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Eastern Europe upgrading swiftly to digital TV

FNE Staff Poland 2007-08-02

Eastern Europe is making great strides in the upgrade to digital television, according to a new report by the London-based research company Informa Telecoms & Media, which predicts the number…

Life becomes film for famous Czech prisoner

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2007-08-01

Jiri Kajinek, the most famous Czech prisoner of all time, will be celebrated in a Czech feature thriller called Kajinek, with a €1.4 million budget. Ivan Fila, a Golden Globe…

Polish co-production competing at Venice Film Festival

FNE Staff Poland 2007-07-31

Nightwatching, directed by Peter Greenaway, has been selected as one of the 21 films in main competition at the Venice Film Festival (www.labiennale.org/en/cinema) . The film, about the painter Rembrandt…

Budget cut hits Karlovy Vary

FNE Staff Czech Republic 2007-07-31

Just as the Czech film fund recently faced a budget cut that still needs to be fully resolved, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is also suffering a budget cut,…

Multimedia Polska acquires 15 cable networks

FNE Staff Poland 2007-07-30

Multimedia Polska, a leading Polish provider of “triple play” packages of TV, voice and broadband internet service, has acquired 15 cable TV networks in northern Poland for 40.9 million zloties…

Slovenian Culture Ministry trying to mend Film Fund

FNE Staff Slovenia 2007-07-30

Slovenia’s Ministry of Culture says it is striving to mend divisions over the Slovenian Film Fund, which has been mired in controversy for months leading to the resignation or dismissal…

EC endorses DVB-H standard for mobile TV

FNE Staff Czech Republic 2007-07-30

The European Commission has endorsed a standard for digital video broadcasting backed by Nokia called DVB-H for use as the single European standard for mobile TV.

Cinema City makes third multiplex investment in Bulgaria

FNE Staff Bulgaria 2007-07-27

IT Sofia BV, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based Cinema City International NV, has signed an agreement to purchase a 60,000-square-meter plot in Russe, Bulgaria, to build a trading center that…

Summer Film School fest in Czech Republic focuses on elders

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2007-07-25

Vaclav Havel, a writer and former Czech president, paid a visit to the 33rd Summer Film School (www.lfs.cz) in the Moravian town of Uherske Hradiste (July 20 to 29) to…

Famed Hungarian cinematographer dies

FNE Staff Hungary 2007-07-25

Laszlo Kovacs, a prolific cinematographer from Hungary that ended up working in Hollywood, passed away Saturday night. He was 74.

Czech film premieres competing with each other

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2007-07-24

According to the leading Prague-based newspaper Hospodarske noviny, increased competition between Czech Republic films will be occurring soon due to the highest number of Czech films currently being produced in…

Update: 49-million euro Nutcracker shooting in Hungary

Laszlo Kriston Hungary 2007-07-23

Moscow-based director Andrei Konchalovsky started the 13-week shooting on one of the biggest film projects of his career - a big-ticket retelling of The Nutcracker - The True Story (working…

Hungarian film opens Bangkok International Film Festival

FNE Staff Hungary 2007-07-23

Children of Glory, directed by Kristina Goda, has opened the Bangkok International Film Festival (www.bangkokfilm.org). The 2006 film saw 425,489 admissions in its native country of Hungary.

Large-scale Latvian film begins production

Daria Abolina Latvia 2007-07-20

On July 16, the big national Latvian project Rudolf's Gold(Rūdolfa mantojum) went into production. The film is being produced by the film studio Platforma with a budget of around €2…

Bond bolts out of Czech Republic

FNE Staff Czech Republic 2007-07-19

The 22nd James Bond movie, which is currently untitled, will not be filmed in the Czech Republic like its predecessor. The 2006 Casino Royale was filmed at Barrandov Studios (www.barrandov.com)…

Polish puppet film wins at Annecy

FNE Staff Poland 2007-07-19

Peter and the Wolf, a short British-Polish co-production made with puppets, won the audience award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival (www.annecy.org) in France. The festival concluded on July…

Czech film fund cut faces multiple remedies

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2007-07-18

After criticism from a huge cut in state film funding, Mirek Topolanek, the Prime Minster of the Czech Republic, has promised €3.5 million of state money for Czech filmmakers later…