GDYNIA:  The Grand Prix of the 40th Gdynia Film Festival for Best Film went to  Malgorzata Szumowska’s Body. Already highly regarded the film was screened earlier in the year to critical acclaim at the Berlin Film Festival where Szumowska won a Silver Bear for Best Director.  

VENICE: The Golden Lion for Best Film at the 72 Venice International Film Festival (2-12 September) went to Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas’ From Afar a story set in the run-down centre of Caracas. 

FNE asked Lucia Recalde Langarcia about the Creative Europe MEDIA programme’s biggest challenges and the looming risk of budget cuts for the programme in 2016.

FNE asked Silvia Costa about the most important issues for the audiovisual sector that the Culture Committee will be discussing and the proposed cuts to the Creative Europe MEDIA 2016 budget.

WARSAW: There is still time to contact your MEP to urge them to support Silvia Costa, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee of Culture and Education who will speak to defend the Creative Europe MEDIA programme against major cuts to its 2016 budget on 15 September before the crucial vote on the cuts in Brussels.

VENICE: Polish director Kuba Czekaj’s Baby Bump will kick off this year’s Sala Web at the  Venice Film Festival.  The festival is offering 15 films from its official Orizzonit and Biennale College programme to the public to watch online worldwide during the festival. 

SARAJEVO: The Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia and Herzegovina has become the newest member of the Film New Europe Association.

VENICE: Polish director Piotr Chrzan has scored a slot in line up for the Official Selection of Venice Days 2015, with his feature film debut Klezmer, a drama set in Poland during the German occupation.  

VENICE: Poland’s Jerzy Skolimowski has scored a slot in the competition line-up of the The 72nd Venice Biennale Film Festival (2-12 September 2015) with the Polish Irish coproduction 11 Minutes.

KARLOVY VARY: The jury of the jubilee 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) which took place 3-11 July 2015 awarded its top prize, the Crystal Globe, to US director Diego Ongaro’s  Bob and the Trees a vérite-style drama about Bob Tarasuk who plays himself in the film about a Massachusetts logger and farmer. The film also won the Ecumenical Jury award.