Drying rivers, parched fields, and empty wells. Climate change is starting to affect even our immediate surroundings. This is one of the reasons why this issue is being discussed by experts, in the media, by politicians, and often even amongst friends at the pub. The various manifestations of the environmental crisis within the context of the local landscape, as well as the role humans play in it, will also be among the topics addressed at this year’s 22nd One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, which will take place from 5 to 14 March in Prague and subsequently in thirty-five other cities and towns throughout the Czech Republic. 

When William Shakespeare coined the phrase “not till a hot January”, he had no inkling that this phenomenon might actually occur one day. Currently, however, it quite accurately describes one of the main results of climate change – continuously rising temperatures. The increasingly warmer climate in combination with poor soil management has resulted in a landscape that is incapable of retaining water. According to One World’s director, Ondřej Kamenický: “By screening films that are (not just) about the climate crisis, we want to show the global dimension of the entire problem while focusing chiefly on its impact at the local level. We not only want to draw attention to the issue, but to also look for a solution and find inspiration in the specific events organised in each of the thirty-seven towns including One World in Brussels where the festival takes place. In short, we don’t want to wait till a hot January comes along.”

For the third year in a row, Studio MT (Matyáš Trnka in collaboration with Matěj Růžička) have been entrusted with creating the festival’s PR campaign. The stag we see running against the backdrop of a burning horizon in the festival trailer gradually metamorphoses into a camel – this year’s key visual element. “Withered trees, no forests, bare plains, hot and arid – that is how the Czech landscape might look if steps are not taken to deal with climate change. We are offering a glimpse of such a horizon not only in the case of Prague, but also for all of the other towns where the festival is taking place. In fact, we made an individualised visual for each location in question. In addition, we tried to ensure that both the poster and the video trailer are accessible even to people with compromised vision. The bold and highly contrasting colours were therefore chosen not only to stress the subject but also to make the visuals intelligible to as many people as possible,” explains Matyáš Trnka, the campaign’s author.

The UnEarthed category publicises environmental films

One World has been addressing environmental themes since more or less the time the festival was first established. For the past three years, the documentaries matching this description have been included in the UnEarthed category, which just happens to be the festival’s most important thematic grouping this year. The included films look at topics such as climate change, energy, and pollution. One of them is Apolena Rychlíková’s new documentary, The Czechs Are Excellent Mushroom Pickers, which tracks these issues in the Czech Republic through extra-terrestrial eyes. Director Meng Han shot her documentary Smog Town in Langfang, a Chinese city near Beijing, which is considered to be one of the world’s most air-polluted locations. In it, she considers questions such as what life is like in a city without a sky and what local politicians have to say about it. Pollution is also the main theme of the Canadian film There’s Something in the Water. The well-known actress and activist Ellen Page and the director Ian Daniel visit with women in the agricultural regions of Nova Scotia, who are battling industrial companies in order to save the local landscape, their community and, most importantly, the future. The documentary Sovereign Soil looks at life in a landscape that has remained almost untouched by humans. This film by the Canadian director David Curtis is an ode to the beauty of the remote Yukon Territory and the local inhabitants of the town of Dawson, who strive for food self-sufficiency through alternative farming methods in what are often unfavourable conditions.

The festival’s virtual reality section, which is entirely focused on ecology and nature, will allow visitors to travel to forests, to the desert, and even to the highest peaks of an iceberg. All of the virtual reality exhibits will be housed at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague’s Holešovice district, where visitors will also find special installations with themes revolving around nature. The Ayahuasca virtual reality experience provides a glimpse of the vivid psychedelic visions of living nature one sees after drinking the hallucinogenic plant-based tea known as Ayahuasca. The Songbird project is actually an expedition tracking the recently extinct ‘ōʻō (Moho bird), while Le Lac takes the spectator to Lake Chad, which is in the process of drying up and vanishing.

