The Cyprus Film Days International Festival 2025 is set to become, once again, a one-of-a-kind platform of cinematic creativity . With every new instalment, the Festival expands its mission to bring the island’s audience a fascinating panorama that spans contemporary cinema’s dynamic range of trends and currents.
The festival’s 23rd edition has gathered films that foster dialogue and turn screenings into opportunities for exploring the most urgent social and artistic themes of our time. The festival remains steadfastly committed to showcasing diverse points of view that make for unforgettable viewing experiences.
Five of the most highly anticipated films in recent months, which impressed international audiences, will be screened out of competition in the Viewfinder section – A Close-Up of Contemporary World Cinema.
These are:
– Payal Kapadia’s lyrical All We Imagine as Light, a warm close-up of three women from Mumbai’s working class that tackle the challenges of their personal and professional life. The film was awarded the Grand Prix at the latest Cannes Festival.
– The political drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig, filmed in secret by self-exiled Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof about a judge and his family uncovering the paranoia of Tehran’s regime. The film received the Special Jury Award at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film.
– The new film by Turkish filmmaker Aslı Özge, titled Faruk, centered around Özge’s 90-year-old father as it explores the consequences of gentrification and the complexity of father-daughter relationships in a hybrid form between fiction and documentary. The film had its world premiere at the Berlinale Panorama.
– Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story that garnered two awards in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. The film follows an asylum seeker from Guinea, working as a food deliveryman in Paris while preparing for a make-or-break interview.
– Luca Guadagnino’s sexually charged Queer, based on the homonymous book by William S. Burroughs. Set in Mexico City, the film follows an American man’s efforts to create a deep but impossible relationship.
The Glocal Images International Competition Section offers fascinating narratives through films that trace the complexity of the contemporary world by approaching social, political and personal stories.
This year’s film submissions reached a record high, coupled with a noted rise in the quality of films, demonstrating the festival’s ever-growing stature as a point of reference for international independent cinema in the region.
This year’s film lineup:
– Déa Kulumbegashvili’s gripping April (Georgia, Italy, France), set against the Georgian countryside. The film follows a female obstetrician investigated for negligence while secretly carrying out illegal abortions. It earned the Special Jury Prize in Venice.
– Saulė Bliuvaitė’ s Toxic (Lithuania) awarded the Pardo d’ Oro at Locarno, a portrayal of two teenage girls at a modelling school, ensnared by the promise of a better life into a cruel world of toxic beauty standards.
– The thriller Ghost Trail (France, Germany, Belgium), Jonathan Millet’s directorial debut about a Syrian man pursuing his former torturer in France. The film competed for the Caméra d’Or at the most recent Cannes festival.
– Sun Never Again, the debut of emerging filmmaker David Jovanović (Serbia), a caustic commentary on environmental destruction in the Serbian countryside, exposing local scandals and wider global stakes.
– Stergios Paschos’s contemplative Lula Leblanc (Greece), starring Michelle Valley in a film where two stories unfold in parallel, overlapping through memory, love and loss.
– Khaled Mansour’s triumphant debut, Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo (Egypt, Saudi Arabia), a tender story of survival and devotion featuring a man and his dog against the backdrop of Cairo’s harsh working-class reality. The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
– Killerwood, an atmospheric dark comedy by Christos Massalas (Greece), an alumnus of CFD. Fiction and reality are blurred during the shooting of a film about unresolved murders. The ensemble cast was presented with an honourable mention at Thessaloniki.
In the limelight of this year’s Cypriot Films Competition Section are three special films by established Cypriot filmmakers, each with a different artistic inclination. The films also compete in the Glocal Images International Competition Section, building bridges between local creativity and international trends.
The films are:
– The new film by award-winning filmmaker Aliki Danezi-Knutsen, Together Apart (Greece, Cyprus), where a separated couple is looking to take a step toward reconnection or breakup on an isolated island.
– The third feature film by Kyros Papavassiliou, the humoristic The Sock (Cyprus), about a director shooting a film on the consequences of an accident while recuperating at the house of his cousin, who is disabled.
– Emilios Avraam’s debut feature film Smaragda (Cyprus) about a middle-aged woman who embraces social media as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and comes face-to-face with life’s uncertainties.
Special screenings include a tribute to the American director David Lynch, including some of the most well known samples of his dark and subversive cinematic vision, which continue to inspire and intrigue audiences to this day: the groundbreaking films The Lost Highway, Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart.
Last but not least, between 4 and 13 April, the Festival’s Section for Children and Youth brings young spectators a lineup of films that focus on equality, solidarity and overcoming prejudice: Winners by Soleen Yusef (Germany), Lars is Lol by Eirik Sæter Stordahl (Norway), Through Rocks and Clouds by Franco García Becerra (Peru, Chile) and the animated films Living Large by Kristina Dufková (Czech Republic, Slovakia, France) and Mirai by Mamoru Hosoda (Japan). Mirai will be screened dubbed into Greek.
The full programme will soon be available on cyprusfilmdays.com and on the Festival’s Facebook (facebook.com/cyprusfilmdays) and Instagram (@cyprusfilmdays) pages.
Information:
For more information: Rialto Theatre 77 77 77 45 www.cyprusfilmdays.com
Facebook & Instagram: Cyprus Film Days International Festival
Organisers:
Under the auspices of: Limassol Municipality & Nicosia Municipality
In partnership with: CIPA Film in Cyprus
Supported by: Institut Français de Chypre, Goethe-Institut Zypern
Technical Partner: Event Pro
Best Cypriot Film Award Sponsor: Authorwave
Best Cypriot Director Award Sponsor: CYENS Center of Excellence
Audience Award Sponsor: Breaking Wave Productions
Glocal Images Best Cinematography Award Sponsor: Caretta Films
Hospitality Sponsor: Mediterranean
Media Sponsors: CITY, CyBC
Workshop Sponsors: Columbia Beach Resort Pissouri, CYENS Center of Excellence, Filmmakers Europe
Dot.on.the.Map Industry Days Hospitality Sponsor: Alinea
Cyprus Film Days for Children and Youth Sponsors: K- Cineplex, Bank of Cyprus and UCLan Cyprus
Cyprus Film Days for Children and Youth Kids Award Sponsor: Columbia Beach Resort Pissouri
Cyprus Film Days for Children and Youth Communications Sponsor: Alpha Cyprus & Avant Garde
Supporters:
Sozo Brain Center, Crowne Plaza Hotel Limassol, K-Cineplex, Bolt, LOEL, Mall of Cyprus, The Friends of Cinema Society (Nicosia), Limassol Cine Club, Larnaca-Famagusta Cinema Society, Directors Guild of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology, University of Cyprus (Alumni Office), EMEL Ltd-Limassol Buses, Cyprus Public Transport, Lemesos Newspaper, Limassol Today, Lemesos Blog, Vestnik Kipra, Limassol Tourism Board.
Rialto Theatre
Information / Tickets:
rialto.interticket.com
www.rialto.com.cy
Βοx Office: 77777745
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