Tom at the Farm is the fourth film directed by rising star Xavier Dolan, an intense psychological thriller. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it received the Critic's Award for the best film in competition. The film is based on a play by Michel Marc Bouchard. Dolan plays with the conventions of the genre, and has created a challenging and interesting story. The director hold his cards close to his chest, and makes sure we’re never quite sure what will happen next. Tom at the Farm tells an intriguing story of loss and grief, but also desire and duplicity. Tom (played by director Dolan), travels out to the countryside to take part in his lovers funeral. When he arrives he suddenly discovers that their relationship has been a secret, and that nobody knows who he is. His boyfriend’s homophobic brother, Francis, is the only one who knows Toms story. Francis starts a sadistic and psychological game - forcing Tom to prolong his stay, and pretend he is someone else. Gradually, it becomes clear to Tom that Francis may not let him leave.

Director

Xavier Dolan (b. 1989) is an actor and director from Montreal, Canada. His debut as a filmmaker was with the film J’ai tué ma mère (OIFF 2009), which won a total of three awards at the Cannes Film Festival. His last film, Lawrence Anyways (OIFF 2012), won several awards including at the Toronto International Film Festival and Cannes.

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Frauke Finsterwalder's debut film is filled with vicious observations and Sharp comments, tons of irony and pitch black humour from beginning to end. In this version of Germany the sun always shines and everyone is happy, polite and beautiful - until they reveal their darker sides and we learn just how short the distance between the idyllic and the infernal really is. An anthology which takes us on a journey through a surreal Germany where we meet numerous characters bound together through family or mere coincidences - the policeman in a bear costume, the documentary filmmaker unable to find an interesting story, the pedicurist who collects dead skin from an ageing client, the wealthy couple who refuse to sit in a German car, the history student who's uninterested in the class trip to a concentration camp, and the man training a raven in the forest.

Director

Frauke Finsterwalder (b. 1975) has previously directed the short film 0003 km (2005) and the documentaries Weil der Mensch ein Mensch ist (2007) and Die große Pyramide (2010).

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The term 'teenage' is fairly new, coined in the US in the 20th century after World War II, where thousands of teens had been shipped out to fight and die in Europe, marking a permanent intergenerational conflict. Matt Wolf's film is a vivid collage of archival material, filmed portraits and the voices of 1950's teens through their diary entries. Based on punk author Jon Savage's book, accompanied with a post punk soundtrack, by Bradford Cox (Deerhunter), Wolf expertly describes the birth of the iconic, cool, and ever-rebellious teenager, whose rebellion has changed throughout the years, but permanently impacted today's society, culture and politics.

Director

Matt Wolf is the director of the documentary Wild Combination (2008) about the avant-garde cellist and disco producer Arthur Russell. The film screened at OIFF 2008, and Matt Wolf was a guest at the festival. Later I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard (OIFF 2012).

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The year is 1980. The place is some generic hotel. The occasion is the annual computer chess tournament. Gathered in one of the hotel’s conference rooms is a group of dedicated nerds, eager to conquer the big challenge: can any of them create a computer program clever enough to beat a human chess master? The real challenges soon prove to be more substantial, however. How will they tackle the challenges of social interaction, for instance? Especially with the surprise appearance of a woman among them? And what happens when the new age couples therapy group next door begins to cross paths with the computer chess guys? Things soon turn really weird… Computer Chess fondly takes us back to a bygone era; past times’ low resolution, monochrome video images lovingly emulated with today’s high-resolution video technology. The time machine ride writer/director Andrew Bujalski brings us along on is both playful and humorous, but also very definitely a touching one. A warm and decidedly human tale about how we all are searching for a kindred spirit.

Director

Andrew Bujalski (b. 1977) studied film at Harvard. His feature film debut was Funny Ha Ha (2002), which he followed up with Mutual Appreciation (OIFF 2006) and Beeswax (OIFF 2009, with Andrew Bujalski as guest at the festival.). Computer Chess is his fourth feature.

