MIDPOINT is happy to announce another industry partnership within the Balkan region – with the Film Centre Montenegro. This new coalition comes as a natural step in strengthening the cooperation within the CEE region.
The opening activity of new cooperation with Film Centre Montenegro will be a special program MIDPOINT Intensive Montenegro, dedicated to Montenegrin filmmakers.
Sehad Cekic, Director of Film Centre Montenegro, says: "I hope that MIDPOINT Intensive Montenegro will bring new quality to our film sector, improve projects that are being prepared, incorporate them into European frameworks, and help in our goal to raise the standards. From the perspective of rapidly changing film community, we see MIDPOINT as a true partner in our efforts to become the protagonists and partners on the international scene."
In October 2019, the intensive workshop focused both on script and project development will be organized in Montenegro capital, Podgorica. The workshop, conducted by two internationally renowned tutors, will be open to Montenegrin creative teams of filmmakers (scriptwriter, director, and producer) with their feature fiction film projects.
Deadline for applications is July 26, 2019!
Click here to learn more information about the program.
MIDPOINT Intensive Montenegro is realized with the support of Film Centre Montenegro. MIDPOINT operates under the auspices of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
Organizer of the 54th Karlovy Vary IFF 2019: Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary, a.s.
Organizers of the 54th Karlovy Vary IFF thank to all partners which help to organize the festival.
KARLOVY VARY FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS JULIANNE MOORE AND BART FREUNDLICH The 54th annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival presents the latest film by actress Julianne Moore and screenwriter/director Bart Freundlich, After the Wedding (2019), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. At KVIFF, Oscar-winner Julianne Moore will accept a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.
Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich are an excellent example of the artistic combination of two outstanding individuals. Their personal and cinematic partnership was born during the filming of Freundlich’s directorial debut The Myth of Fingerprints (1997). Ever since then, Moore has regularly appeared in her husband’s films. In World Traveler (2001), she and Bill Crudup played two people who meet under unusual circumstances, and several years later she and David Duchovny portrayed a couple in the comedy drama Trust the Man (2005). In After the Wedding, a drama about an encounter that reveals hidden secrets, Moore plays one of the lead roles and is also one of the producers of the film.
Julianne Moore began her acting career in television and broke into the world of cinema with a minor role in the 1993 thriller The Fugitive. Soon after she was appeared in Robert Altman’s film Short Cuts (1993). The film garnered world-wide critical acclaim and in 1994 the Golden Globes awarded the entire cast with a special ensemble Golden Globe award. Moore began to receive offers for commercial projects such as Nine Months (1995), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Hannibal (2001), Children of Men (2006), and both parts of The Huger Games: Mockingjay (2014–15). In addition, she also appeared in many award-winning roles and was able to show off her creativity and range through films such as The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), Far from Heaven (2002, Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival), The Hours (2003, Silver Bear at the Berlinale), The Kids Are All Right (2010), and Maps to the Stars (2014, Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival).
Moore’s first nomination for an Oscar and a Golden Globe came with Boogie Nights (1997). She has been nominated for a total of five Oscars: besides Boogie Nights, other nominations came for The End of the Affair (1999), Far from Heaven, The Hours, and Still Alice (2014). This last film, in which she portrayed a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, finally won her this prestigious award. She has also won three Golden Globes – for Short Cuts, for her portrayal as Alaska governor Sarah Palin in the television film Game Change (2012), and as the main character in Still Alice. In all, she has been nominated for the Golden Globe on six different occasions.
Besides the aforementioned films, Bart Freundlich has also directed the action thriller Catch the Kid (2004), the romantic comedy The Rebound (2009, screenplay by Freundlich), and he has also directed several episodes of the cult television series Californication and the fantasy series Believe. As part of its homage to these two outstanding cinematic personalities, the Karlovy Vary Film Festival will be screening both After the Wedding and The Myth of Fingerprints.
More information here.
Latvian animation at Annecy Competition and MIFA
Latvian animation is busy participating at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2019 - both with the feature film ‘Away’ (dir. Gints Zilbalodis) in the Contrechamp competition program and a MIFA Animated Baltics stand (June 11-14).
AWAY success story
‘Away is told in four chapters, and centers on a young boy stranded on his own, trying to survive in a mysterious land. Pursued by a dark spirit, he makes his way through shimmering deserts and lush forests with the help of a small bird acting as his guide. Zilbalodis, in his early 20s, worked on the film entirely on his own for three and a half years — including writing, design, modeling/rigging, animation and even composing the music.’
Mercedes Milligan, Animation Magazine
Sales rights for the film has been picked up by Cinema Management Group (CMG), who did several ‘Away” market screenings in Cannes and has already closed several sales prior Annecy premiere, including Front Row Filmed Entertainment for the Middle East and Film4You for Poland.
