WestEnd Films has just released the international trailer of Rezo Gigineishvili’s Hostages, which received rave reviews at this year’s Berlinale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apVZcaujlGs

WestEnd has sold the rights of HOSTAGES to France (Kinovista - who has released the film yesterday), Scandinavia (Lucky Dogs), Italy (Merlino), Spain (Karma - who will be releasing the film on Sept 1st), Eastern Europe Pay TV (HBO) and China (Jushi).

A moving story of youth, freedom and rebellion, Hostages is based on the true story of a dangerous plot to escape the Soviet Union, as a young couple and their friends seek a life away from their parents and beyond the realms of Soviet control.

The film is produced by Rezo Gigineishvili through NEBO Film Company, Mikhail Fenogenov from Russia, independent Georgian producer Tamara Tatishvili, Vladimer Katcharava through Georgia’s 20 Steps Productions, in association with Ewa Puszczynska (Academy Award Winner Ida) through Poland’s Extreme Emotions and Boris Frumin. Among the film’s crew figures editor Jaroslaw Kaminski (Ida).

The film will soon be screening at the Sarejevo Film Festival, and is also part of the line-ups of the Melbourne Film Festival and New Zealand Film Festival.

WestEnd is handling world sales of the film.

Find out more about the film: http://www.westendfilms.com/screeners/hostages.html

Synopsis
Soviet Georgia, 1983. Preparations for Nika and Ana's wedding are in full swing and it's a big day for both of their elite families. For the newlyweds and their friends, however, the celebrations are in fact part of a cover-up, as they plot an audacious escape from the Soviet Union. They plan to flee their claustrophobic daily lives, discover the free world and break out from their parents' stifling worldview. 

The day after the wedding, Nika and Ana decide to move forward with their riskiest plan yet: hijacking a local flight from Tbilisi to Batumi and forcing it to land in Turkey, the closest country to Georgia that isn't part of the Eastern Block. But as the plane leaves the ground and the pressure quickly rises, nothing goes as planned for these amateur would-be hijackers.

WestEnd Films is a dynamic London-based international sales and feature film financing company. It offers filmmakers finance, production and sales expertise as well as an extensive network of contacts across all sectors of the industry.

In addition to HOSTAGES, WestEnd’s current line-up includes THE BREADWINNER (world premiere at TIFF) by Nora Twomey (co-director of Academy Award nominee THE SECRET OF KELLS) produced by Cartoon Saloon and executive produced by Angelina Jolie, GRACE JONES : BLOODLIGHT AND BAMI by Sophie Fiennes (world premiere at TIFF), FLAMMABLE CHILDREN, a comedy by Stephan Elliott, starring Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce, CLOSE an action-thriller starring Noomi Rapace directed Vicky Jewson, by SERGIO & SERGEI, a comedy by Ernesto Daranas, from the producers of MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, DENMARK a comedy/drama starring Rafe Spall, directed by Adrian Shergold, SERIAL DATER a comedy starring Imogen Poots directed by Jena Friedman, MULES an Icelandic thriller directed by Börkur Sigthorsson and produced by Baltasar Kormákur, SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD, a witty and spirited comedy starring Joe Manganiello, Sasha Lane and Ellar Coltrane, written and directed by critically acclaimed director Stephen Kijak, SAVING MUM a French comedy by Eloise Lang starring Camille Cottin and Miou-Miou, SATURDAY CHURCH a musical by Damon Cardasis, and OLD BOYS a comedy by Toby MacDonald, starring Alex Lawther and Pauline Etienne.

For further information please contact:
WestEnd Films -  +44 (0) 207 494 8300
Or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Baltic View, an established Baltic online cinema space dedicated to promoting Baltic films, will introduce its own award in the framework of First Look in Locarno.  

On August 4-6, Locarno Film Festival will host the 7th edition of First Look, aiming to showcase new films in post-production from a specific territory. This year’s region of focus are the Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 

In the framework of the First Look and in partnership with Noir Lumiere service company, Baltic View will present in Locarno an in-kind award valued 3000 € consisting of DCP production and international promotion, to be presented to 1-3 Baltic films out of the chosen six titles, with most festival and distribution potential.

The promotion is offered in a form of an international cinema event - exclusive one-off promotional cinema events for Baltic films in prime cinemas in the world that are aimed to direct attention to extraordinary audiovisual works from the Baltic states. The award consists of three screenings in European capitals, the production of a DCP for the purpose, and its delivery to those three locations. Additionally, Noir Lumiere, the producer of the DCP, is offering the winners a unique opportunity to store their film in online DCP server for one year for free, ready for festival use. 

Baltic View will also take care of the promotion and organisation of the cinema events, to be taking place in assigned locations all over Europe. 

Due to Baltic View’s network of existing and ever expanding partnerships, the events have proven popular and successful, and are a convenient way for strong Baltic titles to get some additional international exposure outside the festival circle. 

Baltic View award will be presented in Locarno on the 6th of August. 

The 12th Tartu Love Film Festival, aka TARTUFF, the biggest open air film festival in the Baltics has announced its full lineup. This year's programme is made up of 13 features and 5 documentaries. 

