When Helen Mirren walks into her home as Catherine the Great in the new HBO mini series named after the famous Russian Empress, she’s not really in the actual rooms of the famed Tsarskoye Selo palace just south of Saint Petersburg. She’s actually in the historical Vilnius University Library in Vilnius, Lithuania.

This and many more secrets are shared in a new guide entitled Vilnius On Screen. It’s a perfect read for those interested in what goes on behind the scenes of the latest productions by the likes of HBO, Netflix, National Geographic, Sky TV, and many more. The guide invites readers to take a deep dive into renowned film and television titles like War and Peace, Jack the Ripper, the Conductor, and more – and shows them how Vilnius provided the setting they needed to bring their stories to life.

“Film aficionados travel great lengths to see the locations of their favourite films in real life. Vilnius has been a screen favourite for a while now and has served as the backdrop for numerous awarded films and television series. Vilnius On Screen is a way to show movie fans and industry professionals alike that Lithuania’s capital is a place where silver screen magic happens,” says Inga Romanovskiene, Director of Go Vilnius.

A spectacular Old Town, a diverse collection of unique suburbs, and tons of natural diversity make Vilnius a perfect place to film both period dramas and contemporary movies. Plus, the city looks completely different in each season, so filmmakers have the privilege of choosing from an extensive array of possible backdrops. Whether portraying Russia, the Vatican, Tokyo, or Chernobyl – each of these and many more settings can be brought to life in Vilnius and then be broadcasted to audiences around the world in the form of movies and TV series.  

Vilnius On Screen puts a spotlight on recent films shot in Vilnius, presents insider facts about the production and cast of those films, and reveals how different locations in Vilnius were transformed to depict other places, countries and eras on screen. The guide, produced by Go Vilnius in collaboration with the Vilnius Film Office, is available online in English at: http://vilnius-tourism.lt/en/press2/vilnius-on-screen/.

goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is set to celebrate its 19th edition this year from 10 to 16 April in Wiesbaden, Germany. The full programme for the festival, hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, is now available online at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/program

The centrepiece of goEast is its Competition section, in which 16 works – ten fiction features and six documentary films – vie for honours. “In addition to works tackling current political topics, there are a notable number of films in 2019 that deal with generational conflicts,” revealed festival director Heleen Gerritsen. “30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people expect different things out of life depending on which system they grew up in. This generational conflict is also evident in Teona Mitevska’s opening film GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA.”

Juries & Awards Among the 16 entries to the Competition, ten films will be celebrating their German premieres at goEast, while the section also features two international and one world premiere. An international jury will determine the winners of multiple awards: the Golden Lilly for Best Film (featuring prize money of 10,000 euros), the Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director (7,500 euros) and the Award of the Federal Foreign Office for Cultural Diversity (4,000 euros). The 2019 jury is headed by multi- award-winning Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska, who is also responsible for this year’s opening film. Mitevska will be joined by two significant figures from the European festival scene: Magdalena Żelasko, founder and director of Vienna’s LET’S CEE Film Festival, and Stjepan Hundić, founder and director of Fantastic Zagreb Film Festival. They are joined by acclaimed Russian-German arthouse producer Anna Katchko. In addition, a dedicated jury representing FIPRESCI will present two International Film Critics’ Awards, for Best Fiction Feature and Best Documentary Film, to two films chosen from the Competition entries.

goEast Competition The goEast Competition presents a multi-facetted and sophisticated cross-section of Central and Eastern European filmmaking. The documentary STRIP AND WAR (Belarus, Poland, 2019) by East-West Talent Lab alumnus Andrei Kutsila, celebrating its world premiere at goEast, depicts a generational clash between a war veteran and his exotic dancer grandson while holding a mirror up to Belarusian society in the process. Beata Parkanová’s feature debut MOMENTS (CHVILKY, Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2018) revolves around a young woman who has to carve out her own path through the tangled growth of expectations and demands within the three generations of her family. In his coming-of-age drama ACID (KISLOTA, Russia, 2018) actor and director Alexander Gorchilin, a member of Kirill Serebrennikov’s Gogol Center ensemble, pulls his audience full force into the wild lives of a disillusioned

