21st International Human Rights Film Festival One World 2019 – List of festival guests

Name and Surname

Date

Section

Short Bio

Aho Kaarle

9.-10.3.

producer, International competition

Finnish producer. Co-founder of the production company Making Movies, which has worked on more than 60 documentaries, including the documentary, The Magic Life of V. The primary protagonist Veera lives between two worlds. She escapes her unpleasant reality into fictional role playing, where she tries to cope with the traumas of childhood in her golden hood.

Alani Feurat

7.-10.3.

director, International competiton

Iraqi/French independent director. Feurat Alani appeals to the senses in his portrayal of Iraq through memories of family visits. As an adult he spends a number of years there working as a journalist, and is confronted by terror and war. In his home he finds himself looking down the barrel of an American soldier’s gun, but he also reports on the U.S. Army as an embedded journalist. Flavours of Iraq is comprised of 20 animated short films that join together to tell the story of Alani's life and experiences in Iraq.

Arnott Steve

15.-17.3.

protagonist, section !!!

Steve Arnott - often nicknamed Hi-Vis Steve, is the protagonist of A Nothern Soul. Steve is trying to get a special Beats Bus bus into schools - he believes that thanks to this unconventional vehicle he can raise self-awareness to young people. He shows them how writing texts and rapping can help with improving faith in themselves. Stev's hip-hop name is "Red Eye Feenix" - he can get many of us all with his optimistic view.

Asamoah Ben

8.-10.3.

director, International competition, One Zero

Belgian director with Ghanaian roots. He is studying Audiovisual Arts in Brussels, where he also completed his studies in film directing. In this Belgian-Dutch co-production, he shot his first full-length documentary film Sakawa. It follows three young people from Ghana, who started an unusual business - preying on naive internet users from America and Europe on online dating sites to get money. The documentary was screened at the IDFA Festival.

Baca Gaby

5.-10.3.

songwriter

Gaby Baca is a singer-songwriter from Nicaragua, a country ruled by the authoritarian regime of Daniel Ortega and his wife. In her rock and rap music, she focuses on topics like feminism and freedom. Her music career has made her one of Nicaragua's most visible lesbians, and she is proud to join a tradition of Latin American feminists making political music. "I want to sing fear to power," Baca said

Bertin Kalina

11.-14.3.

director, One World Interactive

Canadian filmmaker, she's brought her unique achievement Manic VR to One World. For three years, she recorded the voices of her two brothers, who have bipolar disorder. Audio recordings in which the siblings share their poetic hallucinations, but also painful anxieties, became the basis for the project in virtual reality.

Billet Claire

11.-13.3.

director, International competition

French director and video journalist. Billet and Jobart previously worked together on the documentary Dream of a Rain of Perfume, a film about migrants leaving Afghanistan in search of a better life in Europe. Continuing this theme, Heart of Stone documents the life of an Afghani refugee, Quorban, over the course of eight years as he adjusts to his new life in France, realizing that he did not leave all of his trauma behind in Afghanistan.

Brügger Mads

8.-10.3.

director, International competition

Danish independent filmmaker. He is a TV host in addition to being a filmmaker, and he is well known for his ironic documentaries, Danes for Bush and The Red Chapel, filmed in the United States and North Korea, respectively. Cold Case Hammarskjold is his latest work which explores the death of UN General Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld in a suspicious plane crash in 1961.

Castellino Joshua

8.-11.3.

Talking cinema

Professor of Law and Head of the Law Department at Middlesex University in London. He has long been interested in the issue of the rights of global minorities and has published several monographs on the subject. He cooperates with the United Nations and is an active member of several expert forums for minority rights. Last year, he became the director of the prestigious organisation Minority Rights Group International, which works directly with the protagonist of the film On Her Shoulders, Nobel laureate Nadia Murad.

Čelar Miha

13.-15.3.

director, section !!!

Scriptwriter, TV and film director. His work comprises primarily short films, entertaining TV shows and comedies. His documentary iIsland takes a look at the Croatian iIsland of Biševo, which only has fifteen residents. Every summer they experience an uptick in tourism, which the local town hall also supports. The community decides to take matters into their own hands to overturn the mayor’s plans.

member of Bellingcat group

15.-17.3.

The documentary Bellingcat - The Truth in a Post-Truth World highlights the importance of citizen journalism, using specific cases to reveal the background of this respected organisation. It uses only open Internet resources to help investigate incidents such as the poisoning of the agent Skripal or bombings in Syria.

Chaldecott Maya

producer, One World Interactive

The British producer of the film Nowhere, filmed in virtual reality by director Maya Chaldecott. The film seeks to answer the difficult question - what does an unborn child perceive and experience as its mother, along with other refugees on a boat, heads for Europe?

Chalupová Barbora

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Czech director. She attracted attention with her student films Ďakujem ti, melónik (Transition) and Do zbraně (Arms Ready). Her latest film Real(e)state highlights the issue of inaccessible housing, which is currently very topical in the Czech Republic as well.

Cunningham Lottie

5.-17.3.

Vaclav Havel Jury

Writer, martial artist, and freelance photojournalist who has worked with renowned international agencies and media. In his work, he deals with topics such as corruption, police brutality, political prisoners, and human rights abuses in Vietnam, for which he was often publicly maligned and shamed. In recent years, he has also been active on Facebook, where he streams interviews with leading Vietnamese intellectuals and public figures.

Damaihati Alia

6.-14.3.

Czech Jury

From 2005-2008 she worked at the alternative cinema Kinoki in Yogyakarta, and since 2006, she has been active in the Indonesian Festival Film Dokumenter, where she now holds the post of director. She is involved with the development of Indonesian documentary film after the 1965 coup; in recent years, she has focused on the distribution and screening of documentary films and co-operation with the Indonesian community.

Derki Talal

6.-11.3.

International Jury

Director, producer, and scriptwriter of Kurdish origin, currently living in exile in Berlin. In his work, he focuses on the behaviour of people in a war environment, and especially the psychology of the protagonists that we would describe as negative. His feature debut Return to Homs was honoured at the Sundance Film Festival. His documentary Of Fathers and Sons won the 2018 One World Award for Best Director and was nominated for an Oscar in 2019.

Desai Rehad

14.-17.3.

director, Right to Know

South African director and producer. He grew up in Britain, where his family received political asylum. He returned to South Africa in 1990 and later founded his own film production company. His film Everything Must Fall depicts the student movement that fought against the high fees at the University of Johannesburg and escalated into nationwide protests against social inequality.

Detlefsen Louise

13.-15.3.

director, Panorama

Danish director. At One World, she's presenting her documentary Queen of Hearts, a portrait of Lizzete Risgaard – the first woman to lead Danish trade unions. Lizzete immediately initiated radical changes to return a significant role to an organisation that had lost about 500,000 members in recent years.

Drouet François-Xavier

8.-11.3.

director, UnEarth

French director and scriptwriter. In addition to documentary filmmaking, he also studied social sciences. One World will present his documentary The Time of Forests, which as also screened at festivals such as DocPoint in Helsinki or Verzio in Budapest. The film examines more closely the workings of forest management in France (where the state of forests is similar to the Czech Republic) and what paths lead to a viable forest.

Du Vincent

8.-11.3.

director, International Competition

Chinese filmmaker and photographer. He has worked for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Chinese office of Reuters. His film China’s Forgotten Daughters follows the story of Ruby, who decided to find her family. Due to the one-child policy, she was turned over to an orphanage.

