Garrone's 'Gomorra' to open Seville

Festival for European films widens scope

By JOHN HOPEWELL

MADRID — “Gomorra,” Matteo Garrone’s Cannes Grand Prix winner, will open the 5th Seville European Film Festival.

A hard-hitting and critically acclaimed Neapolitan crime drama, “Gomorra” was selected last week as Italy’s foreign-language Oscar candidate.

Another four competition titles, announced Thursday, suggest that Seville, under new artistic director Javier Martin-Dominguez, is opening up its competition.

Seville’s main section looks set to range from the latest films by established masters to pics from up-and-coming talent, a clutch of lesser-known titles and some crowd-pleasing crossovers, said Martin-Dominguez.

“We want to mix it up, featuring important films because of their prizes or box office, with discoveries,” he explained.

Polish helmer Andrzej Wajda competes with “Katyn,” an expose of the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers by Russia’s Red Army in 1940.

The selection of Jean-Paul Salome’s “Female Agents” moves the fest nearer to the mainstream. A strong seller for TF1 Intl., the tough action-adventure pic, a “Dirty Dozen” with girls, is about a five-woman commando unit parachuted into France during World War II.

Mijke de Jong’s sibling drama, “Katia’s Sister,” is nearer to classic Euro arthouse realism.

“Boogie,” the third film from Romania’s Radu Muntean, who broke through with the night-shot near-docu “The Paper Will Be Blue,” shifts the selection to more accessible terrain in this old pals reunion tale.

“Agents,” bought by Notro, and “Gomorra,” an Alta Films pickup, have already clinched Spanish distribution.

Dedicated solely to European fare, and hosting the announcement of European Film Academy noms, fest runs Nov. 7-15.

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