1. AFF will present about 80 films, including about 40 new titles.
The new films will be presented in the following sections:
HIGHLIGHTS – gala screenings of the newest well known titles, premiere screenings of films by renowned directors.
SPECTRUM – a panorama of contemporary American cinema, new feature films: ‘middle cinema’, films by renowned filmmakers, new talents, interesting phenomena .
AMERICAN DOCS – the most important documentary productions of the season, showing predominantly America in the XXI century (15 titles, including And Everything Is Going Fine by Steven Soderbergh about underestimated artist Spalding Gray).
ON THE EDGE – discoveries, experiments, author’s films, very often ‘on the edge’ of the commonly acknowledged forms and acceptable subjects (5 titles, with hipnotic Sharon Lockhart’s film Double Tide).
The films from the SPECTRUM and AMERICAN DOCS sections which will be premiered in Poland during the festival, will take part in the competition. The Public Award will be given to the winners in two categories: Best Feature Narrative ($10,000) and Best Feature Documentary ($5,000).
Special review and sentimental sections:
DECADE OF INDEPENDENTS – 15 independent American films that charged movie screens over the last 10 years. Some are hits, others are lesser-known, but appreciated for setting trends that continue in cinema today; the most important directors, e.g. Gus van Sant, Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson, Darren Aronofsky.
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM (Evergreens, i.e. öber-classics) – 10 films from a cross-section of American cinema; from Chaplin and Allen, to Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Bonnie and Clyde and more!
Retrospectives
The first edition of the AFF will feature a complete retrospective of John Cassavetes (1929–1989), a director, screenwriter and actor, who alongside Orson Welles was the most outstanding American independent filmmaker. His most interesting films include Shadows (1959), Faces (1968), A Woman under the Influence (1974), and Opening Night (1977).
More about the retrospective of John Cassavetes >
