Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival and European Genre Forum, both affiliated with the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, are organising an interactive virtual panel titled “Fight or fright - opportunities for the genre industry to thrive during the global lockdown” with acclaimed genre industry players to discuss what the genre industry could and should do to cope with the ongoing crisis. 

From 104 applications from 50 countries the dok.incubator selection committee chose eight talented filmmakers' teams who will have the opportunity to work intensively on their documentary films with the support of more than 20 internationally established producers, editors and sales agents for more than 6 months.

CLOUDS /FI/
Director: Tuija Halttunen, Producer: Niina Virtanen, Editor: Jussi Sandhu

Clouds by Tuija Halttunen portrays a Finnish climate scientist Hannele Korhonen, a recipient of a unique research grant from the United Arab Emirates. Korhonen’s enthusiasm about her science research is gradually accompanied by omnipresent questions regarding the scientist’s responsibility and unavoidable inner conflicts.

LIFE OF IVANNA /RU, NO, FI
Director: Renato Borrayo Serrano, Producer: Vlad Ketkovich, Editor: Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas

Guatemalan director Renato Borrayo Serrano‘s Life of Ivanna is an observational documentary depicting the life of a comunity of Nenet nomadic reindeer herders in the Russian arctic. The film follows Ivanna and her family as it shows the dramatic changes in her life, emigrating from traditional way of life to live in the city, motivated by the deteriorating conditions of life in tundra and climate change.

WE ARE INSIDE /LB/
Director: Farah Kassem, Producer: Cynthia Choucair, Co-producers: Patricia Drati, Mohammed Belhaj, Editor: Anders Jepsen

In we are inside, Farah Kassem returns to her hometown Tripoli in Lebanon and visits her father's poetry club that's run by elderly men. Realizing that it's only through poetry that she'll be able to have a real and equal dialogue with her father and the poets, she challenges herself and asks to be granted permission to become the first female member at the club. Meanwhile, the outside world is getting hard to ignore.

DIAGNONSENSE /NO/
Director: Ane-Martha Tamnes Hansgård, Producers: Andrew Grant, Øyvind Nyborg Gregersen, Editors: Truls Krane Meby, Stéphanie Morin

Diagnonsense is Norwegian director Ane-Martha Tamnes Hansgård’s self-reflexive documentary about her experience of being diagnosed with several mental disorders over a fifteen year period. With a meta-approach, a newfound critical distance from her diagnoses, and years of reflection, she is ready to tell her story and to challenge the very need for psychological labelling.

THE LABUDOVIC REELS /RS, FR, QA, ME, HR/
Director: Mila Turajlic, Producers: Carine Chichkowsky, Mila Turajlic, Editor: Sylvie Gadmer

Director Mila Turajlic takes us on an intimate archival road-trip with Stevan Labudovic, the cameraman of Yugoslav president Tito, re-discovering through The Labudovic Reels the images of African and Asian liberation movements and revolutionary leaders that defined the era of the 60s and 70s. An examination of a life invested in the cinema of solidarity, and the key role it played in the information battle that defined the era of decolonization.

BROTHERHOOD /CZ, IT/
Director: Francesco Montagner, Producer: Pavla Janoušková Kubečková, Co-producer: Nadia Trevisan, Editor: Valentina Cicogna

In Brotherhood the Italian director Francesco Montagner brings an intimate portrayal of contemporary Bosnia and its insular Salafi community in the story of three brothers, suddenly loosing strict and rigid guidance due to their father imprisonment for terrorism. Brotherhood is an anthropological exploration of youth, brotherhood, religion, and extremism in the most radicalized region of Europe.

THE PAWNSHOP /PL/
Director: Lukasz Kowalski, Producer: Anna Mazerant, Editor: Adriana Fernández

Lukasz Kowalski’s film debut invites us to The biggest Pawnshop in the south of Poland run by a couple of extraordinary entrepreneurs Jola and Wiesiek. Surrounded by thousands of bizarre objects, accompanied by touching figures of the neighborhood they feel for, they are trying to find a way to save their business and love.

