EFP (European Film Promotion) is delighted to announce that 16 alumni of our talent promotion programme EFP EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS and seven participants of the networking and promotion platform PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE will celebrate their films' premieres in Venice and for the first time, a director taking part in FUTURE FRAMES - Generation Next of European Cinema, our programme for emerging filmmakers - all supported by the Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
The German-Bulgarian drama Pelican Blood, featuring Nina Hoss (Germany 2000), will be opening the Orizzonti section which presents the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema. The producers Verena Gräfe-Höft (Germany) and Mila Voinikova (Bulgaria) met at PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE in 2017 and immediately joined forces to realise the second feature film by director Katrin Gebbe, which will celebrate its North American premiere in Toronto. Former French Shooting Star Ludovine Sagnierfeatures prominently at this year's festival starring in two projects: the opening competition film The Truth by Hirokazu Kore-eda as well as The New Pope by Paolo Sorrentino, which is screening 'out of competition'. Please see the full list below.
Verena Gräfe-Höft, who also found the film's world sales company Films Boutique thanks to the EFP network, comments: "I first presented "Pelican Blood" to the public during "Producer on the Move" in Cannes 2017. It was there that I found our Bulgarian co-producer Mila Voinikova, who was a participant that same year. So thanks to the whole programme, since it plays a core role in bringing people together, supporting emerging talents, producers and projects throughout the European film industry."
SOFIA: Turkish biopic Pocket Hercules: Naim Süleymanoğlu / Cep Herkülü: Naim Süleymanoğlu is currently shooting in Bulgaria. The film directed by Özer Feyzioğlu will also be shot in Turkey and Azerbaijan.
BRATISLAVA: Slovak broadcaster JOJ will change the names and the format of the thematic channels acquired from the Czechoslovak Film Society (Československej filmovej spoločnosti) in mid-March 2019. The changes will be made starting 1 December 2019.
PAPHOS: Summer edition of the Animattikon Project, featuring a series of animation workshops for children will take place in Paphos, Cyprus from 6 to 11 August 2019. The event is organised by the Kimonos Art Centre in collaboration with the Anassa Hotel and the cultural services of the Ministry of Education.
For its 20th anniversary edition on 8-9 November, East-West co-production market connecting cottbus (coco) has assembled a diverse range of networking events and discussions on current buzz topics of today’s production landscape.
Aside from offering industry participants the chance to discover exciting new projects and discuss possible partnerships, coco’s framework programme gives insights into current trends and challenges in film financing, production and distribution, etc.
Sessions at coco will explore topics like the industry’s latest stir (or fright) blockchain. Erwin M. Schmidt, co-founder of the Propellor FilmTech Hub and the Berlin-based FilmTech Office, will bring hands-on information on potential applications of blockchain in media. Influencer marketing is another currently hyped audience engagement tool. Philipp Greulich, Head of Business Development at Polish-run marketing platform indaHash, will talk about how to reach out to potential viewers in an authentic way. Mathias Noschis of UK marketing agency Alphapanda, specialised in digital PR campaigns for independent and Hollywood films, will reflect on possible marketing strategies of two current cocoPITCH projects, while providing general pointers on the viral promotion of arthouse films.
Last but not least, we are happy to welcome back consultant, development and financing expert Linda Beath, for a lecture presented in collaboration with the international training network EAVE. Linda will discuss how to survive as a small indie production company in today’s competitive market.
This year’s project representatives will join industry experts in our prep day cocoLAB, to strengthen their presentations. For 2018, coco has implemented a new connectingPOINT, a networking event for coco participants and filmmakers from the parallel running FilmFestival Cottbus. The 20th anniversary Focus coco panel will look at the progress and success of coco alumni projects, some of which are screening in the festival, or even made it onto the entry list of the Academy Awards.
This year’s edition of connecting cottbus takes place on 8-9 November 2018.
connecting cottbus is funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Creative Europe MEDIA, MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and The State Chancellery of Land Brandenburg.
More information: http://www.connecting-cottbus.de/ | https://www.facebook.com/connecting.cottbus
Slovak documentary is not dead!
