"We're really proud that they chose Zlin as their venue," festival director Petr Koliha said.

Congratulating Zlin on "an impressive 50th anniversary" festival, ECFA president Tonje Hardersen noted that the organization had only recently been adding Central European members. With its enduringly strong culture of children's films, the Czech Republic is already represented on the ECFA board through Koliha.

"The Czech Republic and Poland always had excellent contacts in children's film," ECFA board member Reinhold Schoeffel told FNE. "Now new countries like Romania and Bulgaria are appearing on the scene, countries where you hardly expect any children's film culture."

Hardersen told fest attendees that ECFA is planning to launch a new platform for children's film production. The organization began building a film database, along with network of distributors festivals, over the past decade. The project will expand to include filmmakers, writers, and producers with films in production, as a means of helping them find coproduction partners. The project aims to reach beyond traditional coproduction platforms, reaching out to video games, toys, and other marketing devices as partners. ECFA will also strengthen its focus on distribution of children's films.