Lausanne Ciné festival features international films

Austrian director Michel Haneke (right) poses after winning the Grand Prize for his film La Pianiste at the Cannes film festival Keystone Archive

The Ciné F'estivale 2001 opens in Lausanne this week, with films from around the world.

New films from the United States, such as Joe Roth’s “America’s Sweethearts”, starring Julia Roberts, will be screened.

Screenings will take place at 11 indoor theatres throughout Lausanne, plus an open-air cinema and two cinema clubs in the city.

Twelve films are competing for the festival’s main prize. The 12 will be shown at the new Cinétoile multiplex in the west of Lausanne, which event organisers are touting as the “palais” of the film festival.

Two of the films in the competition won awards at the Cannes film festival earlier this year, “No Man’s Land” by Bosnia’s Denis Tanovic and Michel Haneke’s “La Pianiste” (The Piano Teacher) with the award-winning actress, Isabelle Huppert.

One venue, the Cine qua Non theatre in downtown Lausanne, will be devoted to Belgian films.

The Belgian films will include a selection of shorts from the Flemish-speaking region which were shown recently at the Locarno film festival under the category of “Léopards de Demain” (The Leopards of the Future).

In Lausanne’s Place de la Louve, students of the Cantonal school of art will present their films in an open-air facility. The film, “Shooting Indians” will be screened at the venue on Saturday. The director, Ali Kazimi, is scheduled to attend.

swissinfo with agencies