The film "Loving Vincent" by Dorota Kobieli and Hugh Welchman received the "Cultural Event of the Year 2017" award at the 19th "Empik Bestselling" awards gala. This is another award for this unique animation, which fights for an Oscar in the Best Animated Film category. The film is also nominated for the Eagles in five categories, including the best film and as the Event of the Year in the RMF Classic radio program - MocArty.

Empik bestsellers is Poland's largest cultural plebiscite. "Loving Vincent" was nominated, among others next to the 25th anniversary of the Hey band or the "Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Polish context. " The distinction is even more pleasing because the film was chosen the Event of the Year 2017 in the Internet users vote.

So far in Poland, the story of the mystery of Vincent van Gogh has been seen in cinemas by almost 400,000. viewers. The Polish-British co-production also records turnout successes abroad, including in China ($ 10 million in revenues), the United States ($ 6.6 million in revenues), Italy ($ 1.5 million), the United Kingdom ($ 1.4 million), South Korea (2, USD 9 million). Due to unflagging interest, the film can still be seen in Polish cinemas.
In the Polish Film category among the nominees for the Empik Bestseller awards, there was a film "Sztuka Kochania". The title is distributed on DVD by Agora SA. In the Literature of Fact category, the book "Ania. Biography of Anna Przybylska "Grzegorz Kubicki and Maciej Drzewicki, which was published by the Agora Publishing House.

 

INSIDE PICTURES 2018 Programme Open for Applications

Developing the Next Generation of Leaders in the European Film Industry

London, 8th February 2018: The National Film and Television School (NFTS) today announces that applications are open for its prestigious Inside Pictures business training and leadership skills development scheme. Now in its fifteenth year, the 2018 programme is open to applicants from around the world who demonstrate a firm commitment to the European film industry. The programme is supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with the support of the BFI, awarding funds from The National Lottery.

There are 20 places available for executives and producers with at least five years’ experience in film or an associated creative industry. Successful applicants will be executives from across the value chain who display determination to succeed and who want to lead the EU film industry into the digital future. Apply at www.inside-pictures.com by the 11th of March 2018.

Comprised of three intensive one-week modules and a tailored project, Inside Pictures takes place in London and Los Angeles between June 2018 and January 2019. The scheme develops cutting edge industry business knowledge, management skills, profile and a cross-industry contact network needed for leaders from across the industry to thrive in the global business of film. Seminars, workshops, studio visits and networking events cover all aspects of the international film business - from development through production, financing, worldwide distribution, marketing and exhibition and the latest digital developments.

This year marks the fifteenth edition of the Inside Pictures programme, and the eighth year it is delivered by the NFTS, one of the world's leading film, games and television schools.

Agnieszka Moody, Director of Creative Europe Desk UK, said: “I’m delighted to see that the most ambitious, energetic, smart and forward-looking film and TV executives around Europe will again have a unique opportunity to upgrade their international expertise and expand their global industry networks. Initiatives encouraging closer international ties and the benefits that flow from them are at the core of Creative Europe which is, first and foremost, a cooperation programme.”

Lisa Howe, Film Manager, Creative Skillset, said: “We are pleased to be supporting the Inside Pictures 2018 programme.  It provides a unique opportunity for the next generation of industry leaders to hone their film business skills and opens doors into a global industry. Realising the potential of executives and producers through professional up-skilling is of prime importance in ensuring a successful film industry in the future.”

Jon Wardle, NFTS Director, said: “We’re delighted to deliver this fifteenth edition of Inside Pictures, a scheme the NFTS is very proud of and which has a fantastic track record in developing leaders in the European Film Industry. The programme has a deserved reputation for the exceptional quality of its content and the high level of participants. We’re grateful for the continued support of Creative Europe and Creative Skillset in making this happen. I’m looking forward to meeting this year’s cohort and seeing the impact they have on the industry.”

