CLUJ-NAPOCA: Cinema City opened in Cluj-Napoca its fifth 4DX cinema in Romania with an investment of approximately 850,000 EUR. Cinema City is the biggest cinema operator in Romania.
Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) invites filmmakers to submit their projects in development for the second edition of the Transilvania Pitch Stop co-production platform, which will be held on 1-2 June 2018 in Cluj-Napoca.
The 7th EFA Young Audience Award Includes Record 45 Cities in 36 Countries
Press releases 20-03-2018
Young Juries Across Europe Screen Nominated Films GIRL IN FLIGHT, HOBBYHORSE REVOLUTION and WALLAY – all of which will then be available as VOD for the general public
The European Film Academy (EFA) proudly announces and congratulates the three nominees for the EFA Young Audience Award 2018:
GIRL IN FLIGHT
LA FUGA – GIRL IN FLIGHT
DIRECTED BY: Sandra Vannucchi
WRITTEN BY: Sandra Vannucchi & Michael King
PRODUCED BY: Michael King & Ruedi Gerber
fiction, Italy / Switzerland
A tender, frightening and exciting emotional journey.
HOBBYHORSE REVOLUTION
DIRECTED BY: Selma Vilhunen
WRITTEN BY: Selma Vilhunen & Okku Nuutilainen
PRODUCED BY: Venla Hellstedt & Elli Toivoniemi
documentary, Finland
A funny and moving film about teenagers with growing pains, who discover their own voice and talent through riding and making hobbyhorses.
WALLAY
DIRECTED BY: Berni Goldblat
WRITTEN BY: David Bouchet
PRODUCED BY: Nicolas Anthomé
fiction, France / Burkina Faso / Qatar
13-year-old Ady is sent to his uncle in Burkina Faso for the summer.
The nominations were chosen by an international committee consisting of Manlio Castagna (Giffoni International Film Festival/Italy), Ana Cerar (International Film Festival Kino Otok - Isola Cinema/ Slovenia), Corinna Downing (London Film Festival - British Film Institute/UK), EFA Board Member Vanessa Henneman (talent agent/The Netherlands) and Holger Twele (film educator/Germany).
On 6 May, the three nominated films will be screened to audiences of 12 – 14 year-olds in the following 36 countries across Europe and beyond:
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AUSTRALIA: Brisbane AUSTRIA: St. Pölten & Vienna GERMANY: Berlin, Chemnitz & Erfurt ISRAEL: Tel Aviv |
LATVIA: Riga SERBIA: Niš SLOVENIA: Izola SWEDEN: Båstad SWITZERLAND: Lucerne TURKEY: Istanbul |
And it is the young audience that will act as a jury and vote for the winner right after the screenings. In a truly European vote, jury speakers will then transmit the national results live via video conference to Erfurt (Germany) where the winner will be announced in an award ceremony streamed live on yaa.europeanfilmawards.eu, a special website that offers further information about the nominated films and the participating cities.
But the YAA now also includes various platforms for the general public to watch the nominated films: EFA Productions, EFA’s in-house production company, will bring the EFA Young Audience Award films out Europe-wide on Video-on-Demand (T-VoD) platforms, like iTunes, Google Play, Microsoft and Pantaflix, on the regional Balkan-platform Cinesquare, as well as on local platforms like Filmin or Univerciné!
EFA Productions teamed up with Under The Milky Way for this initiative with the support of Creative Europe – Media Programme of the European Union, to make the nominated films available for young viewers all year around. Finally, those who could not participate in the EFA Young Audience Award event will have the possibility to watch the nominated films online. VoD is a great way to reach this age group to promote the EFA Young Audience Award and the films nominated for it.
For the opening of the VoD initiative, the films of the last three editions as well as the three films nominated in 2018 will all go online on 7 May, one day after this year's EFA Young Audience Award. Films nominated in earlier editions will then follow next year.
The EFA Young Audience Award 2018 is realised with the following partners:
AUSTRALIA: Asia Pacific Screen Awards
AUSTRIA: Austrian Film Academy
BELGIUM: Filem’On & Le Palace
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: Sarajevo Film Festival & Meeting Point cinema
BULGARIA: Sofia Art Fest
CROATIA: Zagreb Film Festival
CZECH REPUBLIC: Krutón, z.s.
