This year the competition showcases 8 titles from the Baltic sea region – the contestants of the Riga IFF Award presented by the festival's international jury. The competition holds no limitations regarding genre or style, thus the programme can include documentaries, fiction, animations or everything in between.

The most important cinema of Europe and the world selected by the Riga IFF curators to dazzle the local audience and guests of the city alike. These are the titles that have already been, or potentially will be, awarded prizes from juries and experts from around the globe.

This includes the International competition and the Baltic student short film programmes, the Baltic music video competition programme and... lots of parties! Because it makes no sense to watch a whole lot of incredible cinema and leave without having a chat about it afterwards. Look for the "S" sign (or is it a snake?) for adventure – cinematic, social and just fun!

The legendary festival in Moscow has grown to be more influential than it's creator Vitaly Mansky could have imagined. If his selection of documentaries from around the world makes the Russian Federation uneasy to the point where the filmmakers begin to fear for their lives it must be tackling something of great importance to the world as a whole. For the third year Riga is proud to welcome a part of that selection.

Created in collaboration with the embassies of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, as well as the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Latvia and the Danish Cultural Institute in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, this is a panorama of a special kind of cinema that is the Nordic way of making films, telling a story, painting a picture, singing a song. To some of us it's exotic, to others it makes us feel more at home than we probably should, but these stories are always deeply touching something very human inside all of us. The North is really much closer than one might think.

Latvia is not a huge country. And this only the third year that a festival of such international significance takes place in Riga. We need new people to fall in love with the beautiful world of cinema! This is an honest answer as to why it is so important to have a whole weekend dedicated to films for children and the whole family, why it is important to make it as fulfilling as possible providing not only the films but also the pastimes... 2 whole days of the most interesting cinema for schoolchildren, pre-school kids and their kin.

Does a film always have to have a significant storyline to create a significant experience? Does a feature have to always reflect the structure of a novel rather than a poem or a song? This year the Riga IFF retrospective programme makes an inquiry into the nature of the narrative in cinema – it's spectrum and limitations. These are moments when we have challenged the cinema and the very artform has challenged us, the audience has been challenged by the authors and the authors – challenged by their own merits.

In collaboration with the team behind the Latvian national film award Lielais Kristaps the festival presents it's very own selection of the newest titles produced in Latvia – films to be perceived as a part of the world cinema of today, beyond language and country of origin, yet so aware and proud of it. Naturally – the festival grows in sync with the film culture and industry here in Latvia, and every year presents new challenges and reveals unexpected strengths. Latvian film in an international context is still a challenging feat but would you just look at the wonders that this meeting brings from time to time!<