This year’s selection for the Bloom competition section explores the concept of community through the works of emerging filmmakers presenting their debut or sophomore features.

The other four sections are featuring the most important festival winners and audience favourites released this year. The festival will open with Romanian director Radu Jude’s first film in French, The Diary of a Chambermaid (a coproduction between SBS and Avanpost), while the closing gala will feature one of A24’s biggest releases of the year, Club Kid.

Oscar-winning director László Nemes’s Cannes competition entry Moulin (France, Belgium, USA), which was shot in Hungary, will have its first Hungarian screening from a 35mm print in the Gala section, while Lili Horvát’s first English-language film My Notes on Mars, which premiered in Venice, will also screen in the Gala section. My Notes on Mars / Jegyzeteim a Marsról (Hungary, Austria, France, Germany, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, USA) was produced by Poste Restante and coproduced by Amour Fou, Paradise City, Obala Art Center, Parangal Film, and Archer Gray.

The Gala Section will also screen the Hungarian minority coproduction Wicker (USA, UK, Australia, Hungary) directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, which was filmed in Hungary using the medieval backlots of NFI Studios and Korda Studios, with local production support from Royal Budapest Film. Also in the Gala section, audience will see the first two episodes of Golden Age/ Aranyszív  directed by Károly Ujj Mészáros and coproduced by Paprika Studios and RTL Hungary.

BIFF’s Echoes section gathers this year’s the most celebrated, must-see films, titles that have captivated audiences and juries at major festivals around the world. The Anzix Section is dedicated to experimental films, while the Retrospective section is focusing on the making of an American myth.

The third edition of BIFF is supported by the National Film Institute – Hungary (NFI).

Bloom Competition Section:

9 Temples to Heaven (Thailand, Singapore, France, Norway, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Qatar)
Directed by Sompot Chidgasornpongse

Ben'Imana (Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway)
Directed by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo

Filipiñana (UK, Philippines, Singapore, France, the Netherlands)
Directed by Rafael Manuel

Forever Your Maternal Animal / Siempre soy tu animal materno (Belgium, France, Mexico)
Directed by Valentina Maurel

La Gradiva (France, Italy)
Directed by Marine Atlan

Low Expectations / Lave forventninger (Norway)
Directed by Eivind Landsvik

Nuclear Boy (the Netherlands)
Directed by Joren Molter

Revolutionaries Never Die (Palestine, Belgium, Qatar)
Directed by Mohanad Yaqubi

Shana (France)
Directed by Lila Pinell

The River Train / El tren fluvial (Argentina)
Directed by Lorenzo Ferro, Lucas A. Vignale