VENICE: Film New Europe celebrated European audiovisual innovation with a cocktail in the garden of the Venice VR Island on Sunday. FNE and several members of its team invited participants and visitors to join them for a glass of prosecco and to learn more about how FNE is promoting AV innovation on its online platform www.filmneweurope.com

VENICE: FNE spoke to Michal Bregant, Director of Czech National Film Archives, about the selection of Extase (Czechoslovakia, 1934) directed by Gustav Machaty for Venice Classics section of this year’s festival and why there is an increasing interest in restored classics at international film festivals.

FNE asked Pascal Diot what is new this year at the Venice Production Bridge and how it has evolved since its inception as well as what are some of the high profile projects participating from filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe.

American director Brady Corbet arrives in Venice in competition with his second film Vox Luxwhich is a more mature work in the same genre as his first film The Childhood of a Leader. Corbet is interested in examining key events that define their era using fictional characters the just could be modelled on unnamed real life historical figures that we already know.

American indie director Rick Alverson has scored a slot in the Venice competition lineup with his fifth and most ambitious film The Mountain.  His earlier offbeat dark comedies Entertainmentand The Comedy established his reputation as a Sundance regular who did not hesitate to challenge audiences with difficult but nonetheless visually beautiful films.

Director Damien Chazelle makes a quantum shift with his Venice competition entry First Manafter his hugely successful, light-hearted homage to the Hollywood musical La La Land. 

The Coen brothers have scored a slot in the main Venice Film Festival competition with The Ballad of Buster Scruggs which despite beginning life as a Netflix series is slated for theatrical release after the festival. 

VENICE: Czech/Ukrainian/Slovak coproduction The Painted Bird by Václav Marhoul has been selected for the Venezia 76 Competition of the Venice International Film Festival of the Biennale di Venezia. Several other films from Central and Eastern Europe will screen in different sections of the festival that will take place from 28 August to 7 September 2019.

KARLOVY VARY: The Bulgarian film The Father / Bashtata (Bulgaria, Greece) directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov took home the Crystal Globe and a cash prize of 25, 000 USD at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, held from 28 June to 6 July in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary.

FNE spoke to Karlovy Vary jury member and Austrian director Andreas Horvath and Polish actress Patrycja Planik about Lillian, a film based on the true story of a Russian woman walking across America to get home to Russia. The film is screening out of competition in KVIFF 2019.