European Film Festival showcases 16 national cinemas

By Rachel Woodward, November 1 2016 –

Now in its fifth year, the Calgary European Film Festival will celebrate a collection of European films from Nov. 7–13. Films will be shown at the Globe Cinema.

Sixteen different countries will present feature films or two or three short films to equal a full-length showing time.

Festival organizer Adrian Glavan says that the Calgary European Film Festival is important because it provides an honest depiction of different cultures through film.

“We offer more variety, so each movie has its own cultural identity and its own language,” he says. “It will target its own community here in Calgary, not to mention that European films have an uncommercial variety. It’s just more ways to tell a
story.”

A few years ago, Glavan teamed up with five country-specific associations already formed in the city — French, Polish, Czech,
Bulgarian and Romanian groups — to form the European Cultural Society of Calgary.

“This is a corporation that we decided we needed to create in the third year because we wanted a centralized hub for the
all the events going on in the festival,” Glavan says. “It was just this cooperation between cultural societies but we didn’t
have a bank account [or] a board, so all of the decisions were made on an impromptu basis. We needed a more established foundation for the festival.”

The 16 countries taking part in the festival include the original five from the Cultural Society. Each country’s films — including Albania’s award-winning BABAI as well as the 2014 Bulgarian film The Judgement — will be shown in their respective languages with English subtitles at the festival.

“I think people are tired of hearing that if you want culture, you have to go to Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver,” Glavan says. “Calgary’s cultural scene is becoming more and more diverse and more people are enjoying it and taking pride in it.”

The festival will run from Nov. 7–13. Tickets are $12 with other deals for passes available online.

For more information, visit calgaryeuropeanfilmfestival.com