary drama, 3Brothers. The launch of BAXT Films will facilitate the further creation of independent documentaries, with an emphasis on human rights, cultural issues, using cutting edge technologies.

Vera Lacková is a director and film producer. Born in Slovakia and based in Vienna, Austria, she is the founder of the Czech-Slovakian production company, MediaVoice. Her background working with Roma people, sharing their stories and movements, enables her to bring a unique insider perspective on important and timely ethnic and political Roma themes for the community. A participant of the 2019 IDFA Academy, her film, How I Became a Partisan, was her feature length documentary debut and is about searching for the fate of forgotten Roma partisans. Her own search for and exposure of Romani partisans’ stories is primarily based on the life of her great-grandfather; Ján Lacko. The film premiered at goEast Film Festival in Wiesbaden in 2021, where she received the Federal Foreign Office for Cultural Diversity award. The project was developed at the Ex Oriente film workshop, pitched at the 2020 East Doc Platform, and is a part of the distribution program, East Silver Caravan, supported by IDF.

Alina Serban is an award-winning Romanian artist: actress, performer, film and theater director, playwright and activist. She was the first Roma actress representing Romania at the Cannes Film Festival with her leading role in Alone at My Wedding. For her main role in Gipsy Queen she earned The Best Actress Award in Germany at the Actors Guild Awards in September 2020.  Letter of Forgiveness is her debut as a film director, and the first film about Roma slavery, written and directed from a Roma perspective. Serban also pioneered Roma feminist political theatre. Her show The Great Shame about the taboo topic of Roma slavery became the first play by a Roma woman director included in the permanent repertoire of a state theatre in Romania.

ENFF Newsletter