Elšík Tomáš

6.-17.3.

director, Czech

Competition

Czech director and scriptwriter. He received awards at FAMUFest for his medium-length documentary Message from Dement (2012) about the punk and anti-fascist scene in Sao Paulo. As an editor, he has worked on numerous film and television projects, including the upcoming film Snowing! by director Kristina Nedvědová. The festival will present the documentary Central Bus Station, which shows the transformation of the Tel Aviv bus station into a place where people find refuge at the fringes of society.

Farah Nasib

8.-10.3.

director, section ???

Somali director. The festival presents his film The Lost Warrior, made with his Danish colleague Soren S. Jespersen. The film follows the story of young Mohammed, who defects from the Somali terrorist organisation Al-Shabaab. Young Mohammed now lives in Mogadishu, but his family lives in London. In England, the 23-year-old faces court; in Somalia, the death penalty. This is not the directorial duo's first film - they also made the 2014 documentary Warriors From the North, which touched on a similar theme.

Filippova Polina

6.-17.3.

Vaclav Havel Jury

Since 2013, she has worked as the communications director and head of the volunteer centre in the Sakharov Center in Moscow. She also acts as a consultant, lecturer, and teacher at the Prague Media School, where she focuses on developing the skills of media coordinators who work in non-profit organisations in the European Union and Russia. Since 2018 she has been a committee member of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum.

Frei Christian

9.-13.3.

director, UnEarthed

Swiss director and producer. He was nominated for an Academy Award with War Photographer (2001) and won the World Cinema Directing Award at Sundance with Space Tourists (2009). Genesis 2.0 documents the life of mammoth hunters in Siberia who seek ivory and even intact carcasses as the permafrost thaws. Researchers flock to these discoveries to extract DNA in the hopes of resurrecting the woolly mammoth as a species.

Garland Christy

11.-14.3.

director, Panorama

Canadian director. Garland filmed the main protagonist of What Walaa Wants over the course of five years. Walaa was born in a Palestinian refugee camp. Her father abandoned her, and her mother returned from prison when Walaa was 15 years old. It's no surprise that she grew up to be a rebel with a complicated relationship with the authorities. Nonetheless, or maybe because of this, she decided to join the Palestinian Civil Police Force.

Gulbiano Mari

13.-16.3.

director, Panorama

Georgian director. She worked in the programming section of the CineDoc Tbilisi festival and coordinated the EFA Young Audience Award. The festival will present her film Before Father Gets Back, which surveys the situation in Paranas, a remote region in Georgia. It follows the story of two girls, Eva and Imam, who recorded their daily life while waiting for their father, thanks to the director’s project.

Hajdu Eszter

11.-13.3.

director, section !!!

Hungarian director. In her films, she primarily addresses political and social issues. Her movie The Fidesz Jew was the most provocative and most viewed documentary in Hungary in recent years. She returns to One World with the documentary Hungary 2018, which follows the election campaigns of Viktor Orbán and his rival Ferenc Gyurcsány.

Hasanov Imam

5.-12.3.

director of DokuBaku

Imam is a DokuBaku Film Festival director and documentary filmmaker. He holds a degree in Film and Theater Directing, and is a director of theater plays and documentaries. DokuBaku International Documentary Film Festival is an independent film festival organized by a group of filmmakers on a voluntary basis. Within the framework of the festival there are screenings of films, master classes, as well as discussions and debates on social issues with the participation of local and international filmmakers. The main goal of the project  is to encourage Azerbaijani filmmakers to create documentary films.

Heineman Matthew

14.-17.3.

retrospective

Matthew Heineman is a respected filmmaker on the American documentary scene; he has won the prestigious Emmy Award and an Oscar nomination. His gonzo style looks more like fiction filmmaking but is very naturalistic. The retrospective will present not only his successful films Cartel Land (2015) and Ghost Town (2017, winner of the One World Audience Award in 2018), but also his most recent docu-series The Trade (2018), which goes behind the scenes of the production and distribution of heroin in Mexico and the USA.

Hendrickx Jimmy

6.-9.3.

director, section ???

Director and actor originally from Belgium. He has many documentary achievements under his belt. For example, the short film Semalu - cinematic portraits of children and their lives in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At the One World Festival, he will present his new documentary A Punk Daydream. The film takes us to Southeast Asia, in particular to Indonesia. For the film's protagonists, the tattoo is a symbol of revolt, but Indonesian society perceives it as a sign of criminality, and they must face rejection by their own family.

Hofman Balbina Agata

protagonist

The protagonist of the film Nowhere, filmed in virtual reality by director Maya Chaldecott. The film seeks to answer the difficult question - what does an unborn child perceive and experience as its mother, along with other refugees on a boat, heads for Europe?

Huhtanen Reetta

6.-7.3.

director, International Competition and section ???

Finnish director and writer. She graduated with a Master of Arts from the ELO Film School Finland in Aalto University majoring in documentary film directing. Beside her film studies she also graduated with a B.A. in Sociology and Philosophy. Gods of Molenbeek looks at the issue of terrorism in the Molenbeek district of Brussels through the eyes of children. Six-year-old Aatos and his friend Amine do not share the same God, but they continue to play together despite the strikes and armed soliders who disrupt their town.

Imielska Małgorzata

12.-14.3.

director, International Competition

Polish director and scriptwriter. She studied film and TV directing at the Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia in Katowice. This far, her documentary work has focused primarily on World War II and the Holocaust. This year, One World is screening her new documentary feature Love and Empty Words, which follows the story of Adam and Wanda, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Javér Carl

15.-17.3.

director, International Competition

Swedish documentary and pseudo-documentary film director and producer. He has already had many film achievements; in Sweden, he is one of the pioneers of modern documentary filmmaking. Javér holds numerous filmmaking awards, including the prestigious Swedish Film Institute Guldbagge Award, both for Best Documentary and Best Director. This year, One World will present his new film, Reconstructing Utøya - four survivors of the Utøya terrorist attack in 2011 attempt to reconstruct the traumatic experiences that seem to be indescribable.

Jencquel Tuki

8.-10.3.

director, Right to Know

Venezuelan director and cinematographer. He is director of two short films and one medium-length documentary, Sin Ti Contigo, which won the “Premio Feisal“ at Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara in 2011. It's All Good is his first feature-length documentary about the medical crisis in Venezuela. Amidst a failing public health system and medicine shortages, the filmmakers ask a pharmacist, trauma surgeon, activist and two patients to confront the same questions millions of Venezuelans are facing: protest or acquiesce, emigrate or remain, lose all hope or hang onto faith?

Jobart Olivier

11.-13.3.

director, International Competition

French photojournalist. Billet and Jobart previously worked together on the doucmentary Dream of a Rain of Perfume, a film about migrants leaving Afghanistan in search of a better life in Europe. Continuing this theme, Heart of Stone documents the life of an Afghani refugee, Quorban, over the course of eight years as he adjusts to his new life in France, realizing that he did not leave all of his trauma behind in Afghanistan.

Kaboš Ladislav

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Slovak director, scriptwriter, and photographer. In his work, he focuses on documentaries on social topics; he also shoots films about architecture and music. He has his own production company. His movie The Band follows the story of the Roma Gypsy Band Lomnické Čáhve, which struggles to get on the stage of big music festivals despite difficult social conditions.

