BRATISLAVA: The political drama series Our People, exploring the true story of the 2018 assassination of Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, won the Best Pitch Award at the SeriesMania television festival held in Lille, France 15 – 22 March 2024.

PRAGUE: Daria Kashcheeva, who was born in Tajikistan but studied at FAMU and remained in Prague, is among the six young filmmakers selected for La Résidence of the Cannes Film Festival in 2024.

BUDAPEST: Hungary’s capital city will stand in for Vienna in the TV series Amadeus, which will be shot in Budapest from 6 May to 1 September 2024.

BUCHAREST: International and Romanian scriptwriters are invited to apply to the 6th edition of the script and film pitch contest Write a Screenplay For…, hosted by the American Independent Film Festival in Bucharest, founded by Cristian Mungiu.

BUCHAREST: The Romanian/Hungarian feature film Libertate directed by Tudor Giurgiu scored 14 nominations at the 18th edition of the Gopo Awards, followed by Mihai Mincan’s debut feature To the North / Spre nord (Romania, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic)  with 13 nods. Veterans like Radu Jude and Cristi Puiu received lesser nominations for their new films.

PODGORICA: Nikola Mijović’s feature Four Funerals and a Wedding / Četiri sahrane i vjenčanje, which already received development and production support from the Film Centre of Montenegro (FCCG), is conceived so far as a Montenegrin/Serbian/Macedonian coproduction.

VILNIUS: The Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum reopened in Vilnius on 14 March 2024 after 16 years of reconstruction.

VILNIUS: The SMART7 network has announced its selection of European films which will tour seven film festivals across Europe in 2024. SMART7 includes festivals from Poland (mbank New Horizons IFF), Iceland (Reykjavik IFF), Portugal (IndieLisboa IFF), Romania (Transilvania IFF), Spain (FILMADRID IFF), Greece (Thessaloniki IFF) and Lithuania (Kino Pavasaris).

BRATISLAVA: Nine Slovak projects in different stages of production, including fiction, documentary and animated films, will be presented on 18 March 2024 at the Works in Progress session during Bratislava Industry Days.

RIGA: The Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) has opened the application process for its four competition sections. The festival will be held 17 – 27 October 2024.