Competition programmes of the 20th goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will feature Vinko Brešan’s feature-length What a Country! and Sara Jurinčić’s experimental short September 3, 2015. Nenad Puhovski’s documentary Graham and I – A True Story has been selected for the “Symposium” programme, while Sara Jurinčić and Karla Lulić, who presented their new projects in the East-West Talent Lab industry programme, have been nominated for the goEast Development Award. The festival is held in German Wiesbaden throughout the year.
Executive summary
Film Proxy is an advocate for the emerging Polish below-the-line talent. The talent is scouted and recruited within four areas: cinematography, editing, sound, animation and special effects. Film Proxy promotes them by organizing a series of free, curated matchmaking on-site events with local and international professional film producers, production houses and film directors. Film Proxy scouts for talent before it is recognized in the Polish film industry and then takes it to various industry events and meetings in Europe in order to help them build their professional network and internationalize their potential. Film Proxy also offers an on-site qualification development sessions under the name Film Campus to keep its talent up-to-date with the latest technological and esthetical developments. Film Proxy's talent are Polish film school graduates with own portfolio and first experience in the industry. Film Proxy fulfills their need for mentorship and helps them get noticed by the international industry.
The goal of Film Proxy is to make connections between international and local professional audiovisual producers, production houses and directors, and emerging Polish film talent - in order to facilitate their cooperation. Film Proxy draws from the over 40-year-experience of the Kieslowski Film School in Poland, but is not limited to the talent graduating from this school. The association with the Kieślowski Film School allows Film Proxy key objective to be to establish the talent in the industry, regardless the monetary result.
Film Proxy offers tutoring and workshops that develop soft skills of the Polish talent, but most importantly offers opportunity to meet and network with the film industry professionals who are in search for skilled and reliable talent.
Problem
Development of the technology together with its falling prices and democratization of the access to the filmmaking skills, have resulted in an increased number of professional audiovisual content made each year. The film industry is rapidly growing worldwide, producing original content for VOD platforms, tv stations and also channels that were not traditionally connected to the professional audiovisual content. It results in a constant, growing need for talent and an irrational feeling of its limited supply.
At the same time every year Polish film schools are graduated by large numbers of talented young filmmakers who are yet to create their network of collaborators. Polish film market is full of talented and well-skilled professionals who are seeking their opportunity to enter the film mainstream. They possess the qualifications and skills, but lack the grounded network of other professionals from the audiovisual sector.
Solution
The goal of Film Proxy is to make connections between these two pools of people – international and local professional AV producers and directors, and emerging Polish film talent - in order to facilitate their cooperation and secure its fairness and transparency. Film Proxy addresses the democratization of the access to the film professions, such as e.g. DoPs, film editors, animators, and sound and image postproduction engineers. At the same time Film Campus are the on-site qualification development sessions, which offer not only professional training and equipment/software presentations, but also networking cocktails and meetings during European film festivals and industry meetings.
Unique Selling Proposition
- Film Proxy discovers the talent at its earliest stages of career
- Film Proxy offers a portfolio of below-the-line filmmakers who do not only possess the technical capabilities, but also are selected accordingly to their talent
- Film Proxy offers the industry orientation and legal advice for its talent
- Film Proxy draws from the over 40-year-experience of the Kieslowski Film School in Poland
- Film Proxy offers an on-site qualification development platform called Film Campus to stay in touch with the latest developments in the industry and technology
- Film Proxy promotes and introduces film talent from Poland internationally by enhancing its visibility
Competitive advantage
Film Proxy offers portfolios of highly skilled below-the-line film professionals who Film Proxy scouts at the earliest stages of their career taking care of their later development and networking in Poland and internationally. The talent is scouted and recruited within four areas: cinematography, editing, sound, animation and special effects. The international visibility of the talent is ensured by its presence at the relevant for each area industry events and creating and update of the international professional profiles (imdb, LinkedIN, Cinando).
As a result, Film Proxy gives the unique access to the emerging Polish film talent. Film Proxy is bridging a gap that exists between the film school and being a part of the professional audiovisual industry.
Participation in Film Proxy is for free, it has an academic basis and it is solely based on the individual and their set of skills and talent, which is secured by the existence of an artistic advisory board with an expert in each of the represented area.
Film Proxy offers tutoring and workshops that develop soft skills of the Polish talent, but most importantly offers opportunity to meet and network with the film industry professionals who are in search for talent. While talent agencies focus on finding jobs for their talent, Film Proxy’s objective is to establish the talent in the industry, regardless the monetary result.
Business model
Film Proxy will be an association according to the Polish law with partners among Polish film and art schools. The founder partner of Film Proxy is Kieslowski Film School in Katowice, Poland. It is in deep interest of the founder that Film Proxy remains a nonprofit organization. Because of its structure its initial activities will be covered with the internationalization funding of the University of Silesia from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Further steps include application to the Polish Film Institute and Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in Poland, as well as Creative Europe MEDIA.
Founder team and advisors
The founder team of Film Proxy includes Anna Huth (assistant professor at the Kieslowski Film School), Robert Sowa (animator, Vice-Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow) and Bogdan Dziworski (Polish director and DoP).
