Film Spot LT – a unique cinema hall at Vilnius Airport presents an updated film program for families. Starting today, two new film programs will be screened at Film Spot LT, which is the first and only airport cinema hall in the Central and Eastern Europe. The cinema hall, which is located next to the Gate 2, operates free of charge and welcomes all passengers of Vilnius Airport to spend time before their flight watching Lithuanian films.

The new repertoire consists of two programs, presenting 9 animated and short films by the most prominent Lithuanian filmmakers of the new generation. Among other films, viewers will be able to enjoy short animated films that have been awarded at international and national film festivals, including Running Lights (lit. “Kaukai”) by Gediminas Šiaulys, Mr Night Has a Day Off (lit. “Pono nakties laisvadienis”) and Woods (lit. “Miškas”) by Ignas Meiliūnas, Noroutine (lit. “Nerutina“) by Jūratė Samulionytė, Saga by Ieva Miškinytė, Junction (lit. “Virsmas“) by Nathan Jureviciaus. Also, short films The Last Day (lit. “Paskutinė diena“) by Klaudija Matvejevaitė, Not lucky today (lit. “Nesiseka šiandien’) by Dovilė Šarutytė and The Mother’s Day (lit. “Motinos diena”) by Kamilė Milašiūtė.

“The idea of having cinema halls in the airports is increasing in popularity among the biggest airports. We are glad to note that Film Spot LT cinema hall was one of the first ones not only in the Eastern and Central Europe but in the whole world. It is one more platform for promoting Lithuanian films and gives us a chance to reach both, Lithuanian and foreign cinema lovers. Together with our partners Lithuanian Short Film Agency we regularly updated the program. The new program is aimed at families, parents and the little passengers for whom the waiting time before the flight can be a great challenge. The length of the program is less than an hour to lessen the odds of missing the flight”, – says Dovilė Butnoriūtė, the Head of Lithuanian Film Centre’s Film Promotion, Information and Heritage Department.

The Film Spot LT was initiated by the Lithuanian Film Centre in 2015. The film program was created and is regularly updated in co-operation with the Lithuanian Shorts Agency that has been part of Film Spot LT since its inception. “Very often we are praised by our foreign colleagues for this unique platform that gives an opportunity to present Lithuanian shorts for wider audiences. Every year when updating the program, we want to make it interesting and relevant to both, Lithuanian travelers and foreign visitors. We also seek to introduce Lithuanian filmmakers of different generations, promote their work and our country's cinema culture in general,” – says Rimantė Daugėlaitė, the Head of Lithuanian Shorts Agency.

The Film Spot LT cinema hall has 50 seats and is in the departure area of Vilnius Airport next to the Gate A2. Its working hours are adapted to the flight schedule – films are shown from the first to the last flight of the day.

Riga International Film Festival Calls For Entries

The Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) announces calls for submissions to its three competition programmes: the Feature Film Competition, the SHORT RIGA International Competition, and the SHORT RIGA Baltic Music Video Competition (BMV). The sixth edition of RIGA IFF will take place from October 17 to 27, 2019.

RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition seeks innovative cinematic language and auteur expression being created within the Baltic Sea region (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden). This programme reflects transitions and recent trends in cinema. There are no genre restrictions – films may fall into documentary, fiction, animation, or any cross-genre category. The 10 films that are ultimately selected exhibit present-day contemplation about the cinema of tomorrow.

SHORT RIGA International Competition looks for distinct expression in short format film – whether it’s animation, fiction, documentary, or experimental production. The festival's curators select 35 of the most interesting submissions from around the world.

SHORT RIGA Baltic Music Video Competition (BMV) endeavors to uphold the belief that music video is an independent and powerful short format. BMV appreciates videos that both challenge the audience and push the boundaries of accepted format, content, and artistry. The screening of this programme is designed as a special event: a lively meeting between music video-makers, musicians and composers, curators, the international jury members, and the audience.

Calls for entries open on March 19. More detailed information about the rules, regulations, closing dates, and awards can be found at rigaiff.lv. 

The festival consists of three competition programmes, various special sections, diverse industry events, and thought-provoking public discussions. RIGA IFF is organised with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation, the European Commission’s programme ‘Creative Europe – MEDIA’, the National Film Centre of Latvia, and the Riga City Council. 

The shooting of the feature Once Were Humans by the director Goran Vojnović begins

On Friday, 15 March, the shooting of the live-action feature Once Were Humans by the writer and director Goran Vojnović, began in Visoko, on Kurešček hill. The third feature by Vojnović focuses on the pressing issue of migrants. Leo is an Italian who lives in Slovenia. Vučko is a Bosnian who arrived to Slovenia as a child refugee. Leo continues to stay in Slovenia because of his ex-wife Tanja and his son Luka, hoping that they can become a family again. When the bank refuses to grant a loan they need to renovate their restaurant, Leo and Vučko have no choice but to accept an offer from the swindler Gianni. They are tasked with stealing Gianni's truck so that he can collect the insurance money. However, instead of Gianni's truck, Leo and Vučko mistakenly steal a truck full of refugees. Vučko the refugee and Leo the migrant thus inadvertently become responsible for the destiny of people similarly unfortunate as they have been. In order to solve their financial problems, they decide to sell them. At first it seems that they are not indifferent towards these people, but with each passing day there is less and less humanity left in Leo and Vučko.

Goran Vojnović had the following to say about his new project: "The film Once Were Humans is becoming more and more topical from day to day –not because the problem of refugees and migrants in Europe is more pressing today than it used to be years ago, but because we are becoming less and less human as time goes by.«

Starring Francesco Borchi, Moamer Kasumović, Maruša Majer, Jaka Jakopič, Emir Hadžihafizbegović, Boris Cavazza, Jasna Žalica, Vlado Novak, Gregor Baković, Gianluca Gobbi, Aljaž Jovanović and Benjamin Krnetić.

The film is produced by Boštjan Ikovic from the Arsmedia production house. At the beginning of the shooting, Ikovic stated that the production of this very demanding and important film started very energetically, which would ensure solid foundations for it.

The film is co-produced by MB Grip, 100, and Nuframe.

The following artists are taking part in the production as well: screenwriter Tommaso Santi, director of photography Miloš Srdić, editor Ivor Ivezić, sound recordist Igor Iskra, sound designer Julij Zornik, production designer Marco Juratovec, costumes designer Jelena Proković, and makeup designer Anja Rančić Godina.

The film is being made with the financial support of the Slovenian Film Centre and with the assistance of the Viba Film Studio.

Goran Vojnović is a director and writer, born in 1980 in Ljubljana. He graduated in film and TV directing from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana. In 2009, he received the prestigious Prešeren's Fund Award and the Kresnik Award for the best novel of the year for Southern Scum Go Home, his debut. In the same year, a successful theatre performance was made after the novel, while in 2013 Vojnović also directed a film based on it, for which Dino Hajderović, Ivan Pašalić and Jernej Kogovšek received the Vesna Awards for Best Supporting Actors at the 16th Festival of Slovenian Film. Chefurs Raus! is Vojnović's second feature, as in 2010 he had also shot the film Piran - Pirano, based on his own screenplay, as well as several shorts over the years. In 2012, Vojnović published his second novel Yugoslavia, My Fatherland, for which he received his second Kresnik Award. He received the third Kresnik Award for his third novel The Fig Tree, published in 2016.

Heart of Stone Takes Top Honors at One World 2019

The winners of this year’s One World Festival have been announced. A total of seven prizes were awarded by juries in the categories of International Competition, The Right to Know, and Czech Competition. New this year is the Regional Jury, made up of three representatives of the cities and towns where the regional One World Festival takes place. Representatives of secondary school students then chose the recipient of the Student Jury Award. Audience members voted after film screenings for the documentary that received the Avast Foundation Audience Award.

One World in Prague screened 117 documentary films in 14 thematic categories. Over 200 filmmakers and protagonists, human rights activists and film festival organizers accepted invitations to attend the festival. In addition to traditional competitions and thematic categories, One World presented twelve virtual reality projects. A new category this year was Short and Concise, in which the festival returned to short documentaries. Two categories appeared in the program aimed at searching for and defining one’s own identity, whether at the personal or the societal level – reflecting the theme of this year’s festival: “Safe Proximity”.   

During the festival´s ten days 28 488 viewers attended afternoon and screenings. School screenings were seen by 13 326 students and their teachers. One World in Prague ends on Sunday, March 17 with screenings of the winning films before moving on to 35 other cities and towns throughout the Czech Republic. The year-round platform Get Your Audience!, offers the opportunity for films to be screened legally to a wider audience.  

International Competition Jury

The International Competition jury awarded prizes for Best Film and Best Director. They chose from twelve films representing new ways of depicting human rights in documentary film.

Sitting down together on the International Competition jury were Aida Holly-Nambi of Uganda, the art and culture director of None on Record, an organization that works in digital media with African LGBT communities; Syrian director and screenwriter Talal Derki, whose documentary Sons and Fathers was nominated this year for an Oscar; and Will Tizard, a documentary filmmaker and journalist originally from the USA now living in the Czech Republic who is currently a correspondent for Variety magazine.

The prize for the best documentary film was awarded to Heart of Stone directors Claire Billet and Olivier Jobard (France | 2019 | 89 min.). This film about the search for self-identity follows the story of Afghan refugee Quorbán, who was granted asylum in France after eight years, but certainly under less-than-ideal conditions. At the same time, misunderstandings deepen with the rest of the family that remained in Afghanistan. “The flow, pacing and structure of the film builds layers of understanding over time in a way that leaves the audience engrossed from start to finish. The filmmakers had high ambitions and accomplished these in this profound portrait of a journey from boyhood to manhood under heart-aching circumstances,” stated the jury.

The protagonist Quorbán appeared personally at the awards ceremony to receive the award.

The award for best director was given to Mads Brügger, the creator of the documentary Cold Case Hammarskjöld (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium  | 2019 | 128 min.). In his documentary, Brügger follows the story of the tragic death of former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, which shook the international community in the 1960s and remains shrouded in multiple conspiracy theories. The jury characterized the film as “a convoluted, complicated film that reveals the size of the director’s ambitions and the unconventional, self-deprecating humor with which he deals with the impacts of a crime that haunt is to this day.”

The Special Jury Award goes to Carl Javér, whose dramatic experiment Reconstructing Utøya (Sweden, Norway, Denmark | 2018 | 98 min.) attempts to convey the experience of the attack on the Norwegian summer camp in 2011.

“This film vastly transcends its premise and using the example of those who survived the worst terrorist attack in the history of Norway, which claimed 77 young lives, it shows with brutal honesty how people cope with the unimaginable horrors...It is a shocking and surprising insight into memory, grief and how these young survivors make sense of the incomprehensible,” reads the jury statement.

Václav Havel Jury

The Václav Havel jury included lawyer and founder of the Center for Justice and Human Rights on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua Lottie Cunningham; Egyptian activist Salma Said, communications director and head of the volunteer center in the Sakharov Center in Moscow; Hungarian political scientist and director of the Republican Institute think-tank Csaba Toth, who fights for human rights and is one of the primary critics of the government of Viktor Orban; and Daon Bao Chau, Vietnamese writer and freelance journalist who addresses issues such as corruption and human rights abuses in Vietnam in his work.

The Václav Havel jury chooses from the documentaries presented in the Right to Know category and awards the film that makes an exceptional contribution to protecting human rights.

The best documentary in this category is Everything Must Fall by South African director Rehad Desai (South Africa, Netherlands, Belgium | 2018 | 85 min.). The film recounts the student movement that fought against the high fees at the University of Johannesburg and escalated into nationwide protests against social inequality.

The Special Jury Prize was awarded to the documentary To The Four Winds by director Micheal Toesca (France | 2018 | 85 min.). The jury was intrigued by the story of French farmer Cédric, who let hundreds of refugees traveling from Africa to Europe stay with him in his modest dwelling in the Roya Valley near the Italian-French border. The film is an inspiring example of how an individual who is not afraid to offer their assistance can make change.

Czech Competition Jury

This was the third time that the best Czech documentary was selected. The jury chose from twelve films, eight of which premiered at the festival.

The jury comprised representatives from international festivals. Its members were Sundance Festival programmer Harry Vaughn; executive director of the Lithuanian human rights festival Inconvenient Films Juste Zavisaite; and Indonesian filmmaker Alia Damaihati, currently the director of Film Festival Dokumenter.

This year’s Best Film in the Czech Competition was awarded to the Czech documentary The Good Death directed by Tomáš Krupa (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, France | 2018 | 83 min.). The film tells the story of terminally ill Janett, who has opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland. The jury appreciated the “unobtrusive camera work and absence of judgement, as well as the filmmaker’s ability to craft a clear-eyed portrait of one’s right to die with dignity.”

The Special Jury Prize was awarded to director Eva Tomanová and her documentary  Another Chance (Czech Republic | 2019 | 75 min.) - “a film that shapes years of footage into a tightly woven, shocking, and surprisingly endearing portrait of a couple burdened by societal stigmas and their demons.” The psychological film tells the story of marriage fraudster Mirek and his last victim Monika, who awaits his release from prison.

Student Jury

The Student Jury chooses the best film from the collection of films for students. It’s made up of high school students chosen from among the organizers of the One World in Schools Student Film Club. This year, the members were Ester Hadašová, a student who established student parliament in Broumov; Ondřej Nykl of the Malá Strana Gymnasium, which runs a multi-genre film club; and Nikola Hlavatá, head of the One World in Schools film club.

The Student Jury Award went to the film #FollowMe (Netherlands | 2018 | 50 min.), which reveals the inner workings of Instagram - one of the most popular social networks today. “This film was chosen because it relates directly to almost all of us young people. Thanks to it we were able to peek under the hood at things we suspect that happen, but often do not even want to admit,” explained the jury.

Regional Jury

New this year is the Regional Jury, which is made up of three representatives of regional festivals. A judge may not be part of a festival organizing team, but rather someone who is associated with the festival. The main prize for the winning film is inclusion in the selection of documentaries available at Get Your Audience!

The jury comprised Jan Jíra, a film pensioner from Louny; Marie Egydyová, a regular attendee of One World in Usti nad Orlici; and film enthusiast Karel Kotěšovec from Klatovy.

The Regional Jury Prize was awarded to the film Reconstructing Utøya by Danish director Carl Javér (Sweden, Norway, Denmark | 2018 | 98 min.). This theatrical experiment in which the director worked with survivors of the tragedy, using young actors to reconstruct their experience, was chosen by the jury because of “the universality of the setting and the viewer’s own imagination, enabling the event to be experienced firsthand. This expositional method generalizes the event for any place in the world with a warning that this could happen anywhere.”

East Doc Platform

For the 8th year, the biggest platform for Central and East European documentaries took place in Prague on March 9–15. Approximately 350 film professionals came to the East Doc Platform from all over the world. Around 50 documentary projects in various stages of development and production competed to be awarded with several prizes worth €17 800 in total. The main prize, the East Doc Platform Award, worth €7500, was given by an international jury to the Serbian/Croatian film Museum of the Revolution, in which the director Srđan Keča explores the untraditional friendship across generations of women in the ruins of an unfinished monumental museum. Special Mention went to the Czech project by Martin Páv, Wolves on the Borders!, which captures different reactions to the return of the wolves to the Czech countryside.

The HBO Europe Development Award worth €2000 was awarded to the Russian filmmaker Anna Shishova-Bogolubova for her The New Imperium. The Czech Television Co-production Award goes to A Marriage, a Czech/US co-production by Kateřina Hager and Asad Faruqi. Representatives of Current Time TV channel have decided to support Russian/Estonian Susanna Baranzhieva’s and Aleksander Krylov’s Untitled Rastorguev Project with €1500. The Golden Funnel Award was given to the project which made the greatest progress throughout the Ex Oriente Film workshop; Czech-Japanese director Haruna Honcoop was awarded for her ambitious co-production Olympic Halftime.

At the East Doc Platform, festival representatives selected the best projects, giving their creators greater access to present them at prestigious events. The winner of the East Doc Platform Award, Museum of the Revolution, got the IDFA Forum Award. The upcoming Ukrainian film by Ihor Ivanko, Fragile Memory, got the DocsBarcelona Award. Two awards were given by the representatives of DOK Leipzig – one to the Russian director Nikolay Bem for The Pit and the second to the Serbian project Bottlemen by Nemanja Vojinović. The Czech documentary set in Sweden, Kiruna – A Brand New World, by Greta Stocklassa got the Sheffield Doc/Fest Award for the best project at Czech Docs… Coming Soon presentation. The new Sunny Side of the Doc Award was given to the creators of the Olympic Halftime.

