The following grants were announced by the National Film Centre of Latvia on 31 May 2023.

The 16th edition of Fest Anča International Animation Festival will take place during the first summer holiday weekend from 29 June to 2 July 2023. The theme of this year's festival is UTOPIAS. Its visitors can look forward to a rich selection of Slovak and foreign animated films and a diverse accompanying programme. Fest Anča will screen not only the trilogy of the award-winning director Marta Pajek but also the cult film The Fantastic Planet. Families with children will also find something they like, as Fest Anča has prepared a generous offer of events for them. The festival will also host the second edition of the unique Student Forum, which creates space for discussion between schools and animation students.

FOUR SOULS OF COYOTE competes for the Annecy Crystal, while in Contrechamp competition, WHITE PLASTIC SKY, TOLDI and Czech-Slovak-Hungarian co-production TONY, SHELLY AND THE MAGIC LIGHT will be on show.

THE OFFICIAL SELECTION OF THE 57TH KARLOVY VARY IFF REVEALED - „It has been an incredible adventure for the programming team to get acquainted with this year’s state of the arthouse cinema via almost two thousand submissions. We are proud of the selection and simply cannot wait to share it with the audience," says Karel Och, KVIFF’s artistic director.

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, the busy business platform in the region for audiovisual industry professionals, held during the Black Nights Film Festival welcomes participants for its main programme in Tallinn from 13 to 17 November 2023. The edition in 2023 introduces a new initiative Just Film Industry Days, and provides a complete line of events covering the most sizzling questions in the sector.

VILNIUS: FNE spoke to Dovydas Vilkelis, CEO and producer of Animatrix, about their current activities, as well as the state of the Lithuanian animation and game development industries.

At the occasion of the Cannes International Film Festival, it was announced that ESFUF will be reinforced by the contributions of two new EFAD members, the Norwegian Film Institute and the British Film Institute's UK Global Screen Fund bringing the number of contributing countries to 15.

Norway

The Norwegian Film Institute has, with additional funding suggested by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Equality to be formally adopted in Parliament in June, extended support for Ukranian filmmakers through the ESFUF

Kjersti Mo, CEO, NFI said: “Telling stories through film is one of the most powerful ways there are to convey a nation`s culture and to keep the country together through common experiences. This is especially important for a country in crisis, both for the country and its inhabitants but also for the outside world to learn what is happening and inspire action. We stand with our European partners in supporting Ukranian filmmakers and are proud to support this endevour.”

The United Kingdom

The UK Global Screen Fund (UKGSF), financed by the UK Government’s Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and administered by the BFI, has extended support to Ukrainian Filmmakers through the ESFUF.

Ben Roberts, CEO, BFI said: “The role of filmmakers in telling stories and bringing perspectives that inspire people the world over has never been more important or urgent than it is today. We stand with our partners in Europe in supporting Ukrainian filmmakers through the UK Global Screen Fund that we manage on behalf of the UK Government.”

Their precious contributions will allow more projects to be supported in the second round of selection, which will be launched this summer.

In the same occasion, the results of the first selection round of the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films were announced by the Jury President, Marianne Slot. A total of 11 projects for a global amount of 523 000 € will receive support to development and finalization. The list of the selected projects is available on the ESFUF website, here.

Background
ESFUF, launched in Berlin 2023, is an initiative proposed by the CNC to the other EFAD members during the Cannes General Assembly in May 2022. After having supported various other actions for Ukraine at national and European level, EFAD and its members wanted to unite forces to launch a dedicated support for Ukrainian filmmakers, to help them completing their films or developing new projects, while fostering co-productions. With an initial budget of one million euros, it aims at financing Ukrainian cinematographic works at development and finalization stages, supporting projects selected by a jury of five independent experts, through two calls for projects launched in 2023.

Doc Alliance – association of European documentary festivals selected 16 documentaries as nominees for the Doc Alliance Award 2023.

CANNES: Nine films from FNE partner countries are among the titles selected for the 4th edition of A Season of Classic Films programme organised by ACE (Association of European Film Archives) from June to December 2023 across European cinemas and online. The announcement was made at the Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2023.

We are heading to Cannes where you can meet the festival director Marek Hovorka and Jarmila Outratová, Ji.hlava’s head of industry. We will be delighted to meet you at Marché du Film and during the Cannes Docs' activities.