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For nearly 20 years, The Film Society of Lincoln Center has presented Spanish Cinema Now -- with the Instituto de la Cinematografia y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA) of the Spanish Ministry of Culture and New York's Instituto Cervantes -- a showcase for the growing catalog of fine films coming out of that country on Europe's southernmost peninsula.
Running from Dec. 10-23 at the Walter Reade Theater, the series not only highlights some of Spain's best of the last year, but also spotlights the work of Agustí Villaronga, one of Spanish cinema's darkest filmmakers. It also offers an opportunity to see a masterpiece of "exiled" Spanish cinema, On the Empty Balcony (courtesy of the Filmoteca Española).
With the 10 films selected for the inaugural year of the Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue initiative, this cultural exchange program takes the Sundance Film Festival experience to the world. The first Film Forward slate includes five American and five international films to be presented in collaboration with public and private partners throughout the planet. These films and their filmmakers will kick off the ambitious project in New York and Tunisia in December.
For the 10th consecutive year, New Yorkers can see some of the best in modern Russian movies through The Russian Film Week which takes place in Manhattan and Brooklyn from December 3rd through December 9th, 2010. From screenings to meet-and-greets with casts and directors of the 15 films being presented.
Throughout its decade-long run, the Russian Film Week has become a unique celebration of culture and artistic expression from the Great Bear of Europe. The event’s diverse audience – ranging from foreign cinema fans to Russian expats to students looking for a thought-provoking experience -- is a testament to the value of crossing cultural and language boundaries.
The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York presents the 5th Annual Romanian Film Festival in NYC from December 3-5 2010 at Tribeca Cinemas. Each year, the festival presents the best and most recent films from Romania’s unique and critically exalted national body of contemporary cinema to New York audiences.
This year’s edition entitled A New Beginning, features new works from filmmakers who were at the forefront of the “Romanian New Wave,” such as Cristi Puiu, Radu Muntean and Razvan Radulescu, as well as debut features from Constantin Popescu and Bobby Paunescu. The highly-anticipated new work from Andrei Ujica (Videograms of a Revolution) -- The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu -- is the opening night film.