Filmmaker Talks And Q&As Announced For THE NY BALTIC FILM FESTIVAL 2022 

Filmmaker talks and Q&As have now been announced for the Fifth Annual New York Baltic Film Festival (NYBFF) presented by Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America, returning on November 2-13, 2022 as a hybrid festival screening the best new and critically-acclaimed Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian films in-person in NYC November 2-6 and virtually November 4-13.

This year, the festival will feature 15 feature films - 10 narrative and 5 documentaries - with eight North American premieres, one U.S. premiere, and one New York premiere.

The company will bring most of the filmmakers to New York to participate in Q&As after many of the premieres. Filmmaker talks include a special screening of Mariupolis 2 (Lithuania/Germany/France), winner of this year's jury's Special Award at the Cannes Film Festival, with an introduction by the film's producer Uljana Kim, on Sunday, November 6 at 4 PM. A powerful documentary about Russia's brutal siege of Mariupol in Ukraine this year by Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius, who was tragically killed during filming, its footage was tirelessly restored by his fiancée Hanna Bilobrova alongside his producers and collaborators to share its message of human resilience under unimaginable adversity.

Following the screening, special guest Bilobrova, who was with Kvedaravičius during filming, will be joined in conversation with Maksimas Milta (Yale-based political scientist and commentator). They will discuss her experience, which involved smuggling the footage out to complete the director's legacy. The film's predecessor, Mariupolis (Ukraine/Lithuania/Germany/France), in which Kvedaravičius documented the lives of people during Russia's attacks on Mariupol back in 2014, will also stream virtually during the festival.

Making its New York Premiere at 2 PM on Saturday, November 5, director Emilija Škarnulytė's visually striking Burial (Lithuania/Norway), a hypnotizing meditation on the power and danger of nuclear energy, presents the paradox of scientific advancement coupled with environmental destruction with a meticulously crafted, eerie soundscape; she will be joined for a discussion with MoMA curator Sophie Cavoulacos following the screening. Other filmmaker talks include a discussion with Latvian-born and Brooklyn-based Signe Baumane on her animated coming-of-age musical My Love Affair With Marriage (Latvia/USA/Luxembourg), about teenager Zelda's struggles with hormones, the Soviet regime, and falling in and love, screening on Thursday, November 3 at 8:30 PM. Director Kaupo Kruusiauk will present a Q&A following the North American Premiere of Sandra Gets A Job (Estonia), a topical drama about a suddenly-unemployed physicist's increasingly baffling search for a job and her identity, screening on Friday, November 4 at 6 PM.

The festival will include several additional director talks on Saturday, November 5. Director Marta Elīna Martinsone will present a Q&A following the screening of Lame-Os (Latvia/Czechia) a fun, colorful and nostalgic musical about Latvian high-schoolers at the turn of the millennium, making its North American Premiere at 12 PM. Director Meel Paliale and actor Urmet Piiling will present a talk on the North American Premiere of Tree Of Eternal Love (Estonia), a quirky comedy that follows a self-centered mechanic and his filmmaker friend on a road trip to find the meaning of life and love, following its screening at 3:30 PM. Screening at 5:30 PM, director Kristijonas Vildžiūnas's surrealist Songs for a Fox (Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia), an Orpheus and Eurydice-inspired tale of a musician searching for his lost lover in the realm of dreams, will be followed by a discussion with Vildžiūnas, producer Uljana Kim, and film critic and curator Dr. Lukas Brašiškis. Finally, director Linda Olte will present a Q&A on her film Sisters (Latvia/Italy/Czechia), an intense social drama about two Latvian teenage sisters in the process of adoption by an American family, after its North American Premiere at 8 PM.

On Sunday, November 6, director Ivar Murd will present a talk after the North American premiere of u.Q. (Estonia), a visually enchanting journey tracing the extraordinary lives of musician Uku Kuut and his creative collaborator mother, Estonian jazz diva Marju Kuut, screening at 2 PM. And at 6 PM, director Jaak Kilmi will hold a Q&A following the screening of the The Sleeping Beast (Estonia/Latvia), a sometimes dark yet ultimately hopeful fable about childhood rooted in reality.

All filmmaker discussions follow their screenings at Scandinavia House and will be recorded to later view online.

Other films in this year's lineup include Pilgrims (Lithuania), which won the Best Film Award in the Horizons section at the Venice Film Festival last year and was chosen as Lithuania's entry for the Best International Film Academy Award in this year's race; and the feature documentary Homo Sovieticus (Latvia/Lithuania/Czechia), a deconstruction and exploration of a totalitarian mindset through the eyes of the last Soviet generation.

For program announcements, please subscribe to the festival newsletter at balticfilmfestival.com and Scandinavia House newsletter at scandinaviahouse.org. For more immediate updates, follow NYBFF on Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe to the NYBFF YouTube Channel for festival trailers, filmmaker Q&As and other exclusive video content.

In-Person Pass ($125/$95 ASF Members) grants access to all in-person screenings at Scandinavia House except the Opening Night. The Virtual Pass ($125/$95 ASF Members) grants access to all virtual screenings of the festival films streaming on the virtual platform. The VIP Pass ($350) grants access to all in-person and virtual screenings, two Opening Night tickets, six additional in-person screening tickets for a guest, an NYBFF mug, and a personal acknowledgment on the NYBFF website. The 5-Film Package ($50/$35 ASF Members) grants access to five in-person or virtual screenings or a combination of both. Individual in-person and virtual screening tickets ($14 regular; $9 ASF Members) will also be available for purchase.

Established in 2018, the New York Baltic Film Festival is presented and organized by Scandinavia House in collaboration with the Consulate General of Estonia, Consulate General of Lithuania, and Daris Delins, former Honorary Consul for Latvia in New York and founder of the festival.

Financial support for the festival comes from the Estonian Film Institute, National Film Center of Latvia, Lithuanian Film Center, and the Edhard Corporation with additional sponsorship by the Estonian American National Council, Lithuanian Foundation, Consulate General of Estonia in New York, Embassy of Latvia in Washington D.C., Permanent Mission of Latvia to the U.N. in New York, Consulate General of Lithuania in New York, American Latvian Association, Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, the PBLA Culture Fund, and Sondra Litvaitytė.