Kesaeva Ella

9.-11.3.

Russian activist

Ella is the chairwoman of the NGO Golos Beslana, founded by the victims of the terror attack at the school Beslan, North Ossetia. She devotedly directed her activism towards demanding Russian authorities to conduct a proper investigation and hold responsible those who were guilty for the tragedy that happened in Beslan. (In the result of the armed intervention by Russian state security forces, 331 out of 1128 hostages died).

Klovborg Søren

8.-10.3.

director, Right to Know

Danish director and producer. His contribution to this year's One World Festival is the documentary Maid in Hell, which uses an investigative approach to show that slavery is alive and well in the 21st century. The film captures the stories of several maids in the Middle East and the practices of employment agencies. About 2.8 million young women and girls from Africa and Asia work In wealthy households in Lebanon, Jordan, and the UAE. Instead of being welcomed, their passports are confiscated; instead of a new home, they get conditions similar to a labour camp; instead of a decent salary, they get a handout. Employers even abuse and sexually harass them.

Kovalenko Alisa

12.-14.3.

director, Panorama

Ukranian independent director. Home Games features 20-year-old Alina who lives in Kiev and has a passion for playing football. However, with a mother in and out of jail, and an alcoholic stepfather, she struggles to care for her younger siblings and pursue her football goals at the same time.

Krupa Tomáš

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Slovak independent director, scriptwriter, and producer. He made his debut with the feature film GRADUATES / Freedom is Not Free. At Old World, he presents his documentary The Good Death, which follows the story of 72-year-old Janette, who suffers from an incurable disease. She has decided, therefore, to travel to Switzerland for an assisted suicide.

Kurikka Pertti

7.-9.3.

protagonist, section Long Live Life!

Punk musician, founding member of the group Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät. The 2012 film Punk Syndrome introduced them to the world. Now Pertti has decided to go into a well-deserved punk retirement. But before the whole band hung punk on a nail, they embarked on a wild tour, creating a memorable ending to his musical career. Punk Voyage is a film about friendship, rock-and-roll, and all of life's ups and downs.

Kurov Askold

12.-14.3.

director, Right to Know

Uzbek director. He is a director of a documentary about Oleg Sencov (The Trial - The State of Russia vs. Oleg Sencov), which was screened on One World 2017.  His documentary film Novaya will have its international premiere at the One World Festival. The story of the prestigious liberal Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which began to lose journalists after 2000. From this perspective, the film sketches out the situation in Russia and the transformation of the country after the arrival of Vladimir Putin as president.

Lau Lasse

7.-10.3.

director, section !!!

Danish director and visual artist. In his work, he tries to outline different perceptions of space and its dimensions. His latest film, Lykkelænder (Happy Land), shows the efforts of Greenland to achieve cultural and institutional independence. The relationship between Greenland and Denmark is rife with myths, which the director hints at in this film.

Lewis Talila

6.-10.3.

Talking Cinema

American lawyer and activist for deaf rights in the United States. At present, her primary focus is discrimination against the deaf in the legal system. She founded the volunteer organisation HEARD, which works to correct deaf wrongful convictions and to help the deaf in prison. For her work, Lewis has won numerous awards, including recognition as a “Champion of Change” by the White House during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Lin Lee Poh

10.-12.3.

protagonist, section Panorama

Australian social worker and psychologist. Poh is the main protagonist of the film Island of Hungry Ghosts, which shows the plight of refugees stranded in the Australian detention centre on Christmas Island. It confirms that the “Australian model,” often cited as an example in dealing with migration crises, is certainly far from ideal.

List Johannes

9.-11.3.

director, section ???

German director. He studied documentary filmmaking at the University of Television and Film in Munich. The festival presents his documentary Tackling Life, which introduces to viewers The Berlin Bruisers, Germany's first gay rugby team. “Not ashamed of being seen” is the motto that they live by as they destroy all stereotypes both on and off the playing field. Last year, List won the FIRST STEPS award for this documentary, awarded annually to outstanding final project films of film students in German-speaking countries.

Łysak Rafał

14.-17.3.

protagonist, section ???

Polish director and actor. He played in two performances in musical theatre in Lodz, Poland, where he also studied film and acting. The One World Festival presents his autobiographical documentary Unconditional Love. Rafal is gay, and struggles with his uncomprehending conservative grandmother. The film captures the clash of old Catholic Poland holding fast to its principles with a new generation ready to fully adopt modern values.

Manskij Vitalij

14.-16.3.

director, Journeys to Freedom

Russian director. The publisher of the oldest online magazine about documentary films and author of the manifesto “Real Cinema”. The film Putin’s Witnesses consists entirely of archival footage shot at the very beginning of Putin's presidential era.

Marconi Carolina

9.-11.3.

director, One World |nteractive

VR director, currently living in London where she studied documentary filmmaking. Through her picture Nowhere, filmed in virtual reality, she offers an entirely new perspective on the refugee crisis.

Martinez Malena

12.-14.3.

director, International Competition

Peruvian director and writer, now based in Vienna. Hugo Blanco, Deep River confronts the image of Hugo Blanco, the famous young Trotskyist guerilla whose slogan was "Land or Death!" with the current white-bearded and tireless 81-year old fighter: Hugo Indio. The film follows a political life full of tensions between Hugo, the people, and military repression.

Mbowa Aida

6.-11.3.

International Jury

Director of Artistic and Cultural Affairs in the organisation None on Record, which works in digital media with African LGBT communities. As a theatre artist, she represented Uganda at theatre workshops at the Sundance Institute. Until 2017, she worked for the Doc Society Foundation in London, as was the artistic director of Maisha Garden in Uganda. In January 2019 she participated in the development of VR movies in the Venice Biennale study program Biennale College Cinema.

Meijer Laura Menna

12.-16.3.

director, Long Live Life!

Dutch director and producer. The festival presents her film Now Something Is Slowly Changing, which offers an insight into the practices and techniques of mental coaching. This can take on many forms - from individual therapy to simulated training situations. The film is shot in a specific way - without main characters, interviews or additional comments. Instead, an observational camera captures aggression control training and working with emotions.

Muratov Dmitry

7.-10.3.

Talking Cinema

Russian journalist. Former editor of one of the few independent newspapers in Russia, Novaya Gazeta. The publication has paid long-term attention to human rights violations and corruption cases involving Russian politicians. For his work, Muratov won the prestigious International Press Freedom Award, which is presented annually by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Odhiambo Odongo Donwilson

7.-11.3.

photographer

Photographer. He currently lives in Kibera, Africa's largest slum, in Nairobi, Kenya. He is the central figure in the documentary Vote for Kibera, which takes place against the background of the presidential election in 2017. Don tries to depict the slum in a form other than as we know it from the mainstream media.

Passi J-P

7.-9.3.

director, Long Live Life!

Finnish director and scriptwriter. Passi already captured the story of the band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, which consists of four mentally disabled friends, in the film Punk Syndrome, presented at One World in 2012. This year, the festival and Pertti present the documentary Punk Odyssey, which tells the story of the band's final concert tour.

Páv Martin

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Czech director. His work focuses primarily on feature films. Even before he began his studies, he made the feature film Walk On (2012) with minimal resources, which takes place partly in India. As a FAMU student, he created short fiction films such as Hamburgers (2012), The Fourth Spring (2013) and the mid-length drama on the theme of childhood The Great Trek (2015). His film Vote For Kibera highlights the atmosphere in the slums even in the moments when events surrounding the presidential elections disrupt it.