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Similar to the time travelling debut Primer, Shane Carruth’s second feature is a dreamy, atmospheric, intellectually challenging exercise. A suspenseful, mysterious, romantic and supremely original film, wrapped in a gorgeous film language, mostly done by Carruth himself (he is also Upstream Colors’ screenwriter, cinematographer, composer, editor, etc.). The wide spanning life cycle of a mysterious microorganism touches a multitude of unconnected lives and pushes two people together. Kris’ life is turned upside-down the day a small-time thief drugs and infects her with this microscopic, uninvited guest. Unaware of what has happened, unclear forces eventually pull her into the gravitational field of another, infected person, and together they try to find safety and answers in a post-infected, chaotic world.

Director

Shane Carruth (b. 1972) is an American film writer, director, and actor. He debuted with the prize-winning science-fiction film Primer (OIFF 2004). Upstream Color is his second feature.

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Following a shootout that left his two partners respectively dead and paralyzed, chief detective Carl Mørck is assigned to the newly established Department Q, a department for old, terminated cases. The department consists only of himself and his new assistant Assad. Although they get explicit orders to only read and sort through the cases, only a single day passes before Carl’s stubborn nature throws them headfirst into the mystery of Merete Lynggaard’s disappearance; a well-known female politician who vanished five years ago from a passenger ferry. The only witness is her brain-damaged brother who was found on the car deck, screaming at the top of his lungs. The case was put to rest as an apparent suicide. Unconvinced by this explanation Carl and Assad venture on a journey that will take them deep into the undercurrent of abuse and malice that lurks beneath the polished surface of Scandinavia. The Keeper of Lost Causes is based on Jussi Adler-Olsen's novel of the same name. It has been translated into many languages and has so far sold over 8 million worldwide.

Director

Mikkel Nørgaard (b. 1974) studied directing at the Danish Film School. He has directed television series like Clown (2005-2009) and several episodes of the award-winning political drama Borgen (2010-2011). Nørgaard's feature debut Klown (2010) became a huge success in his home country. The Keeper of Lost Causes is his second feature film.

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Oscar-nominees Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal star in this thriller that asks the question of how far would you go to protect those you love? During the Thanksgiving celebration the Dover and Birch families experience every parent's nightmare. The two daughters of the families never return after having been allowed to go out and play. The mentally handicapped Alex Jones owns a van seen near the scene, but is instantly checked out of the investigation by Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal). The reason is lack of evidence and Jones' low IQ. Keller Dover (Jackman), Anna deeply religious father, isn’t so sure and starts his own brutal and shady investigation. Director Villeneuve takes the classic thrillers genre's traits and uses them sophisticated and elegantly to create an uncomfortable and thrilling film.

Director

Canadian Denis Villeneuve (b. 1967) is a multiple award-winning director and writer. His previous work includes August 32nd on Earth (1998), Maelstrom (2000), Next Floor (2008) and Polytechnique (OIFF 2009). His last movie Incendies (2011) was nominated to an Oscar for best foreign movie. Prisoners is his sixth feature, and the first he has made in Hollywood.

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Matt and Owen are the school’s two biggest film geeks, equipped with a huge repertoire of references and equally stunted skills in social circles, making them the natural favorite target of the school halls’ local gang of roving bullies – The Dirties. The solution for the two is to release some of the pressure through a film class project – an escapist, Tarantino-inspired revenge fantasy, where they cast themselves as hardboiled vigilantes that blow their enemies away in a hail of red-hot bullets. Harmless and openly amateurish, obviously, but the school reacts negatively anyway, and shuts down the project. That sets off a process where fantasy and reality increasingly begins to merge… The Dirties is a funny and thought-provoking “mockumentary”, with an engagingly authentic look, from a filmmaker that rightly can be described as young and promising. The winner of several prices from various film festivals, including the main prize at this years Slamdance festival, and the Next Wave Award at Austin Fantastic Fest.

Director

Matt Johnson is from Toronto, Canada and first made a name for himself with the cult web series Nirvana the Band Show. The Dirties is his first feature film.

