This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
In a relatively short period of time, the European Film Festival of Atlanta has announced itself as a major spring celebration of international cinema. Running Wednesday through Saturday, May 8-11, at the Plaza and Tara theaters, the festival isn’t just a celebration of films from throughout Europe but an event that manages to merge entertainment with weightier, topical issues.
Alliance Française, Goethe-Zentrum and the consulates of 14 European countries — Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland and Ukraine — are partnering for the third annual fest. Each consulate is responsible for picking its own film.
Shonda Hoffmeyer, the Goethe Zentrum Atlanta business and program manager, is one of this year’s artistic directors, alongside Valerie Ibarra, the communications and public diplomacy officer of the Consulate General of Belgium in Atlanta. Since Belgium holds the presidency of the European Union, officials from its Atlanta consulate office are taking the lead on a lot of the festival’s moving parts, but Ibarra and Hoffmeyer are working in partnership with other consulates to plan the four-day event and its opening night.
The opening night film is Yolande Moreau’s “La fiancee du poète,” from Belgium, in which a lonely woman inherits a family home but must take in three tenants to help with costs. A 6:45 p.m. reception will precede the 7:30 p.m. Tara screening Wednesday.
Two recent Academy Award winners are also on tap. From Ukraine is Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” which took home the 2024 Best Documentary Feature Oscar and follows Ukrainian journalists committed to telling the truth about the Russian invasion and all the atrocities the war has brought. France’s “Anatomy of a Fall” stars the exceptional Sandra Huller as a wife suspected in the homicide of her husband. It won Justine Triet, who also directed, the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award earlier this season.
Credit: Courtesy of European Film Festival of Atlanta
Credit: Courtesy of European Film Festival of Atlanta
Other gems in the schedule include İlker Çatak’s “The Teachers’ Lounge” from Germany — in which a young teacher looks deep into her school to determine if a student blamed for theft has been racially profiled — as well as Ireland’s stunning “The Quiet Girl,” Colm Bairéad’s drama about a 9-year-old young girl, circa 1981, who spends the summer with in-laws instead of her dysfunctional family.
The European Film Festival of Atlanta is the first collaborative event of its kind that Hoffmeyer has seen in the United States. She believes it has become a vital way for consulates to spotlight their culture and country.
“It helps people better understand there are different European communities out there, and while [they] are facing some similar things to America, some are different,” she said. “It’s good to go outside of what you might think of as a typical Hollywood vision of Europe. It opens up people’s eyes to understanding each other better, to realize that we can come together.”
Last year, the festival opened with Evgeny Afineevsky’s “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” a follow-up to the director’s Oscar–nominated “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom.” This topical theme continues with “20 Days in Mariupol,” and some of the proceeds from the screening will go back to Ukraine.
“[Offering this screening] is a chance to show audiences that the war in Ukraine is still ongoing, and we are all working to help bring attention to it and hopefully an end,” Hoffmeyer said.
FILM PREVIEW
European Film Festival of Atlanta
Wednesday through Saturday, May 8-11, at the Plaza (1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. N.E.) and Tara (2345 Cheshire Bridge Road N.E.) theaters. Individual screenings, $12-$15; full festival pass, $100; four-film bundle, $45; three-film bundle, $35. eurofilmfestatl.com
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Jim Farmer is the recipient of the 2022 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Theatre Feature and a nominee for Online Journalist of the Year. A member of five national critics’ organizations, he covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, and lives in Avondale Estates with his husband, Craig, and dog, Douglas.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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