CANNES: The European Parliament has voted in favour of a resolution calling for the exclusion of cultural and audiovisual services from the negotiating mandate for a free trade agreement between the US and the EU following strong protests in Cannes and across Europe from the audiovisual sector. The resolution was carried by a large majority.

CANNES: The Minister of Culture of the Republic of Croatia Andrea Zlatar Violić, and Minister of Culture of the French Republic Aurélie Filippetti signed the Coproduction Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Government of the French Republic during Cannes.

CANNES: The prestigious Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award for the Best Eastern and Central European Script was awarded to Polish scriptwriting duo Bartosz Konopka and Przemyslaw Nowakowski for their screenplay The Mute at a gala ceremony in Cannes last night. 

CANNES: Thousands of audiovisual industry professionals have called on the European Commission to take film funding off the table in EU US trade negotiation talks warning the measures threaten the survival of the industry.

CANNES: The Malta based Film Corporation has become one of the leaders in European production services during its five short years of operation in Malta with over a dozen international productions serviced from Germany, Russia, Japan, France and the UK.   

CANNES: The Malta based Film Corporation has become one of the leaders in European production services during its five short years of operation in Malta with over a dozen international productions serviced from Germany, Russia, Japan, France and the UK.   

WARSAW: The Cannes Film Festival announced its official selection in Paris yesterday with films from Central and Eastern Europe scoring slots only in the Short Film and Cinefondation sections after most top talent from the region was already nabbed by the Berlinnale earlier this year.

ISTANBUL: The 32nd Istanbul Film Festival held from 30 March to 14 April 2013 finished last night after a tumultuous two weeks that saw protests over the closure of the historic Emek Cinema theatre that included festival guests Costa-Gavras and Mike Newell as well as the arrest of Turkish film critic Berke Gol.

BERLIN: Director Steven Soderbergh has said this will be his last film and after 27 films including five of them that screened in Berlin the American director can truly be called a master of the cinema.   Side Effects is not his greatest work but it is a masterly and complex psychological thriller in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock that does not waste a frame or a minute of screen time in telling its story.

BERLIN: Hollywood star Matt Damon produced, scripted and plays the lead role in Promised Land and was originally planning to direct Promised Land.  But a busy schedule led Damon to call Gus Van Sant to direct this film about small town America and American identity in the face of the greed of big business.