WARSAW: Representatives of the Małopolska, or Little Poland, Digital Cinema Network gathered to debate The Digital Future of European Cinemas at the European Parliament on 16 September. They presented a pioneer project on the digitalization of Polish cinemas with European funding before the experts on European cinema development and European Committee representatives.
RIGA: Promising film talents from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia and Georgia will take part in a newly launched training program offered by the Riga film forum Arsenals (www.arsenals.lv). Dubbed the Riga Virus: Training for Emerging Cinema Professionals, it will take place 20-23 September, gathering 20 participants working on 10 feature film projects.
Financing and Co-Production Matchmaking for New Feature Film Projects - Submission Deadline on October 28, 2010
Effective immediately and until October 28, 2010, experienced producers from all over the world who are looking for co-production and financing partners may submit their new feature film projects to the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
Promising projects with budgets between two and ten million euros are eligible to apply. They must also be well suited for international co-production and have at least 30% of their financing in place.
At the 8th Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 13-15, 2011), the producers of the ca. 35 selected projects will meet with interested, potential co-producers, financiers, sales agents, distributors, and representatives of TV stations and of public funds.
For each of the ca. 450 participants, the team of the Berlinale Co-Production Market will arrange an individual meeting schedule that not only takes into account what each party wants and when they are available, but above all makes sure that the respective projects and partners are a good match.
Over the years, countless successful partnerships of this kind have been initiated at the Berlinale Co-Production Market: recent examples of completed films include Bogdan George Apetri's Romanian-Austrian co-production Periferic (Outbound) as well as Baran bo Odar's Das letzte Schweigen (The Silence), which had their international premieres at the festival in Locarno. Earlier this year, Shekarchi (The Hunter) by Rafi Pitts, Os Famosos e os Duendes da Morte (The Famous and the Dead) by Esmir Filho and Susa by Rusudan Pirveli were screened at the Berlinale. Cristi Puiu's Aurora was presented in Cannes, and Javier Fuentes-León's Contracorriente (Undertow) won an Audience Award in Sundance.
Since 2004, a total of over 100 films that were once presented as projects at the Berlinale Co-Production Market have been completed. This means that 40% of all projects have been produced and screened in cinemas and at international festivals. Among them are films like Sergey Bodrov's Mongol, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008; the German box-office hit Krabat by Marco Kreuzpaintner; Lebanon by Samuel Maoz, which won in Venice in 2009; as well as the crossover success Etz Limon (Lemon Tree) by Eran Riklis which ran in the Panorama section of the Berlinale in 2008 and has since been shown in over 20 countries.
The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market. The main partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market are the MDM - Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (since 2004) and the MEDIA-Programme of the European Union (since 2005).
Project submission forms and selection criteria for 2011 are available here:
http://www.efm-berlinale.de/en/copromarket/participation/project_submission/project-submission.php
Press Office
September 16, 2010
WARSAW: A special workshop to facilitate contacts between producers and screenwriters from Europe and India will take place in Warsaw 13-16 October. Applications for Primexchange Europe-India (www.primehouse.eu ) may be sent in by producer-screenwriter teams who already have a concrete project of a full-length feature film. A maximum of four European and Indian projects will be chosen.
PRAGUE: At least 12 productions have been approved in the recently launched Czech Film Industry Support program, receiving nearly CZK 200 million (€8.1 million) in grants.
WARSAW: Eight feature television productions from Central and Eastern Europe will compete for the Prix Europa (www.prix-europa.de ) along with shorter formats in nine different prize categories. From 543 submissions, 220 productions have been selected to compete. Production companies and broadcasters from 31 European countries will compete for the best European production of the year title. The European Commission's newcomer award for film students will go to the best video on multilingualism.
2nd INDUSTRY NEWSLETTER - JIHLAVA 2010
Institute of Documentary Film at the Jihlava IDFF
October 21 - 31, 2010, Jihlava, Czech Republic
PRAGUE: Culture Minister Jiri Besser has announced that he will seek 300 million Kc from next year's budget to continue the film production incentives launched in June. The Czech sweeteners, which must be renewed in Parliament each year, have already drawn 38 projects, of which 16 have been approved for rebates.
WARSAW: Following Essential Killing winning the special jury prize this year in Venice, Agnieszka Odorowicz has announced that the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl ) will try to enter Jerzy Skolimowski's film into regular distribution in the United States so it can compete for the Academy Awards in all the feature film categories.
WARSAW: By year-end, Polish stockbrokers will be able to trade in shares of the country's leading cinema operator as part of a plan to expand the Multikino chain.
