As a result of the strong interest in the co-production forum, the deadline has been extended to November 7 to allow as many producers as possible to submit their project.
The upcoming edition of WEMW (January 21-23, 2018) will launch a new East & West double focus and will bring together over 400 film professionals from more than 30 countries and, in particular, from the 2018 spotlight regions: the Nordic Countries* and South East Europe**.
Producers from Europe, Canada, USA and Latin America are eligible to apply and WEMW will select 20 projects in development with co-production or co-financing potential either with the Nordic Countries, South East Europe or Italy. Projects can be long feature fiction films or documentaries, with preferably 15% of the total budget already in place.
Along with the EAVE scholarship, the Flow Postproduction Award, the EWA – European Women’s Audiovisual Network Award (cash prize for the best female director) and the PRODUCERS NETWORK Prize, all selected projects will compete forthe brand new FILM CENTER SERBIA Development Award, a 3.000 EUR grant for the best project.
 
* Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
** Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia
 
More information on the submission process and the event are available at www.wemw.it
 
WEMW is organized by the FVG Audiovisual Fund and the Trieste Film Festival in collaboration withEAVE, Maia Workshops, Creative Europe Desk Italy, EURIMAGES, and the support of Creative Europe/MEDIA Programme, MiBACT - Direzione Generale per il Cinema, CEI - Central European Initiative and the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

 

Animated and young audience productions funded by the Polish Film Institute in the 3rd session of 2017

 

In a collective action, EFP (European Film Promotion) highlights European cinema at the upcoming American Film Market (November 1 – 8), by granting FILM SALES SUPPORT(FSS) for the promotion and marketing of 33 European films totalling more than €120.000, by running the EUROPE! UMBRELLA for European world sales and production companies and by organising screenings for European Oscar­ submissions. With its annual European cocktail, EFP kicks off with a tailor-made event for business and networking during the AFM, welcoming buyers, sales agents and European filmmakers who take part in the EFP Oscar­ screenings. EFP’s joint initiatives are supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and the participating EFP member organisations.

This year the EUROPE! UMBRELLA at AFM’s headquarter, the Loews Hotel, welcomes 16 sales companies and producers from 12 European countries. Their line-ups offer more than 50 productions, including the Serbian Oscar entry REQUIEM FOR MRS. J. by Bojan Vuletić, which will be represented by the production company SEE Film Pro and sales company Soul Food and the Latvian Oscar entry THE CHRONICLES OF MELANIE by Viestur Kairish handled by EastWest Filmdistribution. Both films are part of the EFP OSCAR SCREENINGS taking place at the Dick Clark Screening Room.

Since 2009, EFP has been granting FSS to European world sales companies to help boost sales to North America at the AFM. This year, 33 films from 11 European countries are benefiting from EFP’s marketing initiative. Three of the films are receiving FSS Slate Funding, covering promotion campaigns for films starting off at the Toronto 

 

 

The call for MIDPOINT Feature Launch is open – for writers, directors and producers of narrative storytelling. Deadline tomorrow Thursday October 26.

Next year's edition has been expanded to become a year-long platform with two residential workshops, a project showcase at Karlovy Vary IFF and a networking spotlight at When East Meets West – all selected and presented in collaboration with the involved partners.

Who can apply

Teams of writers, directors and producers. The training platform is for emerging talents, meaning 1st and 2nd feature filmmakers.

Dates and venues

1. Feature Launch Workshop 1 @ EASTWEEK – Trieste FF, Italy – January 20 – 26, 2018

2. Feature Launch Workshop 2 @ MIDPOINT – in collaboration with Film Center Serbia, Serbia – April 27 – May 4, 2018

3. Project Showcase with Industry experts @ KVIFF – in collaboration with Karlovy Vary IFF, Czech Republic – July 2018

4. Feature Launch Spotlight @ WEMW – in collaboration with When East Meets West (during Trieste FF) – January 2019

Apply now!

If you have any questions regarding your application you are very welcome to get in touch with Program Coordinator, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

MIDPOINT Feature Launch is realized in collaboration with Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Trieste Film Festival, When East Meets West, Film Center Serbia, COCO – Connecting Cottbus and CineMart.