High-level industry professionals in America and Europe already confirmed as speakers include:

In Europe:

Andrew Orr – Managing Director, Independent

Hamish Moseley – Head of Distribution, Altitude Film Entertainment

Matt Baker – Head of Acquisitions, HanWay Films

John Letham – Founder & Director, Considered Thinking

Leontine Petit –  CEO & Producer, Lemming Film

Malte Grunert – Managing Director, Amusement Park Films

Poonam Sahota – VP Worldwide Acquisitions, Home Entertainment, Entertainment One

Benjamina Mirnik-Voges, Managing Director, Film – Germany, Entertainment One

Duncan Clarke – President of Distribution, Universal Pictures International

Claire Beswick – Founder, The Living Room Cinema

Reno Antoniades – Manager Partner, Lee & Thompson LLP

Tim Bevan - Co-Chairman and Co-Founder, Working Title Films

Steve Knibbs - COO, VUE Entertainment

Christos Michaels - Partner, Lee & Thompson LLP

James Shirras - Joint Managing Director, Film Finances Ltd

Sune Lind Thomsen - Head of Theatrical Distribution, Release & Marketing, SF Film A/S

Susan Wendt, Head of Sales, TrustNordisk ApS

Mark Woolley - Finance & Commercial Director, Ecosse Films

In Los Angeles:

David Koplan – President of Production, Red Granite

Orian Williams – Producer, Northsee

Tracey Becker – Producer, Beachfront Films

J Todd Harris – President, Branded Pictures Entertainment

Anne Thompson – Editor-at-Large, Indiewire

Marc Gareton – EVP Digital Distribution, Warner Bros. Entertainment

Netflix

Alan Brunswick – Partner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP

Kieran Breen - EVP International Marketing, 20th Century Fox

Eddie Cunningham - President, Universal Pictures Worldwide Home Entertainment

CAA

Rich Delia – Casting Director/Owner, Rich Delia Casting

Craig Emanuel - Partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP

Hannah Minghella – President, TriStar Productions

Amotz Zakai – Vice President, Echo Lake Productions

Ann Johnson – SVP, Littlefield Company

A full list of confirmed speakers can be found at www.inside-pictures.com.

Inside Pictures thanks Ingenious Media for providing scholarship funding for this year’s edition of the course.

 

 

The first workshops of both programs are well over with, and we look back at the results from last week's intensive events in Trieste.

MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2018 – Workshop 1

The 9 participating projects took the first steps at the new and expanded Feature Launch program. The first workshop focused on the development of the script, as well as offering the participants training in pitching and financing strategies.

Director of MIDPOINT, Barbora Struss, says,

"Trieste proved to be the ideal frame for the first workshop offering both the intimacy for script development and the vibrant atmosphere for networking that is so important for filmmakers in the early stages of their careers. We are very satisfied with our partnership with Trieste Film Festival and When East Meets West, and are already counting down to the second workshop in Serbia, and the third, the Project Showcase that will unspool at Karlovy Vary IFF."

Projects

Balaur – writer/director Octav Chelaru, producer Livia Radulescu (Romania)

Brazil – writer/director Thelyia Petraki, producer Kostas Tagalakis (Greece)

Clouds On Leashes – writer/director Gunel Eva, producer Maria Ibrahimova (Azerbaijan)

Homeward – writer Marysia Nikitiuk, writer/director Nariman Aliev, producer Vladimir Yatsenko (Ukraine)

Leave No Traces – writer Kaja Krawczyk-Wnuk, director Jan P. Matuszynski, producer Leszek Bodzak (Poland)

Sex, Wire, Rock'n'Roll – writer/director Gabor Fabricius, producer Patricia D'Intino (Hungary)

The Last Balkan Film About the War – writer/director Lee Filipovski, producer Adi Dizdarevic (Serbia)

The Ugly Mandarine – writer/director Piaoyu Xie, producer Veronika Kuhrova (Czech Republic)

Sirin – writer Claudia Bottino, director Senad Sahmanovic, producer Velisa Popovic (Montenegro)

Tutors

Danijel Hocevar – Head of Studies of Feature Launch   

Anne Gensior – Core Tutor

Pavel Jech – Core Tutor 

Ivo Trajkov – Core Tutor

Elma Tataragic – Guest Tutor

Thanos Anastopoulos – Guest Tutor 

Cedomir Kolar – Guest Tutor

Stefano Tealdi – Pitching Tutor

Check out our photo gallery here.

