Prague, May 7, 2010 - The 63rd Cannes International Film Festival is set to run from May 12 to 23, 2010, and Czech cinema is going to be there. In 2009, a total of 9,907 participants from 101 countries around the world were accredited at the Cannes film market, the Marché du Film. This year, some 70 film professionals (producers, distributors, journalists, representatives of film institutions and festivals) representing Czech cinema are hitting the road to Cannes for the festival and market. The Czech Republic will once again be represented by Czech Film Center, which will be on hand to present contemporary Czech films and industry news in its pavilion.

Europa Distribution

Europa Distribution is the voice of independent distributors.

Since its foundation in 2006, the body has become one of the fastest growing trade organisations in the film industry, now representing 80 distributors in 22 countries.

The last twelve months have seen successive Hollywood 3D blockbusters (Avatar, Up, Alice in Wonderland) taking cinema fairly and squarely into the digital age. While there is no doubt that these films have been largely responsible for an upswing in the number of digital cinemas in Europe, their success has also heightened concern among smaller cinema operators, for whom the costs of digital conversion may be prohibitive. Linked to this issue is the fear that European films will be "squeezed out" of many cinemas by a tide of US 3D blockbusters. Faced with this development, public bodies at the European, national, regional and local levels are trying to come up with solutions to support the transition, with varying degrees of success. But as with state aid of any sort, these champions of cultural diversity must run the gauntlet of competition law. The European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe, has just published a new IRIS plus report entitled Digital Cinema which focuses on these issues. The author of the leading article of this brand new report, Francisco Cabrera, will be present at the Cannes film market. During the Observatory's "Digital cinema tango" conference on the 16th of May, Cabrera will make a presentation on the subject of this report.

The Institute of Documentary Film is announcing a call for articles to be posted on DOKweb.net. In order to open up our portal to a broad variety of topics and views, we invite filmmakers, producers, industry insiders, students and other documentary professionals to send in their documentary-related texts. We're looking forward to reading your submissions!

Documentary in Europe is an annual event focusing on the current state of European documentary film. The event combines an international pitching forum, match making sessions, screenings, seminars and master classes. It all takes place on July 7-10 in the beautiful mounting village Bardonecchia, close to Turin, Italy. Submission deadline is May 12, 2010.

Dear friends,

We are happy to announce, that it is the 10th anniversary of the Estonian Film Foundation in Cannes!
In celebration, we are bringing to you again a reliable line-up of four new Estonian features to be screened at Marche du Film 2010. You are of course most welcome to take a look.
We could be found in Palais Riviera, stand E12, like always. The stand is called Baltic Films.

HungariCom is attending the Cannes Film Market between the 12th and 20th of May 2010.

LINE UP CANNES 2010

Film Europe is an established distribution and production company specializing in world sales of high quality cinema and TV programs with an international market potential, representing also Slovak and Czech Producer's Associations.

Coproductions from Slovakia, Turkey, Hungary and Poland are slated to roll into production backed by grants from Eurimages as well as funding from their own ministries of culture totaling more than 1.5m Euros. Dom directed by Slovakia director and scriptwriter Zuzana Liova which was awarded 150 000 Euros started a 40 day shoot in March in Slovakia and Poland. The film is a Czech Slovak coproduction. (See FNE production profile 31 March 2010)