DOC LAB POLAND HOT SELECTION 2019

Awarded Polish documentaries - Diagnosis by Ewa Pogórska, Horse Riders (Krzyżoki) by Anna Gawlita and Weirdy (Dziwor) by Paweł Dyllus will be shown on September as part of Doc Lab Poland Hot Selection 2019, presenting the best and most awarded Polish documentary films of recent years. Discussions witch filmmakers aftereach  screening will be hosted by Magdalena Juszczyk.

Diagnosis - Monday, 9th of September at 8 pm - Barka Wisława

Diagnosis is a journey into the depths of subconscious of a city formed by human beings. The inhabitants of the city undergo the sessions on the couch. Unlocked by questions, e.g. what kind of animal is the city? they begin their journey into the depths of their own feelings and emotions. The city itself is only the starting point and over time, conversations get more and more intimate. The scenes from life, reminiscences and highly emotional moments interlace with the subjectively perceived shots of the city. They are blending together, complementing and interacting with each other. The fears of the film characters, their desires and unfinished affairs become a common fate.

Horse Riders and Weirdy Tuesday, 17th of September at 8 pm - Cinema Iluzjon

Horse Riders
(Krzyżoki)

Thirty farmers begin an equestrian pilgrimage touring the boundaries of nearby villages and fields. Fatigue and inebriation mix with religious ecstasy - a marriage of the sacred and the profane.

Weirdy
(Dziwor)

After a long break, brilliant artist and director - Bogdan Dziworski is back making a new film. As he works, a unique relationship builds between the director and his young cinematographer - Paweł.

The films were developed in the DOC LAB POLAND - the largest and most multi-faceted program for documentary filmmakers organized in Poland for Polish projects, focusing on supporting auteur, creative documentary filmmaking.

DOC LAB POLAND features a comprehensive program for the development of film projects, based on workshops, individual consultations and panel discussions, as well as a workshop leading to the pitching, aimed at establishing co-production deals for projects participating in the program, or supporting the promotion and distribution of the produced films. It is organized by the Wladyslaw Slesicki Film Foundation.

DOC LAB POLAND HOT SELECTION is supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the City of Warsaw. 

Entrance is free 

You can find more information at http://doclab.pl/pl_PL/

Applications are now welcome for the 14th FIPRESCI Warsaw Critics Project – a training programme for young critics and film journalists from Central and Eastern Europe coordinated by the Warsaw Film Foundation in a partnership with International Federation of Film Critics. The Workshop will be held during the 35th Warsaw Film Festival between 11 and 20 October 2019. A group of young critics will be invited to the festival and have a unique opportunity to take part in one of the most prestigious film events in the region and meeting high-profile film professionals. Under the guidance of tutors, participants will be covering the festival and industry events, delivering film reviews and conducting interviews with directors and filmmakers. They will be encouraged to use their own initiative and will receive constructive, positive feedback about their work. 

Warsaw Critics Project is devised and coordinated by British film journalist Amber Wilkinson and Italian critic Tommaso Tocci. 

Amber Wilkinson is a journalist with more than 20 years experience. She is the co-founder and editorial director of UK-based website Eye For Film. Her byline has appeared in The Times, Daily Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald and Filmmaker Magazine among others. She also contributes as a freelance film critic on BBC Radio Scotland. She has run several FIPRESCI young critics' workshops and mentored student critics at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2018 and 2019. 

Tommaso Tocci has so far contributed to various publications on cinema, including Indiewire, RogerEbert.com, CinemaScope, Filmkrant and Ioncinema. 

Workshops are designed for critics under the age of 30 with proficient skills in written and spoken English. All participants are granted with shared travel and accommodation grants. Selected works of the participants will be published on FIPRESCI, Ioncinema and Film New Europe websites. 

Previous participants have gone on to contribute to major international film publications like Screen International, Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter, Cineuropa and Film New Europe. 

Please send your application including CV, self-introduction, and three samples of your published work to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Deadline: September 23, 2019. 