Peroutková Karolína

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Czech director. Her final project film Call of the Wild is the story of two brothers who come from a dysfunctional family and the question of institutional care that hangs over their fate.

Pratt Arthur

6.-11.3.

director, Right to Know

Director and pastor in Freetown. Co-founder of the Sierra Leone Film Council, which was the first to bring together local filmmakers. His documentary Survivors is a portrait of local humanitarian workers who struggle with the deadly Ebola virus.

Remunda Filip

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Czech director, cameraman, and producer. In 2005 he graduated from the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU where he studied under Karel Vachek. He has lectured at The Robert J. Flaherty Film Seminar in the United States. He co-founded the Institute of Documentary Film and is the head of the independent production company Hypermarket Film. The festival will premiere his new documentary The Okamura Brothers, offering an unusual view of this motley trio of siblings.

Ross RaMell

14.-17.3.

director, Panorama

American director. His work has appeared in places like the NY Times, Aperture, Harper’s Magazine, TIME, Oxford American, and the Walker Arts Center. Hale County, This Morning, This Evening is an Oscar-nominated film that poetically depicts life in Alabama for its black male protagonists. The film challenges stereotypical images of black life in the South, while simultaneously promoting the beauty of life and dreaming.

Russo Riccardo

13.-15.3.

director, Panorama

Italian director. The festival presents his documentary The Remnants. Although the Americans never declared war on Laos, they dropped the most bombs in the history of armed conflict on this Asian country. The effects of the war are still visible today – people recast the ubiquitous metal bombs into items for daily use or sell them to tourists.

Said Salma

6.-12.3.

Vaclav Havel Jury

For the last ten years she has worked in arts and cultural management in various Egyptian and Arab regional cultural organisations. When the revolution broke out in Egypt, she stood at the forefront of activist and human rights initiatives like No To Military Trials For Civilians and Operation Anti Sexual Harassment (OpAntiSH). She is a co-founder of Mosireen, a non-profit media association that created the largest video archive of the Egyptian revolution called 858 An Archive of Resistance.

Šálek Ondřej

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Czech director. He graduated from JAMU in Brno and Prague's FAMU but learned the most during his extended stays in Kenya and Brazil. His latest documentary Good News gives us an insight into the life of Petr Černý - one of the stars of Czech disinformation scene.

Schepelern Mette-Ann

13.-15.3.

director, Panorama

Danish director. At One World, she's presenting her documentary Queen of Hearts, a portrait of Lizzete Risgaard – the first woman to lead Danish trade unions. Lizzete immediately initiated radical changes to return a significant role to an organisation that had lost about 500,000 members in recent years.

Serén Domínguez Eloy

13.-15.3.

director, section !!!

Spanish director. Eloy Domínguez Serén was born in 1985 in Simes (Galicia), Spain. He studied in Salamanca, Milan, and Barcelona, where he graduated in 2010. Before debuting as a filmmaker he worked as a film critic for both radio and press. With vitality, humor and unexpected situations, Hamada paints an unusual portrait of a group of young friends living in a refugee camp in the middle of the stony Saharan desert, separated from Morocco and their former lives by a high wall and minefields.

Setzer Joanna

Talking Cinema

Environmental lawyer currently researching paradiplomacy and the role of non-governmental actors on issues of climate change at the London School of Economics. For eight years she worked as an environmental lawyer in Brazil, and was the coordinator of the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development. Her focus is working on a local level to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Siam Mohamed

10.-12.3.

director, Journeys to Freedom

Egyptian documentary filmmaker and psychologist. He received support for his projects at major festivals (Sundance, IDFA, Berlinale). His film Amal tells the story of fifteen-year-Amal, who is fighting for a better and freer Egypt. Over time, however, he realises that finding his place in male society is not so simple.

Skovoroda Egor

5.-16.3.

journalist

Correspondent for the Russian independent magazine MediaZona, founded by two members of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot. He covers political repressions and the state of the Russian criminal justice system, as well as neo-Nazism and radical political movements. He is also an actor in the Russian documentary theater group Teatr.doc, which will introduce its performance in Prague as part of One World on March 14th.

Steen Jespersen Søren

8.-10.3.

director, section ???

Danish director and producer. In 2017, Jesperson produced the film Last Men in Aleppo, nominated for an Oscar for best documentary film. This compelling documentary about the frustration caused by the unending Syrian war was screened at last year's One World Festival. This year, Jesperson comes to One World as a director. He shot the film The Last Warrior with Nasib Farah. Young Mohammed lives in Mogadishu, but his family lives in London. In England he faces court; in Somalia, death. Both for the same reason: the renegade Somali terrorist organisation Al-Shabaab.

Swartzman Nancy

11.-14.3.

director, One Zero

American director, producer, and social activist who draws attention to the issue of sexual violence and its victims. She founded the Safestreets project that maps places where sexual assaults have been reported. Together with her colleagues, Schwartzman also created a mobile application called Circle 6. The free app is designed to help protect against violence, especially the younger generation. This year, One World will present her new documentary Roll Red Roll!, in which the rape case of a sixteen-year-old girl in Ohio shows how deeply the roots of “rape culture” are sunk in society.

Szołajski Konrad

13.-15.3.

director, section !!!

Polish director and scriptwriter, creator of both fiction and documentary films. He studied film and television directing at universities in Katowice and London. His documentary The Good Change: Poles Apart offers insight into the current political situation in the country through the eyes of two women from opposite sides of the political barriers. While Marta wants a strong Poland and leads a paramilitary unit, Tita wants to be part of Europe, hates weapons, and believes that the government program The Good Change is an instrument to suppress liberal influences.

Szombati Kristóf

15.-17.3.

Talking Cinema

Hungarian sociologist and anthropologist. He has dealt long-term with the increasing hegemony of the extreme right in Hungary. He currently works at Columbia University in New York. In 2018 he published the book The Revolt of Provinces on the functioning of the New Right in Central and Eastern Europe.

Tizard Will

6.-11.3.

International Jury

Documentary filmmaker and journalist. In 1994 he moved from California to Prague to observe free development in the former Eastern Bloc. Since then he has worked as a writer for numerous domestic and foreign publications, focusing primarily on art and travel. He is a correspondent for Variety, Time Out, and National Geographic and teaches journalism at the Anglo-American College.

Toesca Michel

15.-17.3.

director, Right to Know

French independent director. He began his filmmaking career in Paris, but later left the metropolis and settled with his family in Saorge, in the mountains near the sea and the Italian border. The festival brings his documentary To The Four Winds, which tells the story of French farmer Cédric. In his modest dwelling in the Roya Valley near the Italian-French border, he has let hundreds of refugees travelling from Africa to Europe stay with him.

Tomanová Eva

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Czech scriptwriter and director. She graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. Since 1999 she has worked at TV Nova, first as a reporter and later as a director and the chief editor of several journalism programs. She also made a series of documentary films for Febio, documentaries for Czech Television, and reports for the public affairs program The Reporters on Czech Television. At One World, her documentary Start Again will premiere, the story of convicted marriage swindler Mirek and his last victim Monica, waiting for the return of her chosen one from prison.