The feature programme includes Keep the Change directed by Rachel Israel, which won several awards at Karlovy Vary and Tribeca this year; another Tribeca award winner The Divine Order by director Petra Biondina Volpe; the winner of the Un Certain Regard Best Actress Award (Jasmine Trinca) at this year’s Cannes Fortunata by director Sergio Castellitto; the 2016 festival circuit hit Welcome to Norway!, directed by Rune Denstad Langlo and the 2015 Academy Award nominee Tanna, directed by Martin Butler and Bentley Dean. The two classics to be screened are Léon: the Professional (1994) directed by Luc Besson and Moulin Rouge (2001) by Baz Luhrman.

The documentary programme is headed by Matt Tyrnauer’s Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (2016) and the Berlinale Generation Kplus jury Grand Prix winner Becoming Who I Was (2017), directed by Moon Chang-Yong, Jeon Jin.

The Tartu Love Film Festival, aka TARTUFF, which is organised by the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival team, takes place from the 7th until the 12th of August. Tartu, the so-called Southern Capital of Estonia, is the second largest city in the country and is situated on shores of the scenic river Emajõgi.
 
The festival venues include the 1500-seated open air theatre on the Town Hall Square which starts screenings at sunset – 10 pm - and the Athena Theatre where the documentary programme screenings will take place. All screenings are free of charge and more than 90% of the films have English subtitles.
 
The festival, dedicated to films about love in all its colours, forms and manifestations, has a feature and a documentary programme.

The full feature programme lineup:
The Art of Loving. Story of Michalina Wislocka / “Sztuka kochania” - dir Maria Sadowska, Poland, 2017
Bad Lucky Goat – dir Samir Oliveros, Colombia, 2017
Being Charlie - dir Rob Reiner, USA, 2015
The Divine Order / Die göttliche Ordnung – dir Petra Biondina Volpe, Switzerland, 2017
Fortunata – dir Sergio Castellitto, Italy, 2017
Keep the Change – dir Rachel Israel, USA, 2017
Léon: the Professional / Léon – dir Luc Besson, France, 1994
Moulin Rouge – dir Baz Luhrman, Australia, USA, 2001
Permission – dir Brian Crano, USA, 2017
Rock’n Roll – dir Guillaume Canet, France, 2017
Tanna – dir Martin Butler, Bentley Dean, Australia, 2015
Welcome to Norway! – dir Rune Denstad Langlo, Norway, 2016

+ a children’s film:
Raven the Little Rascal – The Big Race / Der kleine Rabe Socke – das grosse Rennen – dir Sandor Jesse, Ute von Münchow-Pohl, Germany, 2015

The full documentary programme linup:
#SINGLE – dir Andrea Eder, Austria, 2017
Barbecue – dir Matthew Salleh, Australia, 2017
Becoming Who I Was – dir Moon Chang-Yong, Jeon Jin, South Korea, 2017
Citizen Jane: The Battle for the City – dir Matt Tyrnauer, USA, 2016
When Two Worlds Collide – dir Heidi Brandenburg, Mathew Orzel, Peru-USA-UK, 2016

INFORMATION

Find the film schedule here: http://2017.tartuff.ee/en/schedule/
For further inquiries: Hannes Aava, Head of International Communications of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival/ Tartu Love Film Festival - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / +37255529211

Presided over by Mexican director, writer and producer Michel Franco, the Jury of the Competition Programme – Feature Film for the 23rd Sarajevo Film Festival comprises prominent filmmakers, actors and film professionals from five countries.

The jury will determine the winners of the the Heart of Sarajevo Awards, which will be announced on 17 August at the Awards Ceremony at the National Theatre.

The Sarajevo Film Festival is proud to present the Jury of the Competition Programme – Feature Film:

President of the Jury: MICHEL FRANCO, Director/Writer/Producer (Mexico)

MARK ADAMS, Artistic Director of Edinburgh International Film Festival (UK)

GORAN BOGDAN, Actor (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia)

FATMA AL REMAIHI, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Film Institute (Qatar)

MELISA SÖZEN, Actress (Turkey)

Co-organized by the Polish Film Institute, Polish Days is the most important industry event at the T-Mobile New Horizons IFF. Polish Days will take place on August 8-10, 2017 during the 17th T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival (August 3-13, 2017).

We are happy to announce our partners for this year's event.

We will be joined by five film comissions this year: the Wroclaw Film Comission; the Mazovia Warsaw Film Comission; the Łódź Film Comission, which is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Łódź Film Fund; the Krakow Film Comission, a partner of LIM - Less is More - the European platform for project development of limited-budget feature films; and the Podkarpackie Film Commission. 

We will be partnering with EAVE for the second time, which, together with the Polish Film Institute, will provide a grant to a Polish producer and Polish film project in development, which will cover the costs of participation in the prestigious EAVE Producers Workshop in 2018.

Our post-production partners, Coloroffon Film and Aeroplan Studios, will give awards to selected projects in the form of preferential terms for image and sound post-production.

We will also be partnering with the National Audiovisual Institute (FINA), which was established on June 1, 2017 when the National Film Archive merged with the National Audiovisual Institute.

FINA's work involves the collection, cataloging, restoration and sharing of collections and documentary materials related to both Polish and international audiovisual heritage, including film, as well as the co-creation, production, recording and promotion of high-level cultural works for broadcast through public and private media. FINA also conducts activities in the areas of education, cultural promotion and publishing as well as using new technologies (including the Internet) to promote audiovisual culture.

Media partners: Film & TV Kamera, Film Pro and Film New Europe.