Slovakia presents a picture of a film industry moving into maturity, with the Audiovisual Fund having completing its first full year of grants and films now receiving both local and international recognition. While Slovak filmmakers were a part of the Czechoslovakian New Wave of the 1960's, the dissolution of the country into two parts had a negative effect on filmmaking and funding. "We had to wait for a new generation of filmmakers," said Alexandra Strelkova director of the National Cinematographic Centre at the Slovak Film Institute (www.sfu.sk). The transition is now yielding real successes: 12 feature films with local and international success in the past year, including Slovak films now breaking into the top ten and a group of strong documentary filmmakers with festival films. Slovakia is also home to a local sales company, Film Europe. While Slovaks still look to neighboring Czech Republic as its first coproduction partner, Slovak producers are now partnering with Hungary, Poland, and Austria as well.
Georgia is making a concerted effort to build an international identity under the new director of the Georgian National Film Center (www.gnfc.ge), Tamara Tatishvila. The GNFC, founded in 2001, began funding national films only in 2005, with 20 feature films produced with GNFC funding. The first coproductions began two years ago. "It took us quite a long time even to come to Cottbus, because we had to build up a local system," Tatishvila said. The GNFC is actively seeking to fund coproduction beginning in 2011. "We strongly believe our future is in international cooperation," she added. The Georgians are now in discussions with the Ukraine regarding a coproduction agreement. "We want real content, rather than just providing services," Tatishvila said, and added that most Georgian films do their post-production work in Prague.
Macedonia's film fund (www.filmfund.gov.mk) is also a new organization, founded just three years ago. It provides equal support to majority and minority coproductions, with Germany and France the country's most frequent partners, although 2010 saw the first coproduction with Serbia and there have also been coproductions with Slovenia and Bulgaria. "We started developing new generation directors," fund director Darko Baseski said. "Now we're pushing directors to get to film festivals." The fund has two calls for applications, one for majority Macedonian productions and the second for minority coproductions. "Macedonia is the cheapest country in Europe now," Baseski noted. In 2010 the government began work on a tax incentive law which is scheduled to begin in 2011. Like Georgia, Macedonia looks abroad for postproduction work.
The Bulgarian National Film Center (www.nfc.bg) saw its first real results emerge over the past three years, with the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers. In 2010, five Bulgarian films were presented at festivals, and Bulgaria had is first national hit with Mission London drawing over 400,000 admissions. The film has even attracted discussions about a remake for a Russian audience. "In some ways we're in a very good situation," NFC director Alexander Donev said, "but there are dangers." He was referring to government budget cuts which stalled production on local films when only 4.5 million euros of an approved 11 million euros in funding was released. "We are not stepping out from funding," he stressed, "but funding will be done slowly."