DENMARK: UCN, Centre for Educational Resources
ESTONIA: NGO Kinobuss
FINLAND: Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy
FRANCE: Les Arcs European Film Festival
GERMANY: Intl. Film Festival Schlingel (Chemnitz), German Children’s Media Foundation Golden Sparrow (Erfurt)
GREECE: Hellenic Film Academy
HUNGARY: Hungarian National Film Fund
IRELAND: Irish Film Institute & Creative Europe Desk Ireland
ISRAEL: Tel Aviv Cinematheque
ITALY: Niels Stensen Cultural Foundation (Florence), Alice nella città, with Fondazione Cinema per Roma (Rome), National Cinema Museum (Turin)
KOSOVO: DokuFest
LATVIA: National Film Centre of Latvia
LITHUANIA: Lithuanian Film Centre
LUXEMBOURG: Luxembourg City Film Festival
FYR MACEDONIA: Macedonian Film Agency
MALTA : Creative Europe Desk Malta
MONTENEGRO: Podgorica Film Festival & Montenegrin Cinematheque & Film Center of Montenegro
THE NETHERLANDS: EYE Filmmuseum
POLAND: New Horizons Association
PORTUGAL: Portuguese Academy of Film & ICA
ROMANIA: EducaTIFF
SERBIA: Free Zone Festival
SLOVAKIA: Visegrad Film Forum
SLOVENIA: Otok
SPAIN: Filmoteca de Catalunya (Barcelona), Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain (Madrid), Seville European Film Festival (Seville)
SWEDEN: Scala
SWITZERLAND: Zoomz – Film Festival for Children & Youth
TURKEY: Yapimlab
UK: British Film Institute
The EFA Young Audience Award is organised and presented by the European Film Academy and EFA Productions with the support of Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the Creative Europe – Media Programme of the European Union. The national YAA events are organised with the support of the respective national partners.
goEast 2018: The Future of Central and Eastern European Cinema East-West Talent Lab // Open Frame Award // OPPOSE OTHERING!
Festivals 20-03-2018
Fresh ideas, new technologies, forward-looking formats: the talent program of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is once again in its 18th edition offering young film talents the opportunity to develop new projects, forge connections with peers and representatives from the film industry and draw attention to their film ideas, as festival director Heleen Gerritsen emphasised recently: “The development and support of young talent has long been a top priority at goEast. We are very pleased to see that former participants have been able to realise their projects and gain recognition on an international level. This year there are two exciting added challenges: we have extended the spectrum of the projects to include virtual reality and in 2018 we are not only working with filmmakers but also with other film professionals in the beginning of their careers. goEast is actively promoting diversity in the film industry with this step, not only in Central and Eastern Europe, but in Germany as well,” according to Gerritsen. The East-West Talent Lab, the Open Frame Award and OPPOSE OTHERING! bundle their energies and traditionally provide promising looks at the cinema of tomorrow.
East-West Talent Lab
goEast supports and connects young filmmakers and artists from Central and Eastern Europe, the Rhine-Main region and all across Germany. The thirty participants of the East-West Talent Lab can expect to partake in a multifaceted educational program from 19 to 24 April, featuring presentations on the ins and outs of film funding, panel discussions on broadcast and funding opportunities from the major television networks as well as a master class by the Oscar® nominated president of this year’s goEast jury Ildikó Enyedi. “We are thrilled about this year’s record number of submissions”, emphasised Lab director Andrea Wink: “110 applications from 25 countries – that’s an increase of 20 percent and it reconfirms the great interest our program enjoys in Central and Eastern Europe.” In the scope of a workshop, the young talents will receive guidance in preparing their five-minute project pitches – 14 selected project ideas will be presented at the pitching session, from short fiction film to documentary, animated and experimental film, or even virtual reality. A jury composed of Stefan Arsenijević (director, screenwriter and program manager of FIRST FILMS FIRST from Belgrade, Serbia), Anna Berthollet (sales and festival manager at Taskovski Films from London, Great Britain) and Holger Stern (commissioning editor for fiction feature co-productions at ZDF/ARTE) will ultimately select the winner of the goEast Development Award, presented by Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain. The winning project will receive prize money in the amount of 3,500 euros.
