FILM SPRING OPEN 2012

FILM SPRING CHANNEL on YOU TUBE.

We are very happy to announce that we have just launched Film Spring Channel on YouTube, where the viewers will be able to see the effects of this year's Film Spring Open-Air 2012.

www.youtube.com/user/filmspringopen

Thanks to our making-of team from TVN Media School we have made a welcoming video of Sławomir Idziak introducing this year's Film Spring Open-Air (workshops and festival). The video is available at the following link:

Slawomir Idziak Film Spring Open

In addition, the channel contains documentaries (making-ofs) from the previous editions, which accurately reflect a creative atmosphere that prevails at Film Spring Open-Air.

This year, apart from a continuation of 3D workshops, documentary workshops, analyzing films made by outstanding filmmakers and developing a new work flow for low-budget films, we will show and learn a new way of filmmaking.

Interactive dramaturgy is the future of cinema. The viewer does not want to be just a passive observer, he wants to be active. Film Spring Open is looking for a new format of a film show and a new way to reach the viewer.

We hope that all films made at Film Spring Open-Air (the effect of our workshops) will reach millions of viewers around the world.

For more information about Film Spring Open-Air: www.filmspringopen.eu

BUCHAREST: Jesus del Cerro (Ho Ho Ho, The Bride Was Stolen, Ho Ho Ho 2: A Family Lottery) began filming the comedy Grandma together with producer Alma Sârbu and MediaPro Pictures (www.mediapropictures.com) on 1 April the 2012.

MEETINGS ON THE BRIDGE 2011

In its sixth year, the Meetings on the Bridge (MoB), aims at creating a platform, a meeting point for the film industry within the frame of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival. The programme continues to bring together Turkish and European producers, directors, scriptwriters and representatives of institutions to provide the opportunity for Turkish filmmakers to make the first international presentations of their feature film projects, and build a platform for co-productions.

Meetings on the Bridge is introducing the Turkish-German Co-Production Film Development Fund in collaboration with Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg and Hamburg Schleswig Holstein Funds and the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism,with a budget of 150.000 Euro .
In addition, for the first time, Turkish-French Co-production Meetings and meetings with Italian Filmmakers Meetings will take place.

The guests of this year's platform include Eric Garandeau, President of CNC; Marit van den Elshout, Head of Cinemart / Rotterdam Film Festival; Marten Rabarts, Artistic Director of Binger Lab; Claire Launay from ARTE; Mira Staleva from Sofia Film Lab; Roberto Olla, Executive Director - Eurimages; Savina Neirotti, Head of Torino Film Lab; Sonja Heinen, Head of Berlinale Co-production Market; Thibaut Bracq, Head of Paris Project; Katriel Schory, Head of Israel Film Fund; and award winning producers such as Cedomir Kolar (No Man's Land), Ilann Girard (Lebanon, Goodbye Bafana, March of the Penguins); and Stéphane Parthenay (Pyramid and co-producer of Three Monkeys).

Film Development Workshop, 13-14 April

The fourth Film Development Workshop, which receive great attention from cinema professionals, organised as part of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival will take place on April 13 and 14 this year.

The producers and directors of the 12 film projects selected from among the 99 projects submitted this year will be having one-to-one meetings with producers, distributors and the representatives of international institutions including Rotterdam Film Festival, Eurimages, ARTE, Cinemart, Binger Lab, Torino Film Lab, and Fortissimo Films. Through these meetings, directors and producers of the elected projects find the opportunity to make the preliminary preparations and spadework for international co-production workshops and markets they will be taking part in. They also get the chance to realize the initial contact with producers and distributors who are interested in their projects and perform their international presentations without leaving the country.

At the end of the meetings, two projects will receive the $10.000 Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism Development support, the 25.000 TL worth Melodika Post-Production Support, and 10.000 Euro CNC Support. For the first time this year, Dutch film institution Binger Lab will award a project with 2.500 Euro worth of Script Development Scholarship.

The award winning project of 2008, Zefir (Zephyr) by Belma Baş was completed in 2010 and it received the Artistic Achievement Award at the 51st Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Rajata Chakoram Award (Silver Crow Pheasant) in the 'Best Debut Film' category at the 15th Kerala International Film Festival. Zephyr continues the festival tour.

The shooting of Sesime Gel (Come to My Voice) by Hüseyin Karabey, that received the 2009 award, will start in October 2011 and the shooting of Babamın Sesi (Voice of My Father) by Orhan Eskiköy - Zeynel Doğan, one of the award winning projects of 2010, will start in May 2011. Another award winning project, Üst Kattaki Terörist (Terrorist Upstairs) by Emre Yeksan, is currently in script writing stage. Ebedi Uykusuz (Last Sleepless) by İlke Yeşilay, which was considered praiseworthy by the jury, received the 10,000 Euro support award of the Balkan Fund at the 51st Thessaloniki Film Festival.

