Brussels: Friday 14 January 2022 - The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), the industry grouping representing the interests of European cinema trade associations and operators across 39 territories, has today issued a rallying call for all involved in the European and global cinema industry to support the sector as its strong recovery from the impacts of COVID accelerates into 2022.

22 film projects from 18 countries will be presented at the 12th edition of When East Meets West, the Italian Co-Production Forum taking place in a special hybrid format from January 24-28, 2022 in the frame of the Trieste Film Festival. The 22 projects in development - 10 feature documentaries and 12 fiction features - were selected out of a record number of 435 submissions from 56 different countries and will be presented, most of them for the very first time, to more than 600 decision makers and professionals from all over the world, in particular from the East & West 2022 spotlight countries: Russia & UK, Ireland, Canada, USA.

BUDAPEST: Producer Viktoria Petrányi, the co-founder of Proton Cinema, whose long list of credits includes Hungarian award-winning titles such as White God, as well as acclaimed international productions, talks to FNE about the Hungarian production sector as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Copyright Directive

02/12: December infringements package: the Commission calls on Romania to comply with EU copyright rules - European Commission

The Commission has decided to send an additional letter of formal notice to Romania on the grounds that their national rules on the management of rights in musical works run contrary to EU copyright rules.

Creative Europe MEDIA

06/12: 12 MEDIA-supported films gather 25 nominations at the European Film Awards - European Commission

The 34th edition of the European Film Awards (EFA), which celebrate and reward the greatest achievements in Europen cinema, took place on 11 December as a hybrid event.

Council Conclusions

30/11: Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council, 29-30 November 2021 - Council of the European Union 

Proposed actions include encouraging the greater availability of original content in different language versions, promoting efficient marketing tools and film audience strategies, improving and facilitating the discoverability of creative content online in all EU languages and encouraging an increase in the volume of European audiovisual works in on-demand catalogues.

EUIPO studies

10/12: EUIPO study shows drop in online piracy for TV programmes, music and film - European Commission

Online piracy has posed a significant problem in the European Union. Recognising this, the European Commission has made fighting this type of copyright infringement one of its priorities in the IP Action Plan.

10/12: Joint EUIPO and European Commission report details enforcement results of IPRs - European Commission 

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) have released an annual report on ‘EU enforcement of intellectual property rights: Results at the EU border and in the EU internal market 2020’.

LUX Audience Award

12/12: Flee, Great Freedom and Quo Vadis Aida? will compete for LUX Audience Award - European Parliament

During a ceremony on Saturday, the three films shortlisted for the 2022 LUX Audience Award were revealed at the European Film Awards in Berlin.

Recent Studies

EUIPO - Online Copyright Infringement in the European Union: Music, Films and TV (2017-2020), Trends and Drivers - December 2021

EAO -  Animation films and TV series in Europe - December 2021

MUSO - Monthly Film Data Insights - November 2021

Events

1 January 2022: French EU Presidency of the EU

10 January: JURI committee meeting

11 January: UNIC screening

13 January: CULT committee meeting

25/26 January: Presidency conference on AV in Angers

26-27 January: JURI committee meeting

VALLETTA: The nominees for the first edition of the Malta Film Awards, due to take place on 29 January, were announced in a recorded presentation this week.

Trieste – December 17, 2021 – 22 film projects from 18 countries will be presented at the 12th edition of When East Meets West, the Italian Co-Production Forum taking place in a special hybrid format from January 24-28, 2022 in the frame of the Trieste Film Festival. The 22 projects in development - 10 feature documentaries and 12 fiction features - were selected out of a record number of 435 submissions from 56 different countries and will be presented, most of them for the very first time, to more than 600 decision makers and professionals from all over the world, in particular from the East & West 2022 spotlight countries: Russia & UK, Ireland, Canada, USA.

PRAGUE: The KVIFF Group, a newly established entity connected with Karlovy Vary IFF, has announced that it has acquired a majority share in the Aerofilms distribution company. The acquisition was made possible by a recent investment by Rockaway Capital.

VALLETTA: One of Malta’s foremost communications services companies, GO has announced a 1 million EUR investment over three years to support original TV content, with Sharp Shoot Media’s Chalet being the first production to benefit.

BUCHAREST: Italian director/scriptwriter Elena Rebeca Carini is currently in production with her long documentary The Land You Belong, whose shooting started in November 2021. This Italian/Romanian coproduction received a grant of 65,000 EUR from Eurimages at its last call in December 2021.

PRAGUE: My Sunny Maad by acclaimed Czech director Michaela Pavlátová has been nominated in the Best Motion Picture – Animated category of the Golden Globes, which are scheduled to take place on 9 January 2022. The film is a Czech/French/Slovak coproduction.