The second edition of the Odesa IFF ScripTeast Series Pitching took place in Odesa on 17. - 20. July. It is a drama series competition organized by the Odesa International Film Festival Film Industry Office Team, powered by ScripTeast - a master training program for the best Eastern European scriptwriters, and supported by Star Media, the biggest international film company in Ukraine.  

Six drama series projects from Eastern Europe with international potential were selected for participation: 
FAMILY ARCHIVES by Marjan Alcevski, Andamion Murataj (Croatia)  
HIDE AND SEEK by Oleksandr Protsiuk (Ukraine) 
LOVE AND HATE by Ognen Georgievski  (Macedonia) 
PRISON HOSPITAL by Marcell Patkai (Hungary) 
SMOKEY EYES by Małgorzata Piłacińska (Poland) 
THE SQUARE by Volodymyr Tykhyy, Evgeniy Matvienko (Ukraine) 

The selection of projects was in the hands of a committee headed by Lars Hermann, Executive Producer with Apple Tree Productions (Denmark), the OIFF, Star Media and ScripTeast teams. 

Following pitching training by the renowned pitching tutor and producer Agathe Berman, the participating writers, directors and producers pitched their projects to a jury and public audience that included broadcasters, distributors and potential co-producers at the Odesa Film Studios. 

The jury consisted of Laurence Herszberg, General Director of Series Mania (France), Vlad Ryashin, General Producer, Star Media (Ukraine), Meinolf Zurhorst, Head of Fiction, ZDF/ARTE (Germany), Klaus Zimmermann, Managing Partner, Dynamic Television (US/France/Germany), Brigitta Manthey, Advisor Film Funding, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany), and Dariusz Jablonski, President, ScripTeast/ Independent Film Foundation (Poland).  

After due deliberation, the Jury awarded “Family Archives” from Croatia, written by Andamion Murataj (“The Forgiveness of Blood”, 2011 Silver Bear for Best Screenplay) and Marjan Alcevski (Danis Tanovic’s “Uspjeh”, in post-production) and produced by Zvonimir Munivrana of Zagreb’s Corvus Film. The award consists of a post-production service package in the amount of USD 20.000 provided by Star Media Company. 

Laurence Herszberg – Forewoman of the jury says: “The jury was very impressed and pleased with the general quality of the projects and of the commitment to the continued increase in quality of original series developed in the region. The jury decided to give the award to “Family Archives” because it combines all the elements of a successful contemporary drama series: a very specific local story, a strong, modern female leading character and international potential.” 

The jury further decided to give a Special Award funded by Series Mania  - a personal invitation to participate in the 2019 Series Mania Writers‘ Campus.  It went to Małgorzata Piłacińska, writer of the Polish project “Smoky Eyes”.  
  
ScripTeast (www.scripteast.pl): 
ScripTeast is a European master training program for the best Eastern European scriptwriters, organized by the Independent Film Foundation of Poland. Since 2006 altogether 137 scripts have been developed within the program and as of today 45 of them are in production or have already been produced and distributed, many to commercial and critical success. 

Star Media (www.starmediafilm.com): 
Star Media is an international company that specializes in the production and distribution of theatrical and television films, telenovelas and series, TV shows and docudramas, a leading provider of television programming in Ukraine and abroad.  
  
Odesa International Film Festival (www.oiff.com.ua): 
Support and development of Ukrainian cinematography inside the country and on the international stage, popularization of high-level intellectual films. Main professional platform that gather Ukrainian and foreign filmmakers. Exclusive film premieres, workshops of leading world filmmakers and unique festive atmosphere – all of this is brought together in the 9 days of the Odesa International Film Festival! The 9th Odesa International Film Festival is from 13 to 21 July 2018. 

Series Mania Writers Campus (www.seriesmania.com/en/industry/series-mania-writers-campus) 
Series Mania Writers Campus is a week-long writing workshop open to 20 European writers. It will take place in Lille in March 2019. The 20 selected writers will have the chance to be trained and mentored by experienced A-List writers (like Sarah Treem, Hagai Levi or Bryan Elsley) and to meet the key industry decision-makers during the Series Mania professional Forum. A unique opportunity to develop project and a network!  

In 2018 A Sunday in the Country in Wrocław will take place during the 18th New Horizons IFF from July 29 till August 1st.

A collaboration of Wrocław's New Horizons IFF and the European Film Academy (EFA), the 7th edition of 'A Sunday in the Country' gathers ten young film critics from Europe for a retreat/workshop in the first weekend of the festival. The participants meet for 3 days in a remote country house near Wrocław (Zagórze Śląskie on Bystrzyckie Lake) where they get to know each other, watch films and discuss them, meet special guests (filmmakers brought by the New Horizons) and talk about issues such as: What's the responsibility, if there is one, of a critic towards (national) film productions? And towards the reader? What is the reality for film critics in different countries? They exchange their professional experiences and build international relations.

For the 7th edition of the exceptional retreat-get-together 10 participants have been selected from 9 different countries:

Austria (Britta Rotsch), Denmark (Maria Bjerregaard), France (Yael Hirsch), Germany (Stefanie Borowsky), Hungary (Andras Huszar), the Netherlands (Alexander Zwart), Romania (Irina Trocan) and Italy (Matteo Berardini) and including 2 Poles, winners of the Krzysztof Mętrak Contest for young film critics: Kornelia Sobczak i Diana Dąbrowska.

They participants will work and network under the guidance of the established critic from Sweden, Hynek Pallas, as well as co-ordinators of the New Horizons Association and EFA. They will meet established filmmakers-guests of the New Horizons FF, directors of the competition movies: Isabella Eklöf (Holiday), Valérie Massadian (Milla), Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek (My Friend the Polish Girl), and Damian Nenow, co-creator of animated movie Another Day of Life.

The event is supported by the Polish Film Institute, Austrian Cultural Forum, Danish Cultural Center, the Embassy of the Netherlands, Italian Cultural Institute, Hungarian Cultural Center, Institut Francais, Romanian Institute of Culture, Polish Cultural Institute in Berlin, Kulturbrauerei e.V. and organized in collaboration with Krzysztof Mętrak Award for young critics.

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EU Copyright Directive

19/07: Authors urge MEPs to find a common line and adopt the Copyright Directive without further delay - FERA

The Authors’ Group mentions that ‘throwing the Directive away by postponing its adoption would be a failure to deliver any concrete improvement to the situation of European authors and be an appalling missed opportunity to strengthen the creative community and Europe’s cultural wealth in the digital era.’

Cult Committee

17/07: Draft CULT Report on the New European Agenda for Culture - European Parliament website

The rapporteur stresses, among other things, the need to protect creators in the digital landscape and to this end welcomes the proposal for the Copyright Directive. He calls on the European Commission and Member States to ensure that digital platforms that play an active role in distributing, promoting and monetising copyright protected content have a clear obligation to obtain licenses from right holders and to fairly remunerate artists, authors, news publishers, producers, journalists and creators for the digital use of their work.

Video Sharing Platforms 

12/07: Video Sharing Platforms – who’s making the rules and how do they apply? – European Audiovisual Observatory 

How does European legislation sheriff the wild wild west of content sharing platforms such as YouTube? And what of Facebook? How does European law define their role and responsibilities? High time for the European Audiovisual Observatory’s new report: The legal framework for video-sharing platforms.

Event:

12 September: European Parliament Plenary Vote - EU Copyright Directive
24-27 September: FNCF Congress 2018 - Deauville
26 & 27 September: EUIPO Plenary Meeting 2018 - Alicante
15 & 16 October: UNIC Cinema Days - Brussels

Projects of animated shorts and TV special episodes made with the use of puppet technique can take part in the pitching organized for the second time during ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum. The deadline for submissions is July 31st.