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 MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2018 – deadline tomorrow

The call for MIDPOINT Feature Launch is open – for writers, directors and producers of narrative storytelling. Deadline tomorrow Thursday October 26.Next year's edition has been expanded to become a year-long platform with two residential workshops, a project showcase at Karlovy Vary IFF and a networking spotlight at When East Meets West – all selected and presented in collaboration with the involved partners.Who can applyTeams of writers, directors and producers. The training platform is for emerging talents, meaning 1st and 2nd feature filmmakers.Dates and venues1. Feature Launch Workshop 1 @ EASTWEEK – Trieste FF, Italy – January 20 – 26, 20182. Feature Launch Workshop 2 @ MIDPOINT – in collaboration with Film Center Serbia, Serbia – April 27 – May 4, 20183. Project Showcase with Industry experts @ KVIFF – in collaboration with Karlovy Vary IFF, Czech Republic – July 20184. Feature Launch Spotlight @ WEMW – in collaboration with When East Meets West (during Trieste FF) – January 2019Apply now!If you have any questions regarding your application you are very welcome to get in touch with Program Coordinator, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..MIDPOINT Feature Launch is realized in collaboration with Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Trieste Film Festival, When East Meets West, Film Center Serbia, COCO – Connecting Cottbus and CineMart.

MIDPOINT Shorts 2018 – deadline tomorrow

A professional project development program open to creative teams of writers, directors and producers. Within two residential workshops the participants get to develop their script as well as prepare the production and promotional aspects of the projects. The feedback format is based on one-to-one tutoring as well as group feedback.Dates and venuesWORKSHOP 1 / Feature Launch Workshop 1 @ EASTWEEK / January 20 – 26, 2018 – in collaboration with Trieste FF / ItalyWORKSHOP 2 / Feature Launch Workshop 2 @ MIDPOINT / April 27 – May 4, 2018 – in collaboration with Film Center Serbia / Serbia
Apply now!

Interview with WEMW's Alessandro Gropplero about FL18

"We look at the needs of each project and team, and we work all year around to meet these needs – and in the end to strengthen the participants' skills to break through the market." Alessandro Gropplero, MIDPOINT's partner from When East Meets West, here tells about what he sees as the new advantages of the expanded Feature Launch program – and what's in it for future participants.Read the interview here.

MIDPOINT Alumni successes 

Here are some of the latest successes of MIDPOINT participants:OUTSIDE by Michal Hogenauer (Czech Republic/Latvia/Netherlands) receives Eurimages support (120,000 EUR) 
– MIDPOINT Intensive CZ 2014 AlumnusOPEN DOOR by Florenc Papas (Albania/Macedonia) receives Eurimages support  (45,000 EUR) 
– MIDPOINT Intensive @ KVIFF 2016 Alumnus 

 

The already 19th edition of the Bratislava International Film Festival, which will take place from 9 to 16 November, will bring a new perspective on the art of film acting, new local releases in their film premieres as well as award-winning hits from festivals around the world. The main faces of the festival will be the remarkable star actor Jean-Marc Barr and the award-winning Canadian director Denis Côté.

The visual communication of the Bratislava International Film Festival is traditionally based on its current main theme, which also has its own special section in the festival programme. This year’s main theme is the art of film acting. The idea and execution of the festival spot was entrusted to the director Martin Hasák, who was inspired by joining the old and the new, the classic and the technical - subjects also included in Bratislava IFF’s programme. The seemingly simple single-shot spot hides a surprise, related to the notions of film illusion and special-effectstechnology as a backdrop to the iconic motif of a kiss on screen.

