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With echoes of the awards season currently steering the discourse about film somewhere in-between the classic binary of poor things competing against the favorites, fandom and the multitude of systems engaging with the aesthetic production and commercial reproduction of film, less attention is paid to the calculi, criteria, canons behind the valuation and valorisation of its qualities, and their perpetual situatedness.

Europa, a significant piece of avant-garde cinematic history, is perhaps among the most anticipated films premiering at this year’s BFI London Film Festival. A compelling and intuitive anti-fascist piece of work, Europa was Franciszka and Stefan Themersons’ second film based on the 1925 futurist poem by Anatol Stern. Made in Warsaw in 1931, it is considered to be the first significant avant-garde film made in Poland and one of the most important in Europe at the time.

With a screening programme comprising highly anticipated premieres such as Paolo Sorrentino’s Loro, the filmmaker’s latest instalment in the socio-political exploration of contemporary Italy featuring

Roma, the black and white Mexican semi-autobiographical tale by Alfonso Cuarón, which has been produced by Netflix and is distributed by the platform, won four BAFTA awards.

Hamlet, one of the most inspiring and influential Shakespearean texts of all times has it timeliness and engagement with international audiences reaffirmed in indie filmmaker Mark Norfolk’s latest film, I, Father.

Mark Norfolk’s award winning, black & white, experimental film Shadow Gene is finally available on Blu-ray and DVD, in 8 languages: English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Norwegian."