Tirana International Film Festival

The Tirana International Film Festival (TIFF) is the first and only international cinema festival of its kind in Albania. Created in 2003, this extraordinary cultural event takes place under the auspices of the Albanian National Center for Cinematography (QKK).

The seventh edition of the Tirana International Film Festival is on the eve of its closing night, tomorrow night, December 6, 2009.  The Sunday evening award ceremony will be followed by a gala celebration in the National Theatre where most of the ten day festival took place.

This was the first year that TIFF expanded into a features competition after its previous six editions which were mostly shorts and special programs.  The competing shorts and features that fill the day-long programs have been featured in numerous festivals including Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and Locarno.

The festival opened with an out of competition showing of Serb director Goran Paskaljevic’s ‘Honeymoons’, the first Albanian-Serbian co-production and co-written by festival programmer Genc Permeti and produced by festival director Ilir Butka.

A packed hall on Friday night watched Filippos Tsitos comedy of a man discovering his Albanian roots, ‘Plato’s Academy’ which is sure to be a top contender for the grand prize.  The film was attended by the Greek director as well as one of the Albanian stars Anastas Kozdine who received a thunderous ovation in the theater after the films introduction.

The festival was also marked with half a dozen special screenings and programs including a tribute to Albanian film pioneer Viktor Gjika, a collection of Chinese propaganda films and several rare prints of international classics from the vaults of the Albanian State Film Archive.

Sunday’s closing awards will also feature a lifetime achievement award given to Greek master filmmaker Theo Angelopoulous, who will be visiting Albania the subject of many of his acclaimed motion pictures.  During the nine days, three of his classic films were featured in special screening in Tirana’s Sheraton Hotel, the location of many of the special programs.
Among the attendees of Sunday nights closing will be a number of visiting foreign artists and filmmakers to Albania among the German experimental filmmaker Sylvia Schedelbauer, American indie producer Paul Mezey along with deciding jurors Josh Marston (Maria Full of Grace), American character Richard Edson and British experimental legend Ben Rivers.
the closing night of Tirana, Albania’s seventh international film festival wrapped last Sunday with a gala awards show in the capital city’s national theater.
The ten-day event was the first festival in which the categories grew from the previous shorts only competition into features and extended special programs.
Thirteen countries competed for the top prize including fiction and documentary films from the United States (Cold Souls, Mock Up On Mu) as well as Albania (East West East).
The winner for the best film was a split decision between Javier Rebollo’s Spanish San Sebastian winning ‘Woman Without A Piano’ and Filipos Tsitos’ Greek comedy ‘Plato’s Academy’.
‘Plato’s Academy’, deadpan tale of three Athens racists who train their dog to bark at Albanians then discover one of their own is Albanian himself, was an audience favorite when it screened the previous Friday.
Albanian actor Anastasis Kozdine collected the ‘Plato’s trophy and gave an emotional speech calling for the power of art and cinema to heal the centuries old wounds between Albania and neighboring Greece.
The Spanish ambassador collected the award for ‘Woman Without a Piano’ for director Javier Rebollo who had been in Albania earlier in the week to present the film along with Czech actor Jan Budar.  Before leaving Albania, Rebollo announced his intention to return and begin developing a project in Tirana.
Award-winning Albanian director Gjergj Xhuvani (Slogans, Dear Enemy) walked onstage to collect the Best Director award for his comic end of the cold war tale ‘East West East’.  Minutes later Xhuvani applauded the announcement that the entire ensemble cast of his film had won the best actor award.  Earlier in the evening, Xhuvani had also presented a tribute to Albanian movie pioneer Viktor Gjika who had passed away in 2009.
The awards ceremony was capped with a lifetime achievement award given to Greek master Theo Angelopoulous who has shot several films dealing with Albanian themes (Ulysses Gaze, Eternity and a Day) that had screened in special programs in packed halls earlier in the week.  Angelopoulous flew into Tirana from Athens especially for the occasion and received the honor and a special introduction from Albanian film veteran Piro Milkani (Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider).
Afterwards the public and winners mingled in an intimate celebration in the National Theatre courtyard along with jurors Josh Marston (Maria Full of Grace), British experimental filmmaker Ben Rivers and indie American actor Richard Edson.Error processing request