Open Frame Award for Virtual Reality
In 2018, the Open Frame Award is reinventing itself: for the first time eight experimental virtual reality and 360̊ projects from Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Rhine-Main region will be competing for the Open Frame Award, presented by the BHF BANK Foundation. The competition is also sponsored by the Adolf und Luisa Haeuser Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege.
“With the inclusion of virtual reality we are embarking on totally new approaches to storytelling”, comments Georgy Molodtsov, the curator of this year’s Open Frame Award exhibition. “The beautiful thing is: We’re all starting from square one! So the projects are not only being developed in the big film studios, they’re also being made on shoestring budgets, in countries with tiny film industries. In a nutshell: virtual reality is a fresh start!” According to Molodtsov, it is especially significant in this regard that the Open Frame Award provides international visibility for artists from Central and Eastern Europe through exhibitions in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden.
A three-member jury, consisting of Julia Leeb (filmmaker, VR expert and photographer from Munich), Dmitri Vrubel (artist and gallerist) and Simon Ofenloch (film editor ARTE/ARTE fiction on ZDF) will determine the winner of the award, which is endowed with 5,000 euros in prize money. The exhibition is scheduled to run from 10 to 16 April at Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt am Main, and from 19 to 25 April at Museum Wiesbaden.
OPPOSE OTHERING!
A further goEast talent development project is entering its third round in 2018: OPPOSE OTHERING! The section, made possible with the support of Foundation EVZ, focuses on ethical filmmaking and the inclusion of minorities in the audio-visual industry, according to section head Rebecca Podlech: “We have made it our mission to develop a cinema environment in Germany and Eastern Europe in which minorities enjoy equal rights and diversity is respected, by providing concrete guidelines for action. Acceptance, solidarity and creative subversion are crucial elements in this undertaking.” To this end, the program invites not only directors to attend, but is also open to young professionals with a background in film distribution, festivals, education and film production who wish to exchange information and experiences in workshops and discussions on diversity and the European film industry of tomorrow. In addition, two case studies will be presented. In the accompanying film program, OPPOSE OTHERING! is showing four tandem films co-produced by goEast, all four of which will be celebrating their world premieres in Wiesbaden: DOMASHNEE VIDEO (DE, 2018), BOND (DE, UA, 2018), IN THE FRAME (DE, FR, MD, RO, 2018) and ANTIGONNA BOND (DE, UA, 2018). Expanded horizons are guaranteed here!
Save the date: On 12 April at 11 a.m., the goEast press conference will take place at Caligari FilmBühne in Wiesbaden.
Please find more fotos in our download section: http://www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/press/downloads.php
The full program for the 18th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will be announced in early April.
23 film projects will be presented at the ninth edition of Meeting Point – Vilnius, an international industry event taking place on March 27-29, during VIFF Kino Pavasaris.
On March 29th, during special Coming Soon Session in-development film projects will be presented to festival curators, film producers, agents and distributors. This year 23 projects were selected from the whole Europe.
Coming Soon Session serves as a platform for debuting filmmakers to evolve or successfully finalise their projects. Consequently, launch their careers in the global film festival circuit.
Three of the participating projects of debut filmmakers will be picked for the industry screening at Cannes Marche du Film. The excerpts of selected winners will be shown in "Vilnius IFF Goes to Cannes" session at this year’s Cannes film festival. Two separate projects will be awarded sound and video post-production prize established by Vilnius Film Cluster and its members as well as receive a special digital storage and promotion prize from Baltic View and Noir Lumiere.
The winners will be selected by competent international Jury consisting of professionals with affluent careers such as Chilean film critic and journalist Pamela Bienzobas, film producer Jean-Baptiste Bailly Maitre and Vilnius Film Cluster executive director Romanas Matulis.
Selected Coming Soon Session projects
Coming from Kosovo, Lendita Zeqiraj with producer Bujar Kabashi will present emotionally charged drama AVA. Joost Vandebrug from the Netherlands together with producers Raymond Van der Kaaij and Andrea Cornwell will present feature documentary Bruce Lee and the Outlaw shot over 6 years in Bucharest.
