15 consecutive years “Festival of tolerance” from Zagreb, Croatia founded by Branko Lustig, a two time Oscar winner and survivor of Holocaust, is keeping the memory of Holocaust and teaching empathy through films, discussions and art

The popularno Festival of Tolerance will take place this summer from 1 to 10 July at Zagreb's Bundek lake. Visitors can expect successful and intriguing films, interesting and provocative exhibitions that encourage contemplation, and socially important lectures and educational programmes. Attractive gigs under the open sky of Zagreb will wrap up the Festival’s programme.

In June, the Czech Film Fund granted the support for development of fiction features and for development of documentary films for the second time this year. In fiction category, the Council divided altogether EUR 346 000 (CZK 9 million) among 12 projects by talented young guns as well as experienced authors and supported mainly coming-of-age stories and family dramas. In case of documentary films, the Fund supported 9 projects with EUR 172 000 (CZK 4,5 million), mostly focused on current topics, portraits and Czechoslovak history.

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This summer, Fest Anča International Animation Festival will bring a selection of the best and most compelling Slovak and international animation, but with a twist: Fest Anča’s 14th festival edition will be primarily online. Although the festival will open its gates to a limited number of live viewers in Žilina, it will offer its full film programme primarily online. So viewers can watch it via their computers for the first time in the festival’s history. Fest Anča 2021 will take place from 1 to 4 July, and the films will be available for streaming up until Sunday 11 June. This year’s edition features a solid programme combining animation with other art forms, quality dramaturgy, and stellar jury members.

Let’s Be Series, vol 2. is a two-day international event organized by Creative Europe Desk Poland in  partnership with the Polish Producers Alliance (KIPA), dedicated to the topic of new trends in the  production and distribution of European feature series. 

The event will be held online on 22-23 June 2021.

The official selection of the 55th KVIFF, which takes place from 20 to 28 August, 2021, features 32 premieres. The films will make their bow in the fest’s two competitions and Special Screenings section. Karlovy Vary will also celebrate the work of The Film Foundation via an extensive tribute.

TV Beats Co-Finance Market and Script Pool Tallinn plan to welcome the finalists in Tallinn, Estonia at the end of November and present to the final pitches live on stage. Photo: Johan Huimerind

For the first time, Black Nights Film Festival and its summit and trade fair for audiovisual industry professionals, Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event have announced a call for projects for TV Beats Co-Financing Market, an initiative involving high-quality drama series projects with international sales and distribution potential. In addition, the event also published the call for Script Pool Tallinn, an international film competition for projects with high distribution value in the final stage of development.  

scene from The Staffroom

After many years, a Croatian film is part of the main programme at the prestigious Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Sonja Tarokić’s debut fiction feature The Staffroom, produced by Ankica Jurić Tilić (of Kinorama), will have its world premiere in the Crystal Globe competition. The 55th edition of the festival in western Czech Republic will be held live at cinemas, 20th – 28th August.

COVID – 19: Cultural and Creative Sectors

18/06: The situation of artists and the cultural recovery in the EU – CULT Committee

During its meeting on 27 May the Committee held an exchange of views on the own initiative report on The situation of artists and the cultural recovery in the EU (Rapporteur Monica Semedo, Renew) in the presence of invited experts from Culture Action Europe.

COVID-19: EU response

25/06: Commission welcomes the adoption of €373 billion Cohesion policy legislative package 2021-2027 – European Commission

The European Commission welcomes the adoption by the European Parliament of the political agreements on the Cohesion policy legislative package 2021-2027 of €373 billion and its signature by both co-legislators. This marks the final step of the legislative procedure and allows for an entry into force of the Cohesion legislation on 1 July.

16/06: NextGenerationEU: Questions and answers on the Recovery and Resilience Facility – European Commission

Member States prepare recovery and resilience plans that set out a coherent package of reforms and investment initiatives to be implemented up to 2026 and supported by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

EU Digital COVID Certificate

14/06: COVID-19: Council updates recommendation on free movement restrictions – Council of the EU

The Council adopted a recommendation amending the recommendation on a coordinated approach to the restriction of free movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive

22/06: CJEU rules on platform liability under copyright law, safe harbours, and injunctions – The IPKat

Do platforms like YouTube and cyberlocker Uploaded directly perform copyright-restricted acts under Article 3 of the InfoSoc Directive? At what conditions is the hosting safe harbour under Article 14(1) of the Ecommerce Directive available? What may be the requirements for injunctions under Article 8(3) of the InfoSoc Directive?

Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act

21/06: Digital Services Act & Digital Markets Act: discussion on draft reports and public hearing – IMCO Committee

Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee held its first discussion on the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act draft reports, followed by a public hearing.

Media and AV Action Plan

18/06: Recovery and future transformation of Europe’s media and audio-visual sectors – CULT Committee

During its committee meeting on the 27 May, the CULT Committee held an exchange of views on an own-initiative report (INI) recommending ways towards recovery and deep transformation of the media and audio-visual sectors in Europe. During the exchange of views following the presentation of the draft report, questions were put forward to experts who prepared an accompanying research commissioned by Policy Department B at the European Parliament.

Intellectual Property

18/06: Council adopts conclusions on role of Intellectual Property in tackling Covid-19 pandemic – Council of the EU

The Council approved conclusions on Intellectual Property (IP) policy. With these conclusions, ministers recall that IP is a major driver for innovation, competitiveness, economic growth and sustainable development, and a key enabler for knowledge and tech-transfer.

Competition

22/06: Antitrust: Commission opens investigation into possible anticompetitive conduct by Google in the online advertising technology sector – European Commission

The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether Google has violated EU competition rules by favouring its own online display advertising technology services in the so called “ad tech” supply chain, to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers.

Events

1 July: Slovenian Presidency

1 July: Joint IPKat-BLACA-IFIM live webinar on CJEU YouTube/Cyando judgment

12 – 13 July: IMCO Committee meeting

13 July: European Audiovisual Observatory Cannes conference “A year under COVID: accelerating the production shift from cinema to sofa?”

 4 – 7 October: CineEurope 2021