Industry Days

Announcing our Industry Programme

We are pleased to announce the official industry programme line up for 53rd Karlovy Vary IFF. You can find complete information here.

The KVIFF Eastern Promises Industry Days take place between July 1-5, 2018 and we look forward to welcoming close to 1,000 film professionals.

This year we have decided to travel even farther eastward by expanding the territory of our Works and Docs in Progress to include promising talents from the Middle East in addition to the entire interesting region of Eastern Europe. We are now also including Works in Development: Feature Launch from the region of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurimages Lab Project Award.  

Highlights for this year:

• Works in Progress – selected projects in production and post-production
• Docs in Progress – selected documentary projects in late stage of production and post-production or just finished
• Works in Development: Feature Launch - selected projects ready for co-production
• Eurimages Lab Project – selected projects in production and post-production
• Artisans in Focus panel
• Artificial intelligence and script analysis: Predicting commercial and critical success for European and independent film
• How to win over Generation Z for European film?
• New Creative Europe programme post 2020
• Touch Me Not: The politics of intimacy – open debate
• Fostering international development – open roundtables with TorinoFilmLab
• Creative Sharing: An open debate with filmmakers

We are close to completing our on-line Film Industry Guide. Access to the List of Attendees will be sent to all accredited Film Proffesionals in the next edition of our Newsletter, along with the list of selected projects for this year’s edition.

We are looking forward to see you very soon at Karlovy Vary!

The 20th edition of connecting cottbus, the East-West co-production market at the FilmFestival Cottbus, is currently open for submissions. Ten pitch projects and five works in progress will be selected for coco 2018 to compete for a variety of awards.

For the newly founded Work in Progress section at coco, we are happy to welcome back our partner D-FACTO MOTION. The renowned post- production studio with branches in five major German cities and the latest high-end technology will sponsor the D-Facto Motion WiP Award of €35,000 in-kind services.

Our industry audience will vote for the best pitch to receive the coco Best Pitch Award, which includes accreditation to the Cannes Producers Network 2019 and a cash award towards development. This year, we present a new award from our partner MIDPOINT, a training and networking platform for script and project development. The MIDPOINT Consulting Award will consist of individual consultancy with MIDPOINT experts to further develop the winner's script and project.

Last but not least, we are proud to welcome our new sponsoring partner from Romania, AVANPOST, one of Eastern Europe’s most comprehensive post- production outfits, offering the Avanpost Pitch Packaging Award, including strategy consulting and storyboarding as well as production/post-production for a proof of concept.

Producers can submit their feature fiction film projects in development for the coco Pitch section until 18 July 2018, and projects in production or post- production for coco Work in Progress until 22 August 2018. The film project’s subject must be connected to Eastern Europe or the producer must be based in this region.

Producers, sales agents, commissioning editors and other industry representatives active in East-West European co-production can apply without a project by 5 October 2018.

The international event, held from March 19th to March 23rd at the Film and TV Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, introduced seven renowned filmmakers in addition to quality films. During the five-day program, they held masterclasses and discussions with participants.

A balanced program from the world of film production was presented by Haneke's long-term  editor Monika Willi, the favorite of world-wide film festivals Sergei Loznitsa, production designer of Cuarón´s ROMA Eugenio Caballero, cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, who has an Oscar nomination for Nebraska, Citizenfour cinematographer Kirsten Johnson and others.

The opening film of the event was the award-winning black and white film ROMA by Alfonso Cuarón. It was personally introduced by the film’s production designer, the Oscar-winning Eugenio Caballero. The Mexican filmmaker had a lecture on production design in film the next day, where he mentioned: „A production designer is one of the key figures in making a film. For me, production design is not an aesthetic discipline but a narrative. It's not just what it looks like, but the fact that everything we see on the screen is connected with the director's effort to tell the story. And finally, to feel emotions.”

The program continued with a lecture by Moroccan guest Hakim Belabbes, who explained the conditions for the creation of the Sahara Lab. This offers a chance for ambitious filmmakers in Morocco to study film. An important message that Hakim emphasized to the forum's visitors was: „I wasted so much time copying instead of bringing a personal message. I didn't find the message in the movies of other directors, in the theoretical books, but in the voice of my mother, my children, and the moments of silence on my way home."

