{mosimage}BUDAPEST: The Hungarian film industry is pinning its hopes for the 2011 box office on two December releases in a year that saw the market share for domestically produced films at only 3-4% during the first 11 months.

{mosimage}TALLINN: A documentary film, The New World (Uus Maailm) directed by Jaan Tootsen, has won the best film of 2011 prize from the Estonian Association of Film Journalists.Estonian public broadcaster EFF quoted leading film critic Jaan Ruus saying of the film, "It shows there is a need for something natural and completely earnest, and 'Uus Maailm' is a quest for an alternative lifestyle. We need that kind of idealism."

East Doc Platform | Prague | March 5 – 11, 2012

East European Forum, Doc Launch, East Silver Videolibrary, Project Market


Institute of Documentary Film would like to invite all members of the international professional community to the inaugural edition of the new East Doc Platform - an umbrella industry event dedicated to supporting East European documentary films in all stages of completion. Organized by IDF in association with One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival from March 5 through 11, 2012, the East Doc Platform features our staple events, such as the East European Forum, Doc Launch presentation, Project Market, as well as the new East Silver Videolibrary with a fresh portion of spring documentary titles. In addition to that, the diverse industry programme is being composed, offering master classes, case studies, lectures, seminars, discussions, screenings and more, while providing documentary professionals with important networking opportunities.

The option to get accredited for the Industry programme is now open. Majority of the East Doc Platform programme in Prague will be open for accredited professionals only, so we suggest you register online before it is late. You are safe & sound if you do so by February 9, 2012.

Since 2012, East Silver brings out new documentary films from the Central and Eastern European region twice a year! After the 8th edition took place in October in Jihlava, the video library with fresh titles will be open soon again within the East Doc Platform in March in Prague. This is the reason why submissions for the upcoming 9th Jihlava edition are open all year round. However, if you submit your film by January 10, 2012, your film will be considered for the new East Silver Videolibrary in Prague.

We are happy to see the interest many Eastern European professionals show as we received nearly 130 projects applying for East European Forum, Doc Launch presentation, and Project Market. The board of experts is now preselecting the most suitable ones to participate at the spring session in Prague. IDF will announce the final pick in the early February.

Project Market will once again allow the delegates with eligible documentary projects meet individually with commissioning editors, distributors, sales agents, fund and festival representatives from across Europe and North America. Since we have prolonged our deadline, you can still apply for Project Market by January 15. The market coordinator is already at your disposal, you may direct your questions and meeting requests to
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Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Institute of Documentary Film, www.DOKweb.net


Strasbourg, 16.12.2011 - At its 125th meeting, held from 13 to 15 December 2011 in Paris, the Board of Management for the Council of Europe's Eurimages Fund agreed to support the co-production of 18 feature films for a total amount of 5 850 000 Euros:


Arrêtez-moi - Jean-Paul Lilienfeld (France)


(Luxembourg, France, Belgium)


Giraffada - Rani Massalha (France - Palestinia)


(France, Germany, Italy)


Heaven on Earth - Pieter Kuijpers (Netherlands)


(Netherlands, Belgium)


NightFall in India - Chema Rodriguez (Spain)


(Spain, Romania)


Camiel Borgmann - Alex van Warmerdam (Netherlands)


(Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark)


August Fools - Taru Makela (Finland)


(Finland, Norway, Czech Republic)


Run and Jump - Steph Green (United States of America - Ireland)


(Ireland, Germany)


Cold of Kalandar - Mustafa Kara (Turkey)


(Turkey, Hungary)


Mamac - Aida Begic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)


(Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, France, Turkey)


Die Andere Heimat - Edgar Reitz (Germany)


(Germany, France)


The Prize Idiot - Hans Petter Moland (Norway)


(Norway, Sweden, Denmark)


The Last Days - Alex Pastor (Spain), David Pastor (Spain)


(Spain, France)


When Day Breaks - Goran Paskaljevic (Serbia)


(France, Serbia, “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”)


Provizoriu - Cristian Mungiu (Romania)


(Romania, France, Belgium)


Song of the Sea - Tomm Moore (Ireland) Animation film


(Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Denmark)


Le Bleu est une couleur chaude - Abdellatif Kechiche (France)


(France, Belgium, Spain)


Banished from the Heavens - Andrei Schwartz (Germany) Documentary


(Germany, Romania)


My Little One – Ayka - Sergey Dvortsevoy (Russia)


(Germany, Russia)


EURIMAGES is a support fund for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinematographic works, established by the Council of Europe in 1988 (E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – Web: http://www.coe.int/Eurimages) (*).


