The 42nd edition of Annecy International Animated Film Festival that will take place on the shores of Lac d’Annecy from June 11th till June 16th, is especially exciting for the Czech animation. This year, the Czech Republic will be represented vastly by first-class animators participating at MIFA (Marché International du Film d‘Animation), the largest animated film market worldwide. In total, the unprecedented number of 17 Czech creators and producers from 11 animation studios alongside TV, institutions (including Animation Film Association (ASAF) or Czech Film Fund/Czech Film Center), film schools and other film professionals will be representing our region in Annecy.

This year, three animated films from the Czech Republic are announced as part of the official programme. Jan Švankmajer’s Insect that premiered in January at Rotterdam IFF will be a part of the out of competition section Screening Events. The film was supported by the Czech Film Fund with the amount of €411,765. A short film After will be screened in the section Graduation Films in Competition. The movie was directed by Matouš Valchář, a Faculty of Art and Design student from the University of West Bohemia.

A Czech-Slovak co-production, short film The End (dir. David Stumpf, Michaela Mihalyiova) will be presented to film professionals and potential partners alongside 36 other projects at the world-class pitching section MIFA Pitches. The film is being produced by BFILM (SK) and FAMU and was supported by the Czech Film Fund with €22,353.

The 42nd edition of Annecy IAFF marks the second participation of the Czech Republic at the film festival and market. Czech Film Center exhibited at the market already in 2014, when a project Even Mice Belong in Heaven was presented within MIFA Pitches. Both directors, Denisa Grimmová and Jan Bubeníček together with the producer of the film Vladimír Lhoták (FreshFilms) are among the filmmakers coming to Annecy this year.

Czech animation will be represented together with other Central and Eastern European countries within the CEE Hub at the Creative Europe MEDIA umbrella stand. The participation is possible in co-operation with Animated Film Association (ASAF), Czech Film Fund, animation studios, and partners from Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and other countries.

"We are very happy to welcome the Central and East European Animation Industry to our stand – it is a first time for us to have a stand at MIFA and a first time for them both to be at MIFA collectively and to work with us in this way. We look forward to further similar collaboration in future,” – Soon-Mi Peten, Head of Sector Promotion, Training and Festivals (EACEA, Creative Europe – MEDIA).

In 2017, the Czech Film Fund supported 23 animated projects in total with the amount of €1,780,627, in various sectors (development, production, minority co-production). The supported projects include Michaela Pavlátová’s feature My Sunny Maad, produced by Petr Oukropec (Negativ), Kristýna Dufková’s Living Large, produced by Veronika Sabová (Barletta), or Rosa, Dara and Their Great Summer Adventure, directed by Martin Duda, produced by Bionaut.

“Girls in Film” will present first and second films of European female directors

   After almost a year of being active in the Czech republic, Girls in Film, an international platform supporting aspiring female filmmakers, presents its first festival in Prague. The festival will feature 5 films of European female directors, two of which will be screened as Czech premieres. The event takes place from 14th to 16th June at Prague’s Lucerna cinema and is organized in cooperation with Film Europe.

    “The Girls in Film originally started in London, with the aim to present the variety of work created by women – from “classic” films, through music videos, to videoart,” says Julie Zackova, producer and founder of the Prague branch of Girls in Film. After their previous events – short film screening in cooperation with iShorts and panel with upcoming female producers at Famufest in Prague, their third event now concentrates specifically on female directors in the Girls in Film Prague first official film festival.

    The program of the event features first and second films of European female directors that have enjoyed accolades at some of the biggest international festivals. The festival-goers will be able to attend screening of Raw (dir. Julia Ducournau), which was awarded the main prize at the Semaine de la critique section in Cannes 2016, or Western (dir. Valeska Grisebach), the competitor at last year’s Un Certain Regard section at the same festival. “Personally, I would recommend everyone to go see our opening film and a striking debut Tower. A Bright Day directed by a young Polish director Jagoda Szelc, which competed at Berlinale this year and which charmed me with its poetic atmosphere and an unexpected storyline set in a traditionally religious Polish countryside,” comments Dagmar Sedlackova, who is a co-founder of the platform in Prague and also a producer. This debut film, as well as Gabriela Pichler’s sophomore film “Amateurs” from Sweden will be presented as Czech premieres.

