The festival boasts both a national and international competition but it is the 12 films in the national competition that draw international visitors and hungry fest programmers from around the world.

Cinema Concern Mosfilm is both Russia’s oldest and its newest film studio. Founded in 1923 the studio combines a proud history that includes the greatest names in world cinematography with state-of-the art production facilities that today host the demanding professional producers of Russia’s booming film and television industry. Foreign producers are also increasingly discovering the advantages of working with Mosfilm when they shoot in the Russian capitol.

Russian director Karen Shakhnazarov’s new film Vanished Empire (www.mosfilm.ru) looks set to make its mark on the international festival circuit with this warm and very real story of young love set against the background of student life in the 1970’s when it seemed the USSR would last forever.

Kornél Mundruczó's Delta won the main prize for best feature film at Hungarian Film Week in a year that most critics said was dominated by Hungarian documentaries. In his acceptance speech, Mundruczó described Delta as a breakthrough for him. Offers from international festivals are rumoured to be already pouring in

The Hungarian Filmlab is already celebrating its Oscar victory even though the awards ceremony has not taken place yet. Both Joseph Cedar's Beaufort (Israel) which was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar and Srdan Golubovic's Serbian thriller The Trap which was short-listed did all their laboratory work at the Budapest-based Hungarian Film Lab.

This year's Hungarian Film Week underlines the overwhelming success of the Hungarian Motion Picture Act, which is now in its fourth year of operation. The system of support it introduced for the Hungarian film industry is obviously thriving both artistically and financially.

Estonian film is enjoying a production boom both at home and abroad, thanks partly to the XD Cam SONY format as well as an innovative financing scheme that could become a model for producers throughout Central Europe.

The Polish Film Institute is celebrating in Venice this year with five of the films it backed being selected for screening in the Biennale.