ZILINA: Fest Anca, Slovakia's international festival of animated films running 28 June – 1 July 2018, will shine a spotlight on 25 years of Slovak animation, marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Slovakia. In addition to the special focus, the festival will hold its traditional competition of Slovak animated films.

While former dok.incubator projects are experiencing a successful run (The Russian Job receiving Pavel Koutecký Award for Best Czech Documentary and Wilder Than Wilderness being the most seen documentary in Czech cinemas this spring), dok.incubator is announcing four new Czech projects for 2018: 

  • Lust For Life (director: Radovan Síbrt, producer: Karel Poupě, editor: Tomáš Elšík)
  • Circus Rwanda (director: Michal Varga, producer: Marek Novák, editor: Alexandra Jonášová)
  • Another Chance (director: Eva Tomanová, producer: Jiří Konečný, editor: Marek Šulík)
  • Al Amari – Even today is like any other day (director: Kristýna Kopřivová, producers: Dagmar Sedláčková, Bára Kamarytová, editor: Elvíra Dulskaya)

More information about selected projects can be found here.

The dok.incubator workshop in Telč (June 24th – 30th) will host the script editors of the five biggest festivals of Europe and North America (Sundance, Hot Docs, DOK Leipzig, IDFA and One World) to watch the documentaries in their latest stage of post-production.

The selectors will share their know-how on how their decisions are being made and what are the decisive factors of the film’s success or failure. Czech professional filmmakers can join the open programme to gain practical advices and information about the documentary distribution and meet top producers, the festivals‘ selectors, broadcasters and sales agents, who will share their experience with international distribution and will offer examples and practical case studies on how to position different films at the market.

Beside theoretical sessions, decision makers will be discussing tailor-made strategies for the rough-cuts of eight selected projects that have been developed during the dok.incubator mentoring workshop. The projects and the teams behind them come from the whole world and their projects cover a wide range of topics and genres. The workshop hosts a number of Eastern European projects, Slovenian Avenge is a part of the international workshop and thanks to the Visegrad Funding the regional part supports projects from Czech republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.

More about the workshop can be found here.

GDYNIA: Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski will receive the Platinum Lion at the closing ceremony of the 43rd Gdynia Film Festival, which runs 17 -22 September 2018.

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KOSICE: Thirteen films will compete for the Blue Angel award at Art Film Fest, which kicks off 15 June in the south-eastern Slovak town of Kosice. The festival, which has become an increasingly important event on the regional festival agenda, runs until 23 June.

On June 2–10, seven Capital Star Art Film theatres in the Chinese capital welcomed cinema-goers to 21 screenings of Lithuanian film. They had a chance to meet a delegation of the Lithuanian film industry – representatives of the Lithuanian Film Centre and producers of the films selected to be screened at the event – who came to Beijing for the Lithuanian film week.

The first Lithuanian film week in China presented seven Lithuanian films: Ignas Miškinis’ Kings’ Shift, Lina Lužytė’s Together For Ever, Eglė Vertelytė’s Miracle, Kristina Buožytė’s The Collectress, Giedrė Beinoriūtė’s Conversations on Serious Topics, Jokūbas Vilius Tūras’ Dreaming the Path and The Bug Trainer by Donatas Ulvydas, Linas Augutis, Rasa Miškinytė and Marek Skrobecki.

Miracle, directed by Eglė Vertelytė, opened the Lithuanian film week on 2 June in the Megabox cinema in Beijing’s popular Sanlitun area with welcoming speeches by Beijing officials, Rolandas Kvietkauskas, the director of the Lithuanian Film Centre, and the Lithuanian Ambassador to China Ina Marčiulionytė.

Chinese media covered the festival’s opening ceremony, several television channels have expressed interest in broadcasting the films. The Lithuanian Film Centre has been approached by regional festivals interested in screening Lithuanian films elsewhere in China.

Beijing welcomed Lithuanian film producers Lukas Trimonis, Rasa Miškinytė, Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė, Jurga Gluskinienė, Ieva Norvilienė as well as Rolandas Kvietkauskas and Dovilė Butnoriūtė, representatives of the Lithuanian Film Centre.

During the festival, the Lithuanians met with representatives of China’s key film institutions: the Film Bureau, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television; China Film Group Corporation; Beijing Film Company; and China Film Foundation which handles international cooperation projects. The Lithuanian delegation also visited Beijing Film Academy. The meetings addressed opportunities to distribute Lithuanian auteur cinema and short films in China and screen them in festivals.

The Chinese were invited to visit Lithuania and see the local film production infrastructure, to know more about the Lithuanian film tax incentive, conditions and coproduction opportunities in the country. The two sides also discussed the possibility to sign a cooperation agreement in cinema.

The Lithuanian film week and the visit of Lithuanian producers in China was organised by the Lithuanian Film Centre, the Lithuanian culture attaché and the Embassy of Lithuania in China, Beijing New United Films Co. Ltd., Beijing 8th Day Culture and Communications Co. Ltd.

CineEurope 2018, Barcelona: 12 June 2018 - The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), the European Cinema trade grouping, has today published its Annual Report, examining key cinema trends across the 37 territories represented by the association, accounting for 1.34 billion admissions and €8.6 billion in box office revenues in 2017 - a quarter of the global theatrical market for films. 

The report - available both in print and online - provides an in-depth look at recent developments in Europe’s thriving cinema-going industry.

In 2017, total admissions across the region increased by 2.5 per cent on the previous year, complemented by an increase of 1.7 per cent in box office revenues - confirming the value of cinema-going and its important position within the global cinema industry.

The above figures reflect the significant and continuous investment made in the cinema “offer” in terms of innovation both in theatres themselves and audience engagement throughout the cinema-going experience, which is becoming ever-more tailored towards a multitude of preferences.

The report also details key developments across the legislative spectrum in the form of a number of public policy issues that affect cinema operators, whilst also setting out the association’s advocacy activities to ensure that cinemas remain at the heart of governmental and industry efforts towards further prosperity for the entire European film industry.

Many of the trends examined in the report will also be discussed during the week at CineEurope, its official convention and Europe’s premier gathering of cinema exhibition professionals from the region and beyond.

SKOPJE: The Macedonian Film Agency has signed a coproduction agreement with the Kosovo Cinematography Center. The agreement was signed by Gorjan Tozja, director of the Macedonian Film Agency, and Arben Zharku, director of the Kosovo Cinematography Center.