young Moscow clique and right into the middle of a sort of trench warfare between generations. Adilkhan Yerzhanov, who appeared at goEast for the first time in 2013 with his debut outing, tells the bittersweet story of a Kazakh family in THE GENTLE INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD (LASKOVOE BEZRAZLICHIE MIRA, Kazakhstan, France, 2018), a Mafia tragicomedy that takes its philosophical cues from Albert Camus. Elmar Imanov’s END OF SEASON (Germany, Azerbaijan, Georgia, 2019) is an evocative drama of emancipation set in a high rise housing estate in the sprawling Azerbaijani capital Baku. The documentary WHITE MAMA (BELAYA MAMA, Russia, 2018, directed by Zosya Rodkevich and Evgeniya Ostanina) also places the unusual fate of a large family centre-stage and shows with uncompromising honesty what happens when a mother’s emotional reserves gradually become exhausted. Ena Sendijarević’s debut film TAKE ME SOMEWHERE NICE (Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2019) takes the audience along on a trip through Bosnia full of fresh, vibrant imagery, showing the Balkan country’s landscape and inhabitants through the eyes of a young woman discovering her roots for the first time. In HOME GAMES (DOMASHNI IGRI, Ukraine, France, Poland, 2018, directed by Alisa Kovalenko), young Ukrainian Alina struggles to reconcile her budding career as a professional footballer with her socially precarious family situation. Eszter Hajdú’s political documentary HUNGARY 2018 (Hungary, Portugal, 2018) offers a look behind the scenes at last year’s parliamentary election in Hungary. Historical themes from Central and Eastern Europe are also present in this year’s Competition section. With JAN PALACH (Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2018), director Robert Sedláček devotes himself to one of the most important figures in Czech cultural memory and probes what moves a young person to set themselves on fire in political protest. Set in Prishtina in 1992, COLD NOVEMBER (NËNTOR, FTOHTË, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, 2018, directed by Ismet Sijarina) treats the war in then-Yugoslavia and tells of life and survival during the darkest of times. Igor Drljača’s documentary THE STONE SPEAKERS (KAMENI GOVORNICI, Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2018) directs our gaze to what has remained of multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina in the wake of state disintegration, system change and war, while revealing the grotesque excesses of tourism and allowing the locals to spin their yarns. The experimental nature film ACID FOREST (RŪGŠTUS MIŠKAS, Lithuania, 2018) by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, who will represent Lithuania at this year’s Venice Biennale, takes viewers out to the country’s Courland Spit and challenges our anthropocentric mentality with its apocalyptic atmosphere. With his freaky science-fiction drama HIS MASTER’S VOICE (AZ ÚR HANGJA, Hungary, Canada, 2018) Hungarian cult director Györgi Pálfi delivers an unorthodox and quirky Stanisław Lem adaptation that delights in transcending genre boundaries. It is the boundaries between truth and fiction that are blurred on the other hand for the protagonist in Anca Damian’s ambiguous noir thriller MOON HOTEL KABUL (Romania, France, 2018) about a journalist travelling on assignment between Kabul and Bucharest. After 2018’s Golden Lilly went to the Estonian film November, production company Homeless Bob is back once again in the goEast Competition with Kaur Kokk’s mysterious feature debut THE RIDDLE OF JAAN NIEMAND (PÕRGU JAAN Estonia, 2018). Kokk’s film is set in 18th century Estonia and features the camerawork of November cinematographer Mart Taniel. The perspectives and cinematic languages of this year’s Competition films are as refreshingly diverse as the themes they explore.

Accreditation and Press Conference Members of the press can still receive accreditation for goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film until 29 March by registering at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/Press/accreditation

The press conference for the 19th edition of goEast will take place at 11 am on 4 April at Wiesbaden’s Caligari FilmBühne cinema. Please RSVP to attend the event.

Festival images are available for download at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/de/presse/downloads

The full programme for the 19th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is available at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/program

goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and supported by numerous partners. The festival is primarily funded by the State Capital Wiesbaden, the Hessen State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland, Renovabis, BHF BANK Foundation, Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, the Federal Foreign Office and Deutsch-Tschechische Zukunftsfonds. Media partners include among others 3sat, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

For the 10^th time, film industry professionals from all over Europe will take part in the audiovisual industry event Meeting Point – Vilnius (MPV), taking place April 2–4. This year’s programme will include new initiatives, such as Talents Nest and individual meetings for professionals, as well as traditional Coming Soon and private Industry screening sessions.

 

The brand new initiative Talents Nest will take place on the first day of MPV. It aims to explore, nurture and offer industry and networking opportunities to emerging professionals from the Baltics, former Soviet and Caucasian countries.

The MPV programme is set to start with an afternoon all about the Baltics. Jeremy Zelnik, head of industry at Les Arcs Industry Village, will preview the upcoming Baltic Focus for Les Arcs Industry Village. Three speakers from each Baltic country will present six case studies about their arthouse distribution practices. These case studies will draw on audience differences, marketing and exhibition strategies, the panel will question the territory’s homogeneity and tackle points of collaboration rather than competition.

Recently, Lithuania’s shooting locations and film professionals have attracted the attention of such huge production companies as BBC and HBO. Due to the positive impact, these productions have on the film industry as well as the economy overall, the level of the Lithuanian tax incentive was increased to 30% until 2023. On April 3^rd, a presentation will provide an overview of the new plan.

Thanks to a new partnership with Cinemarket, the blockchain platform that facilitates payment between audiences and the film right holders, Alan R. Milligan, founder of the blockchain platform, White Rabbit will give a masterclass on the positive usage of the blockchain in the film industry, while Jordan Mattos, co-founder of Cinemarket, will hold individual meetings with professionals interested in discussing the topic more thoroughly. Masterclasses and presentations will focus on film festival management, marketing movies in the era of social influencers, and more.

On April 3^rd, 11 fiction and 6 documentary features that are in development will be presented to a jury comprised of film producers, agents, distributors and festival representatives during the Coming Soon pitching session. The lineup includes various genres, from comedies to dark psychological thrillers, coming from Albania, Italy, Czech Republic, Latvia, Moldova, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland, France, Lithuania, Sweden, Germany, Romania and Brazil. For the second year, the Coming Soon session will only present debuting filmmakers, whose works go on tobe noticed by film professionals and continue to be screened and awarded at international festivals.

You can find the entire programme here.

“The wind. A documentary thriller” directed by Michał Bielawski will open the 59th Krakow Film Festival. It is an emotional story about the “halny” wind – one of the most unpredictable winds in the Polish mountains. The film will be showcased as a part of the international documentary competition and the Polish competition. The opening gala for the Festival will take place on 26th May at the Kijów.Centrum cinema and it will also be the Polish premiere of this picture.

More information: "The wind. A documentary thriller" dir. Michał Bielawski

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The world of music in a nutshell at Krakow Film Festival

Each year the films showcased in the DocFilmMusic competition surprise the viewers with great diversity of sounds and music genres. The selection is a meeting place for biopic stories of world renowned stars, such as Miles Davis and Steven Tyler, and tales about anonymous heroes. We can see the most grand stages of the world juxtaposed with intimate home studios or small rehearsal rooms of local culture centers. This will also be the case during the 59th edition of the Krakow Film Festival.

More information: The world of music in a nutshell at Krakow Film Festival

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Focus on Finland at the 59th Krakow Film Festival

The annual special section of the Krakow Film Festival, which presents the latest documentary, short and animated films from a selected country, this year will be dedicated to Finland. The Festival will host numerous screenings, as well as special events and industry meetings.

“It is yet another Baltic country, after Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania, whose cinema we want to present to the audience of the Krakow Film Festival” – Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła, the head of programme department of the Krakow Film Festival, explains. – “Finnish cinema is not known well enough in Poland, especially documentary and short films. And in Krakow we like to discover and show to the audience what they cannot say anywhere else. And there’s so much to discover! During the selection process we found out what filmmakers there find interesting and why Finland seems to be a perfect place to live. But is that really the case? The films we selected to this section show both the complicated history and contemporary problems that Finnish people have to face”.

More information: Focus on Finland at the 59th Krakow Film Festival

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The call for volunteers for 59th Krakow Film Festival

Each edition of the festival cannot do without support of Volunteers who are committed and ready to face every challenge.The KFF Volunteers will work, among others, at the reception of the festival, in the cinemas, in the promotion department, in the press office and the festival newspaper, the accompanying events department, in the KFF Industry and in many other fields indispensable for the festival.If you want to co-operate with the oldest Polish film festival, volunteer! 

More information: The call for volunteers for 59th Krakow Film Festival

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