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"None of those I have assisted in the last three years want to die, they all want to live… It’s just they can’t make it". Under the cover name of Miele, Irene (Jasmine Trinca) works as a modern angel of death. She’s part of an illegal network that helps terminally ill patients perform euthanasia. One day she delivers her deadly drugs to a new “client”, Grimaldi (Carlo Cecchi), only to discover that he isn’t dying but, in fact, depressed. The meeting with Grimaldi brings about a crisis for Irene, as she has to reconsider her moral and rules. She doesn’t want to be responsible for his suicide, and from that moment their lives are unwillingly linked together in a way that changes Irene’s life forever. In Valeria Golino’s directional debut we get a strong film, with brilliant acting and beautiful cinematography. Miele has won several awards, including at the Italian Golden Globes, Brussel European Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.

Director

Valeria Golino (b. 1965), is an Italian actress and director. Golino has over the past 30 years acted in a number of Italian and international films, including Rain Man (1988) and Frida Kahlo (2002). Miele is her directorial debut.

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The filmmakers behind Manakamana are associated with The Sensory Ethnography Lab, an experimental laboratory at Harvard University that is working with innovative combinations of aesthetics and ethnography. They have already distinguished themselves as one of the most innovative in film documentation after a few films. Manakamana consists of 11 portraits of travellers on the cable car to Manakamana Temple in Nepal. The Super 16 camera is stationary and films everybody sitting in the seats on the 10-minute journey up or down the valley. Some sit silent in thought, others are chatting with their fellow travellers. The little cable cars are a non-place. The modern, imported means of transport are in stark contrast to the nature and culture outside the windows - one of the most impressive valleys of Trisuli Gorkha in Nepal and the traditional Manakamana Temple. The film is the result of a more complex and dramatic backdrop than what catches the eye in the final result. The film won the Pardo d' oro Cineasti del presente in Locarno this year.

Director

Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez are both Harvard-educated. They have previously directed short films separately, and Manakamana is the feature film debut for both of them.

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When Franck witnesses a murder, he knows he can never tell anyone what he has just seen. The reason is that he is hopelessly in love with the killer. Now he has to keep his secret, while the murder investigation starts, and he starts a relationship with the man the police are trying to track down. The story in Stranger by the Lake unfolds over a few, brief summer days by a French lake, where gay men gather to swim, and meet other men. Director Alain Guiraudie has made a gripping and complex film, which he has described as a “naturalist thriller”. The films explicit sex scenes have given the film a lot of publicity, while its psychological drama has earned its very positive reviews. Stranger by the Lake gives us a glimpse into the taboo gay cruising scene, while exploring universal themes like sex, death, morals and loneliness. The film won the award for best director at Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

Director

Alain Guiraudie (b. 1964) is a French director and screenwriter. Since 1990 he has directed 10 feature and short films. Previous films include That Old Dream That Moves (2001), for which he won a Prix Jean Vigo, and Jean-Luc Godard named as that year’s best film at the Cannes Film Festival.

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When their parents suddenly die in a car crash, Bianca and Thomas’ world is turned upside down. However, some of Thomas’ shady friends have a plan that could secure the teenagers future. They want Bianca to visit and seduce the former movie star and hermit Maciste (Rutger Hauer), so they can gain access to the aging man’s hidden fortune. When a unique friendship develops between the actor and the girl, Bianca discovers that it the mission will be far more difficult to complete than she first thought. Il Futuro is an atmospheric psychological thriller, showcasing director Alicia Scherson’s striking visual style. The plot is based on the writer Roberto Bolaño’s novel Una novelita lumpen.

Director

Alicia Scherson (b. 1974) is a director from Chile. Her debut was with the film Play (2005), for which she won the award for best director at the Tribeca Film Festival. Il Futuro is her third feature film.

