The initiatives of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, Script Pool Tallinn and POWR Baltic Stories Exchange focusing on scriptwriting, announced selected projects - including participants from Chile, Turkey, Faroe Islands, Spain, Russia as well as Nordic and Central European countries, attending the programmes this year. 

The seventh Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) ended on Sunday 25 October. This year, the festival lineup consisted of 129 films in 10 thematic programs and was presented in a new format – films were available for viewing in person as well as online across Latvia. Viewers in Riga, Jurmala, Ogre, Liepaja and Valmiera used the festival's online screenings most frequently. Ivan I. Tverdovsky’s drama Conference (Konferentsiya, Russia), a film about overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder over the course of many years and coming to terms with a tragic event, won the festival's feature film competition's main prize.

Art can imitate life’s complex and idiosyncratic stories in many ways, making them emotionally resonant for audiences throughout the world and their messages universally recognizable. But it can also heighten the terrifying mundanity of mankind’s many dark hours to the extent that the cinematic handling of the real stories about the many fallacies of human nature can become art itself. This is only one of numerous cultural and social issues director Andrew Levitas tackles in his sophomore feature Minamata, a gruesome tale of the legendary war photographer W. Eugene Smith’s artistic war against the negligence of a powerful corporation dumping toxic chemicals to a river nearby Japanese city of Minamata. Smith’s trail of tears to document the effects mercury poisoning had on the people was captured in beautiful yet artistic and subtle tones by the famed cinematographer Benoît Delhomme, producing yet another film that is visually astounding and emotionally evocative at the same time.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival sub-festival announces 115 titles across five different competition as PÖFF Shorts (17th-25h November 2020) celebrates its first year of being an Academy Award qualifying festival.

The 2020 edition of PÖFF Shorts, an official sub-festival of the A-List Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, has revealed the films which will be part of its six competitions. More than 110 short films and animations will be screened between 17th and 25th November both online and in cinemas.

Nearly 40 Hungarian artists, graphic designers, illustrators, animation directors displayed how they perceive the freelancing lifestyle in an online exhibition entitled “Like fish in the sea”. The event was organized by Balka and was presented at Design Week Budapest. The title of the project derives from a Hungarian proverb which roughly translates to “sound as a roach” meaning someone feels alright and lives a carefree life. 

The six-day online workshop of the MIDPOINT Shorts program starts on Sunday, October 18 and runs through the week till Friday, October 23.

The intensive work of 8 selected filmmakers with script consultant Pavel Marek and producer tutor Marija Razgute will be enriched by the presence of guest tutors. 

Participants will start their pitching training with Gabriele Brunnenmeyer, who will also give her lecture How To Pitch Your Film: 6 Questions for the Pitch. 

Head of When East Meets West Co-production Forum Alessandro Gropplero will join the workshop with his lecture A Short Journey Through Co-production Markets.

36th Warsaw Film Festival awards announcement was made on Saturday afternoon, October 17th, 2020, at Multikino Złote Tarasy in Warsaw.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION Jury:
Liana Ruokyte-Jonsson, Lithuania
Robert Gliński, Poland
Visar Morina, Kosovo / Germany

gave the following awards:

Warsaw Grand Prix: 18 Kilohertz by Farkhat Sharipov, Kazachstan

Best Director Award: Martin Šulík for The Man with Hare Ears / Muž se zaječíma ušima, Czechia / Slovakia

Special Jury Award went to the actors Bogdan Farkas & Dragos Dumitru in the film Unidentified / Neidentificat by Bogan George Apetri, Romania

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18 Kilohertz

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COMPETITION 1-2 Jury:
Małgorzata Imielska, Poland
Dan Chişu, Romania
Tymur Yashchenko, Ukraine / Poland

gave the following awards:

Competition 1-2 Winner: Blindfold / З зав'язаними очима by Taras Dron, Ukraina

and two Special Mentions to:

Spiral by Cecilia Felméri, Hungary / Romania

Mia Misses Her Revenge by Bogdan Theodor Olteanu, Romania

FREE SPIRIT COMPETITION Jury:
Eliska Fuchsova Kaplicky, Czech Republic
Vlada Senkova, Belarus
Maria Blicharska, Poland/France

gave the following awards:

Free Spirit Award: Tragic Jungle / Selva Trágica by Yulene Olaizola, Mexico/France/Colombia

Free Spirit Special Mention: True North by Eiji Han Shimizu, Japan/Indonesia

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION Jury:
Jan Kidawa-Błoński, Poland
Martichka Bozhilova, Bulgaria
Masha Kondakova, Ukraine / France

gave the following awards:

Best Documentary Feature Award: The Jump / Lēciens by Giedrė Žickytė, Lithuania / Latvia / France / USA

Documentary Special Mention: On The Record by Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering, USA

SHORT FILMS COMPETITION Jury:
Alexei Medvedev, Russia
Ygor Gama, Brazil - Germany
James Scott, Canada

gave the following awards: 

Short Grand Prix: Ligie / Ligeja by Aline Magrez, Belgium

Best Live Action Short: Into The Night / Chodźmy w noc by Kamila Tarabura, Poland

Best Animated Short: The White Whale / Nahang-e Sefid by Amirhossein (Amir) Mehran, Iran

Best Documentary Short: What if nothing? / A co jeśli nic? by Monika Krupa, Poland

Special Mention: Sulphur / Сера by Lana Vlady, Russia

FIPRESCI Jury:
Evrim Kaya, Turkey
Andrzej Fogler, Poland
Catalin Olaru, Romania

gave the award for best debut from Eastern Europe.

FIPRESCI Award: PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME / FELKÉSZÜLÉS MEGHATÁROZATLAN IDEIG TARTÓ EGYÜTTLÉTRE by Lili Horvát, Hungary

Young FIPRESCI Jury, who were also participants of the FIPRESCI Warsaw Critics Project:
Elena Diana Smeu, Romania
Georgiana Musat, Romania
Maria Dybcio, Poland
Mateusz Tarwacki, Poland
Mladen Plechevski, Bulgaria

gave the award for best debut from Eastern Europe.

Young FIPRESCI Jury Award: GHOSTS / HAYALETLER by Azra Deniz Okyay, Turkey / France / Qatar

Ecumenical Jury:
Jes Nysten, Denmark
Joanna Kazimiera Wawrzynów, Poland

gave ECUMENICAL Jury Award: The Man with Hare Ears / Muž se zaječíma ušima by Martin Šulík, Czechia / Slovakia

NETPAC Jury:
Nada Azhari Gilloan, Syria / France
Edvinas Puksta, Lithuania
Janusz Wróblewski, Poland

gave the awards for the best Asian/Pacific films.

NETPAC Award: The Asadas / Asada-ke! by Ryota Nakano, Japan

NETPAC Special Mention: Asia by Ruthy Pribar, Israel

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The Man with Hare Ears

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This year’s edition of FilmFestival Cottbus will feature four Croatian films in different sections of the programme. In addition, the Connecting Cottbus co-production market will include presentations of debut feature film Honey Bunny, directed and written by Igor Jelinović, and Closed to the Public by director and writer Vanja Juranić. FilmFestival Cottbus, dedicated to Eastern European cinema, is held 3rd – 8th Nov, at cinemas and online, while the Connecting Cottbus market is held online only, 4th – 6th Nov.

After announcing the call for its upcoming 11th Hybrid Co-Production Forum, taking place both in Trieste and online between 24-28 January 2021, WEMW now opens the calls for all its side events. 

The full programme of this special 2021 edition includes a great mix of initiatives targeting projects in different phases of production as well as different formats: from the Work-in-Progress for feature fiction films to the Fine-Cut-Session for creative documentaries and from a lab for films in editing phase to a programme for producers aspiring to shift to TV series content. 

Have a look at our events and find the one that suits you best!

Record number of Estonian entries received in first year PÖFF Shorts becomes an Academy Award qualifier 

24 fiction, animation and documentary shorts from Estonia over four programmes will make up the 2020 PÖFF Shorts National Competition. The four programmes mark the largest number of Estonian shorts ever screened in competition at PÖFF Shorts as well as, with 79 entries, the largest amount of short films ever submitted to the sub-festival of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. PÖFF Shorts will take place between 17th and 25th November 2020.