After a very successful season with many films previously presented at WEMW premiering at major festivals (to mention a few: Flesh Out by Michela Occhipinti and Stitches by Miroslav Terzić at Berlinale Panorama, Solo by Artemio Benki at the ACID Cannes, The Father by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Maternal by Maura Delpero at Locarno Film Festival), When East Meets West is happy to launch the call for entries for the upcoming edition, taking place in Trieste next January 19-21, 2020. WEMW will have a new East & West focus, bringing together over 500 film professionals from all over Europe and, in particular, from our 2020 spotlight territories: Hungary, Moldova, Romania & Austria, Germany, Switzerland.  

WEMW Co-Production Forum

DEADLINE: October 31, 2019

Starting from today, producers from Europe, North and Latin America are eligible to apply with long feature fiction films or documentaries for the hallmark of WEMW, the co-production forum. WEMW will select 20 projects in development with international co-production potential, preferably with one of the 2020 East & West countries in focus (Hungary, Moldova, Romania & Austria, Germany, Switzerland) or with Italy. Ideally 10% of the total budget of a project should already be in place (more info on the eligible criteria on www.wemw.it).

All selected projects will compete for the six following awards: Film Center Serbia Development Award, EAVE scholarship, Flow Postproduction Award, EWA Network Best Woman Director Award, Producers Network Prize, Pop Up Film Residence Award.

10 years of WHEN EAST MEETS WEST: a brand new lab

2020 will mark the 10th anniversary edition of the platform that over the years has strengthened the collaborations between East and West and has nurtured numerous projects, professional ties and industry initiatives. Most notably this year, for the first time, WEMW will provide a bridge to working with new formats (TV series) through the brand new TV series mini lab MIDPOINT Cold Open.

MIDPOINT Cold Open will select 6 producers, with a background in feature film producing, aspiring to shift to TV series content. The programme includes lectures, group sessions and individual consultations and aim to supply hands-on skills of production planning and financing of drama content.

Returning side events

Besides the WEMW Co-Production Forum and the brand new MIDPOINT Cold Open, WEMW 2020 will again include its now established side events. Starting from October 1st we will open the call for entries for the work in progress sections Last Stop Trieste and This is IT and the workshop for films in editing phase First Cut Lab. Last Stop Trieste will look for 5 documentaries at a fine cut stage already presented at one of our partner events: Ex-Oriente, BDC-Discoveries, Docu Rough-Cut Boutique, Baltic Sea Docs, ZagrebDox or WEMW. This is IT will present an exclusive selection of long feature fiction films and hybrid works with an Italian majority or minority co-producer. First Cut Lab will select 3 feature fiction films in editing phase from the spotlight countries to screen a full rough cut in a private session to top international film professionals and receive tailor-made advice. 

This year we again hope to bring great and inspiring projects to Trieste and support them to find the right partners for their journey as well as offer a wide variety of opportunities for all attending European professionals. 

We are looking forward to toasting together on the next ten years!

More information are available at www.wemw.it  

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WEMW is organized once again by the FVG Audiovisual Fund in collaboration with the Trieste Film Festival, EAVE, Creative Europe Desk Italy and thanks to the precious and constant support of Creative Europe/MEDIA Programme, MIBAC -Direzione Generale per il Cinema, CEI – Central European Initiative, Film Center Serbia and the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

From Sophie Hyde's hilarious and heart-breaking Animals, starring Alia Shawkat and Holliday Grainger, to Sick, Sick, Sick and Finland's naughty breakout Aurora, the most unusual take on a romantic comedy in recent years, there is plenty to, well, discover in one of Warsaw Film Festival's most adventurous section. Buckle up!

Animals dir. Sophie Hyde

Animals dir. Sophie Hyde, UK, Ireland, Australia 2019, 109’ 

Who says the fun has to stop one day? An honest, funny, unconventional snapshot of modern women. The film premiered at this year’s Sundance festival.

Aurora dir. Miia Tervo, Finland 2019, 105’         
A party animal girl from Lapland meets an Iranian refugee. He is running away from death, while she is running away from love. They need each other in order to finally stop running. 

Buoyancy dir. Rodd Rathjen, Australia 2019, 93’
A gripping story, inspired by real-life events, about modern-day slavery in South-East Asia. The film was awarded the Panorama Prize by the Berlinale’s Ecumenical Jury. 

