22nd Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) will be held from June 15 to 24, 2019 in Shanghai, China. A record number of Latvian films and co-productions will participate in different SIFF programs and, accordingly, will have their Asian premieres at this A-category festival.
Latvian/Estonian/Lithuanian documentary Bridges Of Time (2018, dir. Kristīne Briede, Audrius Stonys) will be screened at the Documentary Film Competition. The producer Uldis Cekulis (VFS FILMS) will be present at the festival for interviews and Q&A.
Bridges Of Time Treiler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHNFD-pWv60
After premiering at Berlinale/Generation Kplus earlier this spring, the Latvian/Estonian co-production Lotte and the Lost Dragons (2019, dir. Janno Poldma, Heiki Ernits) is nominated in the Animation Competition of Golden Goblet Award at SIFF.
Lotte and the Lost Dragons Treiler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOLUIy76bOA
Latvian family film Bille (2018, dir. Ināra Kolmane) has been officially selected as part of the film programming of The Belt and Road Film Week. It will compete for three awards - Media Choice Award for Film, Media Choice Award for Filmmaker, and Audience Choice Award. The two leading actors Elīna Vāne and Rūta Kronberga will be present at the festival for interviews and Q&A.
Bille Treiler: https://www.tvco.eu/catalogue/bille/trailer/
The brand new Latvian animation feature Away (2019, dir. Gints Zilbalodis) has been selected for the International Panorama. The director Gints Zilbalodis, travelling directly after premiering the Away at Animafest Zagreb and Annecy International Animated Film Festival, will be present at SIFF for interviews and Q&A.
Away Treiler: https://vimeo.com/334329160
Participating at the International Panorama section is also the historical drama The Mover (2018, dir. Davis Sīmanis) - the award-winning Latvian feature film offering a gripping account of Žanis Lipke, a blue-collar worker honoured as one of the 'Righteous Among the Nations' for his heroic deeds during the war.
The Mover Treiler: https://vimeo.com/325822248
The National Film Centre of Latvia is in partnership with SIFF within the The Road and Belt program since 2017. This year at SIFF the film researcher and the director of the Film Centre Dita Rietuma will deliver a special presentation on the Latvian film industry.
More information: http://nkc.gov.lv/en/
Novosti
Six Croatian titles at Valletta Film Festival
13.06.2019.
Two Croatian feature and four short films are in the competition line-up at the 5th edition of the Valletta Film Festival running from June 14 to June 23.
Tamara Babun to be on Executive Committee of International Federation of Film Producers Associations
13.06.2019.
Croatian producer Tamara Babun has been invited to join the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF, Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films) for a two-year mandate.
PRAGUE: The Prague International Film Festival – Febiofest has named former Berlinale programmer Nikolaj Nikitin as its new artistic director. Nikitin also began working with the Cottbus Film Festival and MIDPOINT this year, and is the founder and head of SOFA.
Apply with your script to Script Pool Tallinn competition
The second year in a row, MIDPOINT is partnering up with Industry@Tallin &Baltic Event exquisite Script Pool Tallinn, an international script competition for film, TV and drama series scripts.
The aim of Script Pool Tallinn is gathering talented screenwriters with producers attached, in order to provide them support enhancing the script and maximizing its potential in different mediums. Feature-length films and TV series from the whole world are eligible.
Script Pool consists of different workshops and public pitch over the participants’ stay in Tallinn within the Industry @Tallin &Baltic Event (November 25 – 29, 2019).
Only the teams of screenwriter and producer can apply with a full treatment of the project, bearing in mind that after pre-selection the last draft of the script has to be ready for the next selection round.
Script Pool Award
Main Prize of 5.000 EUR would be given out by Global Screen Award, to be used for further development of the project. Deadline for applications is September 2, 2019,
the final selection of the projects will be announced by October 15, 2019, at the latest.
Do not hesitate and check the submission details here and apply here.
VALLETTA: Central and East European films comprise half of the 12-film line-up in the international feature film competition of the Valletta Film Festival, which opens on 14 June 2019 in the capital of Malta. The competition sections are dedicated to Cinema of Small Nations.