Torne Matthew

12.-13.3.

director, Right to Know

Australian director and photographer. Interpersonal relationships mark his work; he often focuses on Asian culture and history. His films have been presented at the Cannes Lions festival, the LA Music Video Festival, and Adfest & Spikes Asia. He brings to the One World festival his documentary Last Exit to Kai Tak, which follows the lives of activists in Hong Kong in 2014 who took part in protests against the undemocratic Chinese regime. The “Umbrella Revolution” failed - how do its members live today?

Tóth Csaba

6.-15.3.

Vaclav Havel Jury

Hungarian political scientist and sociologist, founder and director of the think-tank Republican Institute, which promotes the idea of an open society, fighting for human rights and seeking to create a platform for like-minded organisations. The institute defends progressive ideas in such diverse areas as migration, homelessness, and LGBTQ rights and is the leading critic of the government of Viktor Orban out of many civic organisations. His passion is teaching the issues of democracy and human rights through films, books, and music.

Trostel Sandra

7.-10.3.

director, One Zero

German independent filmmaker. In her work, she focuses on the impact of new technologies and media on society. This impact is also examined in her movie All Creatures Welcome, offering insight into the workings of the Chaos Computer Club - the largest hacker club in Europe.

Trzaska Katarzyna

11.-15.3.

director, Long Live Life!

Polish scriptwriter. Her debut film 10 Years to Nashville was nominated in 2010 for the best Polish documentary film. One World will screen her film Village of Swimming Cows, a film that captures a trio of thirty-year-olds from Berlin. They decided to escape the stress of the city and find their place in communion with nature in the Polish countryside.

Turečková Kateřina

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Czech director. Her final project film Illusion came about during a study visit to Hungary. The documentary uses video game imagery to highlight the problems facing contemporary Hungary, all connected by one name: Viktor Orbán.

Van der Haak Bregtje

7.-8.3.

director, One Zero

Dutch documentary filmmaker and journalist. She studied dance in Paris, and political science and law in Amsterdam and New York. She shoots films about social change, with a focus on urban life and globalisation. In 2012, for example, she made the film DNA Dreams, which examines the work of Chinese companies in a futuristic genetic laboratory and raises essential questions about the boundaries of genetic engineering. This film was also screened at the One World Festival. This year she's presenting her documentary Ubiquity, which deals with the influence of electricity, the Internet, and microwave radiation on human health. For physicians, it's a problem that's hard to grasp, but it's one which affects more and more people.

Van der Velden Gugi

8.-10.3.

director, Long Live Life!

Director and writer. Born in London, he currently lives in Amsterdam. His feature-length documentary The Ocean is about the first surfing club in Sierra Leone. But young surfing enthusiasts - also members of West African fishing communities - must grapple with the negative attitude of the locals who don’t understand their desire to ride the waves. The film won the Audience Award at the Surf Film Festival in London. It then won the award for Best Soundtrack at the Surf Film Festival in Portugal.

Van Paesschen Bram

7.-9.3.

director, section !!!

Dutch director. The festival will present the documentary I'm New Here, which follows the journey of immigrants from Congo and other Africans who choose to do business in China and fulfil their dreams of wealth and a better life. What they chose, however, was one of the strictest regimes in the world.

Van Voorst van Beest Stella

12.-14.3.

director, Long Live Life!

Dutch director. Van Voorst van Beest often makes melancholic films, and Good Neighbors is no exception. After hearing the news that a woman had been dead in her flat for 10 years without anyone finding her, she decided to accompany a group in Rotterdam that planned to map loneliness in people over the age of 75. In this campaign against loneliness, the film encounters questions about aging and how to build community.

Van Zantvoort Ton

8.-10.3.

director, section !!!

Dutch filmmaker. In his work, he devotes his attention to marginalised people searching for ways to function in society. But they are confronted with external influences in the form of tourism and consumerism. Sheep Hero is devoted to one such person. Its protagonist, herdsman Stijn, is one of the last Dutch sheepherders who manages his farm using traditional methods.

Vaughn Harry

3.-12.3.

Czech Jury

He works for the Sundance Festival as a dramaturge focusing on American and international documentaries, but also leads a talent forum that connects filmmakers with film industry representatives. In addition to his work at Sundance, he works with the platform for queer creation Dirty Looks and as a consultant for the LGBTQ film festival Frameline in San Francisco.

Zavišaitė Justė

6.-17.3.

Czech Jury

Executive Director of the human rights festival Inconvenient Films and has been project manager of the Lithuanian Center for Human Rights since 2017. She has nine years of experience in organising various cultural activities including curating the Lithuanian film program and managing the industry program at the International Film Festival in Vilnius. In 2015 she participated in the film festival Hot Docs in Toronto and worked as an archive researcher for the documentary Wine and War.

Zykmund Jiří

6.-17.3.

director, Czech Competition

Czech artist, photographer, and cameraman. He teaches at the Secondary School of Art and Design in Brno. As a cameraman, he worked on the production of numerous feature films and many documentary films shown on Czech Television. The film We're Still Not Finished tells the stories of active Czech seniors who demonstrate that old age doesn't mean you can't live life to its fullest.

Who am I and where do I belong? At a time of political crises, in a divided society and on the threshold of irreversible climate change, finding an answer to this question is becoming ever more difficult. We thus all the more urgently feel the need to find our own identity, one that will give us a sense of certainty and security. How to understand ourselves, to differentiate ourselves from others while not creating a deep chasm in society? These are the questions we will be exploring at this year’s 21st One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, which will take place from 6 to 17 March in Prague and subsequently in 35 other cities throughout the Czech Republic.

 

The festival’s slogan, Safe Proximity, refers to a state in which people in society, even if they are all different, are capable of listening and understanding one another. “The hate filled abuse of identity has become a weapon in the hands of some politicians and media outlets who are trying to set one group against the other. The result is a chasm – us versus them. We want to learn what things differentiate us from one another; to find what brings us together and what can make us feel safe and secure while being close to one another,” says One World’s director Ondřej Kamenický.

 

Like last year, the festival’s PR campaign has been organized by Studio MT (Matyáš Trnka in collaboration with Matěj Růžička). The colourful question marks and exclamation points throughout the festival’s visuals and its trailer are a reference to the difficult subject of negotiating one’s identity in a complex and uncertain social climate. “Some of us are more secure about their place in the world, but this sense of security can change over time. Sometimes we know what our goal is, while at other times we ask questions and doubt things. And all along, we meet people with whom we have a lot in common at that particular point in time… and we also have the need to define ourselves in opposition to other people. The question marks and exclamation points in this year’s visual design are thus engaged in battle – although from another point of view we see that, regardless of differences of opinion, we are all inhabitants of the same place, the same universe, the same (one) world,” says Matyáš Trnka.

Three Oscar-nominated documentaries at One World

 

The full programme of the 21st One World festival will be presented at a press conference on 19 February, but it is already clear that audiences will have much to choose from. Returning to the festival as a juror in the international competition is director Talal Derki, whose film Of Fathers and Sons earned him the Best Director award at last year’s festival. This year, he is vying for an even greater honour: Of Fathers and Sons has been nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Documentary Feature. The five nominees include two films about life in the United States that are being shown at this year’s One World. Hale County This Morning, This Evening (dir. RaMell Ross) looks at the day-to-day life of an African American family in the South, and Minding the Gap (dir. Bing Liu) traces the friendship and adolescence of three skateboarders in the Rust Belt in the country’s northeast.