The Film Development Workshop is frequented especially by European producers and distributors who wish to get informed on film projects and meet the filmmakers . This year, 14 film professionals will conduct meetings with the producers and directors of the projects .

Turkish-German Co-Production Film Development Fund
The Istanbul Film Festival - Meetings on the Bridge, in collaboration with Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg and Hamburg Schleswig Holstein Funds with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is proud to set up for the first time this year, the Turkish and German Co-production Development Fund. The foundations of the fund had been laid during the Turkish-German Co-Productions Panel conducted within the scope of the Meetings On The Bridge Platform of the 29th Istanbul Film Festival.

READ MORE>>>

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TURKISH FILM INDUSTRY 2010 REPORT

Following the international acclaim of several Turkish films and the growing share of Turkish Films at Turkey's box office numbers, Turkish film industry has become an interesting field to observe in the last few years. These developments have continued in 2010. In 2009 the number of new Turkish releases were 69. In 2010, this number slightly dropped to 65, however the number of admissions for Turkish films increased to 21,706,524, from 18,790,700. This was a crucial increase, after the sharp drop in 2009. In 2008 the number of admissions for Turkish Films was
23,074,291.

In 2009, the total number of admissions for Turkish and foreign releases was 36,899,954. In 2010 with an 11% increase, the total number of admissions reached 41,064,394. Turkish films share in the total admissions has reached 53%. In comparison to other countries, where there is no quota for foreign releases this is an unusually high share. However when one considers that in 2009 the total admissions in France, Germany, Poland and South Korea were 200,000,000, 146,000,000, 39,000,000 and 156,000,000 respectively, the relatively small size of Turkish market becomes more apparent. Still this also highlights the potential for growth.

The average admissions per Turkish films is 334,000. However when you study the box office numbers of each and every new Turkish film released, you observe that only the top 12 films were able to sell over 334,000 tickets, and top five Turkish hits shared the 62% of the admissions. These numbers tell us that, the increase in production and the increase in admissions are not really related processes in Turkish Cinema. The industry has been able to produce a few popular movies every year drawing millions to the theaters, however the general admissions level for less commercially oriented movies are able to reach to only a limited number of audience. The most striking example of this is Semih Kaplanoğlu's Bal (Honey), which won the Golden Bear in 2010. The film was released with 32 copies and barely reached 32,000 admissions. What is more disappointing is the fact that in the box office list for Turkish films in 2010, there are 29 more films under Bal. So out of the 65 Turkish films released, 45% were under 30,000 admissions.

This unequal distribution of admissions, raise important questions regarding the sustainability of growth of production and the development of the industry. One of the main reasons for such picture is that the distributors in Turkey, take minimum risk and leave almost all the distribution, PR and marketing expenses to the producer. Hence, they could easily distribute Turkish Films to support Turkish Cinema, even though if they don't expect any commercial gain. Sometimes for the distributor it is really difficult to find enough number of theaters, or to keep the film showing more than one or two weeks, but still many films are granted the chance to have a theatrical release and enter the annual statistics. Thanks to the highly risk averse practices of distributors in Turkey.

PLZEN: Some of the Czech Republic's leading filmmakers will be represented in the more than 20 films screening in the Finale Plzen documentary competition.

{mosimage}BUDAPEST: Mihaly Schwechtj is developing Heat, a black-comedy set in a small village an involving love, friendship, sex, lies and some pregnant goats.

Höség/Heat is produced by László Kántor with Új Budapest Filmstúdió Kft (www.ujbudapestfilmstudio.hu). The project was selected at Binger Filmlab (www.binger.nl) for development, at Cinelink-Sarajevo (http://www.sff.ba/en/cinelink), and it was on the short list of the Sundance Film Festival (http://www.sundance.org/festival/). Foreign coproducers are expected. Possible co-producers are Helena Danielson together with the Swedish HEPP Film (www.heppfilm.se), and John Keville together Conor Barry Irish producers –SPFilms, Kántor told FNE.

SPI International (www.spiintl.com) will launch Filmbox Live, consisting of live-streaming TV channels, in Turkey in June.

Domestic films claimed 44 percent of the Finnish market, with over one million admissions.

{mosimage}WARSAW: TVP and BBC will co-produce Spies in Warsaw, a series based on Alan Furst's bestselling novel.

The shoot for the first feature co-production made between Polish public broadcaster TVP (www.tvp.pl) and BBC (www.bbc.co.uk) will launch in Warsaw on 11 April 2012 and will take place only at Polish locations including Krakow.