We are pleased to present the Slovak line-up at two prestigious festivals celebrating documentary films: 22nd Ji.hlava IDFF and 61st DOK Leipzig!
Every year, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival organisers show a selection of extraordinary creative documentaries, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe. The 22nd edition of the festival, running from October 25 to 30 this year, will introduce six Slovak and co-production competitors, most of them in their world or international premiere.
Renowned Slovak film producer Zuzana Mistríková will be among the jurors judging the 15 documentaries of the Between the Seas section and Rastislav Steranka, Director of National Cinematographic Centre will take part in panel discussion Visegrad Accelerator: Future of Film in Central Europe.
The only entry out of competition is Spring in Subcarpathian Ruthenia (d. Karel Plicka) from the collection of the National Film Archive of Slovak Film Institute and will be screened within Czechoslovak Orient section.
61st DOK Leipzig of joy and sadness
The 61st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (29 October - 4 November, 2018), also known as DOK Leipzig will present four Slovak and coproduction films in its programme.In the Next Masters Competition Denisa, a Story of a Friend by Mária Brnušáková will vie for the Golden Dove Award. Mid-lenght documentary shows how Denisa is trying to fill the hole in her heart with men´s love, that is mostly just physical. International Programme section will introduce My Unknown Soldier by Anna Kryvenko, documentary about director´s search for person who has been removed from the family photo album. Short animation Auuuna by Lina Šuková will please the youngest audience within the Kids DOK section.Short documentary The Wake about the funeral of Jan Palach, young student who sacrificed his life in 1969 in a protest against the Occupation of Czechoslovakia, will be screened in Retrospective: 68 – An Open Score section that reflects social, cultural and political changes and the way filmmakers dealt with them.
For more information on Slovak Films, please visit our websitehttp://www.aic.sk/aic/en
Nadejda Koseva’s debut feature had its International Premiere last week
in Warsaw and received the Special Jury Award for the Actress
Martina Apostolova and the Award of the Ecumenical Jury
At the 36th “Golden Rose” Bulgarian National Feature Film Festival
the film received also the Award for Debut Feature,
Best Actress Award for Martina Apostolova
and the Award of the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers
The International premiere of “IRINA” was in the main Competition of the 34th Warsaw International Film Festival. The film will participate also in the competition programmes of several prestigious international film forums this autumn.
Nadja Koseva has three very successful festival shorts in her filmography. “The Ritual”, part of the omnibus film “Lost & Found”, opened The Forum of Young Cinema in Berlin. “Omelette” was awarded with Special Mention in Sundance, and “Take Two” took Special Mention in Sarajevo.
“IRINA” tells a story of a young woman who lives in a small mining town. She needs to save her family from the poverty so her decision is to become a surrogate mother, carrying some strangers’ child for money. In time Irina will discover what means to love and to forgive…
Presented as a project at SOFIA MEETINGS, “IRINA” was developed with the support of MEDIA Programme of the EU, SEE Cinema Network, ScripTeast and the Bulgarian National Film Center. The film is an Art Fest Production, in co-production with Front Film, Doli Media Studio, Right Solutions, with the support of Bulgarian National Film Center.
The cast of “IRINA” includes Martina Apostolova, Hristo Ushev, Irini Jambonas, Kasiel Noah Asher, Alexander Kossev, Krassimir Dokov. The script was written by Svetoslav Ovcharov, Bojan Vuletic and Nadejda Koseva. DOP is Kiril Prodanov, art director - Ivelina Mineva, costume designer - Viktor Andreev, make-up artist - Petya Simeonova, editor - Nina Altaparmakova, music was composed by Petar Dundakov, sound recordist and mixer - Momchil Bojkov. Co-producers - Svetla Tsotsorkova, Dobromir Chochov, Todor G. Todorov. Producer is Stefan Kitanov. International sales agent is the French company Alpha Violet.
Congratulations to Nadejda Koseva, Martina Apostolova, the cast and the crew of the film!
