Screen breaks

Autumn is film festival season across Europe, but you don't have to be a movie star or director to get a ticket. Damon Wise prefers the intimacy of Torino to Cannes, and Will Tizard previews the best of the rest
Prague's Moffom film festival
Take your seats ... Prague's Moffom film and music festival

Cannes may be the high watermark of the film festival year, but there are other places that, though they have a lower international profile, have higher returns in the way of local beauty spots, cheaper prices, and better food and service. Best of all, they offer a chance for the general public to see the films on offer.

The Torino (Turin) festival which began in 1982 was recently taken over by Italian director Nanni Moretti (Caro Diario, The Son's Room), and has become less cutting-edge but more of an all-encompassing celebration of world cinema with an emphasis on emerging film-makers.

This means the main selection might be a bit of a punt for the casual filmgoer; unlike festivals in San Sebastian (Spain) and Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), Torino doesn't tend to platform the bigger hits from Cannes and Venice, so there's quite a big element of chance - you're as likely to end up with a quietly searing Japanese drama as a laugh-out-loud American indie. It's a buff's event, with a focus on directors, although two years ago that meant there was a chance to see Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and Clint Eastwood's Flags Of Our Fathers. Unlike Cannes, there's little red carpet palaver and more audience engagement, so it's worth staying put for the Q&As afterwards. In recent years these included John Landis, Claude Chabrol and Hollywood legend Ernest Borgnine. Something Torino does very well is retrospectives, and this year it will showcase two heavyweights: directors Roman Polanski and Jean-Pierre Melville (famous for his crime dramas with Alain Delon). But be warned, English subtitles are not always a given.

This year there's also a UK retrospective called The British Renaissance, featuring such early 80s classics as the Terence Davies Trilogy, Stephen Frears's My Beautiful Laundrette and Bill Forsyth's Local Hero, plus a special TV tribute to Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective). It's likely that some of those directors will attend the screenings, another reason to cough up the €10 or so for a ticket (2008 prices have yet to be unveiled, but go on sale from November 10).

Befitting a more casual festival, there aren't the flamboyant parties of Cannes and Berlin, but it's worth keeping an ear to the ground for receptions and cocktail parties that will be packed with industry people. Stars tend to be of the Italian variety, but they'll drive the crowds wild even if you don't recognise the likes of Maria Grazia Cucinotta (buxom star of Il Postino). The lavish opening and closing parties are held at the fabulous Cinema Museum, with amazing views of the mountains and city, but the venues for the festival itself are usually pragmatic (three fairly new multiplexes). Sightseers will find a glorious art deco movie palace called the Lux on Turin's main thoroughfare, which, sadly, has been closed for quite a few years now.

The real plus of this festival, though, is the city itself: exceptional food and wine, world-class art museums, the fabulous Cinema Museum, which houses a collection of rare movie memorabilia, including 300,000 posters, and possibly the best shopping for men's clothing in Italy, which in itself is saying something.

It's just a fantastic city to stroll around in, and if the fog comes in, the piazzas become as cinematic and atmospheric as anything you're likely to see on the big screen.

Festival, Nov 21-29.

Getting there, flythomas and fly to Turin.

Where to stay The Boston Art Hotel (0039 011 500359,, doubles from €115) is decorated with works of contemporary Italian painters including an exhibition in the garden which hosts an aperitif party every Thursday.
Damon Wise


The Icelandic film festival has been generating a buzz since it was founded in 2004, due to its bold slate of unconventional indie film from artists on the rise, fascinating talks and master classes by such film-makers as Atom Egoyan (Oct 4) and critics like Gerald Peary (Oct 2). Movie tickets cost £6, talks up to £15, though some are free. This year Paprika Steen, the Danish actress who has just finished directing her second film, will be making an appearance. The World Changes section of screenings and talks takes a look at environmental issues.

After catching the latest wave at arthouse cinema Tjarnarbio, visitors can retire to one of the city's infamous bars on Laugavegur street, such as late-closing Sirkus. The international culture-vultures who attend also relish the chance to soak in the balcony hot tub at the Sundhöllin pools (where films are sometimes shown) on Barónsstíg street, a great place to recover from the festival parties.

Festival, Sep 24-Oct 5.