   Apart from the screenings, the festival will also organize a debate centering on the current position of women in local, as well as international film industry.

Film COLD WAR by Oscar-winning director Pawel Pawlikowski, who won the Best Director Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival will open the 24th edition of Sarajevo Film Festival on August 10th.

Pawel Pawlikowski will attend Sarajevo to introduce his latest film to the Sarajevo Film Festival audience. The film which drew rave reviews from Cannes critics and audiences will be screened simultaneously at the Raiffeisen Open Air Cinema and National Theater Sarajevo.

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Urška Djukić's live-action short at the opening of the Cannes Directors' Fortnight programme

The Slovenian author and director Urška Djukić presented her live-action short The Right One at the opening of the "Cannes Directors' Fortnight 2019" programme of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. The film features, among others, the Slovenian actress Doroteja Nadrah and director of photography Lev Predan Kowarski. The film was co-directed by Gabriel Tzafka, a representative of Denmark and Greece. Apart from Nadrah, the film also features the actors Mirjana Karanović and Muhamed Hadžović.

A possessive mother, a loving son, the fiancée's first visit, a mute witness... Four players around a pie. This is the story of Djukić's single-shot film.

After the premiere, the author had the following to say: "The film 'The Right One' focuses on the clash between the conservative and the liberal. A classic mother from the Balkans, who always knows what is best for others, meets her son's new love... Who fails to meet her standards. My co-director and I have envisioned this film in a single 14-minute cadre, during which everything happens. This was a rather risky decision, as it meant that we had no choice but to conceive the rhythm and tempo of the film already in advance. Consequently, the preparations took much more work, as we had to be very precise in defining the mise-en-scene, action, and dialogues. All the magic had to happen during this single 14-minute shot. The actors and the crew – everything had to be perfect, while the shot had to convey the required atmosphere as well. Of twenty-two repeats, only a single occasion was successful. At that point, our efforts bore fruit and made me truly happy. The very concept of the whole "The Factory" project has represented a significant challenge in itself, as ten directors have been tasked with shooting their five films in tandem. The work with my co-director has been a rather exciting experience. During this process of co-creation, I have learned a lot about the mechanisms that we authors employ to create, as well as about control and trust. The premiere of our film in Cannes, however, was undoubtedly the peak after the effort invested! The audience was satisfied, which was a great feeling. At the same time, the makers of 'The Factory' have made it possible for us to also 'pitch' our first features at the Cannes Market, which is an enormously important incentive for my feature debut."

Five short films have been created in the framework of the project "Southeast European Factory", based on the "La Factory" concept authored by Dominique Welinski and the "Directors' Fortnight" programme. Five pairs of international directors and directors from the region – including Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia – have participated in the project. The films were made with the support of the Slovenian Film Centre, Film Center Serbia, Macedonian Film Agency, Film Centre of Montenegro, and the Ministry of Culture and Sports Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation with the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo and produced by the Sarajevo Film Festival (established by the Obala Art Centre) in collaboration with Quinsaine and DW.

Another screening of "The Factory" films will follow on Sunday, 19 May at 11:30, in Cinéma Alexandre III.

All ten young authors will enjoy the opportunity of presenting their debuts to the film industry at the Cannes Film Market (Marche du film). The goal of The Factory project is to promote new talent in the international arena and to facilitate the collaboration and co-creation between the young local and international film authors.

"First Film First", an intensive programme for the development of debuts by filmmakers from Southeast Europe, has already selected eight projects of the eighty-nine applicants, which will receive the support for the development of first live-action features. Urška Djukić's debut with the working title Shame is among these films.

The author, Urška Djukić, was born in 1986 in Ljubljana. She studied media arts at the School of Arts, University of Nova Gorica, where she also attained her master's degree in film. In 2016 she shot a short live-action animated film Bon appetit, la vie!, which won the Vesna Award for Best Short Film at the 19th Festival of Slovenian Film.

By combining different formats – animation, fiction, and various experimental techniques – the directress creates hybrid visual narratives and focuses, in particular, on the exploration of the contemporary womanhood.

For more information about this filmmaker, head to her website at https://urskadjukic.wixsite.com/portfolio.

You can find the SEE Factory Trailer of the five shorts that are to be screened in Cannes at this link.

The Polish Film Insitute's grants for feature film production, 1st session of 2019