Munich (dpa/lby) - 120 films from 52 countries will be shown at the Munich Film Festival this year. Among them are 35 world premieres, as the organizers of the festival announced on Thursday. The 39th edition of the festival runs from June 23rd to July 2nd.
The festival will open with the work "Corsage", which had already been shown at the film festival in Cannes, France. Lead actress Vicky Krieps plays Empress Sisi, who wants to break out of the courtly constraints.
There is also a focus on productions by Ukrainian and Russian directors who speak out against "authoritarian systems". This includes the film "Mariupolis 2" by the Lithuanian Mantas Kvedaravičius. The director had been filming in the Russian-besieged city of Mariupol and was killed by Russian troops trying to leave Ukraine. His fiancee smuggled the material out of the country.
The Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher is honored with this year's CineMerit Award. The organizers announced that the 43-year-old received the work for services to contemporary cinema. In the festival program she can also be seen in the family drama "Das Pfauenparadies".
