COTTBUS: Romanian dynamic production company Mandragora and rising director Marian Crisan pitched Crisan’s political black comedy Berliner at connecting cottbus on 10 November 2016.

COTTBUS: Cottbus has been working aggressively toward strengthening the German-Polish connection in the film industry. This year one example of that partnership is the connecting cottbus project Heirs.

COTTBUS: Bulgarian director Iglika Triffonova, who attended the 26th Cottbus Film Festival, running through 13 November 2016, for the competition screening of her film The Prosecutor, the Defender, the Father and His Son, told FNE she is beginning work on a film set prior to WWI.

COTTBUS: Kirsten Niehuus of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg was the surprise winner of the Cottbus Film Festival’s Lubina award at the festival’s opening night, 8 November 2016.

KARLOVY VARY: Czech box office reached an all-time high in 2015, and attendance showed impressive growth, but Czech films registered their lowest market share since 2002.

KARLOVY VARY: The introduction of Czech film incentives and subsequent increases are impacting film production at Prague’s iconic Barrandov film studios.

KARLOVY VARY: Barrandov film studio will return to its roots as a producer of original production with a biopic on Milos Havel, the founder of Barrandov and the uncle of the Czech President Vaclav Havel. The film is the first original Barrandov production in seven years.

KARLOVY VARY: Connecting Cottbus, the East-West coproduction platform, is “bringing in a fresh, new team ,” programme director Rebekka Garrido told FNE, and moving the pitching forum to the historic Stadthaus building in Cottbus’s historic old town.

KARLOVY VARY: The heavy hitters from four leading training programmes available to CEE filmmakers and professionals unveiled an array of new opportunities in a presentation held on 4 July 2016 at the Karlovy Vary IFF. 

KARLOVY VARY: Frantisek Daniel, aka Frank Daniel, arguably the most influential and one of the least known Czech filmmakers of all time, will finally get the recognition his many acolytes feel is his due, with the announcement of the launch of the Frank Daniel Institute at Utah Valley University, not far from the Sundance Institute – one of the many film training programmes Daniel headed after leaving his post as Dean of FAMU, where he taught the Czech New Wave generation.