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Bruce LaBruce, the enfant terrible of cinema, is back with what may be his most tender film to date. A film about love, rebellion and freedom. 18-year-old Lake realises after an embarrassing episode by the public pool that his fascination for older men is deeply rooted. He questions whether his fixation is sexual, something that may be a problem in his relationship with his girlfriend Desiree, but when he is offered a job in a nursing home, he immediately accepts. Here he meets Mr. Peabody, and the two find in each other something they've both been missing. When Lake discover the nurses drug the residents, he decides to bust Mr. Peabody out of the facility, and together they drive towards the ocean Mr. Peabody dreams of seeing one last time before his time is up. A satirical look at the fixation on youth in gay culture. A different kind of romantic comedy.

Director

Bruce LaBruce (b. 1964) is a Toronto based filmmaker, writer, director, photographer, and artist. He has directed and starred in three feature length movies, No Skin of my Ass (1991), Super 8 ½ (1994) and Hustler White (1996). He has also written and directed three art/porn features, Skin Flick (2000), The Raspberry Reich (2004) and L.A. Zombie (2010), and the independent feature Otto; or up with Dead People (2008).

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When Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, finds herself in trouble in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore. But Kim and Bill have problems of their own: they’re trying to handle the end of their marriage gracefully for the sake of their daughter Abby, just home from her first year of college. A story of family revelations, people finding each other and letting each other go, looking for love where they’ve found it before and, when that doesn’t work, figuring out where they might find it next. “I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again / Something too big to be seen was passing over and over me.” – Bill Callahan

Director

Matt Porterfield (b. 1977) is the writer/director of Hamilton (2006) and Putty Hill (OIFF 2011). He studied at NYU, lives in Baltimore, MD, and teaches screenwriting, theory and production at Johns Hopkins University.

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An angry miner revolts against the corruption of his village leaders. A migrant worker at home for the New Year discovers the infinite possibilities a firearm can offer. A pretty receptionist at a sauna is pushed to the limit when a rich client assaults her. A young factory worker goes from job to job trying to improve his lot in life. Four people, four different provinces. A reflection on contemporary China: that of an economic giant slowly being eroded by violence.

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Prologue to the Great Desaparecido is a short, introducing the next film by director Lav Diaz: The Great Desaparecido. In this film project he wants to uncover the truth and history behind the Philippino revolution. The revolution started on the 21st August 1896, after 325 years of Spanish rule in the Philippines. One year later the revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio sentenced to death, but his body was never found. His wife searched for him in the mountains for thirty days. Diaz has a clear personal style, with long and slow takes, black & white, and extensive use of the landscape. Prologue was created to finance his next project, but works perfectly as an independent work of art.

Director

Lav Diaz (b. 1958) is a critically acclaimed Phillipino director. A recurring theme in his films is the social and political challenges of his native country. He’s also well known for the length of his films, some up to 11 hours long. He has won a number of international awards for his films, and his films been selected at film festivals in Venice, Cannes, New York and many more around the world.

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A new masterpiece from portuguese Miguel Gomes who last year impressed with Tabu. On January 21st 1975, in a village in the north of Portugal, a child writes to his parents who are in Angola to tell them how sad Portugal is. On July 13th 2011, in Milan, an old man remembers his first love. On May 6th 2012, in Paris, a man tells his baby daughter that he will never be a real father. During a wedding ceremony on September 3rd 1977 in Leipzig, the bride battles against a Wagner opera that she can’t get out of her head. Director’s Statement Redemption is a film that resulted from my recent passing through Le Fresnoy School as a tutor. I wanted it to be intimate, almost confessional, composed exclusively of archive images, many of which are super8 and therefore convey a unipersonal, anonymous, private dimension... And, simultaneously, I wanted it to be the very opposite of what I just stated.

Director

Miguel Gomes (b. 1972) is from Portugal and worked as a film critic and film theorist before he started making films himself. His previous feature films The Face You Deserve (2004), Our Beloved Month of August (2008), and Tabu (2012) which won FIPRESCI Award in Berlin in 2012.

