PRAGUE: FNE's General Director Anna Franklin met with Czech Minister of Culture Jiri Besser in his office in Prague for an exclusive one on one interview before KVIFF to discuss his views on international and regional cultural cooperation, Czech film and Czech coproductions and the new Czech tax incentives.

MOSCOW: The 33 Moscow International Film Festival (23 June-2 July 2011) closed with Helen Mirren accepting the festivl’s Stanislavsky Award for Lifetime Achievement. Mirren whose real name is Yelena Vasilyevna Mironova is half Russian. She accepted the award from Channel One helmer Konstantin Ernst who called Mirren a real queen referring to Mirren’s role as Queen Elizabeth II for which she won the Academy Award. Her film The Debt about the Mossad searching for a Nazi war criminal closed the festival.

MOSCOW: The 33 Moscow International Film Festival finished last night (2 July 2011) with the awarding of the festival’s Golden and Silver George prizes for the following films:

KARLOVY VARY: French films were the third most popular after USA and Czech productions at the Czech box office in 2010. French films accounted for 2.1% of the Czech box office after US films with 60.4% and Czech films with 34.6%. There were a total of 30 French films released in the Czech Republic in 2010 with 289, 394 admissions.

KARLOVY VARY: The Hungarian government has quietly funded at least six new feature films in the last few weeks according the Hungarian daily newspaper Nepszabadsag.
While Hungarian filmmakers continue to wait for settlement of debts owed to them by the now defunct Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation (www.mmka.hu ) for 2010 film projects the Ministry of Ministry of National Resources (www.kormany.hu/en ) under the department of Geza Szocs, Hungarian State Secretary for Culture, has paid out 140 million forints to finish Istvan Szabo’s long awaited new film The Door. Istvan Szabo is president of the main jury in Karlovy Vary this year.

KARLOVY VARY: The 46th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (www.kviff.com) opened with a lifetime achievement award for Dame Judi Dench at the opening ceremony 1 July 2011. The much awarded British actress accepted the festival's Crystal Globe from fest helmer Jiri Bartoska with a moving speech and received a standing ovation from the audience followed by the screening of her latest film Jane Eyre directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga Dench said she had been in the Czech Republic many times as she had friends living in Prague. Fukunaga was in Karlovy Vary to present the film.

MOSCOW: MIFF`s Russian film programme will present over 150 films this year screening all the recent features, docs and animation as well as a selection of shorts. For most foreigners attending the festival the Russian programme is the reason that they are here. Russian film critic Irina Pavlova has been the director of the Russian programme for 9 (2003-2011) years.

MOSCOW: Moscow International Film Festival (http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/eng/) programme director Kirill Razalogov cannot be accused of lacking ambition. He presides this year over a programme that can only be described as vast in both the number of films and its diversity. Over 400 films are being screened at this year's festival from every category of the audiovisual spectrum. Razlogov is one of Russia's leading film critics and cultural figures.

PRAGUE: The 46^th Karlvoy Vary International Film Festival has announced its competition lineup. The festival (1-9 July 2011 http://www.kviff.com/) will screen a total of 179 feature films with 21 world premiers, 24 international and 17 European premieres. 54 films are debuts.

GDYNIA: Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing won the Golden Lion for best feature film the 36^th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia (6-11 June 2011 www.fpff.pl) as well as scoring four other prizes. The film also won the prize for best directing as well as best cinematography, best editing and best music. Essential Killing had already won the Special Jury Prize and the Best Actor Award for Vincent Gallo in Venice IFF last year.The almost dialogue-less film is about a man who escapes from extraordinary rendition in the Afghan war.