The 19th edition of the Bratislava IFF will ceremonially open with Requiem for Mrs. J. (J. Rekvijem za gospođu, 2017) by the Serbian director and one of the members of the Fiction Competition juryBojan Vuletić. This tragicomedy with a successful festival career tells the story of an unemployed widow, meticulously preparing for her suicide. The film rests on the masterly acting performance of Mirjana Karanović. The survey section Cinema Now, comprising a selection of festival hits and highly anticipated new releases, will also feature the Indian film Sexy Durga (2017), which won the Hivos Tiger Award at this year's festival in Rotterdam. This road movie about two lovers wandering the southern Indian province of Kerala is a great improvisation as well as a fascinating reflection on the contemporary India. The Chronicles of Melanie (Melānijas hronika, 2016) tells a story unravelling during the 1940’s Soviet occupation of Latvia, inspired by true life events of the journalist Melānija Vanaga. The film directed by Viesturs Kairišs is the Latvian candidate for anOscar. Another film featured in the section is the Slovak premiere of a new release from the all- star French director François Ozon called Double lover (L’amant double, 2017). The titillating erotic thriller toys with a secret and a blurred line between expectations and reality. A Ciambra (2017) directed by Jonas Carpignano is the Italian candidate for an Oscar as well as one of the top ten nominees for this year's LUX Prize. The story revolves around a teenage Romani boy Pio, who must quickly become a man in order to support his family.

One of the traditional festival sections Made in Slovakia presents the local and international audience with several attractive new local releases, many of them in their Slovak premiere. An anticipated documentary film, which will enter the current local film scene by its premiere at the Bratislava IFF, is a portrait of a recently late Slovak big beat icon Varga. The young director SonyaMaletzová met and started filming Marián Varga towards the end of his life. Through a sophisticated montage of archival records, the film condenses Varga’s life and career decades into musical numbers, where one track echoes in interpretations from different periods. His mortal frame visibly changes along with his musical style and temperament. However, somewhere beneath, Varga remains preciously unchanging and artistically as well as humanly consistent.

Another premiere to look forward to is the final part of Jan Hřebejk’s and Petr Jarchovský’s trilogyGarden store: Suitor (Zahradnictví: Nápadník, 2017) This time, it is a story of love, exposing the quiet war between parents and their children, affected by the war and the communist coup d'état. Suitor is a bird's-eye-view portrayal of the sharp dividing line between the pre- and post-wargenerations. They each have their own vision of happiness and therefore tread their own paths to reach it.

The section will also present a controversial portrait of a “velvet neo-Nazi”, The White World According to Daliborek (Svět podle Daliborka, 2017), by the Czech director Vít Klusák. The film was realised partially thanks to a co-production with Slovakia, especially through a significant creative input of the composer Vladimír Godár, whose music tinted the grotesque images of Dalibor’s everyday life a with a colour of human tragedy.

The Made in Slovakia section will traditionally comprise a selection of films made by the students of the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica. This year the audience should not miss the internationally successful student films noticed by some of the biggest world festivals. Atlantis, 2003 (Atlantída,2003, 2017) directed by Michal Blaško appeared in the student competition of the Cinéfondation film festival in Cannes and Magic Moments (2017) by Martina Buchelová made it to the Short Cuts competition section at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The list of legendary Slovak actors currently featuring Ladislav Chudík, Mária Kráľovičová, Jozef Adamovič, Štefan Kvietik, Eva Krížiková, Ivan Palúch, Emília Vášaryová and Martin Huba, whose memorial tiles are already embedded in the Bratislava Film Walk of Fame, will include the name of yet another outstanding actress – Božidara Turzonovová. This year's laureate of the award for lifetime artistic creation and holder of a Film Walk of Fame memorial tile will personally introduce the film Penelope (Penelopa, 1977) directed by Štefan Uher, in which she played the lead role.

This year’s Lexicon section will shed some light on the specifics, history and future of acting for film, starting with the perfect acting opposites of silent slapstick comedy – Chaplin and Keaton – and ending with virtual actors in the era of 3D cinema. The section will feature two films from the silent era, The Floorwalker (1916) and One Week (1920), followed by the breakthrough A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), whose legendary lead star Marlon Brando uses the so-calledmethod acting. The history of the Slovak cinema will be represented by the remarkable film Our Daily Life (Deň náš každodenný, 1969), interesting by the way it works with non-actors. The section’s highlight is a study of a consuming physical and psychological transformation of an actress who gradually merges with her character Kate Plays Christine (2016). The film directed by the American filmmaker Robert Greene is the winner of last year’s Special Jury Prize for the best screenplay in the category of documentary films at the Sundance Film Festival.