Wednesday evening ended with the screening of the film Cameraperson, which was personally presented by producer, cinematographer and documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson. The screening was followed by a discussion during which American filmmaker was not afraid to come among participants and ask questions. The intensive interactive discussion attracted the audience, who also came to see her masterclass the following day. Kirsten Johnson ended the masterclass with a social experiment, where participants in the cinema were gazing intently into the eyes of another participant for two minutes. Kirsten: „Director of photography shouldn't be afraid to watch, observe, keep eye contact. Sometimes it is uncomfortable to see and be seen. Such fear and shame should not be present when filming a movie. By visualizing we will learn more than by talking, by using words.”

The rest of the day belonged to the Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, whose lecture brought a number of interesting starting points for shooting. In the evening he presented his film The Trial at Cinema Lumiére, where he was also awarded with the Prize for the contribution to auteur cinema by the Association of Slovak Film Clubs. Sergei Loznitsa says: „I think that the future of film can be in archives. With technology, cinema can also go in this direction.”

Friday began with a masterclass on the distribution of short and feature films. This was led by a sales agent from Poland, Marcin Łuczai who is working for New Europe Film Sales. In the evening, Haneke's long-term editor, Monika Willi, came to present her masterclass on the creation of a material story. In the evening, she personally presented Untitled, which she completed after the death of the director Michael Glawogger. Willi: „Michael Haneke has a movie in his head before he stars shooting. He wants to cut chronologically, and the first cut design is created during filming when daily materials come. Unlike other directors, who, on the contrary, collect all the material and want the best of the film to appear in the editing room.”

Saturday's program was dedicated to the director of photography Phedon Papamichael. In addition to a masterclass in the evening, he personally introduced the film Nebraska by director Alexander Payne, that got 6 Oscar nominations. Papamichael: „The most important benefit of a film school is to find your director, your group and the collaborators you can work with after school."

The filmmakers themselves and the school representatives came to present the student projects. In the discussion after screenings, students talked about the films themselves, as well as the conditions in which the films were made.

Visegrad Film Forum 2019
Date: 19th – 23rd of March 2019
Place: Bratislava, Slovakia
Venues: Film and TV Faculty VŠMU, Cinema Lumière

web: http://www.visegradfilmforum.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisegradFilmForum
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vffbratislava/
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mpj2r4K88c

Organized by: Boiler NGO
Co-organized by: Film and TV Faculty VŠMU
Financial support: International Visegrad Fund, Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Nadácia SPP

Partner schools:  FTF VŠMU Bratislava, WRiTV Katowice, UTB Zlín,  SZFE Budapest, KNUTCT Kiev, BFM Tallin, Sahara Lab a UNATC Bucharest

On Wednesday, 20 March, the shooting of the new live-action feature Deadlock by the writer and director Vinko Möderndorfer began in Seča in the Slovenian Littoral. Most of the film, however, will be shot in Ljubljana and in the Viba Film Studio.   

The story describes an encounter between two married couples from the opposite ends of the social scale, which, at first glance, seem to have nothing in common. However, an accident and a tragic event bring these people together fatefully in a single night and most likely until the rest of their lives.

Möderndorfer had the following to say about his new film: "We live in the times when the absence of any empathy in interpersonal relations is one of the most pressing issues all over the world. The brutal and ruthless capitalism tears people and their relationships apart from day to day, pushing the world into a war of everyone against everybody else. Empathy, compassion, attention towards our nearest and dearest, the capacity to feel the pain of others – all of this seems to be vanishing from the face of the world. I think it is important to tell a story in which human relations can live fully again and where the sympathy and sensitivity for others are once again established as an important value of today's civilisation. The world in which we live is in a deadlock. We are stuck in a sort of a civilisational standstill that will be impossible to get out of without understanding each other and observing the fundamental human and humanist values.«

Starring Mirjam Korbar, Peter Musevski, Uroš Fürst and Barbara Cerar. Co-starring: Ivo Ban, Klemen Kovačič, Mila Fürst, Benjamin Krnetič, Branko Završan, and others.

