PRAGUE: Michal Bregant, General Director of the newly revitalized Czech National Film Archives (NFA) presided over a 70th anniversary celebration that attracted some of the top film industry heads.

BUDAPEST: Houdini, a four-hour miniseries starring Adrien Brody, began filming in Budapest on 14 October 2013.

PRAGUE: Twelve documentaries representing 15 countries stretching from Estonia to Croatia and from the U.K. to Armenia have been selected for the CEE competition section Between the Seas at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, running 24-29 October 2013.

PRAGUE: After a 23 year run, NATPE Budapest (formerly DISCOP Budapest) will move the CEE region’s leading TV market to Prague under the new name NATPE Europe.

PRAGUE: From its modest yet aspirational beginnings in 1999, Connecting Cottbus has emerged as the leading pitching platform for CEE filmmakers, with numbers to back up this claim.

PRAGUE: Jiri Menzel’s Don Juan story Womanizer took the top spot on the Czech box office, while director Milan Cieslar’s English language bow Colette remained in the top ten after opening in first place at the beginning of September 2013.

PRAGUE: The vibrant Czech documentary scene was in evidence at a presentation of ten documentary works-in-progress premiering in the 2013-2014 season, a lead-up to the main event of the year: the Jihlava IDFF www.dokument-festival.com.

PRAGUE: The second edition of the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival’s Emerging Producers project has named 19 European participants. Central European participants come from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic (with two producers attending), Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

BRATISLAVA: The Slovak Audiovisual Fund (www.avf.sk) has taken the lead in digitalizing the country’s small cinemas.

PRAGUE: A sign of the renewed vigour of Croatia’s national cinema, the 60th Pula IFF (www.pulafilmfest.hr) will screen 14 feature films in the national programme, which runs 20-27 July 2013.