25 FPS Jury's Choice: Exploring Personal Archives, Histories and Cruelty of Moving Images

The jury of the 16th edition of the 25 FPS Festival of Experimental Film and Video is presenting intriguing film programmes revolving around the issues of private archives, female identities and the filmmaking process, including titles ranging from The Results of Feminism by the film pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché to one of the most acclaimed films of the 1990s, Salam Cinema by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

A three-member jury of the 25 FPS Festival will be deciding on the winners in competition; this year they are the Spanish film curator María Palacios Cruz, the film and gallery artist Randa Maroufi, and the multimedia artist Davor Sanvincenti. Every jury member will introduce themselves with a specially curated Jury's Choice programme acquainting the viewers with their own field of artistic and professional interest.

María Palacios Cruz has curated a programme under the title Private Lives, composed of five films addressing the meeting point between private lives and public narratives. The selected titles tackle family archives, found footage and diaries, processed from different social and political points of view, focusing on the matters of identity and personal emancipation. The programme includes classics such as Margaret Tait’s A Portrait of Ga (1952) and recent works by Luke Fowler (Mum’s Cards, 2018) and Rebecca Jane Arthur (Liberty: An Ephemeral Statute, 2020), who is visiting the festival.

Another jury member to tackle personal freedoms in her line-up is Randa Maroufi. Her programme Out of the Walls comprises seven film and gallery works, ranging from the film pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché to contemporary artists like Katia Kameli, Justine Pluvinage and Valérie Mréjen. Through them she examines the heritage of feminism and the role of women in society, history, revolutions and art itself, from France to Maghreb.

Davor Sanvincenti is introducing himself with Cinema of Cruelty, including Hello Cinema, a 1995 masterpiece by the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, radically questioning our notion of truth and fiction. The film itself was made as a tribute to the 100th birthday of cinema, when Makhmalbaf gave an ad in the newspapers inviting anyone who is interested to audition for his film. Over a hundred potential actors arrived at the casting and the situation nearly escalated into turmoil. Salam Cinema premiered at Cannes Film Festival and is considered one of the most famous meta-films, uncompromisingly unmasking the cruelty of filmmaking.

A three-member jury critic will also decide on their winners in competition. This year they comprise the film critic, English linguist and sociologist Luka Antonina, art historian and curator Ana Kutleša from the BLOK curators collective, and Dina Pokrajac – coordinator of Dokukino, film critic, editor, director of Subversive Film Festival and coordinator of Film Mutations. More information on our jury memembers can be found here.

Every jury member is presenting a Grand Prix of their own, while the critics jury members make a joint decision on the winner. The audience will be able to decide on their favourite title by voting after each screening.

This year’s 25 FPS competition includes 29 films from all over the world, and the screening of award-winning films is scheduled for Sunday, 27 September at 8pm. Admission to all screenings is free.

Photos: Amazones, A Portrait of Ga, Hello Cinema