UNTITLED TURKEY PROJECT /DE/
Producer: Florian Schewe, Editor: Till Ufer

The UNTITLED TURKEY PROJECT follows one of the most famous, internationally acclaimed lawyers in Turkey, who has successfully defended human and women’s rights for decades. Now she is being accused herself. The lawyer is threatened by life imprisonment and declared the enemy of the state even before a fair trial. We follow a woman who fights for justice, not with weapons but with words.

Find more information about the projects here.

In the midst of the pandemic which the whole world is grappling with, we regret to inform that NEM Dubrovnik cannot be held this June in the beautiful city of Dubrovnik. We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis and, in the hope of a better tomorrow, we will joint our NEM Dubrovnik to our event in Zagreb - we present NEM Dubrovnik Meets Zagreb!

Where and when?
NEM Dubrovnik will be held jointly with NEM Zagreb, and both events will share the single name of NEM Dubrovnik Meets Zagreb!  We are organising three fantastic days devoted to the TV industry from December 9th to 11th 2020 at Zagreb.

Please read more information about the event in our official press release: https://bit.ly/2Sx5hBm

The best will choose the best

Acclaimed film industry figures, filmmakers, international festivals representatives as well as previous winners of the Krakow Film Festival and the hottest names in culture including Jan Komasa, Leszek Możdżer and Łukasz Żal! An impressive list of this year’s jury members as always will guarantee a professional assessment of the films in the competition.

XV BIAFF (Batumi International Art-house Film Festival) will be held in Batumi during 13-20 September, 2020. Organizer of the film festival - Batumi Art-House "Argani", official partner -  Batumi City Hall.

STATUS REPORT

The times are indeed crazy.

The film industry is in disarray, but we are glad there are signs of growing solidarity and innovation. With mixed feelings and heartfelt condolences for cancelled events, we remind you that our submissions are open and we are continuing preparations for #PÖFF24, monitoring the global events with certain anxiety like the everyone else.

Submit here:
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival - 13th until 29th of November
Youth and children's film festival Just Film -  13th until 29th of November
Short film and animation film festival PÖFF Shorts - 17th until the 25th of November

READ MORE

EUROPEAN GENRE FORUM DEADLINE APPROACHES

The European Genre Forum, taking place for 6th year in 2020, is a training programme aimed at European directors developing their 1st or 2nd feature length genre film project with an established producer attached.

The programme sets to boost the careers of future European players in the genre film industry through two talent labs, packed with trainings, panels mentoring and pitching sessions.  The Producing Lab takes place in Zagreb during Fantastic Zagreb in July. The Marketing & Packaging Lab takes place in Tallinn during Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, running from the 23rd until the 27th of November.

Project submission ends on the 4th of May.

READ MORE AND APPLY

HÕFF ANNOUNCES PROGRAMME

It's alive! The first-ever 100% virtual programme of the Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival that has reached its 15th edition. We are happy to have been able to screen around two-thirds of the initially planned programme!

And we are ever grateful for our partner Elisa for helping us make it happen!

Watch the teaser!

DISCOVER THE PROGRAMME

HÕFF + EUROPEAN GENRE FORUM PANEL

European Genre Forum and Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Festival have teamed up to organise a global fireside chat called "Fight or fright - how genre industry is facing the global lockdown" with genre industry players to discuss what the genre industry could and should do to cope with the ongoing crisis.

Speakers: Annick Mahnert, Todd Brown, Brian Yuzna, Brendan McCarthy, Moritz Hemminger, Jongsuk Thomas Nam
Moderator: Sten-Kristian Saluveer

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Being a forum for virtual experiences, in its third edition at goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film the Open Frame Award continues to experiment with new forms and media formats.

As a competition of experimental 360° and interactive Virtual Reality projects the Open Frame Award is not being set back by curfews or travel warnings. Instead the competition itself dives deep into the future of virtual realities. Thus, the presentation of the projects in competition during the festival between May 5th to 11th 2020 will be held in a virtual recreation of goEast's main venue Caligari FilmBühne. The Russian VR artist and winner of 2018’s Open Frame Award, Denis Semionov, has “recreated” the 94-year-old cinema in virtual reality, together with curator Georgy Molodtsov. Another virtual space created for this year’s festival is a GoEast VRoof Top Lounge, a meeting point for Open Frame Award nominees and festival guests, inspired by this year festival visual, designed by Russian artist collective Vreditel_li, whose works also would be demonstrated in virtual spaces.