Producer: Eva Rohrman; director of photography: Mitja Ličen; editor: Andrija Zafranović; production designer: Dušan Milavec; costumes designer: Alenka Korla; makeup designer: Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska; sound recordist: Peter Žerovnik; sound designer: Julij Zornik; production manager: Matija Kozamernik.

The film is produced by Forum Ljubljana, co-produced by Delirium from Serbia, and co-financed by the Slovenian Film Centre and Film Center Serbia. The realisation was made possible by Viba Film Studio.

The producer of the film Eva Rohrman also revealed that she expects additional co-producers and co-financers to take part in the project in the course of the production, but the final decisions regarding this issue have not yet been reached.  

Vinko Möderndorfer wrote and directed three internationally-renowned and award-winning live-action features (Suburbs, 2004; Landscape No. 2, 2008; Inferno, 2014), all of which have premiered and been screened at the most prestigious A-list film festivals: Venice, Montreal, Karlovy Vary, Cannes, Busan, Tallinn, etc., and have won numerous awards at home and abroad.

Vinko Möderndorfer belongs among the most renowned Slovenian artists. His extensive opus includes more than a hundred theatre and opera directions, sixteen TV directions, and a hundred radio plays. He has written more than seventy books and forty dramas. He has received more than forty awards in the fields of literature, drama, theatre, television, and radio, including the Prešeren's Fund Award, the Župančič Award, several Borštnik Awards, the Marjan Rožanc Award, several Grum Awards, the Ježek Award, several awards for best comedy, the Cup of Immortality, the Večernica Award, several Desetnica Awards, and other important acknowledgements.

The film crew dedicated the beginning of the shooting to the recently deceased Slovenian director Polona Sepe.

The 20th edition of the Bratislava International Film Festival will open its doors in less than one month. The days between 29 November and 2 December 2018 will offer a generous selection of quality titles made by the best of young contemporary cinema. The Bratislava city cinemas Lumière and Mladosť will welcome the audience with a pleasant atmosphere and bring innovative perspectives on the world and being in it. After last year's success the festival will present part of its programme in three cinemas outside of the capital as well; Kino Mier in Modra, Kino Záhoran in Malacky and Artkino Metro in Trenčín.

The backbone of the festival is again the Fiction Competition designated for first and second feature films. For example, the audience can look forward to José (2018), the second film by the American director Li Cheng and winner of the Queer Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. José follows the story of a young homosexual man looking for love and emotional fulfilment in the environment of one of the poorest and most dangerous countries in the world, Guatemala, where the director lived for two years. Li Cheng’s name will resound the festival’s screening rooms for the second time already, as in 2014 he personally visited with his film Joshua Tree.

This year’s East of the West and FEDEORA awards of the International Film Festival Karlovy Vary went to the Russian director Elizaveta Stishova and her distinctive debut Suleiman Mountain (Suleimangora, 2017). Set in Kyrgyzstan, the film follows a bizarre story of a man (a gambler, habitual drinker, brute and cheater, but also a father and a husband of two women) living on the fringe of the society. His semi-nomadic way of life in a van with two wives, one rediscovered son and another – yet unborn one, as well as constant frustration, restlessness, uncertainty, mystique and shamanism create a captivating and engaging drama with elements of comedy and encourage the viewer to think about the numerous unanswered questions it poses.

Next in the Fiction Competition is Blind Spot (Blindsone, 2018), a directorial debut of Tuva Novotny, a Swedish actress and daughter of the Czech director Dávid Ján Novotný. The film was screened and awarded at the 66th San Sebastian International Film Festival. The category will also present Cutterhead (2018) by the Danish filmmaker Rasmus Kloster Bro, combining elements of drama and action thriller, as well as Sofia (2018) by the Moroccan director Meryem Benm’ Barek.

Another section of the Bratislava IFF programme will comprise three films nominated for the LUX Prize 2018, which has been awarded by the European Parliament since 2007. Its goal is to popularize original European film production and incite the EU citizens to discuss European values and identity.

