North Face (2008, 126m)
Original Title: Nordwand
Country: Austria
Category Drama/Romance
Director: Philipp Stölzl
Principal Cast: Benno Fürmann, Florian Lukas and Johanna Wokalek

The film, based on a true story, recalls the attempt of two German climbers to scale the Eiger’s 5,900-foot near-vertical north wall, then unconquered, in the run-up to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. “North Face” imagines the attempted conquest as a battle between the German climbers Toni Kurz and Andi Hinterstoisser and Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer from Austria. In reality, the four actually belonged to the same team and did not join together midway in the climb, as the movie has it

Turquaze (2009, 100m)
Country: Belgium
Category: Family drama
Director: Kadir Balci
Principal Cast Burak Balci, Charlotte Vandermeersch, Nihat Alptug Altinkaya,
Having buried their father in Istanbul, Timur (28) and his two brothers, Ediz (36) and Bora (16), return to Ghent. The three brothers resume their lives but need to find a new balance. While Ediz plays the dominant father and Bora does silly things with the wrong friends, Timur tries to fulfill his father’s dream: playing the trumpet in a brass band. Turquaze presents a disarmingly honest chronicle of a Turkish family’s life in Ghent.

Empties (2007, 100m)
Original Title: Vratné lahve
Country: Czech Republic
Category Comedy Drama
Director: Jan Sverák

Principal Cast Zdenek Sverák, Tatiana Vilhelmová and Daniela Kolárová

Czech literature teacher Josef Tkaloun, who is past retirement age, realises one day that he no longer understands his pupils, and so he quits. What he does not predict is that in doing this he will lose his sense of place in society. A comic love story about a man who refuses to accept that old age is empty of love, meaning and value to society.

In a Better World (2010, 119m)
Original Title: Hævnen
Country: Denmark
Category Drama/Romance
Director: Susanne Bier
Principal Cast Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm and Markus Rygaard

Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.

The Substitute (2007, 93m)
Original Title: Vikaren
Country: Denmark
Category Comedy
Director: Ole Bornedal
Principal Cast Paprika Steen, Ulrich Thomsen and Jonas Wandschneider

Sixth Grade gets a new substitute teacher. She wants to train the class for an international competition in Paris. But something isn't right. How is she able to read kids' minds? Why is she so mean? And how does she manage to convince everyone's parents she is so great when the whole class knows she is really an alien?

Princess (2010, 100m)
Country: Finland
Category: Drama
Director: Arto Halonen
Principal Cast Katja Kukkola, Samuli Edelmann and Paula Vesala
This film is based on the true story of Ms Anna Lappalainen. Claiming to be "Princess", a member of the English royal family, she spent 50 years of her life as patient at a psychiatric hospital, where she healed and brought joy to those around her through her lovable personality.

Welcome (2009,110m)
Country: France
Category Drama
Director: Philippe Lioret
Principal Cast Vincent Lindon, Firat Ayverdi and Audrey Dana

Bilal is 17 years old, a Kurdish boy from Iraq. He sets off on an adventure-filled journey across Europe, wanting to get to England to see his love who lives there. Bilal finally reaches Calais, but how do you cover the 32 kilometers of the English Channel when you can't swim? The boy soon discovers that his trip won't be as easy as he imagined.

Krabat (2008, 120m)
Country: Germany
Category: Adventure/Fantasy
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Principal Cast Michael Gutmann, Marco Kreuzpaintner
The effects of the 17th-century Thirty Years' War have spread disease over a desolate landscape. A voice in a dream lures the homeless boy Krabat to an old mill, where he becomes an apprentice and soon discovers that the miller also practices dark sorcery. Krabat develops a sense of belonging, but when harm comes to his best friend, he has to choose between power and loyalty.

Soul Kitchen (2008, 99m)
Country: Germany
Category: Comedy
Director: Fatih Akin
Principal Cast Moritz Bleibtreu, Adam Bousdoukos and Pheline Roggan
Zinos, the owner of a restaurant, is half-heartedly trying to keep his run-down business alive. When his girlfriend Nadine is moving to Shanghai for a new job, he no longer sees any perspectives in his present life. A new cook is hired who, along with Lucia and Lutz, is to give the bar a new look.

Made in Hungaria (2009, 108m)
Country: Hungary
Category: Comedy
Director: Gergery Fonyó
Principal Cast Tamás Szabó Kimmel, Tünde Kiss, Éva Vándor
In the spring of 1963, at a time when everybody else would like to escape to the West, an adolescent boy named Miki and his parents leave behind the American dream and return to Budapest. Back in Hungary revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries alike regard Miki's jobless father with suspicion. Miki applies to a talent show and proves to everybody that he has a place in this old-new world.

A Perfect Day (2008, 95m)
Original Title: Un Giorno Perfetto
Country: Italy
Category Drama/ Romance
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Principal Cast Isabella Ferrari, Valerio Mastandrea, and Valerio Binasco
A fierce love story that separates and unites Emma and Antonio, a Roman couple scarred by torment and obsession. Their children are innocent bystanders, then victims to a crime about to unfold. A story of human suffering and the attempt to give shape to the chaotic reality of corrupt politics and painful love.

Loose Cannons (2010,110m)
Original Title: Mine Vaganti
Country: Italy
Category Drama/ Romance
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Principal Cast Riccardo Scamarcio, Nicole Grimaudo and Alessandro Preziosi
Tommaso is the youngest son of the Cantones, a large, traditional southern Italian family operating a pasta-making business since the 1960s. On a trip home from Rome, where he studies literature and lives with his boyfriend, Tommaso decides to tell his parents the truth about himself. But when he is finally ready to come out in front of the entire family, his older brother Antonio ruins his plans.