Since it was set up in 1988, EURIMAGES has supported 1420 European co-productions for a total amount of approximately 429 million euros.


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(*) Since 18 October 2011, EURIMAGES has 36 member states: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and Turkey.


Council of Europe Directorate of Communication

Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 25 60

Fax:+33 (0)3 88 41 39 11

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.coe.int

BUDAPEST: The scripts submitted to the new Hungarian National Film Fund (MNF, www.filmalap.hu) in its first round have been described as “disappointing” by MNF chief Agnes Havas and Hungary’s Film Commissioner Andy Vajna.

By the end of November, the most successful Hungarian film among the premieres of 2011 reached about 20.000 viewers in the cinemas. The film Vad Magyarország (Wild Hungary) is a 50 minutes long nature film premiered in April, its success is mainly due to the schools that took their pupils to the screenings. It’s unprecedented that a nature film shot for television reaches the top rank at the national box office, but this year almost totally lacked the premieres of commercial Hungarian movies.

The Hungarian National Film Fund (MNF, www.filmalap.hu) discussed its first experiences with film professionals on an open debate in Budapest, on 13th December 2011. The new support body, that took the duties of the Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation (www.mmka.hu, being under closure for half a year), made its call for grants at the end of September.

Sofia/London, 19 December 2011 - SPI TV Ltd. UK, an SPI International Group company announced today the closure of a contract with the Bulgarian Direct-To-Home platform, Satellite BG operating from one of the most popular ASTRA orbital positions, namely ASTRA 23.5 East, also used by the Czech and Slovak CS Link, Skylink, the Czech T-Mobile TV and the Dutch Canal Digitaal.

Satellite BG will launch the SPI channel bouquet called Filmbox Package consisting of eight unique HD channels: Filmbox HD, Filmbox Action HD, Fightbox HD, Docubox HD, Fashionbox HD, Erox HD, Eroxx HD and Eroxxx HD. The bouquet will enrich the existing HD offer available to Satellite BG customers in Bulgaria.

"Our cooperation with the SPI International Group will allow us to provide our customers with completely new channels in HD technology and possibly 3D in the future. The Filmbox Package offers a variety of attractive programming bringing our viewers fresh movie channels, documentaries, lifestyle and erotic content. We are also very excited to be the first European operator to launch Fightbox HD, which presents 32 different contact sports including MMA, Muai Thai, Karate and Sumo" - said Stefan Bonev, Satellite BG Chief Operating Officer.

"Bulgaria is the sixth country (after Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania) in Central and Eastern Europe in the SPI International Group's portfolio of key markets in this region. We are proud to become a business partner of such an important and innovative media platform developing its project so rapidly" - stated Loni Farhi, the SPI International Group President. "This contract plays an important role in our dynamic geographical expansion in Europe" - Mr. Farhi added.

About SATELLITE BG AD

Satellite BG AD is a company with its primary business being Direct-to-home (DTH) satellite operations. Its package includes more than 60 Standard and 20 High Definition channels. Satellite BG offers exclusive content, value added services, high quality of service and good customer relationships.

About SPI International Group

SPI International Group with offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest is a leading film and television content provider operating in the area of theatrical, DVD and VOD distribution as well as production and distribution of Pay-TV channels. SPI International offers 32 film and thematic channels in Europe only. With more than 2,000 movies, TV series and thousands of hours of other programming presented in the company's extremely diverse portfolio, SPI International owes its success to strong alliances with such respected film and television industry partners as Focus Features, The Weinstein Company, Summit Entertainment, Studio Canal, Pathé, Lakeshore Entertainment, Wild Bunch, Beta Film, Fremantle Media and many others.