The 19th edition of the Bratislava International Film Festival will welcome one of the most outstanding actors on the current European acting scene, Jean-Marc Barr, who has received world recognition thanks to his cooperation with the controversial Danish director Lars von Trier, especially as the star of Luc Besson’s cult film The Big Blue (Le grand bleu, 1988). In Bratislava, Jean-Marc Barr will receive the festival’s own Award for Artistic Excellence in World Cinema as well as personally introduce his latest film Grain (Bugday, 2017), directed by the renowned Turkish filmmaker Semih Kaplanoğlu and often likened to Tarkovsky’s Stalker.

Another big name to attend the festival is the star of the North American independent film, the Canadian Denis Côté. The works of the 43-year-old Canadian director and former film critic with images from Eisenstein's Ten Days that Shook the World tattooed on his back, are characteristic by their blending of fiction and documentary methods, as well as things left unsaid and secrets. The highlight of the profile section will be represented by the Slovak premiere of Côté’s latest film A Skin so Soft (Ta peau si lisse, 2017) about professional strongmen and bodybuilders.

The events accompanying the main festival programme will include a number of great musical evenings, thought-provoking discussions and masterclasses of this year’s main festival faces Jean- Marc Barr and Denis Côté. The theme of acting will also sound throughout the lecture of Ladislav Dedík, the founder of Studio 727 post-production company, who will talk about the issue of the digital actor, motion-capture technology and full-body scan, linked to the future of film acting in the era of computer generated and special effects films and video games.

The screenings of the 19th edition of Bratislava IFF will take place in two screening rooms of Kino Lumière, in Kino Mladosť and Kino Nostalgia. For the first time, the festival programme will step out of the capital and appear in the cities around Bratislava. Selected films will be screened in the cinemas in Modra, Senec and Malacky. This year again, the official festival café is Gorila.sk Urban Space. Apart from its pleasant atmosphere, the visitors will have a chance to enjoy special screenings and some of the festival’s accompanying events. The popular Bratislava club Fuga – Space for the missing culture will hosts several great concerts and music parties.

For the latest updates on the programme of the 19th Bratislava International Film Festival, please visit our official website at www.bratislavaiff.sk or our official Facebook account at www.facebook.com/bratislavaiff.

19th BRATISLAVA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
November 9 – 16, 2017
Kino Lumière, Kino Mladosť, Kino Nostalgia, Gorila.sk Urban SpaceKino Mier Senec, Kino Záhoran Malacky, Kino MIER Modra
Main Organiser: Partners ProductionThe International Film Festival is held under the auspices of Marek Maďarič, Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic
The Festival is held with the generous financial support of Slovak Audiovisual Fund.
Main Partners: Slovenská elektrizačná prenosová sústava, KiK textil a Non-Food,Transpetrol, innogy Slovensko

 

 

When we hear about production design, quite often what we imagine is physical construction of various types of structures, adapting existing buildings to a specific time period, as well as interior decoration. Simply put, creating the optimal conditions for the cast and crew to shoot the film. But the profession of a production designer is much more complicated than that, it basically consists of controlling every element of a given set, from choosing the suitable props and arranging them accordingly, to considering colors, shapes, textures, etc. Hence the production designers are one of the most important collaborators of cinematographers, both during pre-production period and on set. Together with them and the director they create plausible, physical and virtual, worlds of the past, the present, or the future, while bringing to life what existed before only on the pages of a screenplay.

Thus, production designers have a significant impact on what we see on screen and how we watch films. Throughout the years Camerimage Festival awarded many distinguished members of this profession: John Myhre (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha), Dante Ferretti (Interview with a Vampire, The Aviator), Lilly Kilvert(Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai), Arthur Max (Se7en, Gladiator), Allan Starski (Schindler’s List, The Pianist), Stuart Craig (Gandhi, Harry Potter film series), Jack Fisk (The Thin Red Line, There Will Be Blood), Rick Carter (Jurassic Park, Avatar), Jeannine Oppewall (L.A. Confidential, Pleasantville), Eve Stewart(The King’s Speech, Les Misérables) and Dennis Gassner (Skyfall, Blade Runner 2049).

