Astra Film Festival offers online access to 41 documentary films

The Astra Film International Documentary Film Festival in Sibiu continues online until October 30, at 11:59 p.m., time during which anyone in Romania can see 41 of the films in the official Astra Film Festival 2022 selection. A ticket for  watching a film costs 20 lei, and a subscription for all films 200 lei.  Details on tickets and the full program here: https://www.astrafilm.ro/astra-film-online.

"We strive to show quality documentary films to as many people as possible.  This year, we hit the cinemas in shopping malls, which are less common spaces for non-fiction film screenings.  And through the Astra Film Online program, we also offer the public who did not manage to come to Sibiu the opportunity to see, from home, some of the best documentary films of the moment", declares Dumitru Budrala, director-founder of the Astra Film Festival. 

Among the films available online are also those that were awarded at the AFF2022 Awards Gala, as follows: 

ROMANIA SECTION: The Chalice.  Of sons and daughters, by Catălina Tesăr and Dana Bunescu (Romania - 2022) - Best Documentary, Eagles from Țaga, by Iulian Manuel Ghervas and Adina Popescu (Romania, Slovakia - 2022) - Best director, Waves on dry soil,  by Raluca David (Romania - 2021) - Special mention. 

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE SECTION: Pawnshop, by Łukasz Kowalski (Poland - 2022) - Best Documentary, Flying Sheep, by Alexandra Gulea (Germany, Romania - 2022) - Special Mention. 

DOCSCHOOL - A Place in this World, by Emilie Beyssac Cywinska (France - 2021) - Best Documentary, Family Love. My Grandpa, National Socialism and Me, by Eric Esser (Germany - 2022) - Best Director and Arsencik's First Birthday, by  Valentin-Rareș Fogoroș (Romania - 2022) - Special mention. 

AFF Online also offers access to films screened under special themes:

ETERNAL LOVE: Who we will have been, by Trec Brehmer - Germany, 2021;  Performing Juliet, by András Visky - USA, 2021

DECISIVE DEATH: Why didn't you stay for me?, by Milou Gevers - Holland, 2022;  Empty Handed, by Moriya Ben Avot - Israel, 2022) 

FACES OF WAR: Children of the Enemy, by Gorki Glaser-Müller - Denmark, Sweden, Qatar - 2021). 

The AFF Online program also includes the three films by the British director Nick Broomfield screened within the portrait program A Life in Documentary - Masters: My Father and Me (UK, 2019), Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love (UK  , 2019) and Tales of the Grim Sleeper (UK, 2014). 

Astra Film Festival 2022 took place in Sibiu between October 9-16, in front of an audience of approximately 60,000 people, who enjoyed over 340 cinematographic events.  Astra Film Junior, the documentary film education program attended by over 27,000 students from schools and high schools in Sibiu County, was a special event, as it was for the past 14 years. 

Victor Rebengiuc: "The documentary film can take you far, towards understanding". 

Astra Film Festival 2022 enjoyed the presence of numerous cultural personalities, who expressed their appreciation for the festival founded and led by director Dumitru Budrala.  Everyone had interesting things to say about the Astra Film festival:

●     "Astra Film Festival shows how many parallel worlds coexist on Earth and teaches us to at least try to build bridges between them" (Radu Vancu)

●     "This festival is one of the main reasons why I fell in love with Sibiu.  It does you great good to see worlds that you don't know, but which suddenly appear comprehensive, vivid and revealed to you.  I am deeply grateful to the filmmakers who make documentary films and to those who, for 29 years, have totally charmed us by showing them to us" (Mihaela Miroiu)

●     "The dose of realism of the international documentary film festival makes Sibiu the most realistic city in Romania" (Father Necula)

●     "I don't know of anyone who has ever come here and not returned year after year" (Mihaela Dedeoglu)

●     "The most important documentary films are brought here" (Cătălin Striblea)

●     "The Astra Film audience is of high quality and very convinced that life beats film" (Armine Vosganian)

●     "It was extraordinary to see how the Astra Film audience lives the story and feels what we, the documentary filmmakers, felt" (Juliana Ugrin)

●     "AFF exudes an extraordinary energy" (Amalia Enache)

●     "I felt here how people live alongside the characters" (Cătălina Tesăr)

●     "It's a live history lesson you can see in movie theaters.  Pure emotion" (Paula Herlo)

●     "DokTank is a kind of spice that prepares us to want more" (Ada Solomon)

●     "AFF is a festival for the mind and a dressing for the soul" (Teodora Tompea)

●     "The documentary film brings stories and life lessons" (Ana Gurdiș)

●     "The power of reality and credibility that documentary film offers is priceless" (Marton Vizkelety)

●     "Astra Film played a role in the growth and development of Romanian society, the transition from bad to better" (Christian Năsulea)

●     "Astra Film Festival has, in addition to documentary film lovers, a fantastic component: the educational one" (Claudiu Pândaru)

●     "For me, Astra Film is one of the first festivals" (Ivana Mladenovic)

●     "The fact that people come to the Astra Film Festival to see journalistic investigations is a sign that we are starting to care about what is happening to us" (Alex Dima)

●     “I would like to tell you, my dears, that you will always find the best and deepest answers in culture and education.  Keep up the habit of reading books, going to the theater and watching good movies.  And keep a special place for documentary film.  It's a passion that, once mastered, stays there, in the mind and in the soul.  And it can take you far, towards understanding" (from the message sent at the end of the festival by actor Victor Rebengiuc) 

About Astra Film Festival

Astra Film Festival Sibiu, launched in 1993 as an innovative project, is one of the most important non-fiction film festivals in Europe, and was included by the European Film Academy on the list of festivals that have the right to make direct nominations for European Film Awards.

Astra Film Festival is placed under the High Patronage of the President of Romania and is organized by Astra Film, CNM Astra and the Astra Film Foundation, with the support of the Sibiu County Council, The Ministry of Culture, The National Center of Cinematography. The Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany in Sibiu and The Filmmakers Union. The event is co-financed by the Sibiu Local Council through the Sibiu City Hall and by the European Union through the Creative Europe Program.

Sponsors: Campari, Promenada Sibiu, Ursus, Cotnari, Cinelab, CineGold, Sonne, Kulinarium, Cafe Pardon, Nod Prăjitorie

Main media partners: PRO TV, VOYO

Supported by Europa FM

Media partners: HotNews, Radio România Cultural, News.ro, G4Media, Edupedu, Spotmedia, PressHub, TV5 Monde, Film New Europe, Cineuropa, All About Romanian Cinema, Movienews, Observator cultural, LiterNet, Films in Frame, Film Menu, Cinefilia, Cinefan, Capital cultural, Turnul sfatului, Tribuna, Sibiu 100%, Ora de Sibiu, Știri de Sibiu, Sibiul azi, Zile și nopți, Transilvania, Hermanstadter Zeitung, A List Magazine

Press monitoring partner: MediaTRUST

Delivery partner: DPD România

Reading partner: Librăriile Cărturești

Communication partner: PiArt Vision