At the end of September, another edition of the Warsaw Kids Film Forum twas held. It is a trade event accompanying the Kids Film Festival. The rich program of the event and the representation of various sectors of the film industry both from the country and from around the world makes the Warsaw forum included on the map of co-production events devoted to children's and family cinema in Europe, to events such as The Financing Forum for Kids Content in Malmo or Cinekid for Professionals in Amsterdam.

This year we had the pleasure of hosting even more guests from Poland and abroad, including TV, film institutions, regional funds, producers, sales agents, distributors, writers and directors. Over

200 people took part in the event. Our guests were representatives from 25 countries including: Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Canada, Luxembourg, Latvia, Germany, Norway, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. , Sweden, Ukraine, Great Britain, Italy and Poland.

We were delighted to see a significant presence of experts from the film and television industry who actively participated in pitching sessions commenting on presentations and projects in terms of sales and distribution potential. The meeting was attended by representatives of, among others, Canal + France and Poland, Polish Polsat, Norwegian NRK TV, Finnish YLE, Croatian public television HRT, German NDR, Dutch NTR, British Internet platform Hopster TV, distributors from Poland -Next Film and Monolith, Croatia - Radar, France -Millimage, Spain - Flins y Piniculas or Belgium - JEF Distribution. There were also representatives and representatives of national and international sales agencies: German Pluto Media and Global

Screen, Duch Features from the Netherlands, Canadian Attraction Distribution, IKH Pictures Promotion and New Europe Film Sales from Poland as well as Pink Parrot Media (Spain), SF FIlmindustri (Sweden ), Charades (France).

The three-day event concluded with the award ceremony. Four prizes were granted by the Forum's partners and one by the organizer of the Kids Film.Pro workshop.

-the Financing Forum for Kids Content awarded Twisted Tales presented by Sara Bozanič and Petra Bertalanič (Slovenia). The prize is an invitation to a partner pitching forum in Malmo, Sweden in 2019. At the same time, Kids Regio invited the project to take part in the Berlinale Meeting Point conference - organized during the Berlinale festival,

-the Center of Audiovisual Technologies (CeTA) granted 2 awards in the form of in-kind contribution to film production and post-production. The first prize, worth PLN 80,000, went to

Pronto Film: Sashko Chubko and Kateryny Kopylova for the Ring of Life project (Ukraine); the

second financial contribution of PLN 60,000 went to Nukleus Film: Sinisa Jurcić and Petar Oreskovic for the Young Tesla and The Poachers (Croatia).

• an invitation to the European Audiovisual Enterpreneurs (EAVE) Marketing Workshops held in Luxembourg this autumn, was given to Agnieszka Rostropowicz-Rutkowska responsible for the promotion of the Triple Trouble project (the second part of the well received film Trouble), produced by Koi Studio (Poland).

• an invitation to the first edition of the international screening workshop for Kids Film.Pro 2019 was granted to Little Odyssey project presented by Gabriela Košťál Duchoňová and Jakub Kouril (Czech Republic).

Congratulations!

Warsaw Kids FIlm Forum, which took place on September 26-28 in Muranów Cinema, Warsaw, is the only co-production forum in Poland devoted to children's and family cinema. During the three days of the Forum, a conference devoted to case studies and master classes focused on building children and family cinema audiences and marketing strategies for selected European film and series productions were held. In addition, the participants took part in pitching sessions (Script Exchange) and projects at the development stage (Development) as well as those at the advanced stage of production (Work in Progress). The session consisted also of 31 pitchings and presentations.

With its recently launched video-on-demand channel, Moving Docs Home Cinema now gives viewers around the world the opportunity to get instant access to a selection of critically acclaimed documentaries that are hard to find otherwise.

Moving Docs is the very first pan-European distribution network for documentaries, powered by 20 screening partners across Europe, ARTE Europe, the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, and outreach strategists Film & Campaign. It is managed by the European Documentary Network and supported by Creative Europe. Combining event cinema with innovative online promotion, Moving Docs, in its fourth year running, enables a selection of the best European documentaries to cross borders and reach new audiences. Last year alone, 25 documentaries from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK were screened in 18 European countries, with subtitles in 15 languages, reaching an audience of more than 5 million. The Moving Docs Home Cinema is now looking to expand the network’s reach through an own-branded video-on-demand offer.