In addition to the UnEarthed category, One World 2020 includes the three traditional competitive categories (the Czech Competition, the International Competition, and the Right to Know Competition), and eleven additional thematic categories. This will be the third year of the special discussion programme entitled Talking Cinema. Experts in various subjects will come to Prague and present lectures to accompany selected film screenings. This year, Leilani Farhani, a United Nations Special Rapporteur, will discuss the worldwide problem of inaccessible housing, and the activist Amon Yiu Yeuk-wa, a member of the Demosistō political movement in Hong Kong, will talk about the current political situation in a region that has been fraught with protests and demonstrations for the past six months.

One World: Balanced, Ecological, and Harmoniously Eco-Friendly

The festival organisers think about the environment not only when they are selecting the films for the programme, but also when preparing for the festival and during it. Some steps are a given, such as conserving both energy and water, recycling waste in all of the offices as well as at all of the cinemas, limiting the volume of printed materials, and using eco-friendly paper. This year, the festival catalogue is being replaced by a brochure that uses only half the amount of paper, and all information is being published on-line. Furthermore, the festival strives to collaborate only with partners who are just as careful with regard to the environment. The same level of consideration applies when it comes to transport for the festival’s guests – mainly bus and rail transport are offered, and in those cases when flying is unavoidable, One World provides financial compensation for the resulting carbon footprint. This year, the festival is also offering its guests transport from the airport using Prague’s integrated transport system. “Guides will meet our guests at the airport and accompany them on public transport to their hotel or the Langhans Audience Centre,” explains Sabina Solničková, One World’s Head of Guest Services. She goes on to add that if a guest prefers to be transported around Prague by car, the festival partly uses electric cars some of the time. A change in the means of transport has also been implemented with respect to the delivery of film copies – as a matter of fact, the majority of them are only in digital format. Some things have remained the same however – the vegetarian buffets and the use of the festival’s own glasses and dinnerware make it possible to minimise the amount of generated waste. 

In addition to being eco-friendly, the festival also considers it important to support filmmakers and local creativity in countries where there are non-democratic and dictatorial regimes – a quarter of all of this year’s films were made by local makers. Just as significant is the festival’s effort to ensure the balance between male and female directors.

One World for All

Over the past three years, accessibility to the festival for individuals with disabilities has become the norm and this year will be no different as One World strives to achieve universal accessibility. As explained by Mariana Chytilová, the festival’s accessibility expert: “We don’t focus only on some particular group of people with disabilities like so many other cultural events do, but instead want to implement measures that make the festival experience available to the broadest possible spectrum of visitors.” All of the documentaries screened in Prague, including those in Czech, will have Czech captions for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Just like last year, headphones with audio commentaries describing what is happening on the screen will be available at screenings of four different films for people who are blind or have vision loss. In addition, the festival includes three relaxed screenings which have a looser organisation that may be more comfortable for people who have mental disabilities or difficulty concentrating. And last but certainly not least, we aim to increase the number of places accessible to audience members who need a wheelchair or have other mobility issues.

One World in Schools

“To the cinema instead of class!” will be heard in many schools while the festival is underway. One World is organising special afternoon screenings for schools in all of the towns where the festival will be held. Just like in previous years, we have selected a range of films that will ensure the interest of all age categories. For primary school students, we have chosen three series of short films covering diverse subjects, including bullying, family relationships, and environmental issues. The selection for secondary school students consists of two short and two feature length films. One of them, Mai Khoi and The Dissidents, is about a Vietnamese singer who was forced to leave her homeland and its uncompromising censorship because of her anti-regime lyrics. Another, entitled For Sama, is set in Aleppo, the centre of the armed conflict in Syria, and has recently received an Oscar nomination. All of the films shown during the school screenings are followed by a discussion. Schools wishing to participate must register for the screening in advance – in Prague, via the JSNS.CZ portal during the first week in February, and in the other towns, through the local festival coordinators. For more information, see jsns.cz/festival.