MIDPOINT Feature Launch is realized in collaboration with Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Trieste Film Festival, When East Meets West, Film Center Serbia, CineMart and COCO – Connecting Cottbus.

MIDPOINT Shorts 2018 – Workshop 1

The first out of two workshops for short film projects also took off in Trieste, parallel to Feature Launch. 4 projects participated under the tutoring of Pavel Marek.

For Alma – writer/director Anton Breum and producer Maria Møller Kjeldgaard (Denmark)

Short Film with a Sheep – writer/director Ivana Skrabalo and producer Dora Prpic (Croatia)

The Gravel – writer Zsanett Kertesz, director Tamas Benko (Hungary)

There – writer/director Zeynep Koprulu and producer Utku Zeka (Turkey)

Photo gallery here.

Supported by Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund and Film Center Serbia.

Script Consulting Incubator

The new Czech training program for script consulting initiated by the Czech Film Fund and organized by MIDPOINT took off parallel to Feature Launch in Trieste. The Czech Film Fund has initiated this ambitious project to heighten the level of feature film scripts and to support a new generation of Czech script consultants. 4 script consultant trainees have been selected, they are Lucia Kajánková, Vít Poláček, Michal Reich and Milada Těšitelová and they are mentored by Incubator's Head of Studies, acclaimed Hungarian director Gyula Gazdag. They participate as script consultant trainees at MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2018 and later move on to become script consultants for new Czech film projects that have received development support from the film fund.

Read more here.

 

 

Every year Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris pays great attention to emerging filmmakers and their films. The 23rd edition of the festival, taking place March 15 – 29, will be opened with France’s Xaviers Legrand’s award winning debut feature Custody (Jusqu'à la garde).

Custody, the cutting-edge family drama, has already won six prizes including Silver Lion for the best director and best debut in Venice Film Festival as well as the audience award in San Sabastian International film festival.

Similarly as Legrand‘s first short feature, an Academy award nominee Just Before Losing Everything, Custody is placing the audience at the center of the strife between two divorcing parents. According to Legrand, the story mirrors everyday reality when usually only parts of a story are being presented. Creating this psychological puzzle, Legrand proves to be one of the strongest voices of the new generation of French cinema.

Custody trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1elCMUauWw

Kino Pavasaris feature selections will be screened across 5 sections: Festival‘s favorites; Discoveries; Critic’s choice; Masters; as well as retrospectives of an influential French director Jean Vigo and Lithuanian classics focusing on the theme of childhood.

Vilnius Film Festival will include works of emerging directors, such as Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent peculiarly made by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman; Iram Haq’s What Will People Say, already winning an AFI Audience Award and a prestigious Goteborg Film Festival Audience Dragon Award. Michaël R. Roskam’s passionate story about star-crossed lovers Racer and the Jailbird amazingly played by Matthias Schoenaerts and Adele Exarchopolous is also added to the festival programme, together with Robin Campillo's Cannes-winningBPM (Beats per Minute) and many more.

This year Kino Pavasariswill also present impressive Asian cinema. Shin Dong-seok‘s debut film Last Child will come to Vilnius after its international premiere at Berlinale. Other screenings will include Anucha Boonyawatana‘s second feature Malila: The Farewell Flower as well as the Mumbai Film festival‘s Jury Grand Prize winner, Dipesh Jain‘s psychological thriller In the Shadows.

All of these films are landmarks of how Vilnius International Film Festival will be this year: inspiring, taking viewers around the world and even into space by showcasing different genres and quality cinema.

 

 

One week prior to the opening, Berlinale has announced that Jiří Menzel, renowned Czech film director and actor, will receive Berlinale Camera 2018 alongside Beki Probst and Katriel Schory. Jiří Menzel, whose artistic curriculum includes more than 20 feature films, is considered a legend of Czech cinema. Menzel’sworld-celebrated film Larks on the String, had its premiere in 1990 at Berlinale, 21 years after it had been released and shortly after banned in communist Czechoslovakia.

