Polish authorities have launched a new program to help young filmmakers get a crucial boost at the beginning of their careers:.the "Youth and Film" Studio, named after Andrzej Munk, a leading auteur of Polish cinema. Representatives of the Ministry of Culture, the Polish Filmmakers Association and the Polish Film Institute signed an agreement establishing the studio on Friday.
Katyń, renowned Polish director Andrzej Wajda's film about the massacre of over 20,000 Polish officers in the Soviet Union in 1940, will be screened in Moscow today through Wednesday for select audiences including artists, members of the opposition and VIPs, according to Polish Radio's external service (www.theeews.pl).
The Mermaid by Russian director Anna Melikian won the Best Film Award at the 12th edition of the international Sofia Film Festival, according to the Bulgarian news agency BTA. The award, presented at a ceremony Saturday night in Sofia, was accompanied by a prize of €5,000
Principal photography begins Monday (March 17) in Malta on the big-budget historical Egyptian epic Agora by Academy Award-winner Alejandro Amenábar. The shoot on location in Malta will take about 15 weeks, according to an announcement by Madrid-based Mod Producciones.
The Museum of Polish History is holding a review of 21 documentaries relating to various aspects of World War II. Polish radio quoted a museum spokesman as saying the festival explores the war experience of the populations of many nations, not only Poles but also Russians, Germans, Czechs and Americans
Tricks by Polish director Andrzej Jakimowski has won the Knight Grand Jury Prize for best foreign film at the Miami Film Festival, Polish Radio's external service reported. Released in 2007, Tricks has won awards in Venice, Tokyo, Mannheim, Sao Paulo and Bratislava.
Trial broadcasts of 12 programmes from public broadcaster TVP and private broadcasters TVN and Polsat are under way in Warsaw, according to the Krakow-based research and consulting firm PMR Ltd. If the tests are successful as expected, it could mean a full-scale launch of digital mobile TV in Poland later this year.
The Polish government has announced plans to discontinue compulsory television and radio licence fees. The ruling centre-right Civic Platform party had said it favoured the move last autumn when it took power, and a formal announcement of the decision followed on March 6.
A cinema for documentaries opened in Budapest this week. The DocuArt project is a comprehensive film distribution concept that aims to increase cooperative efforts within the documentary film industry as well as attract a larger audience for Hungarian and foreign productions.
Digital TV platform Cyfrowy Polsat, which plans to list on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, is considering a global offer as well, but is waiting to decide until the markets stabilise, CEO Dominik Libicki told the Polish news agency PAP in an interview.
