Riga

Artdocfest/Riga signed a cooperation agreement with the Riga City Council

Within the framework of the signed agreement, the City Council of Riga accepts obligations to support the opening of the International Documentary Festival Artdocfest / Riga, which is opening in the Latvian capital.

Surprisingly, the capital of Latvia has not proved its leading position as the cinematic capital of the Baltic region in recent decades. This was largely due to the termination of the legendary Riga Film Festival "Arsenals", as well as the fact that one of the most visible events in the industry in Europe - the Riga Documentary Film Symposium - was no longer organized. Of course, this situation was partially saved by the Riga International Film Festival established in 2014 and the work of the traditional Baltic Forum “BSD”. However, it is difficult to compare with Lithuania, where two prestigious documentary film festivals take place in parallel with art film festivals, and even more so with Estonia, where two major international documentary film festivals take place, and Tallinn hosts the Dark Nights Film Festival. the status of the prestigious "A" class festival, thus opening the door to the elite club of the Estonian capital with Cannes, Venice, Berlin ...                  Probably, this is also one of the reasons why the second film from Estonia has been so close to receiving the Oscar. Artdocfest / Riga, together with other institutions of the Latvian capital, is ready to accept the challenge. The festival team has the necessary experience. This is confirmed by five years of work in the capital of Latvia.

Starting from 2020, the Riga Documentary Film Festival will start working actively. During the first three years, Artdocfest/Riga plans to become the most important documentary event in the Baltics. Since the first year of its existence, the Riga competition has been demanding that the films of the competition program take place in the Baltics. Already today, a preliminary agreement has been reached on this issue with the leading documentary filmmakers in the region. Of course, the international authority of the President of Artdocfest is very useful in the implementation of this ambitious plan. Vitaly Mansky is one of today's best-known documentary filmmakers. His films have been screened at hundreds of film festivals on all continents. Every year, his films are retrospectively screened, rented and shown on major world television channels, including platforms such as Netflix. His films have won hundreds of awards around the world. Also, films made in Latvia, including Latvian Latvian cinema has already given more than 40 awards, including nominations for the European and Asian Oscars. Vitalijs Manskis has been the recipient of the national film award "Big Kristaps" three times. It is already safe to say that viewers in Riga appreciate the Riga Documentary Film Festival, and it is in demand. This is evidenced by the large number of visitors to the Artdocfest program within the IFF in Riga.

In addition, it should be noted that during the Riga Film Festival, viewers have many opportunities to watch other films of the festival, which are shown practically simultaneously. Even in competition with the hits of world art cinema, viewers - both regular and special viewers - chose Artdocfest documentaries. At the Artdocfest festival tickets are sold out in both Splendid Palace halls is commonplace. If an independent festival is established, it will be possible to expand the work in the field of public relations many times, which will undoubtedly pay even more attention to all parts of the festival: Riga as a venue, films as Latvian premieres and viewers as an integral part of any cultural event. Taking into account the specific ethnic composition of the population of the Latvian capital, working with the audience of Riga is especially important for our festival. All films, regardless of the original language of the film, will be screened with translation: in addition to English, which is a mandatory language at international festivals, the films will also be available to local viewers in Latvian and Russian.

19.06.2020