Jiří Menzel will receive the award at the occasion of the world premiere of The Interpreter, a Slovak-Czech-Austrian co-production directed by Martin Šulík, where the Czech actor plays the main part together with his Austrian counterpart Peter Simonischek famous for Toni Erdman. Menzel will receive the award on February 23, on the day of his 80th birthday.

The Interpreter is one of the three films representing Czech cinema at the 68th Berlinale IFF. The Slovak-Czech-Austrian co-production is the work of prominent Slovak director Martin Šulík and the equally noted screenwriter Marek Leščák, who already have several successful films to their names, including The Garden (1995) and Orbis Pictus (1997).

A road-movie is a story of two men who have been brought together by an accidential mention on the WW2 events.  80-year-old Ali Ungár (Menzel) comes across a book by a former SS officer, describing his wartime activities in Slovakia. Ali realizes that one of the passages recounts the execution of his parents, and sets out to visit the former SS man, who now lives in Vienna. Instead of his parents’ murderer, though, Ali finds only his 70-year-old son. Georg Peis (Simonischek) is a former teacher who has distanced himself from his father’s past and is now struggling with alcoholism. The interpreter’s visit stirs his curiosity, so he decides to find out who exactly his father was before he dies. So it is that the two old men, the ascetic Ali and the bon vivant Georg, embark on a journey together to find the surviving witnesses of the wartime tragedy.

The Interpreter was filmed at various locations around Slovakia and in Vienna. In addition to Marek Leščák, the director brought in another long-time collaborator of his, cinematographer Martin Štrba.  Alongside the lead duo, Zuzana Mauréry, Eva Kramerová, and Attila Mokos play supporting roles. The film was produced by the companies Titanic (Martin Šulík, Slovakia), IN Film Praha (Rudolf Biermann, Czech Republic), and COOP99 (Bruno Wagner, Austria). The coproducers are RTVS: Radio and Television of Slovakia and Czech Television. The project was supported by the Czech Film Fund and the Slovak Audiovisual Fund.

The trailer to the film is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmdVZ-PiqhM

More information here: https://www.berlinale.de/en/das_festival/preise_und_juries/08_berlinalekamera/Berlinale_Kamera.html

 

 

Magiclab is pleased to be attending this year's Berlinale with Hendi & Hormoz directed by Abbas Amini, which will have its world premiere at the Berlinale Generation 14plus. Magiclab is proud to be co-producer and to have completed post-production on the film. Interpreter directed by Martin Sulik, another feature film completed at Magiclab, will have its world premiere at the Berlinale Special.

Magiclab is delighted to have been involved in the films below and for the success of co-produced films, which have garnered awards and have been very successful on the film festival circuit. 

We are looking forward to the EFM and Berlinale Co-Production Market and will be present from the 17 – 21 February, actively looking for new producers to partner with for post-production, VFX and for our 2018 co-production slate. 

 

 

This year EFP (European Film Promotion) in collaboration with Hot Docs – Canadian International Documentary Festival (April 26 – May 6, 2018) will launch a special programme entitled THE CHANGING FACE OF EUROPE, a pan-European showcase of 10 new documentaries that illustrate and examine the current cultural, geographic, economic and political factors affecting Europe today. This new initiative is possible thanks to the support of the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and the participating EFP member organisations.

"We are delighted to strike up this new partnership with Hot Docs for European documentary films," says Sonja Heinen, Managing Director of EFP. "The programme reflects on the 'new Europe' with its current political and social changes, and shines a light on the rich and vivid diversity of European documentaries. The EFP member organisations have nominated an excellent array of films and we are excited to see the final selection curated by the programmers at Hot Docs. We are honored to be part of this prestigious and important festival and look forward to presenting the European filmmakers to industry and audience alike."

With this new partnership EFP continues its commitment to present outstanding creative documentaries from Europe to North American audiences. Filmmakers selected to take part in this program will participate in an array of Festival industry events including workshops, pitches and meetings with potential buyers, expanding their professional development on an international scale, and increasing their film's access to North American and international markets.