Oscar winners and the newest technologies at the Film Spring Workshop in Krakow, Poland.
Press releases 19-10-2018Neil Corbould, a two-time Oscar winner to teach special effect and Ewa Puszczyńska, an Oscar winner for Ida to give a lecture on film debut - The Film Spring Workshop is taking place in Krakow, Poland.
The Film Spring Workshop, international, professional film training, has just started. For 10 days, a Polish city of Krakow is becoming a huge filming location for a few hundred filmmakers from around the world. In Poland, they learn how to make films better and cheaper in the new production model, which is the main theme of this year's event. The effects of their work can be seen during the final screening in a cinema built specially for the duration of the workshop.
The Film Spring Workshop's trademark is its educational program incorporating the latest solutions in the audiovisual industry as well as the state-of-the-art equipment which participants can use and test at their filming sets. This year's programme and the choice of special guests underline this approach. The workshop venue in Przegorzały, Krakow, where the 13th edition of the workshop is taking place, is becoming a testing ground for virtual, augmented and mixed reality.
Special guests from London, James Edward Marks and Chris Szkoda from DoubleMe, for the first time in Poland are presenting a virtual hologram you can communicate with. Their 3D capture system, HoloPortal ™ transforms 2D video into dynamic 3D models in real time.
VR and AR projects are presented by the international team of Unit 9 and at the same time such projects are being produced by two creative groups of the workshop.
Special effects will be executed by the two-time Oscar winner, Neil Corbould (Gravity, Gladiator), who on the 19th of October starts a creative group testing in practice special effects in low-budget productions. For enthusiasts of optical and mechanical effects, this is an amazing opportunity to work with the number 1 specialist in the SFX world.
The Oscar winner, Ewa Puszczyńska (Ida, Cold War) will talk about debut on today's film market.
Aleksandra Przegalińska from MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, a renown specialist in the field of identity in virtual reality and humanoid artificial intelligence, will discuss whether artificial intelligence can be creative.
As every year, young enthusiasts of cinema and new technologies can choose from the very abundant and versatile programme, which includes lectures, workshops, screenings of the best Polish films and meetings with their creators, equipment presentations and tests. However, the most significant part for most of the participants is making their film projects individually or in as many as 22 creative groups.
The Film Spring Workshop list of tutors this year, apart from Neil Corbould, Ewa Puszczyńska, James Edward Marks and Chris Szkoda, includes: Marek Koterski, Kamil Polak, Laila Pakalnina, Marcin Koszałka, Borys Lankosz, Fabian Rozenkranz, Bogdan Dziworski, Kobas Laksa, Jagoda Szelc, Adrian Panek and many other top filmmakers and specialists.
The workshop will end on the 26th of October.
More information:
- https://www.facebook.com/filmspringopen.eu/
- Special guest James E. Marks i Chris Szkoda z DoubleMe (Londyn)
https://filmspringopen.eu/en/the-latest-technologies-talking-virtual-hologram-and-mind-tripping-experiences-in-vr-our-special-guests-james-e-marks-chris-szkoda-from-doubleme-london/
Czech Film Fund Announced Support for 8 Minority Co-productions and 6 Animated Films Totaling €923,000
Press releases 16-10-2018Czech Film Fund Announced Support
of 8 Minority Co-productions and 6 Animated Films Totaling €923,000
On October 9, the Czech Film Fund announced support for minority co-productions with the sum of CZK 20 million (€ 769,230). From the total amount of 25 projects that applied for support, 14 projects were selected at the initial stage and finally, 8 projects were supported. The amount and quality of the applications confirms the positive trend for the Czech film. It is also apparent that now, more than ever before, Czech producers seek and are capable to build strong ties with partners from abroad, be it Slovakia, Poland or France. On the same day, the support for development of animated films was announced. All together 6 projects – 3 features and 3 shorts – were supported with the total amount of CZK 4 million (€153,846).
