CANNES: Director Michal Haneke's Amour won the top prize, the Palme d'Or, at this year 65^th Cannes Film Festival making the Austrian director only the second director in history to win the top prize twice. Haneke also won the Palme D'Or for his film The White Ribbon in 2009

{mosimage}CANNES: Cypriot Greek coproduction Fish n' Chips is already a Cyprus success story. The film is set top open in Cyprus just after Cannes and has already opened theatrically in Greece earlier this year. Directed by Cypriot born director Elias Dementriou and produced by Monica Nicolaidou the film has also scored a hit on the international festival circuit screening in Montreal, Sofia and Montpelier festivals.

{mosimage}CANNES: Latvian scriptwriter Martins Slisans won the Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award for the Best Eastern and Central European Script of this year's edition. The award includes a 10 000 EUR award sponsored by Polish pubcaster TVP (www.tvp.pl).

FNE at Cannes IFF 2012: FNE met up on the terrace of Carlton for an exclusive session with Hungarian Film Commissioner Andy Vajna together with Agnes Havas head of the Hungarian Film Fund and Csaba Bereczki head of international relations at the Fund.

CANNES: Estonia recently established a new film commission to attract productions to the country. According to the commission's helmer Martin Aadamsoo the Estonians plan to put a different twist on this by also establishing Estonia as a high end post production center that will attract AV business to the country not only to shoot but to make the whole production process in Estonia.

{mosimage}GDYNIA: Agnieszka Holland's Oscar nominated In Darkness swept most of the major prizes at the 37 Gdynia Polish Film Festival (wwwfpff.pl ) winning a Golden Lion for Best Film, as well the awards for best director, best cinematography and best actor and best actress for Agnieszka Grochowska and Robert Więckiewicz.

WARSAW: FNE will once again be supported by the European Union’s MEDIA programme making this the fifth year the EU funding body has endorsed the work of FNE by granting us financial support.

{mosimage}ISTANBUL: Two Turkish films dominated the National Competition at this year’s 31st Istanbul Film Festival (www.iksv.org). Beyond the Hill directed by Emin Alper won the Golden Tulip for best film, best actress, best screenplay as well as the international film critic’s FIPRESCI award for best film in the National Competition. Inside directed by Zeki Demirkubuz won prizes for best director, best actor, best cinematography, best editing, and the People’s Choice audience award. Also making a strong showing was The Trace directed by M Tayfur Aydin with a Special Jury Prix and a best music award.

ISTANBUL: Festival on Wheels team Ahmet Boyacicoglu and Basak Emre have moved into film production with Inside directed by Zeki Demirkubiz which had its world premier at Istanbul FF (www.iskv.org).

ISTANBUL: Audiences and foreign guests at the 31 Istanbul International Film Festival (www.iksv.org) now underway have the chance to see the latest in new Turkish films in the National Competition with 12 new titles including director Umit Unal's The Pomegranate and Zeki Demirkubuz's new Inside. There are also another five new titles screening Out of Competition and another 10 titles in the New Turkish Cinema section and 12 new Turkish docs.