Besides our three traditional competition categories (Czech Competition, International Competition, and the human rights competition Right to Know) and another nine thematic categories, also returning this year is our programme of special discussions titled Talking Cinema, as part of which we will welcome to Prague experts from a variety of areas, whose talks will be accompanied by screenings of selected films.

 

One World for All

 

Once again, One World will truly be for everybody. We endeavour to make our screenings and accompanying events accessible for the broadest possible spectrum of viewers, including people with disabilities. This year, we are even showing eighteen films with subtitles for the hearing impaired, colour-coded to identify who is speaking and including relevant sounds. Besides five films with audio commentary for visually impaired individuals, this is the second year that we are also offering three relaxed screenings so that people with mental impairments, epilepsy or autism can enjoy the films in a relaxed setting.

And last but not least, One World offers the best possible level of barrier-free access for wheelchair users or viewers with limited mobility. “We don’t see activities for people with disabilities as something ‘extra.’ On the contrary: We want for the idea of accessibility to be an organic part of the entire festival,” explains Kamenický. The festival is thus aiming not only for external accessibility, but internal accessibility as well: for instance, it welcomes people with disabilities among its volunteers. “We believe that they should have the same opportunity to see behind the scenes of a large cultural event like everyone else,” adds One World for All coordinator Adéla Gálová.

 

East Doc Platform

 

Running alongside the One World festival is the East Doc Platform (EDP) for film professionals. The Institute of Documentary Film recently revealed detailed information on the projects that will be presented at the eight instalment of this event, which will take place from 9 to 15 March. The film projects look at the murdered documentary filmmaker Aleksandr Rastorguev, a DJ grandmother getting ready for her European tour, the return of wolves to the Czech landscape, and a documentary video game about Czechoslovak parasitologists’ dangerous mission to Cambodia at the time of the genocide. EDP also offers free master classes, discussion panels, screenings and other events for the general public. Film professionals interested in industry accreditation can register using our online form.

 

Get Your Audience!

 

If you can’t wait for the festival, we have one hit from this year’s festival available for free download as part of our Get Your Audience! project. The Punk Voyage follows a distinctive group of four Finnish punkers on their journey to the Eurovision Song Context, all the way to the final concert. The film can be downloaded until 20 February at www.promitejity.cz, where you will find more than 50 documentary films from past festivals.

 

The festival programme and its international guests will be presented at a press conference on Tuesday, 19 February at the audience centre in the Tibet Open House (Školská 28). You should be receiving an invitation from us soon via email.

 

Further information, including this year’s visuals, can be downloaded from www.oneworld.cz

 

One World in the Regions 2019

Benešov

28.–30. 3.

Boskovice

4.–7. 4.

Brno

21.–29. 3.

České Budějovice

18.–22. 3.

Český Krumlov

21.–23. 3.

Děčín

3.–6. 4.

Havlíčkův Brod

22.–24. 3.

Hradec Králové

19.–22. 3.

Jablonec nad Nisou

18.–21. 3.

Karlovy Vary

29.–31. 3.

Kladno

3.–5. 4.

Liberec

25.–31. 3.

Louny

9.–13. 4.

Mladá Boleslav

4.–10. 4.

Nymburk

3.–6. 4.

Olomouc

18.–23. 3.

Opava

25.–29. 3.

Ostrava

4.–12. 4.

Pardubice

26.–29. 3.

Pelhřimov

4.–7. 4.

Pilsen

22.–29. 3.

Police nad Metují

21.–24. 3.

Polička

11.–13. 4.

Rožnov pod Radhoštem

8.–11. 4.

Sušice

4.–7. 4.

Tábor

28.–31. 3.

Tišnov

21.–23. 3.

Třebíč

15.–17. 3.

Třinec

1.–7. 4.

Uherské Hradiště

25.–29. 3.

Ústí nad Labem

25.–29. 3.

Ústí nad Orlicí

6.–13. 4.

Vsetín

18.–22. 3.

Zlín

1.–4. 4.

Znojmo

19.–22. 3.

The Federation of European Film Directors (FERA), the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) and the Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA) welcome the outcome of the trilogue negotiations on the Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market. This is a real step forward for European authors.

After many months of difficult negotiations between the EU institutions, a political agreement on the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market has finally been reached yesterday, defining rules to guarantee authors’ rights and support European creation.

FERA, FSE and the SAA thank the EU decision-makers, in particular the European Parliament, for their determination to improve authors’ bargaining position and remuneration in Europe under intense pressure.

FERA, FSE and SAA endorse the essential provisions set out in Chapter 3 aiming at rebalancing the systemic weak bargaining situation of authors, and the new Article -14, which establishes a much-needed principle of fair and proportionate remuneration for authors and performers deriving from the exploitation of their works, including online.

Quotes

“Now that an agreement has been found, we call on EU institutions to formally adopt the Directive in a timely manner”, said Pauline Durand-Vialle, FERA Chief Executive.

“Europe’s authors are at the origin of our culture. Their difficult situation, which has been central to the European debate on copyright reform, can be significantly improved if the proposed Directive is enacted.”, said David Kavanagh, FSE Executive Officer.

“We call on the European Parliament’s plenary to confirm this political compromise. When the Directive will definitely be adopted, European representative organisations will be eager to support audiovisual authors through its implementation at national level. This way, they will better ensure that authors receive the proportionate remuneration they deserve for the exploitation of their works”, said Cécile Despringre, SAA Executive Director.

ZAGREB: The zombie comedy The Last Serb in Croatia / Posljednji Srbin u Hrvatskoj will be released in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Slovenia in the coming days. Predrag Ličina’s debut feature is a Croatian/Serbian coproduction between Kinorama and Art & Popcorn.

RIGA: The Russian/Latvian/Czech coproduction The Humorist by Michael Idov will be released in Russia on 1 March 2019 and in the Czech Republic by 24 April 2019. The film will be released in Latvia in Autumn.

26th Prague IFF – Febiofest to honour Oscar-winning director Bille August

This year the Prague International Film Festival – Febiofest will once again deliver a broad range of contemporary world cinema, as well as bringing a number of noteworthy filmmakers to Prague. As well as going to Czech actress Jiřina Bohdalová, one of the festival’s awards, the Kristián, will be bestowed on an Oscar recipient and winner of the Cannes IFF’s Palme d’Or, Danish director Bille August.

 

Oscar recipient and Palme d’Or winner returns to Prague

Throughout the entire existence of the Cannes film festival, only eight directors have received its Palme d’Or prize twice. One of them is Bille August. The Danish director, who recently turned 70, is not coming to Prague for the first time: he shot Les Misérables with Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman here in 1997. In 1989 he earned an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film for Pelle the Conqueror, which had earned a Palme d’Or the previous year. In 1992 he again took a Palme d’Or, this time for The Best Intentions. His filmography also includes two movies about the young Indiana Jones, while last year Febiofest audiences had a chance to catch his 55 Steps, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Hilary Swank. Bille August, who has also worked with such Hollywood stars as Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder or Antonio Banderas, will receive a Kristián award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at Febiofest’s closing ceremony on 28 March. The festival will present his pictures Pelle the Conqueror, Silent Heart, The House of the Spirits and his latest work, A Fortunate Man, which will receive a premiere screening.