These are films with an impact that make audiences see the world differently. Driven by a shared belief in the value of documentaries and the importance of a diverse film culture within Europe, Moving Docs Home Cinema offers documentaries from all corners of Europe and are available in as many as 11 different languages (English, French, German, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Norwegian, Macedonian and Slovenian). 

Its most recent acquisition is Golden Dawn Girls (2017), in which Norwegian filmmaker Håvard Bustnes examines the rise of the Greek far-right nationalist party “Golden Dawn”. When the key male members of the political party are imprisoned, accused of carrying out organised criminal activity, the film follows their daughters, wives and mothers as they step up to the task of leading the party through the upcoming elections. The film is accompanied by an educational guide (currently available in English, Spanish, Greek, Norwegian and Polish) aimed to generate debate, critical thought and discussion in classrooms about the rise of the extreme right in Europe.   

Other highlights include Dolphin Man (2017) by Greek filmmaker Lefteris Charitos, which tells the extraordinary story of free-diver Jacques Mayol, whose life became the inspiration of Luc Besson’s cult movie The Big Blue. Narrated by Jean-Marc Barr, the film draws us into Mayol’s world, capturing his compelling journey, while immersing viewers into the transformative experience of free-diving.

Cecilie Bolvinkel, Moving Docs programme manager at the European Documentary Network said:  “Over the last few years, Moving Docs has already build up a strong track record in bringing down borders and supporting the joint release of high-profile documentaries across Europe.  We’re excited to be taking this one step further now by expanding our online channel. I’d invite all lovers of documentaries to take a look at the Moving Docs Home Cinema.”  

Digital Single Market

26/09: European digital single market – a priority of Council Presidency conference – EU2018AT

At the High Level Conference on Digital and E-Government which took place on 26 September 2018 in Vienna, ministers and high‑level expert officials had a constructive exchange on elementary e-government and digitalisation issues.

EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive 

26/09: Audiovisual media: MEPs vote on new rules fit for a digital age – European Parliament

New rules on audiovisual media aim to better protect viewers, encourage innovation and promote European content. MEPs approved them on 2 October.

Creative Europe Programme

27/09: FNE TV: MEP Silvia Costa, EU Parliament Culture & Education Committee and Rapporteur for Creative Europe 2021-2027 – Film New Europe

FNE asked Silvia Costa about the most important differences between Creative Europe 2021-2027 and the previous programme and the importance of the LUX Prix for European culture.

EU Budget

26/09: DRAFT INTERIM REPORT on the proposal for a Council regulation on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 – European Parliament

26/09: EU Budget 2019: MEPs increase funding on youth, migration and research – European Parliament

Budget MEPs increased Erasmus+ funds and restored budgets for infrastructure investments, as well as Horizon 2020, the EU research programme.

European Union Intellectual Property Office

01/10: Christian Archambeau takes over as Executive Director of EUIPO – EUIPO

Mr Christian Archambeau has now taken up his duties as Executive Director of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) after his appointment was confirmed by the European Council.

European Audiovisual Observatory

26/09: How are audiovisual media services licenced in Europe today? – European Audiovisual Observatory

European Audiovisual Observatory has published a new mapping report of the licensing systems for audiovisual media services in today’s European Union.

Events 

8-9 October: Challenging (the) Content – Content made in Europe in the digital economy - Vienna

8-11 October: NATO Fall Summit

10 October: CICI Lunch - European Parliament, Brussels

10 October: Attaché meeting - EU Copyright Directive

15 & 16 October: UNIC Cinema Days - Brussels

17 October: Attaché meeting - EU Copyright Directive

25 October: Trilogue - EU Copyright Directive

“My films are the celebration of reality, of life, of my friends, of actual daily life that passes and is gone tomorrow. We don't pay attention to it when it happens.”