Offscreen Film Festival 2020

This year, I've been once again part of the programming team for the Offscreen Film Festival, which takes place in Brussels between March 4th and March 22nd. My 'babies' for this edition are the beach movies, the premieres, and the Jeff Lieberman retrospective. Check out the program and participate in the Rafflecopter below to win free tickets to the movie of your choice:

Offscreenings

The Offscreenings program presents a selection of special, new and unreleased films, giving a platform to movies at the cutting edge of contemporary cinema. These films are noted for their artistic originality, unique vision and inventive approach to the medium and genre.

Vamos a la playa: Beach Movie & Beach Horror Films

Vamos a la Playa shines a light on those subgenres in which the seaside, the beach and the coast all get their moment in the cinematic sun. A wave of "beach party" movies and musical comedies featuring swimsuit-clad teens dabbling in holiday romance and Californian surf culture showcase the 1960s at their retro-grooviest. Life is a beach not just for Elvis Presley in Blue Hawaii but also for the communist youth of East Germany in Heißer Sommer.

But the sea is also home to uncanny lifeforms in "Beach Horror" films, in which rubber monsters, mermaids or underwater Nazi zombies crawl ashore or lurk beneath the sand to target unwitting beachgoers and coast dwellers. After these bloody creature features (The Horror of Party Beach, Shock Waves, Blood Beach) and rare boardwalk gems (Night Tide, Neither the Sea Nor the Sand), your annual beach holiday will never seem the same again.

Hong Kong Category III

Hong Kong’s cinema has been popular in the west since the martial arts movies of the 1970s, but one subgenre from the former British colony has largely passed under the radar: full-on exploitation films packed with spurting blood, extreme amorality and preposterous sex, which from 1988 onwards were rated Category III. Brace yourself for eight politically incorrect cocktails of outrageousness - including Riki-Oh, The Eternal Evil of Asia, and Robotrix. Then, if your eyeballs haven’t exploded, a documentary and conference will help you gen up on the social and cultural context.

About Time: a Voyage Through Time Travel Cinema

With a line-up of more than 20 films showing at Cinematek (plus a few at Cinema RITCS) this retrospective of time travel in the cinema provides the biggest segment of this year’s program. Secrets of the Butterfly Effect, the Grandfather Paradox, time loops, multiverses, and wormholes are probed in a rich and diverse panorama that will include classics such as George Pal’s The Time Machine, blockbusters (Back to the Future), auteur films such as Alain Resnais’ Je t’aime, je t’aime, B-movies such as Trancers, cult favorites such as Timecrimes, and forgotten gems such as Peter Fonda’s Idaho Transfer.

In-person: tribute: Jeff Lieberman

Jeff Lieberman, born in Brooklyn in 1947, is one of the most original and inventive American genre directors of the 1970s. During the last weekend of the festival, he will personally be introducing his cult classics Squirm, Blue Sunshine, and Just Before Dawn, as well as the guilty pleasure Remote Control.

And more...

Shortscreen showcases a selection of the year’s unusual short films and Cineketje offers cheery film fun for younger members of the family.

Win free tickets to the Offscreen Film Festival

Enter the Rafflecopter below to win two tickets for the movie of your choice. The giveaway is open worldwide and ends March 3rd, 2020. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway