BERLIN: Macedonian Honeyland by Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, and the Latvian/Swiss/Czech coproduction Putin’s Witnesses by Vitaly Mansky are among the 12 titles from the EFA Documentary Selection.
WARSAW: After the successful previous editions, the 3rd edition of Warsaw Kids Film Forum has significantly extended its offer by expanding the programme and the list of attending guests. The Warsaw Kids Film Forum will be held at the Muranow cinema in Warsaw from 25 to 27 September 2019.
After great success of previous editions, we have significantly extended this year’s offer. It involved prolonging the list of attending guests as well as expanding on the programme.
Apart from a compelling pitching offer, thanks to added value in the form of workshops, script and legal consultations, co-pro breakfast, trip around Warsaw and a script master class, this year’s schedule will be quite ambitious. While creating this year’s programme we were focusing on recognizing the needs of all attendees of the Forum.
Warsaw Kids Film Forum is the first and only international forum in Poland devoted entirely to the topic of co-productions of films and TV series for young audience. We believe that the 3rd edition of WKFF will provide you with a great opportunity to explore new and inspiring projects, meet the people behind them and increase your knowledge on a constantly developing market of productions for kids and young audience.
Forum will be held from 25–27 September in Muranow Cinema at Andersa St. 5, Warsaw.
INSPIRATION DAY supported by FNE CEI
Day one (Inspiration Day) will be devoted to conferences and workshops. David Kleeman (Dubit,USA) will open the conference by giving an introduction on the latest trends in kids production, both in films and TV. David will elaborate on creating content for children based on modern media user habits of young adults and expand on the most recent market research devoted to creating and making use of video content for young spectators.
The introduction will be followed by a discussion panel on todays and coming future of children’s productions by the panellists: Richard Rowe (DHX), Luca MIlano (RAI Ragazzi), Claire Tavernier (digital media adviser) and Maria Kosareva (Viacom).
Next part of Inspiration Day will be devoted to kid’s productions that have been successful on a local and international scale. Among the presented projects we will look into:
- "The Butterfly Effect”, educational & historical TV series produced by ARTE Junior.
- „Jams”, Italian TV series for young audience tackling sexual harassment, produced by RAI Ragazzi.
- „Overgrep”, Norwegian TV series by NRK Super initially produced for „awareness week” in order to educate young audience on dealing with sexual harassment.
After the presentations, we will continue with the second part of the lectures: - LEARNING FROM MISTAKES – Do’s and don’ts in theatrical distribution” and „Developing an IP 360° - from the idea to licensing and immersive experience”.
The first lecture will be given by Stine Bomholt-Hansen (Level K), who will elaborate on mistakes and achievements while creating a marketing campaign with distribution in mind.
Marie-Claude Beauchamp from Canadian CarpeDiem Film&TV will share her knowledge on 360° brand development strategy based on projects: „SNOWTIME - SNOWSNAPS - RACETIME”
The third and last part of the Inspiration Day consists of an intense workshop: „The Art of Finding & Making a Deal” by Silke Wilfinger from SilkWay Films and Carlos Hertel from Bavaria Media GmbH. The workshop goals are to explain: how to position a film internationally, where & how to pitch a project and do’s and don’ts for negotiating a sales contract. To attend the workshop, please register HERE.
Simultaneously and for the first time at the Forum, we will host a market presentation of „The Black Mill” (last year’s pitching project at Works in Progress section).
Moreover, the participants interested in script writing are welcome to take part in a lecture combined with a practical component run by Philip LaZebnik devoted to script writing and story building.
All the guests who didn’t have the time to go sightseeing during previous editions are invited for a tour around Warsaw organized by Mazovia Film Fund.
The eventful first day will end with a networking cocktail in Kino Muranow.
Next two days will be devoted to pitching sessions of films and TV series for young audience. This year’s selection comprises of 27 titles from 16 countries: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Canada, Germany, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Italy and Ukraine. The projects are both at an early production stage as well as in late development (Works in Progress).
Filmmakers will be able to present their projects in front of a group of experts from Poland and abroad – distributors, TV representatives, sales agents, financial institutions and private investors. Pitching sessions will be completed by One on one meetings with producers of presented projects.
More information on WKFF programme can be found at: https://warsawkidsff.pl/program-2/
BUCHAREST: The Whistlers / La Gomera by Corneliu Porumboiu has been selected as Romania’s candidate for the 92nd Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award in the best international feature film category. This Romanian/French/German coproduction had its world premiere in the Competition of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
SARAJEVO: Cineplexx will build a multiplex with eight cinema halls totaling 1,400 seats in Sarajevo. Cineplexx Sarajevo will be opened in summer 2020 and will become one of the venues of Sarajevo Film Festival.
VENICE: Venice competitor Czech / Ukrainian / Slovak coproduction The Painted Bird directed by Václav Marhoul has been acquired by French sales company Celluloid Dreams. The film is the first majority Czech coproduction selected for the main competition of Venice Film Festival in 25 years.
PIEŠŤANY: Ten films have been selected for Meeting Point Europe, the main competition of the 14th Cinematik International Film Festival, which will take place in the spa city of Piešťany from 10 to 15 September 2019.
TALLINN: Black Nights Film Festival is launching a new side-festival in Estonia, Kino FF, focusing on Russian cinema. The first edition will be held in two cities in the prominently Russian-speaking region Ida-Virumaa in Eastern Estonia, Narva (from 15 to 17 November 2019) and Kohtla-Järve (22-24 November 2019).
Czech branch of HBO Europe grants a financial award at MIDPOINT TV Launch
The third and final workshop of MIDPOINT TV Launch has concluded with the Partners´Awards Ceremony at the industry platform CineLink Drama within Sarajevo Film Festival.
The 2019 edition of TV Launch program introduced six projects of TV series, three projects of web series and two development executive participants, altogether 22 participants from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Italy, UK, USA/Switzerland, France and Cyprus. The projects, along with the development executive participants, were pitched on Tuesday, August 20, 2019 at a pitching session entitled Season Finale.
During the ceremony, which took place on Thursday, August 22, 2019, twoMIDPOINT TV Launch projects were awarded.
The HBO Europe Award, a financial award of 5.000 USD granted by HBO Czech Republic, was handed out by the VP Executive Producer of Drama Development Steve Matthews, who at the same time participated in the role of a development executive tutor of TV Launch. The awarded project of this year´s edition is WILLOWS, a story about immortal beings who look just like regular people but spend their days indulging in mind numbing decadence (writer: Milada Tesitelova, director: Jan Tesitel, producer: Julie Zackova).
Synposis of the project:
Young Anezka loses her beloved groom on the day of their wedding. He returns from the dead to her surprise, though he is soon whisked away by a secret society of immortal beings called the Willows. Anezka is determined to free him from their grasp, no matter what!
Steve Matthews commented upon the decision in following words:
“The decision gets harder every year and was particularly challenging this time around; the quality of the projects continues to improve every time as MIDPOINT itself goes from strength to strength finding and supporting talent in these dynamic times.
This year’s winner stood out for its breadth of imagination, distinctive quirky and poetical style, and colourful memorable characters displayed through an obviously personal lens; for its heart and its attractive and intriguing supernatural backdrop; and for its powerful atmospheric sense of place. We often hear in pitches that “the city is a character” and it’s rarely true. But here, there shines through a real sense of the team’s obvious love for their home city of Prague.”
The Marseille Web Fest Award, granting one person from the creative team of the winning web series project a participation at the Marseille Web Fest Writing Residence (October 14 - 19, 2019), went to the project PLAYGIRL, written by Michaela Pnacekova and Marijana Verhoef.
Synopsis of the project:
Lost in the fast-paced city of Berlin, where intimacy has the lifespan of a mayfly, two young women, one a tomboy-gamer and the other a romantic sociopath, develop an unusual quasi-mother-daughter relationship full of drugs, sex, and video games.
On behalf of MWF and its Artistic Creator Jean-Michel Albert, the award was handed out by Michaela Sabo, who acts as
TV Launch´s pitching tutor and web series consultant.