East Doc Platform

The East Doc Platform (March 7–13, 2020) during One World IHRDFF offers free open programme in English for industry professionals and documentary film lovers: discussions, masterclasses, presentation Czech Docs… Coming Soon and East Doc Forum – prestigious central pitch for feature-length projects in development and early production stage. The East Doc Platform is the largest co-production, funding and distribution platform tailor-made for Central and Eastern European documentaries, every year connecting filmmakers and key decision makers – producers, broadcasters, distributors and festival programmers from around the world. Internationally successful titles, such as Over the Limit, When the War Comes, The Sound Is Innocent, Sofia’s Last Ambulance, Village Without Women, Ukrainian Sheriffs, The Russian Job and Brothers, were presented at the East Doc Platform. Film professionals who want to attend the industry programme can buy the industry accreditation until February 14. 

We will publicise the festival programme as well as the names of our international guests at the accreditation press conference scheduled for Tuesday, 18 February at 10 am, which will take place at our audience centre in the Tibet Open House (Školská 28). You should be receiving an invitation from us soon via email.

Additional information, as well as this year’s visuals, are available for download at www.jedensvet.cz.

One World in the Regions 2020

Benešov	23–28 March
Boskovice	17–22 March
Brno	20–27 March
České Budějovice	16–20 March
Český Krumlov	12–14 March
Děčín	25–28 March
Hradec Králové	17–20 March
Jablonec nad Nisou	23–26 March
Karlovy Vary	18–22 March
Kladno	1–3 April
Liberec	23–29 March
Louny	31 March – 4 April
Mladá Boleslav	6–9 April
Nymburk	1–4 April.
Olomouc	16–21 March
Opava	23–27 March
Ostrava	26 March – 3 April
Pardubice	17–21 March
Pelhřimov	1–5 April
Pilsen	23–28 March
Police nad Metují	26–29 March
Polička	2–5 April
Rožnov pod Radhoštěm	30 March – 2 April
Řevnice	26–28 March
Sušice	31–4 April
Tábor	2–5 April
Tišnov	19–21 March
Třebíč	20–22 March
Třinec	19–22 March
Uherské Hradiště	23–27 March
Ústí nad Labem	23–27 March
Ústí nad Orlicí	28 March – 4 April
Vsetín	30 March – 3 April
Zlín	30 March – 2 April
Znojmo	24–27 March

Films in the UnEarthed Category

Copper Mountains (Finland; Carolin Koss, 2018)

The Czechs are Excellent Mushroom Pickers (Czech Republic; Apolena Rychlíková, 2019)

Ice on Fire (Norway / Germany / United Kingdom / Switzerland / United States / Iceland / France / Croatia; Leila Conners, 2019)

No Gold for Kalsaka (Burkina Faso / Germany; Michel K. Zongo, 2019) 

Smog Town (China; Meng Han, 2019)

Sovereign Soil (Canada; David Curtis, 2019)

Sumercé (United Kingdom; Victoria Solano, 2019)

The Last Male on Earth (Netherlands; Floor van der Meulen, 2019)

The Red Line – Resistance in Hambach Forest (Germany; Karin De Miguel Wessendorf, 2019)

The Secret Lives of Pigs (Norway; Ola Waagen, 2019)

There’s Something in the Water (Canada; Ellen Page, Ian Daniel, 2019)

One World Interactive

-22.7°C (France; Jan Kounen, 2019)

A Violated Dream: The Colombian No Man’s Land (Colombia; Elliot Graves, 2019) 

Animalia Sum (Brazil / Iceland / Germany; Bianca Kennedy and The Swan Collective, 2019)

Anthropocene VR (Canada; Nicholas De Pencier, Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, 2019) 

Ayahuasca (France / Luxembourg; Jan Kounen, 2019)

Cycling Across Barriers (Cyprus; Elliot Graves, 2018)

Dark Origins: Mephisto (United Kingdom; Calum Bowden, 2019)

Dreams of the Jaguar's Daughter (United States; Alfredo Salazar-Caro, 2019)

Le Lac (Chad / Kenya / Zimbabwe; Naysha Kadandara, 2019) 

Museum Alive with David Attenborough (United Kingdom; Elliot Graves, 2019)

Songbird (Denmark / United Kingdom; Michelle and Uri Kranot, Lucy Greenwell, 2018) 

The Wetland (Romania; Ioana Mischie, 2018)

Whispers (Poland; Jacek Naglowski, 2019)

Dear colleagues & friends!

