LUX FILM DAYS 2015 / 3-5. November

Given out each year by the European Parliament in order to cast a spotlight on the diversity of European cinema, the LUX Prize has kicked off its 2015 edition with the official presentation in the European Parliament’s Cultural Committee. The three finalists for the prize – Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang, and Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s The Lesson – will be watched and voted for by the Members of the European Parliament, as well as by audiences across Europe, until the awards ceremony. 
 
The Official Selection, comprising ten films from which the three finalists were chosen, focused on movies that were able to build social and cultural values. Chair of the EU’s Cultural Committee Silvia Costa said, “It is not a question of entertainment: it is a question of values; European values that are constantly threatened. We have to get engaged in defending them, and we have a terrific opportunity to do that through the use of a mass cultural medium such as cinema. 
 
The competition will officially open on 19 October, through the beginning of the screenings across the 28 Member States, and the possibility for the Members of the European Parliament to start watching the films and voting. The films will also be screened inside the European Parliament, in a cinema duly built for that purpose from 9-20 November. The voting deadline for the Members of the Parliament is 24 November, just one day before the awards ceremony, which will take place on 24 November in Strasbourg.