Oct. 20, NYC Premiere 'Wonderful Losers: A Different World' by DGA Documentary Winner Arunas Matelis

"Wonderful Losers: A Different World," a documentary that focuses on the less public side of Giro d'Italia, one of the harshest and most prestigious cycling races in the world, will have its New York premiere on Saturday, October 20th at Scandinavia House. The screening will be followed by Q&A with the film's director, Arunas Matelis. Part of the first Baltic Film Festival taking place in New York City October 18-21, "Wonderful Losers" is Lithuania's official selection for best foreign-language film Oscar consideration.

Matelis, whose previous documentary, "Before Flying Back to the Earth" earned him the 2006 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Documentary, comes back after 12 years of creative silence with his first feature-length film. "Wonderful Losers" tells a story of the people at Giro d'Italia centering on the riders at the back of the race -the so-called "water carriers," "domestiques," "gregarios"-who sacrifice their careers and forgo personal victories to ensure victory for their team's leader. The first film director in 40 years to be allowed to shoot the race from inside, Matelis follows these "wonderful losers'" and reveals the unseen world of the race from the point of view of the doctor's team. Matelis spent eight years making the film, which is one of the biggest European co-productions, involving as many as eight countries: Lithuania, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, United Kingdom, Latvia, Spain and Belgium.

"Wonderful Losers" has been shown in numerous film festivals in Europe and Asia and recognized with multiple awards including Warsaw Film Festival - the Best Documentary; Minsk Listapad Film Festival - Grand Prix for Best Documentary and Audience Choice Award; Trieste Film Festival - the Best Documentary (Audience Choice); Lithuanian Filmmaker Union Award -Best Film; and National Film Awards for Best Documentary, Best Music and People's Choice Awards, among others.

Watch a trailer here:

WONDERFUL_LOSERS_Trailer_when_loss_becomes_W from Nominum Studio on Vimeo.