We are pleased to present Slovak line-up at one of the world’s largest and most prestigious film festival dedicated to short films – Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. Short animated SH_T HAPPENS by directing duo David Štumpf & Michaela Mihályi will be presented within International Competition, and Youth Section will include The Kite by Martin Smatana.Thanks to co-operation with Czech Film Center and Slovenian Film Centre, Slovak Film Institute will also attend the Short Film Market (Feb 3 – 6, 2020) under the umbrella of Central European Cinema (No. 23).Meet Lea Pagáčová from the Slovak Film Institute
Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +421 905 422 281Let's have a sneak peek at What’s Slovak in Clermont-Ferrand this year!

SH_T HAPPENS

dir. David Štumpf & Michaela Mihályi
CZ – SK – FR, 2019, 14 min.

WORLD SALES
Anthony Trihan / Next Film Distribution
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FESTIVALS
Alexandra Gabrižová / BFILM
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International Competition Screenings:

Saturday 1 / 22:15 / Genova
Sunday 2 / 15:00 / Agnès Varda
Monday 3 / 16:00 / Cocteau
Tuesday 4 / 20:15 / Genova
Wednesday 5 / 18:00 / Genova
Thursday 6 / 18:00 / Cocteau
Friday 7 / 11:00 / Vian
Saturday 8 / 13:00 / Hospital

THE KITE

dir. Martin Smatana
CZ – SK – PL, 2019, 13 min.

WORLD SALES

Georg Gruber / Magnetfilm
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FESTIVALS
Alexandra Gabrižová / BFILM
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Youth Section Screenings:
Saturday 1 / 16:00 / Conchon
Sunday 2 / 14:00 / Petit Vélo
Monday 3 / 09:45 / Capitole 2
Tuesday 4 / 09:45 / Capitole 2
Wednesday 5 / 09:45 / Capitole 2
Wednesday 5 / 14:00 / Jaude 1
Thursday 6 / 09:45 / Capitole 2
Friday 7 / 09:45 / Capitole 2
Friday 7 / 19:30 / Stade nautique
Saturday 8 / 14:00 / Petit Vélo
Sunday 9 / 14:00 / Rio

PRODUCERS FOCUS

Peter Badač (b. 1986) graduated from VŠMU in Bratislava and FAMU in Prague. He studied in HFF “Konrad Wolf” in Germany and at UCINE in Buenos Aires. In 2014 he received scholarship from Fulbright foundation. He has experience from the various types of audiovisual companies, including production company D.N.A, TV Markiza and TV Nova. In 2010 he was selected for Berlinale Talent Campus. He is a member of the Slovak Film and Television Academy and European Film Academy. Now he is a producer in his own production company BFILM that is based in Bratislava and Prague. In 2017 two of his films were released: Filthy directed by Tereza Nvotova at IFF Rotterdam and Freedom directed by Jan Speckenbach at IFF Locarno.

 

 

Presentation of Slovak cinema and audiovisual industry at the Short Film Market is organized by
 Slovak Film Institute, with financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic.

The Lithuanian Film Centre reveals local box office results of 2019. With three national films making it to Top 10 most popular films, Lithuanian cinema lovers are sending a strong message: they are big fans of national production and are waiting for more. 

In total 23 Lithuanian films (2 more than in 2018) were released in 2019. National production accounted for 19.64% of the whole market (27.9% in 2018), while European films represented a market share of 15.77% (11.8% in 2018) and US production – 60.88% (58.7% in 2018). 

The productivity of national filmmakers remained stable with 52 new films of various lengths and genres were created (17 features and 16 documentaries) last year. The total number of admissions was 4 m. with the total revenue from tickets reaching EUR 22.5 m. 

Lithuanian comedy Pats sau milijonierius by Tadas Vidmantas became the most popular film in 2019. The film, which was released in October, attracted 204,860 filmgoers leaving Todd Phillips‘ Joker with 155,986 filmgoers in the second place. 

