BERLIN: Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski arrives in Berlin with his Polish Swedish coproduction United States of Love and while early 1990s Poland might have been a rather chaste and Catholic place to the eyes of the outside world there is certainly no shortage of nudity and graphic sexual encounters.

BERLIN: Documentaries seems to be popping up ever more frequently in the main competitions of major A-list festivals and Berlin this year boasts two. Oscar-winning documentary maker Alex Gibney’s Zero Days and Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea are both in the main competition. 

SOFIA: The Bulgarian directed German production Zhaleika by Eliza Petkova won the grand prix of the international competition at the 20th Sofia International Film Festival held 10-20 March in Sofia.  

PRAGUE: The fifth edition of the East Doc Platform held in Prague from 7 to 13 March awarded at its closing ceremony the best of the projects in development participating at East Doc Platform 2016, which will be given further support.

PRAGUE: Jan Prušinovský’s The Snake Brothers/Kobry a Užovky took the top prize for Best Film as well as five other awards at the 23rd edition of Czech Film and Television Academy’s Czech Lions Awards held on Saturday 5 March at the Rudolfinum concert hall in Prague.

BERLIN: The 66th Berlin International Film Festival held from 11-21 February 2016 awarded its top prize the Golden Bear for Best film to Italian director Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea.

BERLIN: FilmFestival Cottbus and Connecting Cottbus handed out two prizes during its annual Berlinale Brunch held at the Representation Building of the Federal State of Brandenburg in Berlin. Young film and theatre producer Marija Dimitrova from Macedonia was awarded a Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten (GWFF) grant endowed with 4,500 EUR euro to study abroad.

BERLIN: FNE is proud to present the great line-up of films from our region that will be screening in Berlin over the next ten days. Be prepared for some exciting discoveries. See below.

Film New Europe would like to thank all its sponsors, supporters and readers and to wish them a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

In 2015 the Film New Europe Association welcomed new board members, Magdalena Sroka the director of the Polish Film Institute and Elma Tataragić, the General Secretary of the Bosnian Filmmakers Association.

Keep on Filming in 2016!

TALLINN: The 19th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival awarded its top prize to the South Korean film Sado by director Lee Joon-ik with the director and producer picking up an award of 10 000 EUR.