The 25th Sibiu International Festival Astra Film, which will take place from 15 to 21 October, has announced relevant film industry personalities as the 13 members of the Jury for its 5 competition sections: International, Central and Eastern Europe, Romania, Shorts, and Docschool. The jurors will choose the winners out of 55 titles in competition from 30 countries, selected from over 3,000 submissions from 93 countries. Prizes amount to a total cash value of over 25,000 euros.

Pursuant to the second competition announced for the cinematographic works production co-financing, the Film Centre of Montenegro will, at the proposal of the Council, support the total of 22 projects in different categories: screenplay development, project development, feature and short documentary films, as well as feature and short feature films .

Screenplay and Project Development

The total of 4 projects received support in the project development competition. The Commission assessed that the project “Face of Honor”, directed by Nikola Vukčević, Galileo Production Company, represents a “well-prepared project with a clear concept, vision and strategy for further development. The project “Forever Hold Your Peace”, directed by Ivan Marinović, is a mentality comedy with great potential for cinema and festival placement, developed by an author who knows the environment in which the action takes place. The commission assessed the project “The Rear Admiral” directed by Mladen Ivanović, Production Company Artikulacija Film, as a courageous and important story with a clearly designed concept. The Commission assessed the project “Nehaj” by Milija Šćepanović, received funds for the script development.

A total of 5 synopsis received support at the competition for script development. The Commission noted that the synopsis “The Fall” of Aleksandar Bečanović represents a “potentially interesting genre film leaning on Hollywood’s best tradition from the time large film studios produced art films, which in terms of domestic cinematography represents a very innovative approach.” “History of Light” of Ognjen Spahić, was assessed as “an extremely shocking story with a clear author’s vision and a critical recollection of the past, told in an interesting and multiple layered way. “The Fear” by Željko Sošić, was recognized as “an intimate story about the modern world that is unstoppably crumbling in front of the eyes of the hero.” The Commission assessed the synopsis “The Day I Stopped Playing“ by Bojan Stijović as “a story of growing up and self-consciousness of heroes in a small environment that gets too close to him”, while “The Shot“ of Jovana Bojović was assessed as “a surprising family drama full of passion and turbulent psychological state of mind of the main characters.” 

Feature and short documentary film

Pursuant to the Commission’s decision, total of 6 projects received support in the documentary film category. “The Last Nomad“, by Petar Glomazić, was assessed as “a seriously thought-out project with original authorial approach, full of honest poetry charge, with a clear line of vision in which the author’s commitment and his love for nature and man are felt.” The Commission assessed the project under the working title “Kosovo Refugees in Montenegro in 1999”, by the author Velibor Čović as a story of “three generations with a focus on the current situation of refugees in Montenegro, a project of rich research work, which through raw documentary corpus, is depicting the way we treated people as human beings, and not the nations at the times of crisis.”

The “Unadjusted, Film Count“, by the director Radoslav T. Stanisić, was assessed as “a television documentary which in the area of film and life creation incites memories of one of the most important Montenegrin and Yugoslav filmmakers, directors and professors – Milo Đukanović.” Pursuant to the Commission’s opinion, the project “EX-YU Rock Tragedies” by Danilo Marunović represents “interesting project dealing with the phenomenon of the tragic deaths of rock stars from the ex-Yu area”, requiring fine tuning thus the project received funds for the project development.

In the category of short documentaries, 2 projects received support. “We Are Sons of Your Rocks“ by Ivan Salatić in which the director, as the Commission assessed, through “a special authorial approach presented through the form of an experimental film, depicts three elderly men in search of the grave of an unknown Italian soldier shot and buried before the end of the WWII at the foot of the mountain Bjelasica.” “The Librarian“ by Branislav Milatović – which “with an interesting director’s approach explores the phenomenon of libraries in the 21^st century, being told from the point of view of a librarian from Kotor, where the focus is placed on the rituals of a man who crosses the boundary of the ordinary and becomes something more than that.” 

Feature and short feature films

The first competition for feature films production co-financing entailed also the presentation of projects before the Commission. All nine submitted projects were presented by the authors and producers before the Commission.

After reviewing the submitted documentation and presentations, the Commission decided to support a total of 6 projects. The project “Elegy of Laurel” by Dušan Kasalica, who received the project’s support for the project development, was assessed as an “extremely high-quality and stylishly consistently written project, with the intention to abandon drama and rely on emotional and poetic logic, with specific a directional approach aimed at offering innovative and original solutions.“ The project “Sirin”, directed by Senad Šahmanović, who was the successful applicant at the previous competition of the Centre in the category of project development, was assessed by the Commission as “a well-developed project with potential for international success confirmed through eminent workshops. The project of the working title “Skype”, directed by Ise Qosje, the Commission assessed as “a strong existential drama with striking characters and situations, with the authenticity of the ambience in the north of Montenegro, with precise scripting procedure and a clear directional vision”. The feature-length feature film “Breasts”, directed by Marija Perović, was assessed as “a unique female story told from the vision of three main characters, in which the author brings a simple, true and unpretentious story through tragic-comic elements.” The Commission assessed the project “Hit the Sky”, directed by Milutin Darić, as a story dealing with the universal theme of love, with the simplicity in the treatment of the elements. Pursuant to the Commission’s opinion, the project “Zaliv” by Draško Đurović, has a great potential, with a clear and precise director’s approach, which requires some alterations of the scenario, and for this reason the project received funds for project development. In the category of short films, the Commission has allocated funds to the project “The Aery“ of the director Milija Šćepanović.

In the following period, individual contracts will be concluded with the successful applicants, which will regulate the rights and obligations of the contracting parties, the payment schedule, the way of using allocated funds and other issues of importance.

Women in Film – an informal Polish organization gathering over 3000 women working in the film industry – organized a conference entitled “50:50 by 2020” on Friday, 21 September 2018 during the Gdynia Film Festival.

Following the inspiring example of fellow women from all over the world and declarations signed in Venice, Toronto, and Locarno, Polish Women in Film have decided to propose a similar approach to Gdynia Film Festival management. 

The Polish film industry is indisputably filled with remarkable female talent, such as: Agnieszka Holland, Małgośka Szumowska, and Jagoda Szelc. However, recent research conducted by dr Monika Talarczyk from Łódź Film School, which was commissioned by Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique) on the basis of data analysed from the Polish Film Institute, leads to a damning conclusion: only 13% of the Polish Film Institute’s budget was allocated to female filmmakers in the last 12 years, which means that 87% of it was given to male directors. Women in Film has therefore decided to host a conference announcing these research findings as well as taking a comparative look at gender equality in film industry funding across Europe. Attendees include Iris Zappe Heller ( Deputy Director of the Austrian Film Institiute), Madelaine Ekman (Swedish Film Institute expert) and Peter Carpentier (Member Executive Committee of the Federation of European Audiovisual Directors).

Alongside international experts, dr Monika Talarczyk from Łódź Film School is going to present key findings from her analysis of data from the Polish Film Institute.

The general director of the festival Mr. Leszek Kopec alongside the writer/director Mr. Wojciech Marczewski Head of the Programming Board of the Festival signed the gender parity pledge announcing

- to present a schedule and plan of implementation of changes aiming to achieve parity in all decisive bodies of the festival: Programming Board, Selection Committee, Qualification Committee, Jury,

• to continue the transparency policy,

• to compile statistics of gender of the directors of all the films submitted to selection,

- to present, at the 44. Gdynia Film Festival, the results of actions taken by the Festival’s management in order to ensure gender parity.

The conference was supported by: Agnieszka Holland, Jagoda Szelc, Małgośka Szumowska, Klara-Kochańska-Bajon, Julia Kijowska, Anna Radwan, Sonia Bohosiewicz, Gabriela Muskała, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Kasia Adamik, Olga Chajdas, Ewa Bukowska, Agnieszka Smoczyńska.

The opening speech was given by the leader of the movement Renata Czarnkowska-Listoś (producer) together with Małgorzata Szumowska. Absent Agnieszka Holland recorded her greatings to all guests and organizers. The closing speech was given by Ewa Puszczyńska, producer of “Cald War” who stated that’s important for women in the industry to stay united and the conference proved the strength of the women in the film industry.

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The following grants were announced by the Film Centre of Montenegro in September 2018.