It gives us great pleasure to announce that Adam Stockhausen will be the recipient of the Award to Production Designer with Unique Visual Sensitivity of the anniversary 25th edition of Camerimage.

Stockhausen’s career is still relatively short – he debuted in 2008 with Mira Nair-directed segment of an anthology film 8, previously learning the ropes as assistant art director on Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe, and art director on Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York and Kevin Macdonald’s State of Play, among many other – but he was already able to achieve great success in the world of production design. For his work on Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest HotelStockhausen received Academy Award®, he was nominated two more times, for Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave and Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies.

Stockhausen recently collaborated again with all three directors. With Steve McQueen he made Widows, a thriller about four desperate widows who have to enter the world of crime when their husbands are killed during a heist. Together with Wes Anderson he made Isle of Dogs, a stop-motion animation set in a dystopian world in which a group of outlaw dogs helps a young human boy. On the other hand, for Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi action adventure Ready Player One Stockhausencreated a complex virtual world where anything is possible. All three feature films will be released theatrically in 2018.

However, Stockhausen was not thrown in at the deep end, his career as a production designer developed organically. He firstly perfected his craft on sets of various genre films, including Josh Gordon and Will Speck’s The Switch and Wes Craven’s Scream 4, and then made his breakthrough with Wes Anderson’sMoonrise Kingdom. He previously worked with Anderson as supervising art director on The Darjeeling Limited, but showed his full potential only on the set of this tale of two 12-year-olds who escape the police, the overzealous scouts, and the parents.

The film is set on a small island and takes the viewer on a journey through numerous charming locations, a distinct lighthouse, a daredevil tree house, a camp in the middle of wilderness. It became a proof of Stockhausen’s skills in creating unique and believable places, without overshadowing Anderson’s peculiar visual style. It is no wonder that the filmmakers continued their fruitful collaboration with The Grand Budapest Hotel, which has become one of the most beloved and awarded pictures of 2014. For the purposes of the titular hotel’s lobby Stockhausentransformed the interior of an abandoned department store in Görlitz, small German town near the Polish border. At the same time, he proved himself more than capable in working with miniatures, matte paintings and old-fashioned practical effects. The result is both memorable and utterly charming tribute to the everlasting magic of cinema and the people who make it.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was for Stockhausen an interlude of sorts between two projects which were far more demanding in terms of recreating a specific look of the past. For 12 Years a Slave the production designer made the Louisiana sets seem like the exact replicas of the antebellum slave plantations and beautiful mansions built through the suffering of Black Americans. Working in almost 40 degrees Celsius, the production design department recreated the bygone world in such detail that it was a marvel to behold. The same thing happened on the many sets of Bridge of Spies, based-on-a-true-story tale of American lawyer sent to Europe in the peak of ‘Cold War’ to negotiate the release of a pilot shot down over Soviet Russia. The world of 1950s and 1960s that Stockhausen and his crew made was so colorful and intense that it was easy to fall in love with it, as well as so convincing, almost tangible, that it was not difficult to lose yourself in this reality.

By honoring Adam Stockhausen with Camerimage Award to Production Designer with Unique Visual Sensitivity we feel we are honoring not only his present accomplishments in the art of filmmaking, but also the future ones – all the worlds he will help to create in years to come. We are certain that he will repeatedly make us gasp in awe with his passionate approach to details and the imaginative use of film language to create captivating and universal cinematic tales.

 

 

 

THE EUROPEAN COMPETITION

The award for the best film that tests the boundaries of documentary film, in the amount of 15,000 PLN, funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

"21 x Nowy Jork" 
dir. Piotr Stasik

Hypnotizing portrait of loneliness in a big city wrapped in a compelling visual style and breathtaking soundtrack.

The award for the most innovative documentary film language, in the amount of 10,000 PLN, funded by the Polish Film Institute.

 "Zamejen" 
dir. Leo Černic 

A documentary that blends in a very effective, entertaining and innovative way many different visual languages and emotional layers of personal and national history.

The award for the most moving film, in the amount of 10,000 PLN, funded by the Marshal of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship.

