The 2024 coproduction funding of the Mazovia Warsaw Film Fund was announced on 19 July 2024.

Polish Days – the most important industry event of mBank New Horizons IFF, co-organized by the Polish Film Institute, has just finished.

The 15th edition of New Horizons Studio+ took place from the 18th till 21st of July during the 24. mBank New Horizons International Film Festival (18-28 July 2024).

Organized by the New Horizons Association and Creative Europe Desk Poland, it consists of workshops and lectures on various aspects related to the project promotion and development.

New Horizons Studio+ selects European director-producer pairs who are developing their first or second feature film. Emerging talents from Poland, Czechia, Romania, Spain, The Netherlands and Ukraine took part in the programme under the supervision of the following experts: Alvaro Vega (DobleSentido), Gabriele Brunnenmeyer (MIDPOINT Institute), Joanna Solecka (Alphapanda Polska) and Anna E. Dziedzic (Crew United).

The New Horizons Studio+ program was completed with a masterclass with the director and producer of the film The Girl with the Needle, Magnus von Horn and Mariusz Wlodarski, titled From the corridors of the Film School to the Red Carpet in Cannes…

The workshop program was concluded by a pitching contest. The participants had an opportunity to pitch their projects to an international jury. You can find the list of the awards and awarded projects below.

A special mention of the New Horizons Studio+ went to the Ukrainian project The Earth is Flat – I Flew Around and Saw It (directed by Maksym Nakonechnyi, produced by Daria Zakharova).

Agnieszka Skalska, the producer of the film Two Mothers (Poland), received a special award in the form of accreditation entitling her to participate in CocoLab – an industry event of the Connecting Cottbus festival for young producers.

Laura Egidos Plaja, producer of the Spanish debut March 14th, received an award from the Producers’ Guild of Poland in the form of mentoring by an experienced member of the Guild.

The award in the form of a letter of intent from Canal+ online regarding the TV broadcasting of the finished film went to the project In Good Faith (Poland/Czechia) directed by Anna Wowra and produced by Tomáš Pertold.

The Main Prize of New Horizons Studio+ and the London Film Academy went to the film Almost Happy (Poland), directed by Ewa Podgórska, produced by Daria Maślona. The prize is script consultancy for the project sponsored by the London Film Academy.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all the participants, partners and media patrons: EAVE, MIDPOINT Institute, London Film Academy, Canal+ online, Producers Guild of Poland, Romanian Cultural Institute, Cervantes Institute, Embassy of the Netherlands in Poland, Crew United, Cineuropa, Film & TV Kamera, and Film New Europe.

The 81st Venice International Film Festival, organised by the Biennale di Venezia, will take place this year on the Lido di Venezia from August 28 to September 7, 2024. A total of 17 German productions and co-productions will be shown in various sections, and additional projects will be presented in the Venice Production Bridge. German Films will also be hosting a panel entitled ‘Getting the Money Abroad’ about XR.

On 18 July, the first tickets to this year’s Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF, 17–27 October) go on sale, granting access to the retrospective of Czech animation director and artist Jan Švankmajer, in the festival section IN KINO VERITAS. The festival will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the author along with the centenary of the Surrealist movement and examine its role during the Cold War. Švankmajer retrospective screenings will take place over two weekends,19–20 and 26–27 October,at the festival’s main venue, cinema Splendid Palace. A documentary film on the director’s life and work will be screened online throughout Latvia.

The following production grants were announced by Film Center Serbia on 16 July 2024.

On July 31st, at TheOneCotroceni, #TheAlternativeSchool’s Creative MBA presents #TheFutureOfCreativity, an event distilling global trends in visual languages, branding and communication through the business intelligence lenses, echoing the 71st edition of Cannes Lions. The event, a spin-off of the #CannesForClients series, is designed for creatives, brand managers, designers and agency professionals passionate about the culture of creativity. It aims to help them set strategic objectives for the new year based on the latest and most enticing innovations in advertising & the associated disciplines, on a global scale.