Other entries include political drama By a Sharp Knife by Teodor Kuhn and producer Jakub Viktorin (Slovakia, Czech Republic). Darya Zhuk’s Crystal Swan, depicting a colourful story of an eager DJ from Belarus is also one of the participating in-development films co-produced in Belarus, Germany, and United States. Promising debut filmmaker Adam Sedlak working with producer Jakub Jíra comes to present his first feature project drama Domestique. Another selected project is Japan by director and producer Pavel Ruzyak from the Czech Republic. Annegret Sachse will present a political documentary essay about Kaliningrad Russia today, in co-production with Germany and Russia. Young Georgian director Ketevan Nozadze will pitch her first feature Stalin Today, scrutinizing the ambivalence of this historical figure.
Polish director Jarosław Wszędybył in co-production with Romania will present a project The End of Valley of Tears. This film documents the unforgettable and unhinged story of a remote village where people diagnosed with leprosy were sent from all over the country. Another polish director Wojciech Solarz with a producer Dominika Stecyk will present their film project Wood Grouse and the Mystery of Vanishing Windows.
Another promising entry to this year’s Coming Soon Session is a bold story about various limits of humanity, Unforgettable Spring in Forgotten Village, directed by Kushtrim Bekteshi, co-produced in Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo together with producer Sasho Pavlovski. Having experience in directing Ukrainian TV series, this time Sergey Lysenko and producer Andrii Granytsia come to pitch an action film The Raid. The project focuses on the period of 1932 when an underground Ukrainian organization conducted a revolutionary action against the government.
Two emerging young filmmakers from Latvia are among Coming Soon Session participants. Kristians Riekstins presents his first feature project EVA produced by Gints Grube and Kārlis Lesiņš together with Dominiks Jarmakovičs will pitch a creative film Under the Upturned Moon.
Belorussian documentary by Liubou Ziamtsova Artyom's Upbringing, tackling social and individual issues of the orphanage, will be a guest project of the pitching session as it was selected during the Bel:Cinema Industry days of Minsk International Film Festival.
Lithuanian projects
This year, eight projects, developed in Lithuania are selected for Coming Soon Session. The latter include Marija Stonytė’s a coming-of-age story Gentle Warriors produced by Giedrė Žickytė. Aistė Juraitė together with Skaistė Jauraitė will pitch their first full-length feature documentary In Praise of Action. The project invites the audience to have a better look at stunt-people, sometimes referred to as the unknown heroes of the film industry.
Another entry from Lithuania is historical psychological drama Isaac by Jurgis Matulevičius, produced by experienced producer Stasys Baltakis. Martynas Starkus, a well-known journalist and traveller together with producer Juliana Miliut will present their project The Mules. Promising director and scriptwriter Marija Kavtaradzė is partaking in Coming Soon Session with her debut feature Summer Survivors, an ironic road movie combining themes of light summer adventure and stark individual experiences. Director Ernestas Jankauskas who has won a Silver Crane for best short film, together with producer Gabija Siurbytė will pitch their full-length feature Sasha Was Here. Tomas Vengris working with well-known producer Uljana Kim will present feature Motherland, co-produced with Germany. Italian director Sandro Bozzolo together with Lithuanian producer Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė will present a documentary feature Nijole. The project chronicles the story of a legendary Columbian philosopher and politician of Lithuanian decent Antanas Mockus and his mother Nijolė Šivickas.
Meeting Point-Vilnius will also have a special programme showcasing only Lithuanian film projects. Among fourteen film projects, the upcoming films of established Lithuanian film directors will be presented. Mantas Kvedaravičius, Lina Lužytė, Giedrė Žickytė, Ignas Jonynas, as well as new films by Russian director Ivan Tverdovsky and Latvian Laila Pakalnina, which are co-produced in Lithuania.
7 films will be also shown in the industry screenings during the three days of the event.