"Thea" 
dir. Halvor Nitteberg

Touching story of a day-to-day struggle with a fresh, perfectly executed, cinematic approach.

The award for the best film, in the amount of 11,000 PLN, funded by the President of Szczecin.

ex aequo:

"Melleņu gari" 
dir. Astra Zoldnere

By using a consistent narrative, we are introduced to a world of spirituality that is rooted in the mistery of nature.

and

"Jestem"
dir. Grzegorz Paprzycki

The award for the best film goes to a film which discusses contemporary mindsets between good and bad, rationalism and irrationalism, religion and atheism, proving that there is no black and white way to understand the world.

The award for the most intriguing film, in the form of professional software, funded by the company AVID Poland.

"Protokolle"
dir. Jan Soldat

A film that approaches a thorny subject with honesty, humor and brevity, placing us in between reality and fiction.

 

The Audience Award, in the amount of 1,000 EUR, funded by Polish Television.

"Józio, chodź do domu"
dir. Marcin Chłopaś

TELEFON ART

The award for the best film, in the amount of 2,000 PLN, funded by the President of Szczecin.

"PASSENGER"
dir. Jamie Naqvi

The film interestingly created, presenting the way we can experiment with form. It relates to everyday life we can observe ourselves and druring which we can go back to our own memories.

The award for the most intriguing film, in the form of professional software, funded by the company AVID Poland.

"PASSENGER"
dir. Jamie Naqvi

The film interestingly created, presenting the way we can experiment with form. It relates to everyday life we can observe ourselves and druring which we can go back to our own memories.

POP SEFF

The award for the best music video, in the amount of 2,000 PLN, funded by the President of Szczecin.

"Madness"
dir. Adrian Szczepaniak

The award for the most intriguing music video, in the form of professional software, funded by the company AVID Poland.

"Madness"
dir. Adrian Szczepaniak

 

WEST POMERANIA SHORTS

The award for the most intriguing film, in the form of professional software, funded by the company AVID Poland.

"Once Upon a Line"
dir. Alicja Jasina

and

"Pan Charon"
dir. Mateusz Żegliński

 

The award for the competition winner, in the form of a premiere screening at the Castle Cinema, funded by the Director of the Pomeranian Dukes' Castle.

"Once Upon a Line"
dir. Alicja Jasina

and

"Pan Charon"
dir. Mateusz Żegliński

 

The Shape of Water

 

The Shape of Water is an other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda discover a secret classified experiment. The film stars Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Doug Jones. 

Still from "The Shape of Water,"
courtesy of Imperial - CinePix Sp. z o. o.

 

Apart from the cinematographer Dan Laustsen (Crimson Peak, John Wick: Chapter 2) the creative team behind Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water includes Academy Award® winning composer Alexandre Desplat (Argo, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Primetime Emmy winning editor Sidney Wolinsky (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire), production designer Paul D. Austerberry (30 Days of Night, Pompeii) and costume designer Luis Sequeira (Mama, The Strain).

 Battle of the Sexes 

Battle of the Sexes is based on the true story of the 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs. The films stars the phenomenal Emma Stone (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), La La Land) and Steve Carell (Foxcatcher, The Big Short), as well as Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman, Bill Pullman, Elisabeth Shue and Alan Cumming in supporting parts.

Still from "Battle of the Sexes,"
courtesy of Imperial - CinePix Sp. z o. o.

 

The creative team behind Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Feris's Battle of the Sexesincludes Academy Award® winning cinematographer Linus Sandgren (American Hustle, La La Land), two-time Academy Award® nominated costume designer Mary Zophres (True Grit, La La Land), Academy Award® nominated composer Nicholas Britell (The Big Short, Moonlight), Academy Award® nominated editor Pamela Martin (Little Miss Sunshine, The Fighter), and Academy Award® nominated production designer Judy Becker (Brokeback Mountain, Carol). 

 **********

Both premiere Camerimage screenings will be held on 18th November in Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, and will be a part of Camerimage 2017 Closing Gala, to which you need an invitation. However, subject to availability of free seats, we will admit holders of festival passes. The Shape of Water will have its Polish release on 19th January 2018, while Battle of the Sexes on 8th December 2017. Both films will be distributed by Imperial - CinePix Sp. z o. o.