Heroes / Şehitler dir. Köken Ergun, Turkey, Australia 2019, 88’             
Every year, on the anniversary of the battle of Gallipoli, hordes of tourists flock to the site. A rare insight into how nationalist emotions are kept alive by the state through a tourism of martyrdom.

Just 6.5 / Metri Shesh-o Nim dir. Saeed Roustayi, Iran 2019, 135’
A great action thriller uncompromisingly showing how law enforcement is unable to stop drug dealing. A box office megahit, the film won the Iranian Audience Award at this year’s Tehran festival.

Land of Ashes / Ceniza Negra dir. Sofía Quirós Ubeda, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, France 2019, 92’    
An intimate and magical coming-of-age story about Selva, who must find her own way to adulthood. The first Costa Rican feature film invited to the Cannes festival.

One Child Nation dir. Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, USA, China 2019, 85’
How Chinese people have been dealing with the devastating social experiment: the one-child policy? Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance festival.

Our Mothers / Nuestras Madres dir. César Díaz, Guatemala, Belgium, France 2019, 77’
Ernesto is a young anthropologist working for a forensic foundation identifying the bodies of those who went missing during the Guatemalan civil war. His father also disappeared at the time.  

Sick, Sick, Sick / Sem Seu Sangue dir. Alice Furtado, Brazil, France, Netherlands 2019, 100’
A story about the bright and dark side of love which leads to obsession. And this obsession will use any means to feed itself. Even voodoo. Premiered in Cannes' Directors’ Fortnight section.

The Pig / Praseto dir. Dragomir Sholev, Bulgaria, Romania 2019, 96’             
The story of a 13-year-old boy nicknamed Pig. Bullied at school, one day he is pushed to his lim

Applications to the Ji.hlava Academy close this Sunday

Until September 15 you may still submit your applications to the 3rd edition of the Ji.hlava Academy – a creative lab for those dedicated to making, reflecting upon and sharing contemporary films: producers, cinematographers, editors, but also film and art critics and festival programmers. Directors and visual artists can apply with their finished films, films in the shooting or editing stage, and finished or unfinished visual art projects. 

The tutors of the Ji.hlava Academy, which will take place on October 25 – 29 , 2019 during the 23rd Ji.hlava IDFF, will be renowned Vienna-based film director and screenwriter Anja Salomonowitz and Filipino filmmaker, poet and composer Khavn De La Cruz.

Are you keen to observe and broaden the limits of visual style, authorial approach and audience perception? The Ji.hlava Academy is the place to be at the end of October! 

You can submit your applications here. 

Registration for other industry programmes at Ji.hlava IDFF 

September 15 is also the deadline for registrations to Festival Identity, which annually brings to Jihlava dozens of film festival representatives to share and exchange their experience. The overall theme of this year’s Festival Identity is environmental sustainability of film festivals. Until September 15, you can also register for Conference Fascinations – a meeting of experimental documentary film distributors and gallerists. We still receive film festival posters for our Best Film Poster exhibition & competition. Until September 30 you can apply for Early Bird Industry accreditations for film professionals.

Retrospective of Feliks Sobolev

This year, Ji.hlava will present the personality and works of Feliks Sobolev who is considered to be a unique and legendary figure not only in the Ukrainian film industry. In 1960s he created movies that became a sensation and altered the expectations of popular science cinema. As part of the Kyivnaukfilm (Kiev Popular Science Film Studio) Sobolev made a number of high-profile films and for a while raised the status of the popular science movie to the level of fiction films. A special section at Ji.hlava will also present works of followers of Sobolev and an overview of experimental documentary cinema originating in Ukraine (1960–1990).

Submit your projects to East Doc Platform 2020

East Doc Platform, the largest co-production, funding and distribution platform tailor-made for Central and East European documentaries, is open for feature length and interactive projects. The deadline is November 8, 2019. The 9th edition of East Doc Platform will take place on March 7–13, 2020, in Prague, organized by the Institute of Documentary Film in cooperation with One World IHRDFF. Find the application form and all the details here.