Our most important business partners would be Polish Film Institute and Polish Film Commission, Krakow Film Festival, KIPA (National Chamber of Audiovisual Producers), Polish Institute in Berlin, Polish Institute in Paris and Polish Cultural Institute in London.
Film Proxy’s structure involves an artistic advisory board with an experienced professionals in each of the four represented areas: cinematography, animation and special effects, editing, and sound.
The function of the Ambassador of the Film Proxy will be offered to Slawomir Idziak (Three colours: Blue, Black Hawk Down, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) and Lukasz Zal (Ida, Cold War). The function of the Ambassadors will be to serve as an example of the success story of a Polish filmmaker that has succeeded working internationally.
The Next Wave mentor is Maddy Probst, Managing Producer @Watershed, Bristol / Vice-President Europa Cinemas.
Milestones past and future
Late introduction of the 30% cash rebate in Poland has finally opened Poland for international film productions to be shot in the country. Additionally, current trends of original and national productions of the VOD platforms cause the need for more film professionals available on the market. Film Proxy will enable and facilitate such meetings and connections.
In the future Film Proxy will act as an ambassador of new Polish talent in the international film industry.
The COVID 19 pandemic has urged the Cannes Film Festival to hold Marche du Film online for the first time from 22 to 26 June. The North Macedonia Film Agency is presented at the virtual film market with an e-pavilion.
The Agency will present eight features at the virtual film market, as well as the latest catalogs with all the new film projects from 2019 and 2020 and films in development.
This year, the North Macedonia Film Agency will yet again present the opportunities and advantages ensured by the cash rebate measure as well as invite the global film community to shoot films in North Macedonia.
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival has taken on a global initiative for the protection of films and festivals in the digital era, starting a plea for using geoblocking technology in online film festivals. The plea has already been signed by 18 big film festivals from all over the world.
The story: Cutaway has been around for 10 years. From the outset, we wanted to be original and to explore new territory for narration – from production through to distribution – using digital tools. We started as a distribution and production company and started to develop our own VOD branch in 2015 thanks to the support from Eurimages and the North Macedonia Film Agency.
Film Center Serbia Grants Awarded 25 June 2020
COVID-19 - Cultural & creative sectors
18/06: Investing in Europe’s next generation by investing in culture – UNIC
As the EU has started discussing the proposed recovery plan, 99 organisations from across Europe’s cultural and creative sectors are uniting their voices to alert EU leaders: our sector needs strong and systemic support measures to recover from this crisis.
08/06: Cinemas, COVID-19 and the EU Recovery Plan – UNIC blog
With the cinema sector one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, it’s crucial that both European and national decisionmakers put the industry front and centre in terms of support mechanisms and funding opportunities.
COVID-19 - EU response
19/06: Sassoli calls for action on recovery: "Our citizens expect bold action" – European Parliament
Parliament President David Sassoli urged EU leaders to take action on Europe’s recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis. Sassoli addressed heads of state and government at the start of a video conference of the European Council on 19 June to discuss the recovery plan and the EU’s next long-term budget.
19/06: COVID-19: Easing rules to encourage banks to lend to companies and households – European Parliament
On 18 June, Plenary approved the “quick fix” to the capital requirement regulation (CRR) to temporarily ensure favourable conditions for banks. This will support credit flows to companies and households and absorb losses, mitigating the economic consequences of the COVID-19 lock-down.
09/06: Q&A : Next Generation EU - Legal Construction – European Commission
08/06: Coronavirus: EU grants €314 million to innovative companies to combat the virus and support recovery – European Commission
The Commission announced that it has awarded nearly €166 million, via the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Pilot, to 36 companies set to combat the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, over €148 million will be granted to another 36 companies set to contribute to the recovery plan for Europe, bringing the total investment from Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme, to €314 million in this round.
European Parliament Plenary
17/06: Speech by President von der Leyen at the European Parliament Plenary on the preparations for the European Council of 19 June 2020, and the negotiations for a new partnership with the United Kingdom – European Commission
EU Digital Services Act (DSA)
05/06: Amendments on JURI DSA Draft Report (1-229 & 230-490) – European Parliament
Conference on the Future of Europe
18/06: Conference on Future of Europe should start “as soon as possible in autumn 2020” – European Parliament
Parliament urges the Council to “promptly come forward with a position on the format and organisation of the Conference” for citizens’ voices to be heard.
Events:
26 June: United for a new Future – Creatives Unite conference
1 July: Start of the German Presidency of the EU
15 July: Postponed CJEU opinion on the YouTube copyright case
Recent studies:
PEC - Digital Culture - Consumer Tracking Study (Wave 4 of 6) - May 2020
Renaissance numérique - Réguler les plateforms numériques: Pourquoi? Comment? - May 2020
Dear Friends,
We hope you are in a good health and humor!
After the successful online edition of WiP we have a plan for the Feature Films Pitching presentations. It will happen online in the period 3th - 8th July. Pitchings and individual meetings 3th/4th/5th July.
Some of the additional professional events will be also part of the programme.
The pdf version of the catalogue will be available shortly so you can check the selected projects and industry representatives.
Please, confirm your availability at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Thank you for your patience!
United we stand!
VIVA IL CINEMA!
Sofia Meetings is supported by the CREATIVE EUROPE MEDIA programme of EU, NFC, Sofia Municipality and Bulgarian Ministry of Culture.
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