Sands Director Ania Trzebiatowska On The “Boutique” Festival’s Second Edition And Her Plans For The Future
19.04.2023 - 14:13
/ deadline.com
Scotland’s Sands film festival, styled officially as the International Film Festival of St Andrews, wrapped its second edition this past weekend with a curated line-up of screenings, industry panels, and director Q&As.
Proceedings opened with a world premiere screening of Prime Video’s forthcoming mega-budget series Citadel, which features Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden as members of a secret global spy. The screening was introduced by Joe Russo, who Executive Produced and is a primary sponsor of Sands with his brother Anthony through their AGBO production label.
Other highlights included Q&As with Stanley Tucci, who screened his 1996 culinary comedy Big Night; Reinaldo Marcus Green, who brought his 2018 thriller Monsters and Men and veteran casting director Margery Simkin (Avatar, Little Shop of Horrors, and Top Gun).
Sands unravels over a tight three days out of the Byre Theatre in central St Andrews, an ancient city in northern Scotland and the birthplace of golf. The town attracts keen golfers year-round. (Notable visitors include Barack Obama and Donald Trump).
“We’re not going with small — we’re going with boutique. It’s a boutique film festival,” festival director Ania Trzebiatowska joked with Deadline shortly after the closing night.
Trzebiatowska runs the fest and programs the official line-up with a team of student curators from St Andrews University, a gig she juggles alongside her duties as a Programmer for Sundance. An industry veteran, Trzebiatowska previously ran the Off Camera film festival in Krakow, Poland, for 12 years and had stints in sales and acquisitions.
Below, Trzebiatowska speaks with Deadline about how she first became involved with Sands, the experience of launching a new film