The distributors will be invited to the festival to discuss further possibilities of theatrical distribution on a European level and be offered networking opportunities and a platform for their concerns.

The program is funded by the MEDIA Programme of the european Union.

"We are very pleased to join with the prestigious San Sebastian International Film Festival to be able to offer a support programme to risk-taking independent distributors from Europe," says Renate Rose, EFP managing director: "Observing market forces now for several years, EFP felt a need to pick up on the problematic and intractable question of distribution in a new, profiled European initiative."

Mikel Olaciregui, director of the San Sebastian International Film Festival also welcomes the joint initiative: "The San Sebastian Film Festival has always supported European cinema. It's an opportunity for us to join EFP in order to host an event which aims to contribute to an improvement of the circulation of European films within Europe and to create networks between emerging distributors from Central and Eastern Europe and their counterparts: sales agents, producers."

European Distributors selected for Up Next! 2008 are:

Stefan Kitanov, Art Fest Ltd. (Bulgaria), Premysl Martinek, Film Distribution Artcam (Czech Republic), Katrin Rajasaare, AS Tallinnfilm / Kino Sopru (Estonia), Rita Linda Potyondi, Cirko Film - Maskepp Foundation (Hungary), Oskars Killo, Acme Film (Latvia), Greta Akcijonaite, Cinema Center SKALVIJA (Lithuania), Jakub Duszynski, Gutek Film (Poland), Stefan Bradea. Transilvania Film (Romania), Michal Drobny, Continental Film (Slovakia), Natasa Budar, Cankarjev dom (Slovenia).

The EFP member organizations associated with the initiative are:

National Film Center Bulgaria, Czech Film Center, Baltic Films, Magyar Filmunió, Polish Film Institute, Romanian Film Promotion, Slovak Film Institute, Slovenian Film Fund.

For more information go to the FNE Press Release section.