BUCHAREST: The first VR cinema in Romania and only the second in Europe will open in Bucharest on 13 June 2017. The launch follows an initiative that started with the opening of the International Center for Research and Education in Innovative Creative Technologies – CINETic in 2016 and continued with a special Romanian VR programme presented at the Romanian pavilion at Cannes 2017.

TIMIȘOARA: Ceau Cinema!, an independent film festival from the Romanian city of Timisoara and screening European productions, had the innovative idea of launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise additional funding.

SKOPJE: Macedonia, Albania and Croatia had their first ever day-and-date release with the award-winning Dutch children's film Little Gangster by Arne Toonen. On 20 April 2017 it was released simultaneously in the cinemas and available on video on demand (VOD) through Cutaway, Tirana Film Institute and Radar.

This ground breaking report on European cinemas by Agnès Salson and Mikael Arnal is now also available in English. Click HERE.

CANNES: The European Audiovisual Observatory will host a conference on the growing importance of VoD at its Cannes conference on 20 May 2017.

FNE asked Adam Siroky about new trends in 360 degrees video and virtual reality and the impact of these new technologies on the documentary industry.  Široký is a ventuz designer, data integrator, software developer, VJ XLAB. The Prague based XLAB specializes in 360 degrees video and VR.

Innovation specialist Peeter Nieler will be lecturing on new trends in innovation and how to harness innovation to build audiences at the Let’s CEE Film Festival in Vienna on 23 March. This is the first in a series of FNE AV Innovation Events under the umbrella of the FNE AV Innovation Team made up of Europe’s top specialists in Innovation to define what is cutting edge in the AV sector with a special emphasis on how innovation in the AV sector can provide the engine the EU’s smaller countries need to meet the challenges facing the industry today.

FNE AV Innovation: Ivan Hronec CEO of Film Europe Media Company tells us about how his company has come up with an innovative way to increase audiences for European films by integrating theatrical, TV and VOD platforms. Hronec also looks ahead to the Digital Single Market and how to navigate in the DSM future.

TALLINN: With big multinational content giants increasingly dominating Europe’s audiovisual markets, many wonder in 2017 what the continent has been lacking in order to produce a mighty competitor to the Hollywood studios as well as the big three of of Apple, Google, Amazon and Netflix that have taken the majority of Europe’s viewers.

PRAGUE: Welcome to the second part of the guide for transmedia storytelling in the entertainment industry. I would like to share my experience of building a transmedia project from its beginning. Let’s look closely on the first steps, which might bring some ideas to the other filmmakers and transmedia producers in their own project development.

TALLINN: DIGIX is the Baltic States’ first creative industries incubator for startups working with the elusive and fast developing field of digital media. Set up in 2015, DIGIX is located on the premises of the Baltic Film and Media School, staying close to upcoming talent in the audiovisual, media, games and e-learning fields.