Charlotte: A Royal at War (2008, 96m)
Country: Luxembourg
Category: Documentary
Director: Ray Tostevin
Charlotte: A Royal at War” tells the untold story of the Royal “propagandist in pearls” who inspired a nation through the power of radio, reaching people in their darkest hour. This is the true account of one woman and her government’s pursuit of freedom for their country, against the brutal occupation by Hitler’s Third Reich. The feature length documentary combines vivid eyewitness testimony with dramatic reconstruction and unique colour archive.

Sonny Boy (2011, 130m)
Country: The Netherlands
Category: Drama/ Romance
Director: Maria Peters
Principal Cast Ricky Koole, Sergio Hasselbaink and Marcel Hensema
Based on true events, this film relates a controversial love-story between a Dutch divorced mother of four and the 17 years' younger Afro-Caribbean student Waldemar. Their love conquers all prejudice and opposition, but is alas destroyed by the devastating powers of the Second World War.

Joanna (2010, 105m)
Country: Poland
Category: Romance/ Drama
Director: Feliks Falk
Principal Cast Urszula Grabowska, Stanisława Celińska and Sara Knothe
Joanna has to cope alone while waiting for her husband to return from the front. When she meets a Jewish orphan girl named Rose she decides to take care of her. She fails to find a hiding spot for Rose and a German officer forces Joanna to become his lover in return for protection. In response, her family and the armed resistance decide to punish her for fraternizing with the enemy.

The Flying Pigs (2010, 99m)
Country: Poland
Category: Romance/ Drama
Director: Anna Kazejak
Principal Cast Paweł Małaszyński, Cezary Pazura and Olga Bołądź
This is a story of four characters who centre their lives around supporting the local football club. When the team ceases to exists, their world is turned upside down. Oskar, a former hooligan, is forced to get a job with the owner of another club. His new post tests his loyalties, forces him to develop another outlook on life and grow up. Meanwhile he finds himself in the middle of a love triangle with his brother and his girlfriend.

The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, 94m)
Country: Portugal
Category: Drama
Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Principal Cast: Ricardo Trepa, Luis Miguel Cintra and Pile López de Ayala
In the middle of the night, the young photographer Isaac receives an urgent call from a wealthy family asking him to come and take the last photograph of their daughter Angelica, who died just a few days after her wedding. When Isaac looks at her through the lens of his camera, the young woman appears to come back to life just for him. He instantly falls in love with her. From that moment on, Angélica will haunt him night and day, until exhaustion.

For 80 days (2010, 104m)
Original Title: 80 Egunean
Country: Spain
Category: Drama
Director: Jon Garaño, José María Goenaga
Principal Cast Itziar Aizpuru, Jose Raon Argoitia and Zorion Eguileor
Axun and Maite first met at secondary school in a different, more difficult time when their love for each other could not be expressed beyond a platonic friendship. Fifty years later, the women meet again. Axun is a mousey housewife in a seemingly loveless marriage and Maite is an academic and an out and proud lesbian. Axun sets off on a journey of self-discovery as old passions resurface with a new intensity. Now that she is 70, will she dare to cross the line between friendship and desire?

18 Meals (2010, 107m)
Original Title: 18 Comidas
Country: Spain
Category: Comedy Drama
Director: Jorge Coira
Principal Cast Esperanza Pedrono, Luis Tosar, Pedro Alonso,Victor Clavijo
18 Meals follows an eclectic group of characters as their stories unfold over the different meals of a day. There is Sol who invites her old flame Edu to lunch while her husband and son are out. There's Vladimir, an actor who attempts to woo his co-star with elaborately prepared meals. And there is Victor who tries to hide the fact that Sergio is more than a roommate. Shot in the stunning Galician city of Santiago de Compostela, the film is an appetizing

Morgen(2010, 100m)
Country: Romania
Category Comedy/ Romance
Director: Marian Crișan

Principal Cast András Hatházi, Yilmaz Yalcin and Elvira Rimbu
One morning while fishing, Nelu meets a Turkish man on the run from border guards. He takes in the stranger and, against the wishes of his wife, puts him to work on his dilapidated farm without reporting to the authorities. The man keeps insisting Nelu take all his money and help him reach Germany. Nelu takes the money and promises he will help him cross the border the next day, reassuring him with the one word he knows in German: "morgen" ("tomorrow").

Everlasting moments (2002, 131m)
Original Title: Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick
Country: Sweden
Category Drama/ Romance
Director: Jan Troell
Principal Cast Maria Heiskanen, Mikael Persbrandt and Jesper Christensen

Based on a true story in Sweden in the early 1900s – in a time of social change and poverty – the young working class woman Maria wins a camera in a lottery. The camera enables Maria to see the world through new eyes, but it also becomes a threat to her somewhat alcoholic womanizer of a husband, as it brings the charming photographer Pedersen into her life.

Pure (2010, 101m)
Original Title: Till det som är vackert
Country: Sweden
Category Drama/Romance
Director: Lisa Langseth
Principal Cast Alicia Vikander, Samuel Fröler and Josephine Bauer

Katarina is 20 years old. With a troubled past in a dreary suburb, her life seems to be set in stone. Everything changes when she hears a performance of Mozart’s Requiem that opens up a beautiful new world. She feels that she has to change her life and get as far away from her ugly reality as possible. But the path she follows proves a treacherous one, filled with lies, betrayal and a dangerous liaison with the married conductor Adam. Yet Katarina is ready to do anything to gain her new identity.