WARSAW: The Play Poland Film Festival (http://playpoland.org.uk) will be bring Polish cinema to audiences in Scotland from 2 August to 25 September with screenings in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Sponsored in part by the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl ) the mobile festival will continue in other UK cities including Oxford, Birmingham, Liverpool and Belfast until December 2011.
WARSAW: The team behind the award-winning Rabbit a la Berlin has begun shooting the concept documentary Six Degrees, which takes a literal and exploratory look at the theory that everyone is connected via only six degrees of separation.
WARSAW: Paris based international sales outfit Wide Management has added Rafael Lewandowski’s The Mole to its strong line-up. The Mole with will be released theatrically in Poland on 5 August is produced by Warsaw based Metro Films (www.metrofilms.com) and is the first feature film by Lewandowski who has made a name for himself as a doc maker. The film is about a miner who is a Solidarity member and is falsely accused being a member of the secret police.
SOFIA: Bulgarian films continue their international success story with seven Bulgarian films due to participate in the 17th edition of Sarajevo Film Festival (22-30 July 2011) in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bulgarian filmmakers manage to succeed despite the ongoing struggle for funding in Bulgaria
BUCHAREST: The first edition of a new TV content market, the Golden Carpathian Market, is set for 25-28 August 2011 in Ploiesti in the Carpathian region of Romania. The event is a regionally-focused business market for the TV and digital media content industries from Central and East Europe plus Middle East and Middle Asia countries.
“The Mole” will make its world premiere in the World Competition of the 35th Montreal World FF
Press releases 26-07-2011It is a feature debut of Rafael Lewandowski and the cinematographer credit goes to Piotr Rosołowski. “The Mole” was produced by Metro Films and co-produced by KUIV Productions, Silesia-Film, Non Stop Film Service, Le Frensoy – studio national des arts contemporains, Vertigo, Trafik. The film received the financial support from the Polish Film Institute and City of Bielsko-Biała.
The 35th Montreal WFF runs from August 18 through 28 and makes the only “A” class film festival on the North American continent. The goal of the festival is to encourage cultural diversity and understanding among nations, to foster the cinema of all continents by stimulating the development of quality cinema, to promote filmmakers and innovative works, to discover and encourage new talents, and to promote meetings between cinema professionals from around the world. This year’s edition of the festival will present over 400 films from 70 countries. A last year Special Jury Prize went to “Venice” by Jan Jakub Kolski.
“The Mole” tells the story of Paweł (played by Borys Szyc) who is the son of a 'Solidarity' activist. His wife is Ewa, the daughter of a miner who had been killed during mine strike riots under communism. One day a photo of Paweł's father (Marian Dziędziel) is published in a paper. He is accused of having collaborated with the communist secret police in the 1980s (with "The Mole" as his code name), and of having informed on his collegues during the strike.
The film was screened in the main competition of the 36th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia and Marian Dziędziel won an award for the Best Actor In Supporting Actor. The film also stars: Wojciech Pszoniak, Magdalena Czerwińska, Sławomir Orzechowski and Bartłomiej Topa.
The distribution of Rafael Lewandowski’s film in Poland is handled by Kino Świat. The film is set for the theatrical release in Poland on August 5th.
The world rights are handled by the Wide Management.
Two Łódź productions: Opowieści z chłodni by Grzegorz Jaroszuk and Bez śniegu by Magnus von Horn will screen in the Pardi di domani / Leopards of Tomorrow short film competition of the 64th Locarno International Film Festival, one of the key film events in the world. Locarno's International Competition lineup also includes the feature animation, Polish – Romanian co-production, Crulic - Droga na drugą stronę (Crulic), directed by Anca Damian. The film will have its world premiere during the Festival. The film was partly shot in Poland, while Krakow area based Studio Alvernia handled post-production. The film's Polish co-producer is the Magellan Foundation. All three films were supported by the Polish Film Institute.
The 64th Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 3 through 13.
One of the Leopards of Tomorrow competition jury members is Luc Toutoungh, co-producer of Świteź (The Lost Town of Świteź) by Kamil Polak, which will also screen in Locarno.