Getting there and fly to Reykjavik

Where to stay 101 Hotel (00 354 5800 101, Iceland's first boutique hotel-cum-gallery, has sleek rooms and a buzzy bar with doubles from £198 pn.


Poland's main film event is a trip through time and political realities, with screenings at the behemoth Palace of Science and Culture, a towering "gift from the Soviets", as festival director Stefan Laudyn describes it. Amid worn marble stairs and crystal chandeliers, film cognoscenti gather for a well-chosen collection of some 180 films (90% with English soundtrack or subtitles), and mostly the first or second features of film-makers from around the world, with tickets at £3-£6.

The crowds enjoy the excuse to visit this increasingly fashionable city, which features stacks of clubbing and dining venues. One of the hippest, Sense (, has a ground glass round bar and attracts gorgeous locals. For a powerful sense of the city's tragic treatment during the war, don't miss the recently opened Museum of the Warsaw Uprising (Grzybowska 79).

Festival, Oct 10-19.

Getting there,, and


Prague's Music on Film/Film on Music festival has grown steadily for four years and wins rave reviews. Its hosting of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová performing Falling Slowly well before they won an Oscar for the ballad (heard in the indie hit "Once") is typical of Moffom's forward thinking. Concerts, screenings and "cine-concerts"- musical accompaniment to films - fill out the turn-of-the-century Lucerna arcade on Wenceslas Square, one of the last remaining art nouveau gems in the district. Tickets to films such as From Mambo to Hip Hop: a South Bronx Tale, and the award-winning Note by Note: the Making of Steinway L307, which follows the creation of a concert grand piano, are just £2.50.

The Lucerna Music Bar, a tattered, balconied basement venue, becomes the hottest club in town during the festival, while neighbouring pubs like Jáma on V Jame street, overflow with fans of traditional Czech lager and goulash.

Festival, Oct 16-20

Getting there,,, and

Where to stay Castle Steps (00420 257 216 337,, with its parquet floors and views of Prague castle, is steeped in history but is a surprisingly affordable Malá Strana district inn with doubles from £38 pn.

Jihlava Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic

Jihlava, a 90-minute bus ride south-east of Prague, offers a taste of rustic south Bohemian life. The town still features a classic bronze statue of a Soviet war hero within view of the film festival's main venue, the hulking communist-era Kulturní Dum, the community hall every town once used for lectures on the dangers of capitalism. These days it's the scene of a cheerier prospect: grabbing a Pilsner Urquell and settling into your creaky wooden seat to catch the freshest new documentary films around, in the company of connoisseurs like Sean Farnel, programme director of Toronto's Hot Docs international festival. With its 2008 motto "Thinking Through Film", this small-scale event features hastily assembled tents for lawn parties (it can get rainy in autumn), and cobblestone streets with crumbing baroque facades to go with its screenings of films like Marcela, a three-decade chronicle of an average Czech woman's life and travails, and last year's winner, a probing look at north Bohemian border town life, A Town Called Hermitage.

Filmmakers and audiences meet to chat and sample Jezek beer, fresh from the local brewery, where festival parties and buffets laden with smoked meats are held.

Festival, Oct 24-29, tickets £2.

Getting there Fly to Prague, as above.

Where to stay Hotel Gustav Mahler (+567 320 501,, doubles from £30), a former Dominican monastery with thick, stucco walls just off the town's main square, is where the international film types gather.

Cottbus, Germany

Ranked one of "50 unmissable film festivals" by Variety, Cottbus has for years been a hotbed for movie scouts, who come to catch up on the best new work from the former eastern bloc. With eight film sections, including this year's Baltic film focus, tributes, shorts, and films for children and youth, the event transforms this otherwise sleepy hamlet into a microcosm of movie talent. The focus is more on inspiring film than inspiring venues (the staid Stadthalle Cottbus does the job) and Cottbus demonstrates what a former East German industrial town looks like in the 21st century.

That said, it's a friendly town, with lots of traditional beer-halls and hundreds of films you're not likely to see anywhere else for £3-£6. If you can picture yourself in a vintage thriller like The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, you'll adapt very well to the tidy, slightly sinister aspect of this place (it's made much warmer by the packs of film geeks from all over Europe who gather here, of course).

Festival, Nov 11-16.

Getting there, and fly to Berlin, one hour from Cottbus.