Two other Lithuanian films made it to the Top Ten: Donatas Ulvydas’ comedy Ir visi jų vyrai in fifth place with 120,707 viewers, and Ramūnas Rudokas’ criminal drama Pasmerkti. Kauno romanas in ninth place with 88,763 viewers.

Notably, 2019 was not only productive but also successful for director Donatas Ulvydas, who released two films. With 40,040 views, his Valstybės paslaptis about former president Dalia Grybauskaitė became the most popular documentary in Lithuania last year.

Last year was also successful for arthouse filmmakers. Raimundas Banionis’ drama The Purple Fog saw 33 038 viewers, Marija Kavtaradzę’s film Summer Survivors - 26 328, and Ernestas Jankauskas’ Sasha was Here - 22 413.

A total of 379 films were screened Lithuanian cinemas in 2019.

TOP 10 in Lithuanian cinemas of 2018

FILM	Admissions	GBO (Eur)
Fake Millionaire (lit. Pats sau milijonierius) (LT)	204 860	1 259 262 €
Joker	155 986	982 356 €
The Lion King	154 363	815 863 €
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World	134 218	674 098 €
And All the Men (lit. Ir visi jų vyrai) (LT)	121 123	690 896 €
Secret Life of Pets 2	111 307	522 173 €
Frozen 2	99 784	511 961 €
Avengers: Endgame	92 523	566 245 €
Pasmerkti. Kauno romanas (LT)	88 763	508 889 €
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood	76 044	457 353 €

TOP 10 Lithuanian films in Lithuanian cinemas of 2019

 

FILM	Admissions	GBO (Eur)
Fake Millionaire (lit. Pats sau milijonierius) (LT)	204 860	1 259 262 €
And All the Men (lit. Ir visi jų vyrai) (LT)	121 123	690 896 €
Pasmerkti. Kauno romanas (rež. Ramūnas Rudokas)	88 763	508 889 €
Pasmerkti. Pajūrio džiazas (rež. Ramūnas Rudokas)	71 723	439 646 €
Between Us Girls (lit. Tarp mūsų, mergaičių)	54 953	309 434 €
The State Secret (lit. Valstybės paslaptis)	40 040	214 476 €
The Purple Fog (lit. Purpurinis rūkas)	33 038	159 978 €
The Wedding (lit. Vestuvės)	28 122	147 515 €
Summer Survivors (lit. Išgyventi vasarą)	26 328	139 510 €
Sasha was Here (lit. Čia buvo Saša)	22 413	120 454 €

RIJEKA, Croatia – January 20, 2020– For the 4th year, the History Film Festival presented by Istra Film, will bring creators, diverse audiences, and the industry together in Rijeka, Croatia during the annual storytelling festival running September 8-12, 2020. 

History Film Festival is a unique international festival of historical documentary films which will take place in Rijeka (Croatia) from September 8 to 12, 2020. History Film Festival aims at offering viewers and film experts an insight into contemporary film and TV production of historical documentary films, at the same time providing a place where film professionals can meet and share their creative ideas for future projects. 

The programme of 2020 HFF consists of a competition programme and special thematic programmes (documentary hommage to Federico Fellini, Asterix's 60th birthday, masterclasses, panels, exhibitions). 

From its first edition History Film Festival cherishes and extends its collaboration with documentary filmmakers from all over the world. All of the films showcased at History Film Festival tell history in exciting, often unusual, sometimes very intimate and visually attractive ways, but they also shed revelatory light upon the present which is exactly one of the aims of History Film Festival. These films show all the talent and passion of documentarists who always seem to find innovative and creative techniques of shaping history into exciting story. Furthermore, documentary filmmaking based on the archives and research is essential for the understanding of the past and the present, especially as an answer to the fake news era. 

In 2020, the City of Rijeka is caring the title of the European Capital of Culture and History Film Festival which will be held from September 8-12, 2020 is going to be part of the official programme of ECoC. In 2020 we plan to showcase documentaries which confirm how history can be extremely exciting and promote diversity, tolerance, intercultural dialogue and reconciliation as a way of exceeding the past and building a better future. 