Latvian Animation at MIFA
This year all three Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) have joined the creative forces and will at MIFA represent the whole region under the umbrella of the ANIMATED BALTICS stand. Latvian representatives include the director of the Latvian Animation Association Anna Zača, animation expert Ieva Viese-Vigula, Eva Erdmane-Durandina from the National Film Centre of Latvia as well as the animation artists Gints Zilbalodis and Kārlis Vītols.
Latvian animation has been a frequent guest in Annecy Competitions, several films by such artists as Vladimir Leschiov, Signe Baumane, Indra Sproge and Edmunds Jansons have been selected previously.
Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event opens submissions for Co-Production Market, Script Pool Tallinn and POWR script lab
Festivals 11-06-2019Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event opened submission for the first programmes. Early Bird FESTIVAL + INDUSTRY accreditation ends in 3 weeks.
SAVE THE DATE: Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event runs from the 25th until the 29th of November!
The Baltic Event Co-Production Market, held since 2005, is the meeting-place for feature films in development looking for co-producers, financiers and sales agents. Among nearly 300 alumni, projects that have been released over the years include the Cannes Palme d'or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu, while among the many recent success stories we find the Finnish comedy Heavy Trip that premiered at SXSW and has won 4 awards at over 30 festivals and When the Trees Fall (Ukraine) that screened at Berlinale and Black Nights and won awards at festivals in Ukraine, USA, Denmark, Poland, and India.
The 15 selected projects will be overseen by an international jury of experts, who hand out several awards, including the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award worth 20 000 euros.
Submission deadline: September 2, 2019.
READ MORE AND SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT HERE
Script Pool Tallinn is an international script competition for film, TV and drama series screenplays with the aim of gathering talented scriptwriters with producers attached, in order to provide them support enhancing the script and maximizing therefore its production and distribution potential. The main award of 5000 Euro prize by our partner, leading international sales & distribution company Global Screen GmbH is given to one of the five writer-producer teams invited to Tallinn.
Since 2018, Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event is partnered up with MIDPOINT, a training and networking platform with the aim to strengthen the creative collaboration between writers, directors and producers in the development process in Central and Eastern Europe.
Submission deadline: September 2, 2019.
SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT FOR SCRIPT POOL HERE
POWR Baltic Stories Exchange trains writers to deliver a good pitch and find a producer at the public project presentation as well as get industry feedback through pre-arranged POWR Meetings with carefully selected Baltic Event participants. Six screenplays in the early stages of development from the Nordic and Baltic countries as well as the Focus Country Ireland will be selected. The workshop is organised by Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event in collaboration with the region’s Creative Europe MEDIA Desks.
Submission deadline: 1 September, 2019.
READ MORE AND SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT HERE
3 WEEKS LEFT FOR EARLY BIRD ACCREDITATION
Get the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event accreditation at early bird price - 95 EUR - before 1 July!
The Festival + Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event accreditation is reserved exclusively for film industry professionals and is valid for the festival period, from the 15th of November until the 1st of December, 2019. It allows you to get the most out of Tallinn - take part of all the open lectures, pitchings, the audiovisual conference European Film Forum Tallinn, workshops and events of Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event and to see up to 40 films from the programme of Black Nights.
After a two-years break, Lithuanians return to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival with two animated films in the official selections and the biggest-ever delegation of film professionals. Lithuanian film makers, together with partners from Latvia and Estonia, will be welcoming guests at their joint booth at the festival’s market Mifa.
The Juggler (lit. Žonglierius) by Skirmanta Jakaitė has been selected for Annecy’s Short Film Competition and Estonian-Lithuanian-Mexican co-production Winter in the Rainforest (lit. Žiema atogrąžų miške) by Anu-Laura Tuttelberg will be screened at Annecy’s Perspectives Short Film Competition. Both of the films were produced by the Lithuanian production company Art Shot.
A joint booth Animated Baltics was organized by the Lithuanian Film Center, Vilnius Film Cluster, Lithuanian Animation Association and their partners from Latvia and Estonia. A record number of 15 Lithuanian film professionals, including producers, directors, distributors and others, will attend the event. The visitors of the booth will be provided with information about the Baltic animated films, production companies, filmmakers and services.
Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian delegations will host a networking event Baltic – Get Together. Also, a special meeting with an aim to foster co-production between the Baltic states and Poland will take place.
A Showcase of the Best in Central and Eastern European Animation in Annecy
Press releases 10-06-2019For the second consecutive year, animation film professionals from Central and Eastern European countries – united under the CEE Animation brand – have accepted the generous offer of Creative Europe MEDIA to be part of their Umbrella Stand at MIFA in Annecy. Over 50 promising producers, talented animators or representatives of festivals, national film funds and other film institutions from 12 different countries will present their animation industries or production at MIFA.