 

20 projects have been selected for the Co-Production Market taking place on November 29-December 1, 2017, at Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event during Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. The 16 projects in the main selection are accompanied by two projects from Focus Region Flanders, Belgium, and two additional projects in the pilot First Stop Estonia section.
 
For its 16th edition, the Baltic Event rules and regulations were changed to welcome projects from outside our region of Eastern and Central Europe, Scandinavia, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine, with projects from elsewhere welcome to apply if they had plans to co-produce with the afore-mentioned territories. The First Stop Estonia section was added to give a couple of Estonian projects visibility in the early stages of development. The Baltic Event team was thrilled at the record number of submissions.

Starting with the most prevalent topic, Lithuania’s Antigone follows a sister’s quest to find her brother, presumed dead, but actually running a “death ship” across the Mediterranean, Ukraine’s Homeward is a road trip taken by a son and father to bury the elder son’s body in home soil in Crimea, Slovak Krystof (Three Escapes), the only historical piece in the section, portrays the plight of a young postulant who has to cross the border to Bavaria after helping countless other people flee the country, and Sweden'sIbraham’s Journey is a kind of reverse refugee story following a man returning to his native Iraq, told through a series of flashbacks as he, shot for a thief by his own father, lays dying unrecognised by his family.
 
Russia’s Revnost, Denmark’s If the Light Takes Us, one of the projects selected from this year’s EAVE Producers’ Workshop, and Georgia's The Empty House all deal with manipulative, obsessive relationships, with the first seeing a couple’s marriage almost destroyed due to unfounded jealousy, the second following a woman’s journey of liberation from an incestuous relationship with her father, and the last showing the domestic violence through the eyes of a 10-year-old child. Finland’s The Great Bear, which was developed at B’EST EAVE Producers’ Workshop in 2015, is another woman’s liberation story with its heroine being seduced by and then becoming a shaman, and Apartment, Russia, is a chamber piece focusing on the relationship of a couple writing a screenplay about love.
 
Children are the main characters of Ukraine’s The Floor is Lava, the portrait of a teenager exploring her sexuality, Estonia’s The Sleeping Beast, a dark drama of a children’s game taking a dangerous turn,Hope Ever After, another EAVE project and the second from Finland, following the journey of a mother and daughter after the shock death of their husband and father, and one of the focus region projects, The Girl with the Blue Shadow, the coming-of-age story of a young Iranian refugee in Antwerp, told in the key of magic realism.
 
The other project from Flanders, Belgium, is The Ginger Lake, an allegorical film depicting a world in which all red-haired people are considered evil. Baltic Event’s first ever project from Serbia, Trials of Chul, shows a young North Korean football player and his paranoid manager coping with life in the “corrupt” West, allowing the audience a glimpse into the mind-set of the world’s most isolated society. Romania’s The Windseeker is a different kind of a trip taken by a man expecting to die of a fatal illness and learning to live in the process. Czech Restore Point is a sci-fi crime thriller set in 2038, while Latvia’sThe Shift and Estonia’s The Iconpainter, one of the First Stop Estonia projects, are thrillers set in modern times, the first following a taxi driver attempting to make enough money on a New Year’s Eve to pay a long overdue debt, and the other an eccentric artist whose models appear to perish after being portrayed by him. The slate is rounded off by the second First Stop Estonia project, Beyond the Forest, a psychological drama about an Estonian freedom fighter standing on the ruins of his beloved homeland as well as his principles.
 
Striving to provide a springboard for up-and-coming talents alongside established, award-winning filmmakers, Baltic Event has included ten debuts and five second features in this year’s slate with many of the directors having one or more award-winning shorts under their belt – first features: Nariman Aliev and Kateryna Gornostai (Ukraine), Pieter Dirkx (Belgium), Anna Maria Helgadottir (Iceland, with a project presented by Denmark), Oskaras Koršunovas (Lithuania), Robert Hloz (Czech Republic), Reinis Kalvins (Latvia), Emilia Petterberg (Finland), Rati Tsiteladze (Georgia), and Mihai Sofronea (Romania); second features: Bart Van den Bempt (Belgium), Jan Forsström (Finland), Nigina Sayfullaeva (Russia, originally from Tajikistan), Shaker Tahrer (Sweden, originally from Iraq), and Andrus Tuisk (Estonia). The already renowned names on the slate are Bakur Bakuradze (Georgia), Danilo Bećković (Serbia), Zdenek Jirasky (Czech Republic, with a project presented by Slovakia), Jaak Kilmi and Andres Puustusmaa (Estonia).
 