Both competition short films already have a history of success. Produced by the National Film School in Łódź and by EasyBusyProductions, Opowieści z chłodni won the Targowa Street Film&Music Festival in Łódź. In April, the film won the Grand Prize and Audience Award at the "Łodzią po Wiśle" film festival in Warsaw. The film will also screen in the Polish Shorts section of the upcoming New Horizons film festival. Opowieści z chłodni is a tongue-in-cheek story about two supermarket employees who have two days to find their purpose in life.
Bez śniegu, produced by the National Film School in Łódź and by Lava Films, previously won the Lucjan Bokiniec Grand Prize in the Young Cinema Competition at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, the Silver Hobbyhorse at the Krakow Film Festival, and 1st prize, the second most important award at "Łodzią po Wiśle". Inspired by real events, Magnus von Horn's film focuses on circumstances that led to a man shooting two boys in his backyard.
MALTA: The 13 part TV series Sinbad the Sailor produced by UK based Impossible Pictures for SKY TV will pump over 8 m euros into the Malta economy according to Malta Finance Minister Tonia Fenech.
16-23 July 2011 National Festival
9-23 July 2011 International Festival
Prize winners of the 58th Pula Film Festival (www.pulafilmfestival.hr)
National Competition Programme Jury
Jury: Živorad Tomić, film critic and director - president, Goran Dević, screenwriter and director, Stanko Herceg, cinematographer, Nataša Janjić, actress, Vladimir Tadej, screenwriter and director
NATIONAL PROGRAMME - minority co-productions section
Golden Arena for Best Cinematography goes to Sven Pepeonik for the film Good Night, Missy by Metod Pevec
Golden Arena for Best Actress in a Leading Role goes to Polona Juh for the role of Hana in the film Good Night, Missy by Metod Pevec
Golden Arena for Best Director goes to Metod Pevec for the film Good Night, Missy
NATIONAL PROGRAMME - main section
The Breza Award by Vjesnik for best debutant director goes to Daniel Kušan for the film Koko and the Ghosts
Special Golden Arena for Special Effects goes to the film Josef by Stanislav Tomić
Special Golden Arena for Sound goes to Frano Homen for the film Kotlovina by Tomislav Radić
Special Arena for Best Make-Up goes to Ana Bulajić Črček for the film Lea and Darija by Branko Ivanda
Golden Arena for Best Costume Design goes to Barbara Bourek for the film Lea and Darija by Branko Ivanda
Golden Arena for Best Art Direction goes to Iva Hušnjak for the film Lea and Darija by Branko Ivanda
Golden Arena for Best Music goes to Dinko Appelt for the film Koko and the Ghosts by Daniel Kušan
Golden Arena for Best Editing goes to Slaven Zečević for the film Koko and the Ghosts by Daniel Kušan
Golden Arena for Best Cinematography goes to Vanja Černjul for the film Daddy by Dalibor Matanić
Golden Arena for Best Actor in a Supporting Role goes to Boris Buzančić for the role of Grandpa in the film Kotlovina by Tomislav Radić
Golden Arena for Best Actor in a Leading Role goes to Draško Zidar for the role of Mirko in the film Kotlovina by Tomislav Radić
Golden Arena for Best Actress in a Supporting Role goes to Iva Mihalić for the role of Sister in the film Daddy by Dalibor Matanić
Golden Arena for Best Actress in a Leading Role goes to Mirela Brekalo Popović for the role of Ana in the film Kotlovina by Tomislava Radića
Golden Arena for Best Screenplay goes to Tomislav Radić for the film Kotlovina
Golden Arena for Best Director goes to Dalibor Matanić for the film Daddy
Grand Golden Arena for Best Film goes to Tomislav Radić, producer of the film Kotlovina by Tomislav Radić
Hypo Banka grants a prize amounting to HRK 30,000.00 to Tomislav Radić, the director of the film Kotlovina
II. Golden Gate of Pula Audience Award
Voting for the National Programme screened in the Arena, the audience granted the Golden Gate of Pula Audience Award to the film Koko and the Ghosts by Daniel Kušan, produced by Inter Film Zagreb, average score 4.78.