 

Classics section brings world cinema greats back to the big screen

Over nine days the festival in Prague will show over 150 films in 16 sections, with one of the most popular sure to be the brand new Classics section. After the success of the jubilee Best Of section last year, this year a permanent forum has been created for newly restored and digitalised world cinema classics. Viewers will be able to enjoy The Swimming Pool with Alain Delon and Romy Schneider, which is exactly 50 years old, Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders or David Lynch’s Wild at Heart. Also being screened will be the director’s cut of William Friedkin’s horror The Exorcist, and Daisies, a key work by Czech director Věra Chytilová and cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera.

 

Docs to exclusively present WWI film by Peter Jackson

Among the 10 documentaries in the Docs section the biggest hit is sure to be exclusive screenings of They Shall Not Grow Old by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. The film comprises remastered original footage capturing World War I from the perspective of ordinary people and soldiers. The makers drew on over 100 hours of material that was over a century old. Other noteworthy documentaries will include Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist about the famous UK fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and Friedkin Uncut about William Friedkin, unconventional director of cult films (e.g. The French Connection, The Exorcist). Viewers can also enjoy the world premiere of Jaroslav Kučera Up Close, about Czech cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera.

 

Drama by actor-director Ralph Fiennes set for Central Park

The Central Park section – known for distribution premieres, comedies, historical dramas and star actors – will deliver highly attractive current productions, including actor turned director Ralph FiennesThe White Crow, a biopic of dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev focused on his defection from the USSR in 1961, the German-Italian thriller Never Look Away by Oscar-winning director Florian Henckel von Donnesmarsk (The Lives of Others) and an exclusive presentation of If Beale Street Could Talk by Barry Jenkins, whose Oscar-winning Moonlight was shown at the festival in the past.

 

Culinary Cinema to focus on French, Moroccan and Spanish cuisine this year

The festival’s highly popular culinary section is this year offering three unforgettable experiences over three evenings. On Friday 22 March Morocco meets France in Jean-Philippe Guad’s Tazzeka, a debut feature about love and migration. Afterwards viewers will savour a special menu created for the film by master chef Lukáš Čížek. Saturday 23 March will see a screening of Marco Ferreri’s La Grande Bouffe, an opulent gastro orgy headed in one direction… chefs Filip Sajler, Martin Staněk and Lukáš Čížek have prepared a menu in a similar spirit for those who survive. Sunday will belong to Constructing Albert, a documentary by Jimi Loomis and Laura Collado about the road to Michelin stars. A dinner inspired by that film will be produced by Filip Sajler. Gourmet Academy and the company Potten & Pannen – Staněk are partners of the Culinary Cinema section.



The festival will get underway with a gala opening on Thursday 21 March 2019 at Prague’s Municipal House and will run until 29 March. The closing ceremony, at which the winners of the New Europe section, the Amnesty International Febiofest Award and the You’re the Filmmaker competition will be announced, will take place at CineStar Anděl on Thursday 28 March. As every year, screenings will be held at the CineStar Anděl and CineStar Černý Most multiplexes and the NFA Ponrepo and Municipal Library cinemas. Febiofest will take place in the regions from 1 to 18 April 2019, stopping at: České Budějovice, Hradec Králové, Plzeň, Beroun, Pardubice, Jihlava, Ostrava, Mikulov, Kladno, Liberec, Děčín, Olomouc, Uherské Hradiště, Chomutov and Zlín.

Tickets and festival passes

Admission to individual screenings is CZK 99.

Festival passes cost CZK 699 for 3 days, CZK 999 for 5 days and CZK 1,699 for 9 days.

Admission to films and exclusive dinners within Culinary Cinema is CZK 1,190.

Advance sales for festival passes and Culinary Cinema events are already underway at www.febiofest.cz.

The call for entries for Cyprus International Film Festival "Golden Aphrodite" is still open!

  • All genres are accepted.

  • Short films up to 20 minutes

  • Feature films up to 120 minutes

  • Eligible are all films produced within the last 36 months

We can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on, and we hope to see you at this year’s festival!

Here’s a special code that you can use for 20% off your entry fee: INVITECYIFF20 - Submit via Filmfreeway

Film Submission: http://cyiff.cineartfestival.eu/en/submission/

March 19 - 23, 2019 / Bratislava

Highly praised makers of the Dark Knight trilogy, Nebraska and the Oscar-winning Roma are on their way to Bratislava!

The eighth annual Visegrad Film Forum will, as usual, offer film lovers the best of world cinema. From the 19th to 23rd of March, VŠMU Film and TV Faculty will host cinematographer and film supervisor Mark H. Weingartner, ASC, cameraman Phedon Papamichael, ASC and production designer Eugenio Caballero.

Oscar winner builds new worlds from a scratch

Production designer Eugenio Caballero travels from Mexico to Bratislava to present his work on films such as Pan's Labyrinth (2006) or the latest Alfonso Cuarón film Roma (2018) to the participants. „In Pan´s Labyrinth all the sets were built from scratch, there was nothing there but a forest, everything is made with plaster, models, other spaces were built apart in forums, due to their complexity as inside the tree. the sets they were not large in size: the important thing is that they were visually impressive,“ says Eugenio Caballero, the author of the magic world. This collaboration on Guillermo Del Toro´s fantasy picture got him an Academy Award for Best Production Design in 2007.

He has received another Oscar nomination for Alfonso Cuarón's latest black and white film Roma. In many interviews he mentions that this collaboration was different from the previous ones especially because of the director's personal connection to the picture and the chronological shooting of the film. The scene preparations were always preceded by long conversations with Cuarón, and as the production designer Eugenio Caballero was the only one who read the complete script. In addition to these two films, Caballero participated in the making of the third sequel of Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), and Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control (2009) among others.

The Master of Special Effects

Film supervisor Mark W. Weingartner, ASC does not need to be introduced as anything other than a long-time collaborator of director Christopher Nolan, with whom he worked on films such as Dunkirk (2017), Interstellar (2014), Inception (2010) and the entire Dark Knight trilogy. In addition, he has contributed to blockbusters such as The Hunger Games and the Twilight saga. His main role is to shoot scenes that are later modified by special effects. His work brought him to almost every continent except for Antarctica. Apart from Hollywood megaprojects, he also has many small, independent films under his belt.

He started as a light technician in New York theaters. His first contact with Hollywood was on the set of Under Siege 2 (1995), where he saw the most extensive green screen in his life. After this film, he launched his Hollywood career and moved to Los Angeles. There he has shot films such as Apocalypto (2006), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Men in Black II (2002) and Mission: Impossible 2 (2000). The Visegrad Film Forum will be conducting a special 3-day VFX workshop in addition to a public lecture.

Greek cinematographer who conquered Hollywood

One of the most outstanding works of cameraman Phedon Papamichael, ASC, is the film Nebraska (2013), that received six Oscar nominations. The black and white aesthetic of this road trip film about a senior who believes he has won millions of dollars in the Nebraska lottery, beautifully highlights the hopelessness and austerity of this scarcely populated US state. Papamichael also collaborated with the influential German director Wim Wenders, including the film The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) starring stars like Mila Jovovich and Mel Gibson. He also shot with the director James Mangold in relation to whom it is important to highlight the film Walk the Line (2005), which portrays the life and death of guitarist and country singer Johnny Cash, played by Joaquin Phoenix.

Two more guests are coming to Bratislava   

Furthermore, the eight edition of Visegrad Film Forum will host Hakim Belabbes from Morocco and Marcin Łuczaj from Poland as well. Hakim Belabbes is a film director and teacher at Columbia College in Chicago who premiered his film Sweet Rain (2016) at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. Marcin Łuczaj works as a sales manager for New Europe Film Sales, a Warsaw-based sales agency for both features and shorts, where he is responsible for feature film acquisitions and for the short film catalogue. 

Take advantage of the extended possibility to purchase the Early Bird accreditation for € 15 (€ 10 for students) by February 28th. After February 28th their price will be € 25 (€ 15 for students).

 

Visegrad Film Forum 2019
When: 19th – 23rd March 2019
Where: Bratislava, Slovakia
Location: VŠMU Film and TV Faculty

website: http://www.visegradfilmforum.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisegradFilmForum/?fref=ts
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vffbratislava/
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mpj2r4K88c

Organizer: Boiler NGO
Co-organizers: VŠMU Film and TV Faculty

Financial support: International Visegrad fond, Slovak Audiovisual fond, Nadácia SPP
Partner schools: The Academy of Performing Arts, Film and TV Faculty in Bratislava, The University of Silesia in Katowice, The Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, KNUTCT Kyjev, BFM Tallinn, Sahara Lab and UNATC Bucharest

Dear colleagues and friends,

We would like to inform you about the upcoming first edition of FILM MUSIC CONTEST, international competition of original film and TV music that will take place April 2 – 4, 2019 in Košice, Slovakia.

FILM MUSIC CONTEST is the first ever international competition of film and TV music in Slovakia designed for composers, musicians, bands, producers, feature and short film makers, video artists and graphic designers from all over the world.

The FMC project has launched at the 71st Festival de Cannes/Marché du Film, where it was met with great interest and positive reactions from the professionals in audiovisual industry and where it formed first international partnerships.

The main goal of the project is to offer professionals as well as young aspiring artists an opportunity to showcase their work, take part in an international competition and vie for prizes worth up to 10 000€ in total.

You can submit your work via online form into three different categories:

Ø  Music Competition

Ø  Film Competition

Ø  Graphic Competition

The submission deadline for all three competitions is March 10, 2019.

The winners will be announced during a Gala-event taking place April 2 – 4, 2019 in the historical town ofKošice in the East Slovakia, accompanied by concerts and film screenings. An international jury of film and music experts will choose the winners.

The FMC jury members are Vlado Meller (USA), master of music mastering and two-time GRAMMY Award winner,Rudolf Geri (SK), renowned film music composer and artistic director of music company Gedur, and Paul Wiffen (UK), musician, pianist, sound designer and music programmer.

 

More information about the project here: https://www.fmcontest.com/

The Czech and Film Television Academy (CFTA) has published the nominated television projects that reached the three highest positions in the voting of the academics in the two television categories. In the category of the best television film or miniseries the following three miniseries got the most votes: Dukla 61, Methanol and Redl.  The series Dubbing Street, Professor T. and Rabies have been nominated in the category of the best television drama series. Unlike the films that enter the competition for the Czech Lions automatically providing they have fulfilled the conditions of the statutes, the broadcasters themselves have to register their projects for the two television categories. This year the following subjects submitted their projects: Czech Television, TV Nova and FTV Prima. The winners in the film as well as television categories will be announced during the ceremonial gala evening of the 26th annual Czech Lion awards in Rudolfinum on Saturday 23rd March 2019.

In January the CFTA revealed the nominations in the film categories where the film Toman directed and produced by Ondřej Trojan is in the best position with its 13 nominations. Ten nominations were received by two films – The Hastrman directed by Ondřej Havelka and the film Winter Flies directed by Olmo Omerzu. These three films are followed by the films Golden Sting by Radim Špaček with 9 nominations, Jan Palach by Robert Sedláček with 8 nominations and Insect by Jan Švankmajer with 5 nominations. Now the academy is revealing the projects that can obtain the awards for television production in two categories on the 23rd March 2019.

Three television broadcasters nominated their projects this year – Czech Television, TV Nova and FTV Prima and the academics were choosing from those in a one-round voting. In the category of the best television film or miniseries among the first three most successful projects there are three television miniseries Dukla 61 (Czech Television, directed by David Ondříček), Methanol (Czech Television, directed by Tereza Kopáčová) and Redl (Czech Television, directed by Jan Hřebejk). In the category of the best television drama series the most votes were obtained by the series Dubbing Street (Czech Television, directed by Petr Zelenka), Professor T. (TV Nova, directed by Tomáš Mašín and Michal Blaško) and Rabies (Czech Television, directed by Tomáš Bařina).

The winners of the film as well as television categories will be announced at the Czech Lion ceremonial gala evening that will take place in Prague’s Rudolfinum on Saturday 23th March 2019. The gala evening will be newly hosted by Václav Kopta and it will be broadcast live at 8 p.m. by the CT1 channel.

 

For the first time this year the CFTA gives the fans of Czech film an opportunity to watch the films nominated for the year of 2018 either in the cinema or online. The CineStar network of multiplex cinemas will hold a festival of the films that have been nominated for the Czech Lion awards all over the Czech Republic from 2nd to 19th March and the best films of last year will return to the cinemas then.  

People will also be able to watch the nominated films online on the website www.ceskylev.cz. Thanks to the cooperation with dafilms.cz the films will be available from 18th to 31st March. Apart from the films that have been nominated this year the website also offers an ever growing collection of Czech films that were either nominated or got the Czech Lion award in the past years.

 

BEST TELEVISION FILM or MINISERIES

Dukla 61 – miniseries, directed by David Ondříček, produced by Michal Reitler, screenplay by Jakub Režný and Matěj Podzimek                                       

Methanol (Metanol) – miniseries, directed by Tereza Kopáčová, produced by Michal Reitler, screenplay by Lenka Szántó and Matěj Podzimek                                  

Redl (Rédl) – miniseries, directed by Jan Hřebejk, produced by Jan Štern, screenplay by Miro Šifra     

 

BEST TELEVISION DRAMA SERIES

Dubbing Street (Dabing Street) – directed by Petr Zelenka, produced by Kateřina Ondřejková, screenplay by Petr Zelenka
Professor T. (Profesor T.) – directed by Tomáš Mašín and Michal Blaško, produced by Matěj Chlupáček, Maja Hamplová and Bernd Alexa, screenplay by Petr Jarchovský, Michal Samir and Evita Naušová
Rabies (Vzteklina) directed by Tomáš Bařina, produced by Josef Viewegh, screenplay by Jan Stehlík

Czech Lion

The Czech Lion is a prestigious Czech film award that has been presented since 1993. Films are evaluated based on the voting of the members of the Czech Film and Television Academy. The ceremonial gala evening will take place in Dvořák’s Hall of Prague’s Rudolfinum on Saturday 23rd March 2019 and it will be broadcast live by Czech Television on CT1 at 8 p.m.

About the Czech Film and Television Academy:

The Czech Film and Television Academy was founded in 1995 and in 2013 it was transformed into a registered association. Its main aim is to support and promote Czech cinematographic art in the Czech Republic as well as abroad and create conditions for the development of Czech film. The CFTA awards the most prestigious Czech film award – the Czech Lion and nominates Czech films or documentary features for the awards of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The CFTA consists of 306 members at the moment.