A Eurimages Co-Production Development Award worth 20 000 Euro will be handed out by a jury consisting of Katriel Schory, Executive Director, Israel Film Fund, Israel; Kristina Trapp, Chief Executive, EAVE, Luxembourg; and Elena Kotova, National Representative, Eurimages, Czech Republic.
 
In addition, one project will receive the Screen International Best Pitch Award, offering coverage of the life-cycle of the winning film, and two producers will receive the Cannes Marché du Film Producers’ Network Award for Promising Young Producer with free accreditations to next year’s edition.

Baltic Event Co-Production Market selection 2017:

• Antigone, producer Stasys Baltakis, Film Jam, Lithuania, director Oskaras Koršunovas
• Apartment, producer Julia Mishkinene, Vita Aktiva Production, Russia, director Bakur Bakuradze
• The Empty House, producer Nino Varsimashvili, Artway Film, Georgia, director Rati Tsiteladze
• The Floor is Lava, producers Natalia Libet and Vitaliy Sheremetiev, Esse Production House, Ukraine, director Kateryna Gornostai
• The Great Bear, producers Kaarle Aho and Kai Nordberg, Making Movies Oy, Finland, director Jan Forsström
• Homeward, producers Vladimir Yatsenko and Aleksandra Kostina, Limelite, Ukraine, director Nariman Aliev
• Hope Ever After, producer Ari Matikainen, Kinocompany, Finland, director Emilia Petterberg
• Ibraham's Journey, producer Peter Krupenin, Hob AB, Sweden, director Shaker Tahrer
• If the Light Takes Us, producer Per Damgaard Hansen, Masterplan Pictures, Denmark, director Anna Maria Helgadottir
• Krystof (Three Escapes), producer Marian Urban, Alef Film & Media, Slovakia, co-producer Olga Raitoralova, Fulfilm, Czech Republic, director Zdenek Jirasky
• Restore Point, producer Jan Kallista, Film Kolektiv, Czech Republic, director Robert Hloz
• Revnost, producer Pavel Odynin, Droog Drooga, Russia, director Nigina Sayfullaeva
• The Shift, producer Gints Grube, Mistrus Media, Latvia, director Reinis Kalvins
• The Sleeping Beast, producer Evelin Penttilä, Stellar Film, Estonia, director Jaak Kilmi
• Trials of Chul, producer Marko Paljić, Mali Budo Ltd., Serbia, director Danilo Beckovic
• The Windseeker, producer Adina Dulcu, Libra Film Productions, Romania, director Mihai Sofronea

Focus Region – Flanders, Belgium

• Ginger Lake, producer Bram Sterckx, Caviar, Belgium, director Pieter Dirkx
• The Girl with the Blue Shadow, producer Ellen De Waele, Serendipity Films, Belgium, director Bart Van Den Bempt

First Stop Estonia

• Beyond the Forest, producer Marju Lepp, Filmivabrik, Estonia, director Andrus Tuisk
• The Iconpainter, producer Esko Rips, Nafta Films, Estonia, director Andres Puustusmaa

Supporters and partners of Baltic Event are Creative Europe MEDIA Programme, Eurimages, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Film Institute, Lithuanian Film Center, National Film Centre of Latvia, Finnish Film Foundation, Flanders Image, Film Commission Poland, Mazovia Warsaw Film Commission, Tallink Hotels, Nordic Hotel Forum, Cannes Marche du Film’s Producers’ Network, Post Control, Baltic View, Apollo Music, Storytek Creative Hub, EAVE, Torino Film Lab, Screen International, Film New Europe, Festival Scope, Liviko, Creative Gate, European Regional Development Fund, and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.