The members of EFP (European Film Promotion) elected a new Board of Directors at today's General Assembly during the Cannes Film Festival. The Board is composed of seven members, and the term of office lasts for two years. Four EFP members were newly appointed to the board: Catherine Ann Berger, Managing Director of Swiss Films, Arben Zharku, Director of Kosova Cinematography Center with Markéta Šantrochová, Deputy Director of Czech Film Center serving as President and Stine Oppegaard, Manager International Relations Feature Films, Norwegian Film Institute as Vice President.
EFP’s Managing Director Sonja Heinen wishes to thank Martin Schweighofer, President for the past four years, on behalf of all EFP members “for his exceptional dedication and reliability. With his vast experience of working in the industry, Martin has fostered EFP’s projects and helped to bring new initiatives to life. His international network is really impressive and, on top of that, he is a true champion of the European idea, always putting the common goals of our international network of film promotion institutes first. We will miss him as President, but we are delighted that he will continue to be part of EFP.”
The members of the Board of Directors are:
President: Markéta Šantrochová, Deputy Director of Czech Film Center Vice President: Stine Oppegaard, Manager International Relations Feature Films, Norwegian Film Institute Catherine Ann Berger, Managing Director of Swiss Films Briony Hanson, Director of Film, British Council Nerina T. Kocjančič, Head of Promotion and Distribution, Slovenian Film Centre Françoise Lentz, Head of Promotion, Film Fund Luxembourg Markéta Šantrochová, Deputy Director of Czech Film Center Arben Zharku, Director of Kosova Cinematography Center
EFP (European Film Promotion) is an international network of film promotion institutes from 37 countries from throughout Europe, each representing their national films and talent abroad. Under the EFP flag, these organisations come together to jointly promote the diversity and spirit of European cinema and talent at key film festivals and markets, in particular outside of Europe. EFP is financially supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and by its member organisations. The Hamburg-based office is backed by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and the Ministry of Culture of the City of Hamburg.
For more information please visit www.efp-online.com
On 29 May, the EARLY BIRD ticket sales start for the Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) that will take place from October 17 to 27. This limited offer of one hundred exclusive ten-ticket packs is valid for all festival screenings!
Feature films, documentaries and short films from all over the world will be shown in more than 100 screenings of the RIGA IFF competition and themed sections.
FESTIVAL SELECTION, a section of outstanding new discoveries, showcases films that have thrilled the audiences of prominent international film festivals. RIGA IFF can now reveal three of them! Sorry, We Missed You (2019) by the British social drama master Ken Loach, nominated for Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, will touch a cord with those shaken by the dark side of globalization. The self-ironic Non-Fiction (Doubles vies, 2018) by the French director and screenwriter Olivier Assayas, one of the contenders for the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival, makes us smile about the twists and turns of careers and love lives of contemporary high society as well as problems and hopes brought by universal digitalization. Probably, the most unexpected surprise will be the partially autobiographical tragicomedy Synonyms(Synonymes, 2019) by the Israeli director Nadav Lapid, telling a story about the ability and disability to break free from one’s national identity. The film received the Golden Bear of the Berlin Film Festival and the prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI).
The focus of the retrospective and research will be on cinema and technologies this year. Therefore, futuristic visions of several different film classics will vibrate on the big screen in the section IN TECHNO VERITAS. Namely, the message of aliens to the mankind shot during the Cold War Era The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) by Robert Wise, the iconic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Stanley Kubrick, the techno-surreal provocation with violence and brainwashing Videodrome (1983) by the innovator of forms and languages David Paul Cronenberg and the politically satiric Orwellian dystopia Brazil (1985) by Terry Gilliam.
More on other festival film sections, competitions and special ticket packs – 10 tickets for 40€ on the RIGA IFF website rigaiff.lv.
We welcome you to see the RIGA IFF 2019 announcement video, revealing both the identity of this year and the films to be screened during the festival. Watch here!
This will be the sixth instalment of the Riga International Film Festival. The audience reached more than 22,000 people last year. This year, RIGA IFF will take place from October 17 to 27 in film theatres Splendid Palace, KSuns, Kino Bize as well as the Latvian National Library and Kaņepe Culture Centre. More than 100 screenings in 11 film sections will run along with lectures, discussions and other events gathering hundreds of international film professionals in Riga.
RIGA IFF is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, the National Film Centre of Latvia and the Riga City Council.
BUCHAREST: The 23rd edition of the European Film Festival will take place from 11 to 30 June 2019 in the Romanian towns of Bucharest, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Tîrgu-Mureș and Sibiu, and for the first time in the capital of the Republic of Moldova, Chișinău. The festival is organised by the Romanian Cultural Institute.
FNE at Art Film Fest 2019: Latvian Coproduction The Humorist Heads to Art Film Fest Competition
Slovakia 11-06-2019KOSICE: Michael Idov’s debut feature The Humorist is one of two Latvian coproductions screening in the main competition of the Art Film Festival, which runs 14 – 22 June in Kosice, Slovakia.