This year’s section will present the film Styx (2018) by the Vienna-born director Wolfgang Fischer. Its story begins as a workaday life of a successful paramedic, who embarks on her dream yachting voyage. A violent storm on the sea changes the idyll into cruel reality, as she finds herself in the middle of nowhere with nothing in sight but a sinking vessel filled with dozens of refugees. No assistance is coming and she must decide and act on her own. The Serbian director Mila Turajlid and the story of her family in the documentary film The Other Side of Everything (Druga strana svega, 2017) give us an insight into the turbulent political events taking place in Serbia. The Belgian filmmaker Lucas Dhont deals with the question of transgender identity in his feature debut Girl (2018), telling the story of a 15-year-old Lara, who loves and studies dance at a prestigious Belgian dance academy. However, every day on a path towards becoming a ballet dancer is a fight. Lara

Bratislava International Film Festival, Lovinskeho 18, 811 04 Bratislava, Slovak Republic, tel.: +421 2 54 410 673 - 74, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.bratislavaiff.sk/en/

seeks the courage to be herself and works relentlessly on her male body, which is the biggest obstacle to the fulfilment of her dream.

The Bratislava International Film Festival acts as a platform where the general viewing public, cinephiles as well as film professionals from Slovakia and abroad meet and interact. Ever since its establishment in 1999, it has been developing its identity of a young cinema festival and event aiming to discover new names and future stars of contemporary film.

For the latest updates on the programme of the 20th Bratislava International Film Festival, please visit our official website at www.bratislavaiff.sk/en or our official Facebook account at www.facebook.com/bratislavaiff/.

20th BRATISLAVA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 29 November - 02 December 2018

Kino Lumière, Kino Mladosť Kino MIER Modra, Kino Záhoran Malacky, Artkino METRO Trenčín

Main Organiser: Partners Production

The Bratislava International Film Festival is held with the generous financial support of: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, The Bratislava Self-Governing Region

Main partners: Slovenská elektrizačná prenosová sústava, Transpetrol

COME, SEE, EXPERIENCE!

Between 29 November and 2 December 2018, the Bratislava cinemas Lumière and Mladosť will brim with extraordinary films from all around the globe. The Bratislava International Film Festival is here with its attractive programme sections designated to showcase the finest of world cinema. A special status was given to the topic of women in society and cinema, which is reflected in this year’s section Lexicon, as well as in the festival spot and visual identity.

The curators of the section Lexicon: Female gaze, festival programmer Tomáš Hudák and the director of this year’s festival spot Ivana Hucíková, have focused on the status of women in cinema, their portrayal in film, and the uniqueness of a woman’s experience. The topic also served as inspiration for the festival spot. The half-minute video is a montage of films directed mainly by women filmmakers. Their protagonists are women of different colour, appearance, age, and character in various life situations. In the background, we can hear the voice of the musician Katarzia, who’s asking: “Do you think we can’t change anything, because we’re just women?”, a lyric excerpt from the song Dolls Are Killing Each Other,found on her new album Antigona, on which Katarzia (Katarína Kubošiová) cooperated with Pjoni (Jonatán Pastirčák). “The past year has been - not only in the cinema - the year of #MeToo, and that is part of why we’ve decided to reflect on the status of women in society and cinema. We have chosen the topic of female gaze as opposed to the male gaze, identified by the film theorist Laura Mulvey. In the section we give space to women authors, we try to bring attention to the female experience, which is – in film as well as the society – often overlooked, reflect on how women were and are depicted in film and remind that there is no such thing as male and female genres,” say the curators. “It is, however, not just about this one section. Five out of the eight films in the Fiction Competition have been shot by female directors and even other sections will present films disrupting the male gaze hegemony "

