21 film projects from 16 countries will be presented at the eight edition of When East Meets West, the Italian co-production forum taking place on January 21-23, 2018 in the frame of the Trieste Film Festival. This year WEMW will bring together more than 400 industry professionals from over 35 countries, particularly from the 2018 East & West spotlight territories: South East Europe (Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia) and the Nordic Countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden)

These are the production and development grants for the last sessions of 2017 announced by the Estonian Film Institute and the the Cultural Endowment of Estonia on 22 December 2017.

On Friday, 8 September, the shooting of the feature film debut My Last Year as a Loser by the director and screenwriter Urša Menart began. To the Slovenian film audience, Urša is best known for her documentaries There Once Was a Land of Hardworking People and What about Mojca? which address, in a comical manner, the issues of national identity and the relations between history and popular culture.

The 18^th edition of the New Horizons International Film Festival will take place in Wrocław, from 26th July to 5^th August 2018. The New Horizons International Competition — a platform where artistic cinema that extend the boundaries set by conventional filmmakers is presented — remains the core element of the festival. The Competition is a place for cinematic visionaries and uncompromising artists who have the courage to follow their own path in defiance of popular trends, expand the language of the cinema, and to talk about significant issues in their own, unique language.

The Competition includes innovative feature films, experimental, and animated productions that are longer than 60 minutes and have been produced after 1st of January 2017 (that have never been publicly screened in Poland). The Festival organizers prefer world-wide, international, and European premieres.

The winner of the New Horizons International Competition will be awarded the Grand Prix and a prize of 15,000 EUR. The Festival audience will be offering their award, too.

Submissions are now open at nowehoryzonty.pl and will be accepted until 25th of March 2018.

 

It's our pleasure to announce the open call for MIDPOINT Intensive Iceland 2018, which will take place March 10-11 during the Stockfish Film Festival in Reykjavík. Thanks to a new collaboration with the Icelandic Film Centre, Icelandic film professionals will be invited to develop their feature film projects with international tutoring.

This is the third time that MIDPOINT and the Stockfish Film Festival invite Icelandic film professionals and emerging filmmakers to this intensive workshop for feature films in early stages of development. The workshop is intended for teams of writers, directors and producers who are working on their 1st or 2nd features.

During an intensive 2-day workshop, 4 selected teams will develop their scripts and projects, both relying on group feedback and on one-to-one consulting with the tutor.

The tutor for the workshop will once again be Pavel Jech. In addition to being MIDPOINT’s artistic director, Pavel is a professor at Chapman University in California, the former dean of FAMU, and an active screenwriter, instructor of screenwriting and expert mentor for the Sundance Lab and Berlinale Talents.

We welcome the support of the Icelandic Film Centre – as well as that of the Stockfish Film Festival and Bio Paradis, Reykjavík's art-house cinema – and their commitment to securing script and project development at international level for their local film industry.

The project fee for participation is 100,00 EUR.

The deadline for applications is February 9, 2018.

In accordance with Iceland's Film Agreement, which establishes the industry's current policies and priorities, projects with women in key creative positions and those aimed at the children and youth markets are especially encouraged to apply.

If you have any further questions about this workshop or how to apply, please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Read more and apply here.

 

 

Attracting more than 200 film professionals, the industry conference Meeting Point – Vilnius is a part of Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris. Submissions for debuting filmmakers as well as established directors are open until February 1st. 

This year in its 23rd edition, Kino Pavasaris has become a vital destination for European filmgoers and filmmakers. The international film industry conference Meeting Point – Vilnius has become a part of the festival’s identity, establishing a milieu for finding and encouraging new talents.  

The essence of the conference is to serve as a starting point for valuable partnerships. Thus, the leading events are Coming Soon Session and private Industry Screenings. Here, upcoming features, documentaries and animated full-length films are presented to festival curators, film producers, agents and distributors.  

Many projects presented at Meeting Point – Vilnius continue to thrive in international film festivals and the distribution circuit. For instance, Arūnas Matelis documentary Wonderful Losers: A Different Worldhas won awards for best documentary at both Warsaw and Minsk festivals. Likewise, Falling by Marina Stepanska was nominated at Karlovy Vary and Stockholm; Miracle by Eglė Vertelytė was screened at Toronto International Film Festival. 

Earlier success stories of Meeting Point – Vilnius collaborations include the Academy Award nominee Tangerines by Zaza Urushadze and the Sundance-winning The Summer of Sangaile by Alantė Kavaitė. 

The submissions for the 9th international industry conference Meeting Point – Vilnius are open until February 1st. More information and submission form is at: bit.ly/MPVsubmissions

 

The 2018 edition of Kino Pavasaris will take place on March 19–29 in 5 biggest cities in Lithuania.