MEDIA Mundus backing confirmed for joint programme by EFP, OMDC and TIFF

Successful PRODUCERS LAB TORONTO to be continued at 2012 Toronto International Film Festival

Crossing the Atlantic with their luggage full of cinematic ideas, 12 hand-picked and dynamic European producers will meet their 12 talented Canadian counterparts at the Toronto International Film Festival­, from September 5 - 8 to find joint film projects. The first two editions of PRODUCERS LAB TORONTO were so successful that almost all of the participants from 2010 and 2011 are in contact with one another and 27 projects are actively in development. Consequently, the MEDIA Mundus programme of the European Union has now confirmed financial backing of the platform for the third year running.

The forum is organized by European Film Promotion (EFP) in collaboration with the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) and TIFF and effectively pools the European and Canadian creative, technical and financial resources of the three organizations.

>>> Read full press release on www.efp-online.com

OUT OF COMPETITION EVENTS AT GDYNIA FILM FESTIVAL

At the beginning of April, the titles of films competing for Golden Lions at 37th Gdynia Film Festival will be announced. However, the celebration of Polish cinema in Gdynia does not boil down to competitions. Masterclasses, exhibitions, and the Independent Cinema Review are only some of many events prepared for this year...

The masterclass series introduced last year has received an exceptionally warm reception. It was a unique opportunity to hear directors analyze one scene from their films. Therefore, it is no surprise that during the 37th edition of the festival the audience will again have a chance to participate in film classes. This time, as part of the series Masterclass: the Anatomy of the Scene also other film professionals will accompany the invited directors. Juliusz Machulski and Kazimierz Kutz will be joined by their cinematographers: Witold Adamek and Jerzy Wójcik. Another masterclass will guest Michał Leszczyński, film editor regularly cooperating with Lukas Moodysson. Together with Andrey Tarkovskiy he has edited the last film made by the Russian director, The Sacrifice.

Polish masterpieces Nobody’s Calling and Squadron will be not only analyzed during masterclasses, but also screened in the Pure Classics section, which is dedicated to digitally remastered classic Polish films. Apart from the mentioned titles by Kutz and Machulski, the festival audience will have an opportunity to watch remastered films from the KinoRP Project: Krzysztof Zanussi’s Camouflage, Leon Buczkowski’s The Eagle and Tadeusz Chmielewski’s I Don’t Like Mondays. The classics series will be also a rare opportunity to attend a special screening of Young Girls of Wilko directed by Andrzej Wajda.

For the first time, apart from classic Polish movies the festival program includes the Unknown Pieces, a review of largely forgotten films directed by some of the greatest Polish film makers: Janusz Majewski’s The Office, Tadeusz Chmielewski’s Quiet Is the Night, two films by Stanisław Różewicz: Na melinę (To the Honky-tonk) and Beer as well as Yesterday in Fact by Jan Rybkowski.

Just like last year, also this time the festival audience will have an opportunity to take part in How It’s Made, a series of meetings with filmmakers whose films have been selected for the Main Competition. The participants will learn about tricks of the trade used in the featured pictures.

The program of the forthcoming festival will traditionally include the Independent Cinema Competition, in which the audience votes for their favourite film, as well as open-air screenings in Film From the Sea and Films from Gdynia series. The Polonica section will again feature foreign films made in cooperation with Polish film makers.

Apart from screenings, Gdynia Film Festival offers a series of events inspired by cinema. A of now, the organizers are already inviting all to see some noteworthy exhibitions.

The Film Museum in Łódź has prepared exhibitions dedicated to two great Polish directors. The first one, organized to celebrate Jerzy Hoffman’s eightieth birthday, was made together with the Zodiak Jerzy Hoffman Film Production Company and the National Film Archive in Warsaw. The second is devoted to Jerzy Kawalerowicz and will be accompanied by a multimedia presentation featuring interviews with actors, collaborators and friends of this one of the most acclaimed Polish directors.

Gdynia Music Theatre will show “Posters to Films That Were Never Made” by Andrzej Dudziński while in the Naval Musem, Henryk Pietkiewicz will once again present portrait photos of people from the Polish film industry.

Gdynia Film Festival does not forget about the youngest audience. Gdynia for Children section, prepared under the patronage of the Polish Filmmakers Association, will be also shown in nearby Polish cities: Elbląg, Tczew, Lębork and Cieplew. The other project addressed to children is called “Smile”. Marek Wysoczyński, author of the World Smile Archive, will collect “smiling” autographs from the participants of the 37th GFF on the special edition of the festival poster while little patients from Gdynia Hospital will draw smiling faces with the help of the Mayor of Gdynia Wojciech Szczurek and a special mystery guest.