After the decision has been made, she stated: “The short form series award goes to a project with a very unique voice. This project is also very well conceived for the digital market and was delivered through a strong pitch but also already has a very solid script.”
Heartfelt congratulations to all the winners and all TV Launch 2019 graduates!
MIDPOINT TV Launch is realized with the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Czech Film Fund, the International Visegrad Fund and the Slovak Audiovisual Fund. It is presented in cooperation with the Finale Plzen Film Festival, the Sarajevo Film Festival – CineLink Industry Days, HBO Europe, Serial Eyes, Marseille Web Fest, C21 Media, Series Mania, CANNESERIES Institute, MIA TV Market, Art Department Masterclass, CHARACTER – Film Development Association and the Audiovisual Producers' Association. MIDPOINT operates under the auspices of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
Dear friends of the Slovak Film Institute,
we are thrilled to present the Slovak line-up at the 76th Venice International Film Festival (August 28 – September 7, 2019)!
Long-awaited The Painted Bird by Václav Marhoul was selected for the Main Competition and short animated SH_T HAPPENS by directing duo David Štumpfand Michaela Mihályi will world premiere within Orizzonti Short Film Competition. Furthermore, representatives of two upcoming co-productions will take part in theVenice Gap-Financing Market.
The Painted Bird
fiction | CZ-SK-UA | 2019 | 169 min.
Based on the acclaimed Jerzy Kosiński novel, The Painted Bird is a meticulous 35mm black and white evocation of wild, primitive Eastern Europe at the bloody close of World War II.
The film follows the journey of The Boy, entrusted by his persecuted parents to an elderly foster mother. The old woman soon dies and The Boy is on his own, wandering through the countryside, from village to village, farmhouse to farmhouse. As he struggles for survival, The Boy suffers through extraordinary brutality meted out by the ignorant, superstitious peasants and he witnesses the terrifying violence of the efficient, ruthless soldiers, both Russian and German.
SCREENINGS:
September 2 | 20:00 | Sala Darsena *press & industry
September 2 | 21:00 | Sala Perla *press & industry
September 3 | 16:45 | Sala Grande *world premiere
September 4 | 16:45 | PalaBiennale
CONTACT:
Celluloid Dreams, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,
Pascale Ramonda (festivals), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SH_T HAPPENS
animation | CZ-SK-FR | 2019 | 13 min.
The caretaker exhausted by everything, his frustrated wife and one totally depressed deer. Their despair leads them to absurd events, because... shit happens all the time.
SCREENINGS:
August 29 | 16:30 | PalaBiennale
September 6 | 11:15 | Sala Giardino *press & industry
September 6 | 17:15 | Sala Giardino *world premiere
September 7 | 16:30 | Sala Giardino
CONTACT:
BFILM, Alexandra Gabrižová (festivals), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NEXT FILM DISTRIBUTION, Anthony Trihan (sales), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Venice Gap-Financing Market
My Sunny Maad
CZ-FR-SK
by Michaela Pavlátová
When Herra, a Czech woman, falls in love with Nazir, an Afghan, she has no idea about the life that awaits her in the post-Taliban Afghanistan, nor about the family she is about to join. A grandfather who is a feminist, an adopted young boy who astounds with his intellect, and Freshta who will do anything to run away from her abusive husband. Like the other women in the family, Herra wears a burka and hides in a closet when guests arrive. She soon starts a new job with an American woman, Heidi, who has little understanding of the way women live in Afghanistan, and even less that not everybody wants to be saved by the Westerners.
CONTACT:
Negativ, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,www.negativ.cz
Charlatan
CZ-IE-PL-SK
by Agnieszka Holland
Drama of an extraordinary man, reflecting the age-old struggle of two principles that control humanity from the very beginning. Good and evil. Love and hate, cruelty and mercy, faith and betrayal. In one person on the background of historical twists. Mikolášek's extraordinary abilities are redeemed in battle with his own demons who force him into cynical violence.
CONTACT:
Marlene Film Production,
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.marlenefilmproduction.com
For more information on Slovak Films, please visit our website
