October 8, 2013 - 14:58 AMT
Jarmusch's “Only Lovers Left Alive” to open Poland’s American Film Fest

Wroclaw's American Film Festival opens later this month with Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive and closes, five days later, with Steven Soderbergh's Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra, according to The Hollywood Reported.

Eastern Europe's only showcase, entirely devoted to U.S. indie fare, is a feast for film lovers who have a chance to see 80 movies in the Polish city's New Horizons cinema, 42 of which are Polish premieres, three European and one a world bow.

A competition line -- up of 17 features and 10 documentaries -- offers cash prizes voted on by the audience.

This year's line up includes "unknown discoveries and award-winning favorites from the festival circuit," festival organizers said Monday. Spectrum, the competition for features, offers a $10,000 prize for best narrative feature.

Films in competition include Hannah Fidell's A Teacher, Alexandre Moors' Blue Caprice, Jill Soloway's Afternoon Delight, Destin Cretton's Short Term 12, James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now, and Lance Edmands' Bluebird.

Non-fiction films compete in American Docs, which comes with a $5,000 prize. Documentaries in this section include those that "make an attempt to present the state of the American nation." Films in competition are Nicholas Wrathall's Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia, Alex Gibney's The Armstrong Lie, Penny Lane's Our Nixon, Nick Bentgen's Northern Light, Eric Slade and Stephen Silha's Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton and PJ Raval's Before You Know It.

The festival includes a retrospective of work by Shirley Clarke and presents Polish premieres of film highlights such as James Franco's As I Lay Dying, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon, and Quentin Dupieux’s Wrong Cops.

It also hosts a two-day industry sidebar, US in Progress, that brings together American independent filmmakers and European buyers.

The American Film Festival, Wroclaw, Poland, runs Oct. 22-27; U.S. in Progress is held Oct. 23-25.