Where to stay Waldhotel (0049 355 87 640,, doubles from £63) is rustic, woodsy and affordable, with a spa, wellness centre and discounts for festivalgoers, just a short walk from the venues.

Tallinn Black Nights

The Baltic's largest film event of the year is held in the region's most atmospheric port city. The best screenings are at the Kino Sappro, the city's top arthouse cinema, while the Animated Dreams mini-fest celebrates the proud local tradition of dissident cartoon making.

The old town gets dark early, but that adds appeal to its cosy bars and traditional dining halls like Vanaema Juures on Rataskaevu street. Meanwhile, the new generation of Estonian and Russian media folk mingle at the Seduction discotheque on Viru Väljak. It's a trendy city these days, and works hard at being fashionable - which makes the focus on independent film from around the region, priced for students, bohemian types and foreign film scouts, all the more appealing.

Festival, Nov 13-Dec 7, tickets £2.50-£5.

Where to stay Uniquestay Hotel Tallinn (0037 2660 0709,, doubles from £98 pn) has "Zen" rooms featuring Jacuzzis and earthy, designer features including sandstone colours and sauna.

Branchage International Film Festival, Jersey

Jersey's first foray into the celluloid festival circuit (named after the twice yearly official inspection to see if islanders are trimming their shrubbery) aims to break the mould with exotic screening locations, live soundtracks, art exhibitions and burlesque dancers. A mix of movies, from The Wicker Man, backed by live nu-folk music, to Suroosh Alvi's Heavy Metal in Baghdad and an acclaimed series of shorts, are being shown at eclectic venues around the island including second world war German tunnels, derelict magistrates' cells and Jersey's opera house. The Festival HQ, the box office for the £6 screenings, is a striking 19th century spiegeltent - intricate hand-made canvas pavilion with mirrors, wood and leaded glass - which will also serve as a social hub, hosting lectures, parties and a major burlesque cabaret bash on Saturday night.

Festival, Sept 25-28.

Where to stay St Helier's stylish Club Hotel and Spa (01534 876500,, doubles from £155 pn) is home to the Michelin-starred Bohemia.

Getting there or
Will Tizard

How to bluff it as a film-fest buff

What to wear

For men: skin-tight black polo necks and thick-rimmed glasses, accessorised with a copy of Cahiers du Cinema and a look of metaphysical angst. To pull this off, you have to be whippet thin and desperately good-looking, but it's de rigueur to try anyway. The majority just look doughy (all that sitting down), grumpy (all that arthouse) and crummy (all those biscuits). On the upside, a bit of body odour does wonders for safeguarding your personal space (all that queuing).

Women must wear a skirt whose shortness is in direct proportion to the enormity of their sunglasses. Even at Sundance, where it snows.

Whatever your gender you must be either very pale (for that screening room veteran look) or walnut tanned (particularly in Cannes, where the Eurotrash look gains you instant access to yachts).

What to carry

Anyone in an even faintly official capacity at a film festival will be issued a branded courier bag in which to lug around daily kit. But they're so desperately ugly the form is to junk them ASAP - even though they are, in fact, fantastically useful. So if you haven't been able to get your paws on one, they are available in every good wastepaper bin. And with a lick and a polish, might just impress your friends once you're back home.

Where to stay

If someone else is paying, a swanky hotel (which is where all the real action goes on). But even the most rabid B&Bs get booked very quickly so leave it too late and you may be left with the end of a sofa or, even, a park bench. Still, temporary homelessness can be turned to your advantage: call your tent an installation, shower in public, mumble something about climate change and - ta da! - you're the talk of the town.

Who to quote

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, natch. Also any critic so obscure no one else will have heard of them (if in doubt, make a vaguely Ukrainian name up). Wandering around with a copy of that day's Variety speaks a thousand words. No need to actually wade through it.

What to eat

Nothing, if possible. Canapes if you must. Pastry when you feel faint.

What to drink

Rosé may be sniffed at in the UK, but it's a staple of film festivals, even those outside France. Failing that, something they might glug in a western: a whiskey sour, or a quart of moonshine. Gimmicky cocktails are to be refused at all times: I once went to a Paris Hilton party in which they were serving nothing but eggnog in goblets shaped like enormous sperm.

Catherine Shoard, editor of