Environmental Docs Online at DAFilms.com

Online platform for documentary films DAFilms.com brings a special program Between Nature and Humankind. Discover documentaries that capture nature in all its beauty, its relationship with humankind, and its destructive forces. You can watch Becoming Animal, the latest documentary by Peter Mettler and Emma Davie or Thank You for the Rain by Julia Dahr, a personal testimony of a Kenyan farmer capturing the impact of the climate change on his life.

Film festival Nordisk Panorama will once again host the dok.incubator preview, an exclusive showcase of eight outstanding documentary features just before their premiere. The films developed in the rough cut workshop explore different themes – complex social issues as well as personal dramas – yet unite in creating social and creative impact around some of the current global and national issues. 

Films from the previous dok.incubator editions have had a lot of success. This year The Worker’s Cup, a documentary about migrant workers inside Qatar’s labor camps, has been nominated for Emmy Award. Another project, A Woman Captured, received a nomination for European Film Awards in 2018 and many of them premiered at prestigious festivals such as Sundance, Berlinale, IDFA, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, etc. It is no surprise that this year’s preview of films which includes five projects from Eastern Europe, is highly anticipated.

Documentary Acasa, My Home (RO, FI, DE) follows the dramatic change in the life of Enache family which is chased out from the wilderness of an abandoned communist reservoir and forced to adapt to the big city. Epipo, Our Land (HU, FR) is a film about a child abuse scandal that forces the film director on a personal journey to reconstruct her troubling childhood memories about her admired summer camp and its charismatic leader.

Film The Earth is Blue as an Orange (UA, LT) tells a story of a family coping with the daily trauma of living in the front-line war-zone of Donbas and facing down hardship with remarkable resilience. On Your Marks! (SK, CZ) follows the participants of Sokol, a movement that gathers thousands of people every six years in Prague to create impressive mass gymnastic performance. Lessons of Love (PL) is a portrait of an older lady that escapes from an abusive marriage and tries to find happiness doing everything she has ever dreamt of – dancing, writing song and even falling in love again.

In Själö (FI), the director Lotta Petronella, researches the past of the island and its previous residents, from mentally ill women locked in the asylum to scientists researching the nature of the island. Film Once Upon a Time, Congo Mirador (VE, UK, BR) tells the story of once prosperous Venezuelan village which is now decaying and disintegrating –  a small but prophetic reflection of Venezuela itself. Cuban Dancer (IT, CA, CL) describes a journey of a talented student who after leaving Havana, has to find his way in the bourgeois and elitist world of American ballet while remaining faithful to his roots.

The dok.incubator preview will be the final opportunity to see the just-about-to-be-released films before they screen at international festivals. The event takes place on Sunday September 22nd at 9.30 a.m in Cinema Panora in Malmö.

For more info about presented projects: https://dokincubator.net/selected-projects-2019/#international_projects

Follow the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2092472414379634/

AWARD CEREMONY – 19 SEPTEMBER 2019

Toulouse will host the 30^th edition of Cartoon Forum, the unique co-production platform for European animation series from 16-19 September.

85 new projects from across Europe will be pitched. This year 24 countries will be presenting their projects to about 1000 producers, investors, distributors, buyers, SVoD/VoD platforms such as Netflix, WarnerMedia, Playkids or Hopster TV...

Along with the presentation of projects, this key event for the European animation sector will host the ceremony of the Cartoon Tributes, which are professional awards for the most positive and influential broadcaster, investor/distributor and producer of the year.

The 2019 Cartoon Tributes nominees are:

> BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR
CZECH TELEVISION (CT) | Czech Republic
RADIO TELEVISIÓN ESPAÑOLA (RTVE) | Spain
RTBF-OUFTIVI | Belgium
SKY | United Kingdom
TVP ABC | Poland

> INVESTOR/DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR
ATMOSPHERE MEDIA | Germany
CYBER GROUP STUDIOS | France
FERLY | Finland
KIDS FIRST DISTRIBUTION | France
TELEGAEL | Ireland

> PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
GRAPHILM | Italy
MIYU PRODUCTIONS | France
PANIQUE! | Belgium
STUDIO SOI | Germany
XILAM ANIMATION | France

A total of 15 companies are among the nominees for these awards, French companies coming up most with 4 nominations, followed by Belgium and Germany with 2 nominations each. Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom are also present with 1 nomination each.