This allows the 360° and Virtual Reality projects to compete in a reality created just for this occasion. In the end, the Open Frame Award will be given out, which is once again funded and endowed with 5.000 Euros in prize money by BHF Bank Foundation and Adolf und Luisa Haeuser Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege.

An international jury will decide over who to receive the Open Frame Award. This year the jury is composed of Mária Rakušanová, curator for the Raindance Film Festival and engaged with partnership and content acquisition at HTC Vive in Europe, Averie Timm, Producer at Facebook AR/VR (Oculus) as well as Akmyrat Tuyliyev, producer for the PBS documentary series POV Spark.

To make it possible, goEast partnered with the social XR cultural hub VRrOOm – a broadcast platform dedicated to arts, entertainment and cultural events. Virtual venues, a 360° theatre, unique virtual theatrical performances, nominees pitchings and the Open Frame Award Ceremony might be accessed through a XR VRrOOm world on the free platform VRChat. For the best experience a VR headset as well as a PC system are recommended, but the event is also accessible by most users via PC, like any videogame.

Overcoming time constraints to bring the festival online, goEast and VRrOOm were able to achieve a remarkable result, making the goEast's 2020 edition become the world's very first event to offer access to both 360° and Interactive Experiences to pre-registered guests.

Still for anyone without the hardware, there will be guided tours in the goEast VRoof Top Lounge and Caligari VR, that are streamed on the website of goEast. For this Schenker Technologies GmbH kindly provides laptop solutions for the team of goEast during the festival.

“Current situation hit the whole planet, in bigger or smaller scale. But for creative VR community it not only a strike, but also a chance to show the world what VR is capable of and how it might change the reality. The space we developed is inspired by the creative freedom and expression we found in nominated works”, says Georgy Molodtsov, Curator of the Open Frame Award. “So it’s our job to give those works the exposure they deserve.”

The selection for the Open Frame Award opens fantastic worlds and memories. Thus, the interactive animation film WINGS (Moldova, 2019) by Dmitri Voloshin recreates almost forgotten childhood dreams and vaults the viewer into the far depths of space. CAT'S WINTER TALE (Finland, Russia 2020) by Oleg Nikolaenko is told similarly fantastic, being a Christmas tale about the friendship between a tiger-cat and an angel. With WHISPERS (Poland, 2019) Jacek Naglowski and Patryk Jordanowicz employ a 360° documentary to present a faith healer, who is using the power of words, gestures and images. In VERINNERUNG VR (Germany, 2019) by Alexander Flatau different realities between a bank robbery and an innocent date intertwine. PSYCHOSIS (Russia, 2018) by the artist collective AES+F is similarly surreal. The mixed reality project is based on a text of the playwright Sarah Kane, she wrote shortly before taking her own life. BABYN YAR. VIRTUAL MEMORY (Ukraine 2020) by Alona Stulii is an interactive experience processing the fate of numerous victims of mass executions during the Holocaust at that telling the events from the perspective of all involved. With APORIA. THE CITY IS THE CITY (Poland, 2019) Krzysztof Garbaczewski creates different perspectives, even resulting in parallel worlds and an open space experience. At that a city in different worlds evolves in different directions. With THE RAIN THAT IS FALLING NOW WAS ALSO FALLING BACK THEN (Romania, Germany, 2019), Christian Zipfel takes the experience up to the very edge of Europe to Botoșani. There three men behind bars had a lot time to think and just before their release now raise the question of happiness.

You can find photographs at: Downloads

goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are the State Capital Wiesbaden, the Hessen State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, Renovabis, BHF BANK Foundation, Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, the German Federal Foreign Ministry, the Federal Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East Germany and Deutsch-Tschechische Zukunftsfonds. Media partners include 3sat, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The 15th edition of the Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival, that will be taking place 100% online, is screening 22 feature films and 16 short films. The festival launches a new programme – the Estonian Genre Competition.