Many projects presented at Meeting Point – Vilnius continue to thrive in international film festivals and the distribution circuit. For instance, Arūnas Matelis documentary Wonderful Losers: A Different World has won awards for best documentary at both Warsaw and Minsk festivals. Likewise, Falling by Marina Stepanska was nominated at Karlovy Vary and Stockholm; Miracle by Eglė Vertelytė was screened at Toronto International Film Festival.
More information about Meeting Point – Vilnius: http://kinopavasaris.lt/en/industry
MPV is organised together with Lithuanian Film Center, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Creative Europe Media Desk Lithuania, Audiovisual Authors Producers Rights Association AVAKA, Danish Cultural Institute, Baltic View, Noir Lumiere and Vilnius Film Cluster.
The line-up of Coming Soon Session projects:
- Artyom's Upbringing, director Liubou Ziamtsova (Belarus)
- AGA, director Lendita Zeqiraj, producer Bujar Kabashi (Kosovo)
- Bruce Lee and the Outlaw, director Joost Vandebrug, producers Raymond Van der Kaaij, Andrea Cornwell (Romania, Netherlands)
- By a Sharp Knife, directorTeodor Kuhn, producer Jakub Viktorin (Slovakia, Chech Republic)
- Crystal Swan, director Darya Zhuk (Belarus, Germany, USA)
- Domestique, director Adam Sedlák, producer Jakub Jíra (Chech Republic, Slovakia)
- EVA, director Kristians Riekstins, producer Gints Grube (Latvia)
- Gentle Warriors, director Marija Stonytė, producer Giedrė Žickyte (Lithuania)
- In Praise of Action, directors Aistė Jauraitė and Skaistė Jauraitė (Lithuania)
- Isaac, director Jurgis Matulevičius, producer Stasys Baltakis (Lithuania)
- Japan, director Pavel Ruzyak (Czech Republic)
- Motherland, director Tomas Vengris, producer Uljana Kim (Lithuania)
- Nijole, director Sandro Bozzolo, producer Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė (Lithuania)
- Russia today, director Annegret Sachse ( Germany, Russia)
- Sasha Was Here, director Ernestas Jankauskas, producer Gabija Siurbytė (Lithuania)
- Stalin Today, director Ketevan Nozadze (Georgia)
- Summer Survivors, director Marija Kavtaradzė, producer Marija Razgutė (Lithuania)
- The End of the Valley of Tears, director Jarosław Wszędybył, producer Przemysław Miękinia (Poland, Romania)
- The Mules, director Martynas Starkus, producer Juliana Miliut (Lithuania)
- The Raid, director Sergei Lysenko producer Andrii Granytsia (Ukraine)
- Under the Upturned Moon, director Kārlis Lesiņš, producer Dominiks Jarmakovičs (Latvia)
- Unforgettable Spring in Forgotten Village, director Kushtrim Bekteshi, producer Sasho Pavlovski (Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo)
- Wood Grouse and the Mystery of Vanishing Windows, director Wojciech Solarz, producer Dominika Stecyk (Poland)
STRASBOURG: Five international coproductions involving Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Croatia and Bulgaria are among the winners of the coproduction funding announced by the Board of Management of the Council of Europe's Eurimages Fund on 19 March 2018.
Co-production support - Strasbourg, 19.03.2018 - At its 150th meeting held from 13 to 16 March 2018 in Yerevan, the Board of Management of the Council of Europe's Eurimages Fund agreed to support 17 fiction, 1 documentary and 2 animation film projects for a total amount of €5,103,561.
VILNIUS: London-based Meta Media Entertainment presold the Christmas special Hopscotch and the Christmas Tree to several television broadcasters, and will be presenting it at MIPTV in Cannes (9-12 April 2018). Lithuania’s Kinomind Films and Finland and Ireland’s Ink and Light are currently developing a Happy Go Hopscotch series.
Kinomind Films and Meta Media Entertainment is delighted to announce that their new Christmas special Hopscotch and the Christmas Tree has been greenlit and will be delivered in time for a Christmas 2018 broadcast.
SKOPJE: Macedonian Film Agency announced a decision on 16 March 2018 to financially boost 16 festivals according to the announced Call for financing projects of national interest in the film industry for organizing domestic festivals and other film manifestations of international character in 2018.
