The National Film Centre of Latvia announced the following grants on 15 April 2019.

dok.incubator reveals 8 projects selected for its 2019 edition

dok.incubator has announced the final selection of talented filmmakers whose projects will be supported in 2019. Participating film professionals – drawn from around the world, including Latin America, Europe, Africa and Canada – will have the opportunity to work intensely on their documentary films with the support of well-known producers, editors and sales agents.

dok.incubator is a well-established workshop for feature documentaries in the rough cut stage that is unique in its format and impact on filmmakers. Its aim each year is to offer individual mentorship for eight documentary projects with a focus on dramaturgy, distribution and marketing strategy and audience building in order to premiere at prestigious festivals and secure wide distribution.

The Camp (Hungary, France) by Judit Oláh is a documentary about reconstructing an identity-forming childhood experience, an extraordinary summer camp, which took place in the 1980s, the last years of the oppressing socialist system in Hungary.

A portrait of a woman that leaves her abusive husband after fifty years of marriage and tries to find happiness doing everything she has ever dreamt of – dancing, writing song and even falling in love again. That is Lessons of Love (Poland), directed by Małgorzata Goliszewska and Katarzyna Mateja.

In Själö: Island of Souls (Finland), the director Lotta Petronella, researches the past of the island and its previous residents, from mentally ill women locked in the asylum to scientists researching the nature of the island. 

Roberto Salinas’ Cuban Dancer (Italy, Canada, Chile) describes a journey of a talented student who after leaving Havana, has to confront the education system in the elite and rarefied atmosphere of dance in the United States while trying to remain faithful to his roots.

Once upon a time, Congo Mirador (Venezuela, Great Britain, Brazil) directed by Anabel Rodriguez, tells the story of a small Venezuelan village built in the middle of Lake Maracaibo and its inhabitants that have to deal with the gradual disappearance of their home as the lake - Latin America’s largest oil fiel - is slowly turning into a swamp.

Documentary Home (Romania) by Radu Ciorniciuc follows the dramatic change in the life of Enache family which is forced to move from a wilderness of an abandoned communist reservoir to the city.

In her film As I Want (Denmark, France, Egypt, Palestine), the director Samaher Alqadi captures not only the birth of the Woman’s Rights Movement of Egypt, a response to waves of attacks against women, but also her innner-awakening that confronts the painful childhood traumas that shaped her.

The Earth is Blue as an Orange (Ukraine, Lithuania) by Iryna Tsilyk tells a story of a family living in the heart of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and facing down hardship with remarkable resilience.

Find more information about the projects here.

Dear documentary directors and producers,

We would like to remind you that the deadline for submissions to the Ex Oriente Film 2019 international training programme is April 19th.
If you have a feature length documentary project in development or early production, be sure to submit it via our online application form.
The open call is aimed at filmmakers from the CEE region, but it is open also to projects thematically focused on the CEE region. Please, find all the information in Ex Oriente Film 2019 Guidelines. 

Ex Oriente Film consists of three week-long workshops (June 20th – 25th, 2019 / Banská Štiavnica, Slovak Republic; October 24th – 29th, 2019 / Jihlava, Czech Republic, within Ji.hlava IDFF; March 2020 / Prague, Czech Republic, within East Doc Platform and One World IHRDFF). Producers and directors gain assistance from more than 25 leading filmmakers and experts in the development of narrative and visual style, production, distribution and promotion strategies, as well as finding international partners.

Among the tutors of Ex Oriente Film were Christian Frei, Sean McAllister, Mila Turajlić, Mike Bonanno, Salomé Jashi, Phil Jandaly, Kirsten Johnson and Mads Brügger. Just to name some of the successful projects that were developed within Ex Oriente Film: Over the Limit (dir. Marta Prus), Domino Effect (dir. Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski), Blind Loves (dir. Juraj Lehotský), At the Edge of Russia (dir. Michal Marczak), Rabbit a la Berlin (dir. Bartosz Konopka), Village without Women (dir. Srđan Šarenac) and Bakhmaro (dir. Salomé Jashi).

If you have any questions, please contact Ex Oriente Film Coordinator Sofia Tocar at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Also, if you have a documentary film produced in 2019, submit it to the East Silver Market. The deadline is May 31st. Submission deadline for projects in rough cut stage (to be finished in October 2019) is July 31st.

CEE Animation Forum (formerly known as VAF Třeboň) opens its 7th edition by establishing new partnerships with different European markets, festivals or residency and training programmes. Through this extensive range of direct invitations to pitching events, exchanges of professionals and attractive scholarships, the organizers aim to increase the producers´ knowledge, and give filmmakers the possibility to strengthen their animation skills and integrate them into a strong network.

One of the objectives of CEE Animation is to raise the competencies of professionals and give them equal access to financing and the markets as their Western peers, by fostering co-production and sustainable business models. European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE), a professional training and networking organization for audiovisual producers has accepted the partnership and will offer to one producer a full scholarship in the amount of EUR 1,400 to participate in EAVE’s Marketing Workshop (5–10 November 2019).

CEE Animation Forum will also host the third and final module of the CEE Animation Workshop. For the second edition, one selected producer will receive a full scholarship in the amount of EUR 2,700. The aim of this year-long training is to provide tutoring in the field of content development, starting with consultancy on the script as well as artistic and production consultancy.

To give filmmakers an opportunity to move forward with their projects as well as to enhance their artistic skills and approaches, ANOMALIA will give a scholarship for one of its courses, the Character Design Lab. Since 2008, this professional training in animation has been inviting professionals from major world studios such as Pixar, Disney, Blue Sky, LucasArts, Aardman Animations, VALVE, and others.

Practise has shown that CEE authors seem to have a lack of experience with script writing. The newly established Pop Up Film Residency is launching a dozen of residency programmes in 2019, mostly in collaboration with various prestigious film initiatives such as Semaine de la Critique. One of the selected participants will be able to take part in this three-week residency to develop their animated project.

Following a successful partnership experience in 2018, CEE Animation and the European Animation Development Lab Animation Sans Frontières (ASF) continue the cooperation by granting a full scholarship in the amount of EUR 1,500 to one participant. Among traditional price awards, the Nespresso Audience Award goes to the winning project of the feature film category and EUR 1,000 in cash to the best projects of all three categories.

The organizers of CEE Animation have established new cooperation with the pitching and networking event Euro Connection (Clermont ISFF) and Warsaw Kids Film Forum – a pitching forum for films and television series aimed at the children’s market. The collaboration also continues with the Slovenian regional pitching forum AnimatekaPRO where the winning project receives direct access to the CEE Animation Forum. Looking ahead to the coming years, CEE Animation has started to discuss the opportunities together with MIFA Annecy and Animation Production Days in Stuttgart.

CEE Animation Forum (6th – 8th May 2019) takes place within the Anifilm International Festival of Animated Films (7th – 12th May 2019). CEE Animation is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and co-funded by national film funds and professional organisations from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.