Wel­come to the film fes­ti­val that’s tak­ing place in your front room

From Cannes to Toron­to and every­thing in between, film fes­ti­vals are the glitzy, excit­ing face of the cin­e­mat­ic world – they’re where leg­ends come out to play and stars are born. Buzz at one of the major fes­ti­vals can launch it into the stratos­phere. But more impor­tant­ly, these gath­er­ings are an oppor­tu­ni­ty for film fans the world over to come togeth­er and do what we do best: watch movies and talk about them. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the chances of actu­al­ly get­ting to Sun­dance, Venice or Berlin is pret­ty much a pipedream for many due to the crip­pling cost and slim avail­abil­i­ty of tickets.

For­tu­nate­ly for every­one, the clever chaps at ArteKino have come up with the next best thing: a film fes­ti­val that’s com­plete­ly online, and free to attend. That’s right folks – you can now enjoy some excel­lent Euro­pean indies from the com­fort of your own sofa (or bed, we’re not going to judge). If you’re able to get to Lon­don, there are also screen­ings of three of the films tak­ing place at Ciné Lumière / Insti­tut français.

Pro­grammed by the Locarno Fes­ti­val and the Direc­tors’ Fortnight’s for­mer Artis­tic Direc­tor Olivi­er Père, ArteKino Fes­ti­val runs from Decem­ber 1 – 17, and fea­tures 10 films that show­case the rich­ness and diver­si­ty of con­tem­po­rary Euro­pean cin­e­ma. View­ers across Europe can sign up for free tick­ets, and even vote for their favourite film to win the ArteKino Audi­ence Award, expe­ri­enc­ing all the fun of a film fes­ti­val, with­out cough­ing up a small for­tune for a hotel room or queu­ing at 7am for to ensure a good seat at screen­ings. All that’s left to do is peruse the pro­gramme and get your microwave pop­corn ready.

A joint Ger­man and Nor­we­gian pro­duc­tion direct­ed by Thomas Arslan, Bright Nights sees Michael (Georg Friedrich) trav­el to Nor­way for his father’s funer­al, whilst try­ing to recon­nect with his teenage son fol­low­ing a con­spic­u­ous absence in his life.

Fol­low­ing a diag­no­sis of tuber­cu­lo­sis in 1930s Roma­nia, Emanuel is com­mit­ted to a san­i­to­ri­um near the Black Sea. Despite the hard­ships that ensue dur­ing his gru­elling treat­ment he dis­cov­ers there’s more to life inside the med­ical facil­i­ty than he first thought – par­tic­u­lar­ly as beyond the walls, right-wing polit­i­cal feel­ings begin to sweep through the country.

Not avail­able in the UK, but show­ing at Ciné Lumière/Institut français on Decem­ber 16 at 4pm 

In Athi­na Rachel Tsangari’s black­ly com­ic film, a fish­ing trip quick­ly turns sin­is­ter for a group of men adrift on the Aegean Sea, who decide to pass the time by play­ing a game called ​‘Cheva­lier’.

Also show­ing at Ciné Lumière/Institut français on Decem­ber 17 at 4pm
A young Lithuan­ian cou­ple vol­un­teer to deliv­er an aid car­go to Ukraine, but find them­selves strand­ed in the unfor­giv­ing icy ter­rains of the Don­bass region in Sharunas Bar­tas’ film.

Set amidst the eco­nom­ic cri­sis in Por­tu­gal, a fam­i­ly strug­gle to con­nect with each oth­er and keep it togeth­er dur­ing times of finan­cial hardship.

In a remote Bul­gar­i­an town, a young woman leads a dou­ble life car­ing for the elder­ly whilst simul­ta­ne­ous­ly dab­bling in iden­ti­ty fraud. Her home life is tur­bu­lent and unen­vi­able with the threat of mor­phine addic­tion edg­ing into frame, until she strikes up an unlike­ly con­nec­tion with one of her elder­ly patients.

A tetraplegic activist/​writer opens up his home as a safe space for those seek­ing sex­u­al assis­tance but dis­cov­ers that his pur­suit of the abstract con­cept of ​‘liv­ing’ is inher­ent­ly flawed in this chal­leng­ing Span­ish drama.

A unique por­trait of a fam­i­ly unit in flux is pre­sent­ed in Jan P. Matuszyński’s film, which focus­es on the Pol­ish artist Zdzisław Bek­sińs­ki and his rela­tion­ship with his eccen­tric, sui­ci­dal son Tomasz.

Also show­ing at Ciné Lumière/Institut français on Decem­ber 16 at 6pm

A cou­ple return to their famil­ial home in Por­tu­gal for the sum­mer with their young twin daugh­ters in tow. Amidst the glo­ri­ous Por­tuguese coun­try­side, their trou­bled past begins to emerge.

Rikard is a man with autism and a cran­io­fa­cial con­di­tion, intent on find­ing his way back to his birth moth­er. In order to do so, he’s con­vinced he must win the Nordic Pétanque cham­pi­onship – with some assis­tance from the tit­u­lar giant.

ArteKino runs from Decem­ber 1 – 17. Tick­ets are lim­it­ed to 5000 per film.