PRAGUE: Eight films have been announced for the international competition of the 22nd Art Film Fest held in the Slovak spa towns of Trencianske Teplice and Teplice 21-27 June 2014.

PRAGUE: Seven world premieres and five international premieres will be screened in the main competition of the 49th Karlovy Vary IFF running 4-12 July 2014, with another 12 films screening in the East of the West competition of films from CEE.

PRAGUE: Screenwriter, producer and director Vaclav Marhoul signed three preliminary coproduction agreements in Cannes for The Painted Bird.

PRAGUE: French sales agent Premium Films has added Czech director/writer Peter Vaclav’s The Way Out to its catalogue.

TREBON, CZECH REPUBLIC: Pitching to key execs from six CEE public TV stations, the Slovenian animated TV series Koyaa won the best project award along with a prize of 2,000 EUR at the second edition of the Visegrad Animation Forum (VAF). The short film prize and 2,000 EUR went to The Advisers of King Hydrops from Poland.

TREBON, CZECH REPUBLIC: Anifilm festival favorite Bill Plympton and Brazilian director Ale Abreu won the awards for Best Film in the adult and children’s categories respectively at the closing ceremony of the fifth edition of the Czech international animation film festival.

TREBON, CZECH REPUBLIC: Slovenian student director Katarina Morano is the lone representative from CEE to be nominated for the Student Academy Awards, which will be announced on June 7 in Hollywood.

PRAGUE: Media group Central European Media Enterprises reported an increase of over 20 m USD in net revenues for the first quarter of 2014 compared with 2013, coming in at 153.1 m USD.

PLZEN: A new energy in TV production, heralded by productions such as HBO's Burning Bush, is leading to a convergence between film and TV in the Czech Republic

PLZEN: The Finale Plzen festival isn’t the only one hitching a ride on Slovenia’s rising stars. Domestic audiences as well as international festivals are taking note of Slovenian films and filmmakers.