For further information please contact:

Lukasz Bulka

SPI Marketing & PR Director

+48 512 097 546

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Documentary and Fiction Feature Projects

Between November 25 - 28, EEFA Training Network has organized the fourth and last workshop of this year, Legal and Distribution Matters Workshop in Tallinn, in partnership with PÖFF Black Nights Film Festival.

The teams of the seven documentary and eight fiction features from European and Non-European countries, have benefited from the teachings of our experts, lead by Head of Studies Catherine Buresi, Co-director of the Berlinale European Film Market: Legal Expert Dirk Poppendieck and Distribution Expert Marta Lamperova, Content Expert Jacques Laurent, co-founder of Télévision Du Monde and Capnetwork Belgium, Production Expert Patrice Vivancos, and Visiting Expert Dorota Roszkowska, from the Dragon Forum - International Academy of Document.

The trainers interacted with the participating producers both in group sessions and in one to one meetings, and discussed key aspects in the domain of legal and distribution matters concerning film: what is a contract, what is a co-production, author rights and copyright, what means to be "owner of rights", where to sell a film, sales agents, MG, territories, all rights, TV channels (what and how they buy films and documentaries). Also, at the request of the participating legal and distribution representatives of the 15 projects, Dr. Dirk Poppendieck held an extra session of Legal Training.

Evenings were dedicated to business activities, networking and viewings at the PÖFF Black Nights Film Festival.

At the end of the workshop, all participants sustained a two part pitching session: one for documentaries, one for fiction projects, juried by the panel of EEFA Training Network experts.

After the deliberation, the projects nominated for awards from EEFA were Georgian documentary project "See you in Chechnya" by director/producer Alexander Kvatashidze (founder of Lokokina production studio), Turkish fiction project "Circle" - represented by producer Derya Tarim (founder of Lacivert Film Company), Croatian documentary "Far Encounters" - represented by producer Dijana Mladenovic (founder of Kinematograf production company), Hungarian fiction project "Lemon Juice and Indigo" - represented by producer Judit Stalter (from LAOKOON FILMGROUP production company) and "Seaburners"- another Turkish fiction feature project, represented by producer Yamaç Okur (founder of Bulut Film production company)

The partnership between EU and non-EU countries has been a very successful one during the whole EEFA training network year of 2011, bringing together a diversity of cultural projects and organizers in a collaborative endeavor that will surely prove successful in the next steps of the development of all projects involved.

East European Film Alliance is a consortium of eleven countries coordinated by the Romanian Film Sector and has for 2011 the following partners: HAVC (Croatian Audiovisual Center)- Croatia, IFF Molodist (Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist) - Ukraine, ALTFilm (ALTFilm) - Moldova, ASA (Ankara Cinema Association) - Turkey, BNFC (Bulgarian National Film Center ) and GEOPOLY (Geopoly Film) - Bulgaria, IFF Moscow (Moscow International Film Festival) - Russia, PÖFF Tallinn (PÖFF - Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival ) - Estonia, LNFC - National Film Centre of Latvia, Georgian National Film Center - Georgia and State Film Fund from Ministry of Culture and Tourism Azerbaijan.

Alongside our partners, the initiative is supported this year by Media Mundus.

For all other information, please access http://eefa-eu.org/

or send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


CONTACT

Project Coordinator

CATALIN LEESCU

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Mobile +40 753 125 237

EEFA Legal Representative and Financial Coordinator

DANIEL BADEA

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Mobile: +4 0722 601 753

Project Manager

RUXANDRA CERNAT

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Mobile: +40 722 628 012

Online Manager

SORINA DIACONU

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Mobile: +4 0722 84 48 87

Project Assistant

C.OANA A. VENAT-DUMITRIU

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Tel/fax: +40 21 320 60 72