One of these is a debut by the Cypriot director, screenwriter and producer Tonie Mishiali Pause (Pafsi, 2018). The story draws us into the monotonous life of a not so happily married Elpida (Greek for hope), a middle-aged woman living in a patriarchal, conservative-oriented society with a despotic husband. Beau travail (1999) is a work of the French director Claire Denis, inspired by Herman Melville’s novel Billy Budd. The story centres around Sergeant Galoup, who is trying to destroy his subordinate Gilles Sentain. Through the main storyline, the director reveals her idea about the life of soldiers. The female gaze is amplified by Denis’ long-time director of photography Agnès Godard, presenting the images of male strength and beauty, but also their weakness. A sexist view of women and their depiction in film is reflected in Diego Galán’s documentary film Barefoot in the Kitchen (Con la pata quebrada, 2013). The Spanish director captures the often funny, but also tearfully stereotypical scenes from selected Spanish films made from 1930s up to now.

The popular section Cinema Now brings an overview of the most remarkable films of the season. Its curators, Nenad Dukid and Tomáš Hudák, have assembled the most interesting movies that have stirred the waters of world’s major festivals. For 20 years, the Bratislava IFF has been supplying the Slovak film public with names, which often become stars of the screen.

Forbidden love in Kenya is a subject-matter developed by the director Wanuri Kahiu and her film Rafiki (2018). Homophobia, coming-out, misunderstanding and refusing love from the people of the same sex, but also joy is what we explore through the story of two daughters of competing politicians. Kena is a smart student whose ambition is to become a nurse, although she could very well aspire to be a doctor. Her best friend Blacksta, a pal from street soccer, games and life in

Bratislava International Film Festival, Lovinskeho 18, 811 04 Bratislava, Slovak Republic tel.: +421 2 54 410 673, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.bratislavaiff.sk

general, secretly awaits the day when Kena will become his wife. However, she’s only got eyes for the extravagant Ziki and her dreadlocks. The film was banned in Kenya, but the spectator community of Cannes festival received it warmly.

Fans of Vanessa Paradis can look forward to Knife + Heart (Un couteau dans la coeur, 2018). She portrays the main protagonist Anne, a lesbian producer of gay porn at the end of 1970s in Paris, going through a breakup with her long-time partner. The French director Yann Gonzalez makes her existential crisis even deeper, when a serial killer appears and starts murdering the actors from Anne's films. Sombreness taking turn with relieving humour, dark atmosphere and shots, a mix of genres, neon lights and captivating soundtrack by M83 give the film strength and a sense of mystique.

The daring documentary Putin’s Witnesses (Svideteli Putin, 2018) clarifies the situation which arose at the turn of 1999 and 2000. The new Russian President is Vladimir Putin. One of the members in his closest team is the documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, whose task is to record the President during his office hours. In his outraged film the director offers the viewer first-hand information – his archive footage, authentic images, testimonies and statements shedding light on one of the world's most central policymakers and the early stages of his tyrannical government. The film had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary IFF, where it won the Best Documentary award.

The Bratislava IFF will also present the awaited biographical film by the director and scriptwriter David Lowery. The Old Man &The Gun (2018) is the last film ever to star Robert Redford. After 60 years of acting, the 82-year-oldstar of the screen decided to round offhis career with the role of a 70-year-old bank robber Forrest Trucker, who has managed to escape from prison 17 times. Now he could finally enjoy retirement, but he cannot seem to resist the temptation and organize another bank robbery.

The Bratislava International Film Festival acts as a platform where the general viewing public, cinephiles as well as film professionals from Slovakia and abroad meet and interact. Ever since its establishment in 1999, it has been developing its identity of a young cinema festival and event aiming to discover new names and future stars of contemporary film.

For the latest updates on the programme of the 20th Bratislava International Film Festival, please visit our official website at www.bratislavaiff.sk/en or our official Facebook account at www.facebook.com/bratislavaiff/.

20th BRATISLAVA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 29 November - 02 December 2018

Kino Lumière, Kino Mladosť Kino MIER Modra, Kino Záhoran Malacky, Artkino METRO Trenčín

Main Organiser: Partners Production

The Bratislava International Film Festival is held with the generous financial support of: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, the Bratislava Self-Governing region

Main partners: Slovenskáelektrizačnáprenosovásústava, Transpetrol

COME, SEE, EXPERIENCE!