For France:

• CYBER GROUP STUDIOS

• KIDS FIRST DISTRIBUTION

• MIYU PRODUCTIONS

• XILAM ANIMATION

For Belgium:

• RTBF-OUFTIVI

• PANIQUE!

• ATMOSPHERE MEDIA

• STUDIO SOI

• CZECH TELEVISION (CT) (Czech Republic) is a public broadcaster. Currently it operates 6 channels, two of them – ČT1 and ČT2 – are the nationwide channels. In 2013, Czech Television’s new kids’ channel "ČT:D" was launched as a Free TV digital channel broadcasting every day from 6 am to 8 pm. Animation represents 54% of the content and 2824 hours per year. CT offers colorful, entertaining, contemporary and inspiring content – not only educational programming but also high-quality entertainment, series and movies as well. ("Chico Chica Boumba", "The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales", "The Jungle Bunch", "Ernest & Celestine", "Dimitri", among others.)
  
• RADIO TELEVISIÓN ESPAÑOLA (RTVE) (Spain) is Spain’s largest multimedia group. The RTVE Corp. is entrusted with the mission of guaranteeing state-owned public radio and television services, offering objective & plural information, encouraging democratic participation & debate, effectively promoting culture, knowledge, child protection, gender equality and social & territorial cohesion. With 6 television channels and 6 radio stations, RTVE aims to serve the widest audience.
  ("Monchihi", "Simon", "Lunnis", "Momonsters", "Mya Go", among others)
  
• SKY (United Kingdom) is one of the Europe’s leading entertainment companies, serving 21 million customers across five countries. Sky is focused on proving the best entertainment service for the whole family. This includes kids as well as grown-ups with a recently launched dedicated kids app and a renewed commitment to investing in even more shows that kids will love, starting with Morph later this year. ("George & Paul", "Pirata & Capitano", among others)
  
• TVP ABC (Poland) has been launched in 2014 as a part of the largest broadcaster in Poland, public television TVP. TVP ABC’s offer includes as well as programmes for pre-schools, youth and their parents but the main target is 4-12. TVP ABC broadcasts about 18 hours of programmes a day, as well as animation (80%) produced in European countries and from all over the word, along with educational programs/magazines. ("Masha and the Bear", "Super Wings", "Heidi", "Florka's Diary, among others)

• FERLY (Finland) is an entertainment company based out of Helsinki, Vancouver and LA. The company specializes in storytelling through TV, film, digital products, licensing and publishing with a team that has achieved the impossible many times over.
  
• TELEGAEL (Ireland) invests substantial sums annually in high-quality film and television content – animation and live action. It operates one of Ireland’s largest animation studios specialising in scripting, design, storyboards, voice record, sound design, picture & sound postproduction. Telegael’s productions have been licensed to over 150 territories and translated into more than 40 languages. It works with broadcasters including Cartoon Network US & Europe, Disney, ZDF, CITV, NickToons, KiKA, France 3 & ABC. ("Lexi and Lottie", "Yoyo", "The Wild Adventures of Blinky Bill", among others)

• GRAPHILM (Italy) is an award-winning production firm founded in 1988 specialised in animation for entertainment and advertising. As leading Italian studio, it is internationally active to develop its properties in line with market trends and demands, uniting art, industry, cartoon tradition and new technologies. Graphilm will present its new TV series project "#In the Middle" at the 30^th Cartoon Forum. ("Boo Boom the Long Way Home", "Nefertine on the Nile", "Hanukkah", among others)

About CARTOON FORUM

Created in 1990 to boost the co-production and distribution of European animation for television and new media platforms, Cartoon Forum has helped 782 animation series obtain financing to the tune of over 2.7 billion Euros.

The main partners of Cartoon Forum Toulouse are Creative Europe - MEDIA, CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée), Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée Region, Mairie de Toulouse, Toulouse Métropole, Casino Barrière and France Télévisions.

About CARTOON

CARTOON is an international non-profit association based in Brussels organising Cartoon Forum, along with Cartoon Movie, a co-production forum for feature-length animation; and the Cartoon Master training seminars.