ISTANBUL EXPRESS, The biggest filmmaking workshop ever organised by the NISI MASA young cinema network will launch next Monday, the 20th of September in Tallinn (Estonia), San Sebastian (Spain) and Turin (Italy).

The documentary competition will present an eclectic selection of ten films, many of them being multi-awarded. ‘DOCS' will open with Cannes' winner Armadillo and close with the humorous success story The World according to Ion B. The jury will be composed of filmmakers Marko Skop and Massoud Bakhshi, and producer Meike Martens.

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* 62 projects for animated series presented at the event, celebrated for the first time in a new EU country

* About 700 participants from 33 countries, including 230 buyers

* Estonia, France and Finland honoured at Cartoon d'Or and Cartoon Tributes

The GRAND OFF World Independent Film Awards has announced the nominated short films that will vie for awards at a glittering ceremony to be held on Saturday 27th November in Warsaw, Poland. Representing some of the very best independent shorts from across the world, 52 films from 32 countries will compete in 9 categories that include Best Fiction, Best Documentary and Best Animation. The aim of GRAND OFF is to draw attention to some of the very best films made by independent filmmakers whilst honouring their work, talent and dedication.

Prague, September 17, 2010 - Czech Film Center will be presenting a special Czech program at the 15th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) to be held at Busan, Rep. of Korea from October 7-15, 2010, Asia's biggest film event. Six new Czech films will be screened at PIFF under the heading "Czech Films Now: Cinema of Liberalism." Czech Film Center will also be on hand for the parallel Asian Film Market (October 10-15, 2010) as a participant in the European Film Promotion booth.

Fred Breinersdorfer, the author of Oscar-nominated "Sophie Scholl" is coming to Poland to participate in the 5^th edition of ScripTeast as a Creative Advisor. Breinersdorfer accepted the invitation of the Independent Film Foundation. During 7 days of the stationary workshop in Sterdyn he will be discussing the scripts submitted by the participating screenwriters on one-on-one meetings.

The Slovak Film and Television Academy (SFTA) decided to nominate the film The Border (orig. Hranica, dir. Jaro Vojtek) as the Slovak entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award 2011. SFTA members selected the film from among 3 titles eligible for the nomination according to the criteria of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:

WARSAW: Representatives of the Małopolska, or Little Poland, Digital Cinema Network gathered to debate The Digital Future of European Cinemas at the European Parliament on 16 September. They presented a pioneer project on the digitalization of Polish cinemas with European funding before the experts on European cinema development and European Committee representatives.

RIGA: Promising film talents from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia and Georgia will take part in a newly launched training program offered by the Riga film forum Arsenals (www.arsenals.lv). Dubbed the Riga Virus: Training for Emerging Cinema Professionals, it will take place 20-23 September, gathering 20 participants working on 10 feature film projects.

Financing and Co-Production Matchmaking for New Feature Film Projects - Submission Deadline on October 28, 2010


Effective immediately and until October 28, 2010, experienced producers from all over the world who are looking for co-production and financing partners may submit their new feature film projects to the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
Promising projects with budgets between two and ten million euros are eligible to apply. They must also be well suited for international co-production and have at least 30% of their financing in place.

At the 8th Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 13-15, 2011), the producers of the ca. 35 selected projects will meet with interested, potential co-producers, financiers, sales agents, distributors, and representatives of TV stations and of public funds.
For each of the ca. 450 participants, the team of the Berlinale Co-Production Market will arrange an individual meeting schedule that not only takes into account what each party wants and when they are available, but above all makes sure that the respective projects and partners are a good match.

Over the years, countless successful partnerships of this kind have been initiated at the Berlinale Co-Production Market: recent examples of completed films include Bogdan George Apetri's Romanian-Austrian co-production Periferic (Outbound) as well as Baran bo Odar's Das letzte Schweigen (The Silence), which had their international premieres at the festival in Locarno. Earlier this year, Shekarchi (The Hunter) by Rafi Pitts, Os Famosos e os Duendes da Morte (The Famous and the Dead) by Esmir Filho and Susa by Rusudan Pirveli were screened at the Berlinale. Cristi Puiu's Aurora was presented in Cannes, and Javier Fuentes-León's Contracorriente (Undertow) won an Audience Award in Sundance.

Since 2004, a total of over 100 films that were once presented as projects at the Berlinale Co-Production Market have been completed. This means that 40% of all projects have been produced and screened in cinemas and at international festivals. Among them are films like Sergey Bodrov's Mongol, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008; the German box-office hit Krabat by Marco Kreuzpaintner; Lebanon by Samuel Maoz, which won in Venice in 2009; as well as the crossover success Etz Limon (Lemon Tree) by Eran Riklis which ran in the Panorama section of the Berlinale in 2008 and has since been shown in over 20 countries.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market. The main partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market are the MDM - Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (since 2004) and the MEDIA-Programme of the European Union (since 2005).

Project submission forms and selection criteria for 2011 are available here:
http://www.efm-berlinale.de/en/copromarket/participation/project_submission/project-submission.php

Press Office
September 16, 2010