Minorities
The highest evaluation of the Board and the amount of €173,077 was granted to the Slovak-Czech project Spisovatel directed by Martin Šulík and produced by IN Film Praha on the Czech side. The story about inner fights, emptiness and lack of inspiration of an ageing writer impressed the jury not only with an elaborated plot, but also with the cast consisting of A-class Czech actors, such as Miroslav Krobot or Oldřich Kaiser.
The second highest amount was granted to the Polish-Czech-Slovak fairy tale Kaytek the Wizard produced by love.Frame on the Czech side. The project that applied for the third time within the minority support scheme, finally received 100% of the desired amount (€134,615). Only slightly behind in financial support is another film for the younger audience, an adventure where kids are the ones saving grown-ups. Majority Polish Black Mill, co-produced by Czech 8Heads Productions received the support of €119,231.
Among further supported projects there are three co-productions with Baltic countries: an auteur film of the Latvian director Dāvis Sīmanis The Year Before the War (Czech co-producer Produkce Radim Procházka) that received the support €110,577, majority Lithuanian post-war drama In the Dusk, (directed by Šarūnas Bartase and co-produced by SIRENA FILM) that was awarded the amount of €115,385 and a Latvian documentary Soviet Man (dir. Ivo Briedis) with 20% of Czech participation through the co-producer Frame Films that was granted €20,192.
A Slovak- Hungarian-Czech drama Power, which again casts Miroslav Krobot among others, received the amount of €76,923. Directed by Mátyás Prikler and produced by Negativ on the Czech side, the story will focus on the dark mechanisms of power in Slovakia. Support was also granted to an animated debut A Carousel of a Belgian creator Jasmine Elsen (Czech production BFILM cz). Apart from the classic animation, the film will introduce stop-motion sequences, which will be fully conducted in the Czech Republic, hence the assigned support of €19,231.
Development of Animated Films
The highest sum of €46,154 went to the film Rosentaal produced by MAUR film. Rosentaal is a story inspired by the adventures of Jan Eskymo Welzl and partially impacted by the tradition of Karel Zeman and Jules Vernes. It starts with depicting a 16-year old orphan setting off on his exciting road
trip through life filled with danger and struggles. The film is going to be produced with the use of a new animation technology that is being developed at Czech Technical University under the supervision of Daniel Sykora.
The second highest support of €34,615 was awarded to the feature Golem that has been in development for more than 25 years, newly taken over by Hausboot Production. The Jury agreed that the project of the director and artist Jiří Barta has significant potential mainly due to its experimental and exceptional characteristics, and with a new, elaborated plot is expected to result into a high-quality auteur film. The last feature animated film supported by the Fund with an amount of €23,077 was Michaela, inspired by Miloš Urban’s book of the same name. A horror with erotic and religious elements is going to be developed by the production company KABOS Film & Media.
Among short animations, the highest amount of €25,000 went to a VR project Dopis od srdce (A Letter from the Heart), produced by BFILM.cz. The film might be eventually also transformed into a 2D format. Although a minority, the project impressed the Jury with its innovative approach, artistic value and ethical message. Finally, two other animated shorts, Bábovka of a multiple award-winner Kateřina Karhánková (produced by MasterFilm) and The Little Odyssey (produced by k-pictures) received the support of €15,385 and €9,615 respectively.
We're waiting for film submissions for three more days only, until 31 July, 2019!
This year the prestigious industry magazine MovieMaker Magazine listed Warsaw Film Festival among the film events worth the entry fee!
ATTENTION:
DEADLINES & SUBMISSION FEES
Submission fees for films submitted between 16 and 31 July 2019 are:
- 18 Euro – per short film
- 30 Euro – per feature length film.
Only films which meet the following criteria are eligible to participate in the competitive sections of the 35. Warsaw Film Festival:
- films, which had their first public screening on or after January 1, 2019
- films which have not been distributed or presented at any public screening in Poland
- films which have not been broadcast on TV stations which are available in Poland, including foreign language stations
- films which have not been previously shown on the Internet, including international online platforms available to general public
- Polish films which did not have any public screening in Poland, except at Gdynia Film Festival
In competitive sections priority is given to world, international and European premieres.