SOFIA: The Bulgarian company JelFilm teams up with Armenia’s Parallels Film Production and Germany’s Clever Production on the feature film Remission. The project, which was on hold, has now restarted production.
MIDPOINT is happy to announce another industry partnership within the Balkan region – with the Film Centre Montenegro. This new coalition comes as a natural step in strengthening the cooperation within the CEE region.
The opening activity of new cooperation with Film Centre Montenegro will be a special program MIDPOINT Intensive Montenegro, dedicated to Montenegrin filmmakers.
Sehad Cekic, Director of Film Centre Montenegro, says: "I hope that MIDPOINT Intensive Montenegro will bring new quality to our film sector, improve projects that are being prepared, incorporate them into European frameworks, and help in our goal to raise the standards. From the perspective of rapidly changing film community, we see MIDPOINT as a true partner in our efforts to become the protagonists and partners on the international scene."
In October 2019, the intensive workshop focused both on script and project development will be organized in Montenegro capital, Podgorica. The workshop, conducted by two internationally renowned tutors, will be open to Montenegrin creative teams of filmmakers (scriptwriter, director, and producer) with their feature fiction film projects.
Deadline for applications is July 26, 2019!
Click here to learn more information about the program.
MIDPOINT Intensive Montenegro is realized with the support of Film Centre Montenegro. MIDPOINT operates under the auspices of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
Organizer of the 54th Karlovy Vary IFF 2019: Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary, a.s.
Organizers of the 54th Karlovy Vary IFF thank to all partners which help to organize the festival.
KARLOVY VARY FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS JULIANNE MOORE AND BART FREUNDLICH The 54th annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival presents the latest film by actress Julianne Moore and screenwriter/director Bart Freundlich, After the Wedding (2019), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. At KVIFF, Oscar-winner Julianne Moore will accept a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.
Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich are an excellent example of the artistic combination of two outstanding individuals. Their personal and cinematic partnership was born during the filming of Freundlich’s directorial debut The Myth of Fingerprints (1997). Ever since then, Moore has regularly appeared in her husband’s films. In World Traveler (2001), she and Bill Crudup played two people who meet under unusual circumstances, and several years later she and David Duchovny portrayed a couple in the comedy drama Trust the Man (2005). In After the Wedding, a drama about an encounter that reveals hidden secrets, Moore plays one of the lead roles and is also one of the producers of the film.
Julianne Moore began her acting career in television and broke into the world of cinema with a minor role in the 1993 thriller The Fugitive. Soon after she was appeared in Robert Altman’s film Short Cuts (1993). The film garnered world-wide critical acclaim and in 1994 the Golden Globes awarded the entire cast with a special ensemble Golden Globe award. Moore began to receive offers for commercial projects such as Nine Months (1995), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Hannibal (2001), Children of Men (2006), and both parts of The Huger Games: Mockingjay (2014–15). In addition, she also appeared in many award-winning roles and was able to show off her creativity and range through films such as The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), Far from Heaven (2002, Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival), The Hours (2003, Silver Bear at the Berlinale), The Kids Are All Right (2010), and Maps to the Stars (2014, Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival).
Moore’s first nomination for an Oscar and a Golden Globe came with Boogie Nights (1997). She has been nominated for a total of five Oscars: besides Boogie Nights, other nominations came for The End of the Affair (1999), Far from Heaven, The Hours, and Still Alice (2014). This last film, in which she portrayed a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, finally won her this prestigious award. She has also won three Golden Globes – for Short Cuts, for her portrayal as Alaska governor Sarah Palin in the television film Game Change (2012), and as the main character in Still Alice. In all, she has been nominated for the Golden Globe on six different occasions.
Besides the aforementioned films, Bart Freundlich has also directed the action thriller Catch the Kid (2004), the romantic comedy The Rebound (2009, screenplay by Freundlich), and he has also directed several episodes of the cult television series Californication and the fantasy series Believe. As part of its homage to these two outstanding cinematic personalities, the Karlovy Vary Film Festival will be screening both After the Wedding and The Myth of Fingerprints.
More information here.