This year the festival will be especially focused on films connected to the following subjects:

- women as film authors or women as heroines in human history

- migrations 

- re-thinking totalitary regimes and politics (especially Tito)

- Asterix

- Federico Fellini

Documentary films, regardless of the year of production, can be submitted on Film Freeway at the following link:  https://filmfreeway.com/HistoryFilmFestival 

The official deadline for submissions is February 10, 2020. For all queries concerning the festival please contact us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The 2020 Festival is set to build on the momentum from last three editions, which set the bar high. The past line-ups featured breathtaking docs like Oscar winner O.J.: Made in America, Sundance Award Winner Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, Oscar nominee Touch of an Angel and amazing European stories such as Legacy, Hotel Jugoslavija and Aliona Van Der Horst's Love is Potatoes. 

The Festival is curated by the programming team including Director and Head of Programming Bernardin Modrić, producers Tiha Modrić and Dejan Bojc, and a team of professional associates.

EDITORS NOTE: Images from History Film Festival can be found here for any photo or social needs: http://historyfilmfestival.com/en/media-2019/

                          http://historyfilmfestival.com/en/media-2018/

Warsaw, January 23, 2020 - 26 projects benefited from the incentives for filmmakers in Poland in the first few months of operating. The Polish Film Institute has granted over EUR 12 million to support audiovisual production within the incentive scheme.

Two Czech animated shorts, Daughter by Daria Kashcheeva and SH_T HAPPENS by Dávid Štumpf and Michaela Mihályi, will be screened in the Short Film Program at Sundance Film Festival 2020.

Czech films at Sundace FF 2020

DAUGHTER

SHORTS 

Czech Republic 2019 / 15 min
Directed by: Daria Kashcheeva
Produced by: Zuzana Roháčová / FAMU (CZ)
Co-produced by: MAUR film (CZ) ... (full crew)

A girl who was hurt as a child keeps the memory of it alive. Lacking love and empathy from her father in the past, she is not able to share her feelings with him. She can’t get rid of the painful memories taking her back to the day she brought home a little dead bird and her father didn’t support her. Sometimes it's too hard to open your feelings and share it with a close person. Sometimes it's too late. Let your painful memory fly away like a free little bird.

Read more about personal and original Daria Kashcheeva
TRAILER

SCREENINGS
FRI 01/24 | 19:00 | Redstone Cinema 2
SAT 01/25 | 12:45 | Broadway Centre Cinema 3
MON 01/27 | 23:45 | Park Avenue Theatre
FRI 31/01 | 17:30 | Egyptian Theatre

INTERNATIONAL SALES
Luce Grosjean / Myiu Distribution
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+33 6 63 76 62 12

FESTIVALS
Alexandra Hroncová / FAMU
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+420 724 753 713

SH_T HAPPENS

SHORTS 

Czech Republic, Slovakia, France 2019 / 13 min
Directed by: Dávid Štumpf, Michaela Mihályi
Produced by: Peter Badač / BFILM.cz (CZ)
Co-produced by: BFILM (SK), Bagan Films (FR), FAMU (CZ) ... (full crew)

An apartment building full of self centered inhabitants. Utterly exhausted caretaker and his sexually frustrated wife. Widowed deer drowning his sorrows in loads of alcohol... While trying to cope with their problems, they find themselves in a hard to solve triangle asking for absurd and irrational solutions. The consequences can easily become permanent, sometimes maybe too permanent. The film is a loose adaptation of a well-known biblical story while transforming it into an contemporary ironic narrative about how the world sometimes works.

READ MORE
TRAILER

SCREENINGS
FRI 01/24 | 19:00 | Redstone Cinema 2
SAT 01/25 | 12:45 | Broadway Centre Cinema 3
MON 01/27 | 23:45 |  Park Avenue Theatre
FRI 01/31 | 17:30 | Egyptian Theatre

FESTIVALS
Alena Gabrižová / BFILM
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+421 948 505 304