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A hotel room late at night: a young man is carried from the room unconscious on a stretcher. A woman and a man remain in the room where all three of them obviously had spent some time together. Only then, when the ambulance attendants have left, do the other two realize that there is a hidden camera in the room and what happened has been recorded. Was it an accident? A love triangle? A drunken brawl or just something completely different? One after the other, the three people involved are questioned separately by two interrogators whom we hear but never see. Who are they? Why did they end up together? Was it something illegal? Something perverse? Who is the manipulator? The victim? Who are the interrogators? And what right do they have to demand answers? Dirty Young Loose will be screened together with Lene Berg's Kopfkino at the OIFF 2013.

Director

Lene Berg (b. 1965) studied film at Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm. She has directed two feature films En Kvinnas Huvud (1997) and Kopfkino (2012) as well as more than fifteen video-projections and shorter films.

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The title of Lene Berg’s film Kopfkino literally means mind film. Kopfkino was filmed over the course of two days in Berlin with a set of exceptional characters. The basic concept is simple: eight women exchange stories about their work which is to fulfil theirs clients’ sexual fantasies. Seated behind a long table the women are dressed as various female clichés: a schoolgirl, a circus director, a general or a princess. They recount in their own words their experiences without any direct intervention by the director, but the situation in which we observe them is staged. We are on a film set. Real experiences and actual stories come together in a universe of illusions, fictions and fantasies. Kopfkino was first presented as a part of a big solo show at Henie Onstad Art Center. Kopfkino will be screened together with Lene Berg's Dirty Young Loose at OIFF 2013.

Director

Lene Berg (b. 1965) studied film at Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm. She has directed two feature films En Kvinnas Huvud (1997) and Kopfkino (2012) as well as more than fifteen video-projections and shorter films.

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Egress is a narrative set in a gas station in the edgelands of Oslo. The main characters work at the bottom of the oil company hierarchy and are engulfed in the everyday and the dark economic and psychological shadows of their society. Egress is the story of a young woman who deals with her every day work situation with independence and stubbornness in her work and life in the periphery of the city. The film shows relationships between control and independence, about labour, class and work, but it is also a poetic film about a socially insecure edgeland of the city—and about a psychological flipside or cost of the everyday, somewhere near the bottom of the huge economic ladder of the oil industry which secures Norway's stability. Egress' world is a world of social instability and economic insecurity as part of a society undergoing major changes. Egress is shot entirely on "location" in Oslo's Groruddalen, mainly between an apartment complex and a gas station. The film is an experimental fiction built up from documentary material which mixes the environment- and character-based to talk about contemporary society.

Director

Knut Åsdam (b. 1968) is one of Norways most internationally recognized younger artists. He uses film, video, photography, text, sound and architecture in his works. Life in todays urban society is a theme he frequently returns to. He has exhibited at established venues like Tate Britain, Venice Biennal, MoMA New York and Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville Paris, and his flms are screened at international film festivals. OIFF has previously screened Oblique, Abyss and Tripoli (OIFF 2010)

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The Forester is a collaboration between the musician, composer and producer Susanna, the contemporary music ensemble neoN and the filmmaker Claus A. Breda-Gulbrandsen. Breda-Gulbrandsen has with Susanna and Ensemble neoN’s recording of the 15 minutes long three-part suite The Forester, managed to make a film to be both absorbed and moved by. In the movie the forest is the surroundings for strong encounters and attempts at making connections, at the same time it is a place for wandering, loneliness, silence and meditation. The film illustrates the floating borders between the state of consciousness and unconsciousness, between the realistic and magical. The movie is filmed in Buskerud, mainly at small places like Sandsvær and Lyngdal, and the actors is picked from the directors own environment in Kongsberg.

Director

Claus A. Breda-Gulbrandsen (b. 1975) is an artist based in Kongsberg, Norway. He is educated at the Art Academy in Trondheim, Norway, and works as a filmmaker besides being a teacher in film at Buskerud Folkehøgskole. Breda-Gulbrandsen has made several very special music videos for the Norwegian artist Susanna/Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, shown in the program of the short film festival in Grimstad. The Forester is his second short film.

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A little girl reflecting on the great questions of life.

Director

Tove Undheim was educated from The Norwegian Film School and Oslo National Academy of Fine Arts. She has written and directed several short films that has been shown in galleries, at film festivals and on TV.

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