Latvian animation at Annecy Competition and MIFA
Latvian animation is busy participating at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2019 - both with the feature film ‘Away’ (dir. Gints Zilbalodis) in the Contrechamp competition program and a MIFA Animated Baltics stand (June 11-14).
AWAY success story
‘Away is told in four chapters, and centers on a young boy stranded on his own, trying to survive in a mysterious land. Pursued by a dark spirit, he makes his way through shimmering deserts and lush forests with the help of a small bird acting as his guide. Zilbalodis, in his early 20s, worked on the film entirely on his own for three and a half years — including writing, design, modeling/rigging, animation and even composing the music.’
Mercedes Milligan, Animation Magazine
Sales rights for the film has been picked up by Cinema Management Group (CMG), who did several ‘Away” market screenings in Cannes and has already closed several sales prior Annecy premiere, including Front Row Filmed Entertainment for the Middle East and Film4You for Poland.
Latvian Animation at MIFA
This year all three Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) have joined the creative forces and will at MIFA represent the whole region under the umbrella of the ANIMATED BALTICS stand. Latvian representatives include the director of the Latvian Animation Association Anna Zača, animation expert Ieva Viese-Vigula, Eva Erdmane-Durandina from the National Film Centre of Latvia as well as the animation artists Gints Zilbalodis and Kārlis Vītols.
Latvian animation has been a frequent guest in Annecy Competitions, several films by such artists as Vladimir Leschiov, Signe Baumane, Indra Sproge and Edmunds Jansons have been selected previously.
Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event opens submissions for Co-Production Market, Script Pool Tallinn and POWR script lab
Festivals 11-06-2019Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event opened submission for the first programmes. Early Bird FESTIVAL + INDUSTRY accreditation ends in 3 weeks.
SAVE THE DATE: Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event runs from the 25th until the 29th of November!
The Baltic Event Co-Production Market, held since 2005, is the meeting-place for feature films in development looking for co-producers, financiers and sales agents. Among nearly 300 alumni, projects that have been released over the years include the Cannes Palme d'or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu, while among the many recent success stories we find the Finnish comedy Heavy Trip that premiered at SXSW and has won 4 awards at over 30 festivals and When the Trees Fall (Ukraine) that screened at Berlinale and Black Nights and won awards at festivals in Ukraine, USA, Denmark, Poland, and India.
The 15 selected projects will be overseen by an international jury of experts, who hand out several awards, including the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award worth 20 000 euros.
Submission deadline: September 2, 2019.
READ MORE AND SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT HERE
Script Pool Tallinn is an international script competition for film, TV and drama series screenplays with the aim of gathering talented scriptwriters with producers attached, in order to provide them support enhancing the script and maximizing therefore its production and distribution potential. The main award of 5000 Euro prize by our partner, leading international sales & distribution company Global Screen GmbH is given to one of the five writer-producer teams invited to Tallinn.
Since 2018, Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event is partnered up with MIDPOINT, a training and networking platform with the aim to strengthen the creative collaboration between writers, directors and producers in the development process in Central and Eastern Europe.
Submission deadline: September 2, 2019.
SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT FOR SCRIPT POOL HERE
POWR Baltic Stories Exchange trains writers to deliver a good pitch and find a producer at the public project presentation as well as get industry feedback through pre-arranged POWR Meetings with carefully selected Baltic Event participants. Six screenplays in the early stages of development from the Nordic and Baltic countries as well as the Focus Country Ireland will be selected. The workshop is organised by Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event in collaboration with the region’s Creative Europe MEDIA Desks.
Submission deadline: 1 September, 2019.
READ MORE AND SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT HERE
3 WEEKS LEFT FOR EARLY BIRD ACCREDITATION
Get the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event accreditation at early bird price - 95 EUR - before 1 July!
The Festival + Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event accreditation is reserved exclusively for film industry professionals and is valid for the festival period, from the 15th of November until the 1st of December, 2019. It allows you to get the most out of Tallinn - take part of all the open lectures, pitchings, the audiovisual conference European Film Forum Tallinn, workshops and events of Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event and to see up to 40 films from the programme of Black Nights.