Koko and the Ghosts, dir. Danijel Kušan (4.78); Blurs, dir. Aldo Tardozzi (4.52); Piran-Pirano, dir. Goran Vojnović (4.51); Step by Step, dir. Biljana Čakić-Veselič
National Programme:
a) main section (10 films)
Lea and Darija, dir. Branko Ivanda, Koko and the Ghosts, dir. Danijel Kušan, Daddy, dir. Dalibor Matanić, Blurs, dir. Aldo Tardozzi, Little Gypsy Witch, dir.Tomislav Žaja, Kotlovina, dir. Tomislav Radić, 7seX7, dir. Irena Škorić, Step by Step, dir. Biljana Čakić-Veselič, Darkness, dir. Dan Oki, Josef, dir. Stanislav Tomić.
b) minority co-productions section (6 films)
Room 304, dir. Brigitte Staermose, The Enemy, dir. Dejan Zečević, Good Night, Missy, dir. Metod Pevec, Belvedere, dir. Ahmed Imamović, Piran-Pirano, dir. Goran Vojnović.
International Programme (21 films)
Carlos, dir. Olivier Assayas, Casino Jack, dir. George Hickenlooper, Silent Sonata, dir. Janez Burger, The Double Hour (La doppia ora), dir. Giuseppe Capotondi, We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam), dir. Nanni Moretti, I Am Love (Io sono l'amore), dir. Luca Guadagnino, The Housemaid (Housemaid), dir. Im Sangsoo, Mothers (Majki), dir. Milčo Mančevski, Melancholia (Melancolia), dir. Lars von Trier, A Quiet Life (Una vita tranquilla), dir. Claudio Cupellini, Montevideo, Taste of a Dream, dir. Dragan Bjelogrlić, Nader and Simin, a Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin), dir. Asghar Farhadi, Leaving (Odcházení), dir. Vaclav Havel, Last Night (Last Night), dir. Massy Tadjedin, Skinning, dir. Stevan Filipović, Trophy Wife (Potiche), dir. François Ozon, Three (Drei), dir. Tom Tykwer, Service Entrance (Les femmes du 6ème étage), dir. Philippe Le Guay, Made in Dagenham (Made in Dagenham), dir. Nigel Cole, Come Undone (Cosa voglio di piu), dir. Silvio Soldini, Sacrifice (Sacrifice), dir. Chen Kaige
Short Films Programme (20 films)
Adieu, N, dir. Barbara Vekarić, Fucking Game, dir. David Kapac, Fucking Game, dir. Daina Oniunas Pusić, Fucking Game, dir. Josip Žuvan, You Bitch!, dir. Sonja Tarokić, Us in the Sun, dir. Neda Radić, Nina, Please, dir. Barbara Vekarić, A Night for Two, dir. Filip Mojzeš, First!, dir. Silva Ćapin, The First Time, dir. Neven Dužanec, Room Service, dir. Neda Radić, We Just Kissed, dir. Kristina Vuković, Straight Pool, dir. Filip Šovagović, Happy Birthday Marija, dir. Ivana Škrabalo, That's Life, dir. Saša Dodik, Lullaby, dir. Jadran Puharić, Hanging Flowers, dir. Ivica Mušan, Zagorski specijalitet, dir. David Kapac, Winter, dir. Denis Lepur and Marko Stanić, Chill, dir. Hana Jušić
Children's Film Programme Pulica- Screenings for Children (9 films)
The Red Balloon and White Mane, dir. Albert Lamorisse, The Gruffalo, dir. Max Lang i Jakob Schuh, The Crocodiles, dir. Christian Ditter, Molly in Springtime, dir. Pierre-Luc Granjon, Going Our Way, dir. Miha Hočevar, The Ugly Duckling, dir. Garri Bardin, The Secret of an Old Attic, dir. Vladimir Tadej, A Cat in Paris, dir. Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alan Gagnol
PULA: The 58th Pula Film Festival awarded its main prize, the Grand Golden Arena, to Kotlovina directed by Tomislav Radic in its National Competition for Croatian film. The film also won awards for Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Sound. The film was produced by Zagreb based Korugva Film and Croatian TV and was selected from among a competion of 10 new Croatian films. The winner of the Audience Award was Koko and the Ghosts directed by Danijel Kusan and produced by Kinorama (www.kinorama.hr) and coproduced by Croatian TV. The film was the first Croatian film to receive MEDIA backing.