For more information go here.

Avast Foundation Award

The biggest hit with One World audiences was FAR. The Story of a Journey Around the World by directorial duo Gwendolin Weisser and Patrick Allagaier (Germany | 2017 | 127 min.). The autobiographical film shows an unusual way to travel, one that is becoming increasingly popular. Gwen and Patrick journey through Asia and Central America for nearly four years without flying - they hitchhike, take buses and trains, and in some cases, even a boat. For the final part of their journey back to Germany, they even travel on foot.  Coming in second place was the picture Flavours of Iraq directed by Léonard Cohen (France | 2018 | 50 min.). Viewers also enjoyed Slovak director Tomáš Krupa’s film The Good Death (Slovakia, Czech Republic, France, Austria | 2018 | 83 min.), which took third place.

The Avast Foundation Audience Award, along with the other festival jury awards, will be presented at the One World closing ceremony at Kino Lucerna

 Photographs from the winning films can be downloaded here.

More information about the winning films and the juries can be found at https://www.oneworld.cz/2019/

March 19 - 23, 2019 / Bratislava

Visegrad Film Forum 2019 – World famous filmmakers close enough to touch!

An international event at the Film and TV Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava will launch on Tuesday, March 19th. It offers way more than just film screenings. For five days, viewers can look forward to a rich program, consisting of lectures and screenings with seven renowned guests. Evening parties are also an inseparable part of the program, attracting participants with a wide range of music genres and performers.

“This year, the Visegrad Film Forum brings a balanced program from the world of film production. Not only for filmmakers, but for all people who want to look behind the scenes of filmmaking. The program will feature guests who have worked on major films in the positions of directors, cinematographers, editors and production designers,” says managing director Jakub Viktorín. This is also reflected by the names that received the invitation for this year´s festival. Haneke's editor Monika Willi, the favourite of the A-list festivals Sergei Loznitsa, production designer of Cuaron's Roma Eugenio Caballero, Oscar nominated cinematographer Phedon Papamichael and cinematographer of the documentary film Citizenfour Kirsten Johnson and others.

PROGRAM
https://www.visegradfilmforum.com/2019/programme/

Monika Willi - editor

This Austrian filmmaker, anchored herself in the editing room after years of switching out roles in the cinematographic industry. Although she never studied film, she worked as the favourite editor of director Michael Haneke. Her first film on which she worked with him, was the drama The Piano Teacher. From their later years of collaboration, films such as White Ribbon, Amour, and the most recent Happy End came out. In her career, however, she also worked with another director, the documentarist Michael Glawogger. At the Visegrad Film Forum 2019, she will present her film Untitled, which she finished after the director's unfortunate death.

Sergei Loznitsa - director

In 2018, the ambitious Ukrainian director presented three films at festivals in Berlin, Cannes and Venice. He drew attention to himself after he published the film Maidan (2004), which captures a turbulent civil protest against President Viktor Yanukovich in Ukraine. In addition to documentary films, he also made feature films My Joy (2010) and the war story In the Fog (2012), premiered at Cannes. He will present the film The Trial at the Visegrad Film Forum for the first time in Slovakia. The film presents unique archival footage of one of the first constructed political trials conceived by Stalin.

Eugenio Caballero – production designer

This film architect from Mexico is an Oscar winner for the Best Production Design for Pan´s Labyrinth directed by Guillermo del Toro. In addition, Caballero participated in the third sequel to Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control (2009). He was also nominated for an Oscar for his contribution of Alfonso Cuarón's Roma. The director's personal black-and-white statement will be presented at the Visegrad Film Forum 2019.

Phedon Papamichael - cineatographer

The Greek cinematographer collaborated with prominent German director Wim Wenders on the Million Dollar Hotel (2000), that starred stars like Mila Jovovich and Mel Gibson. He also cooperated with director James Mangold on Walk The Line (2005), which portrays the life and death of guitarist and country singer Johnny Cash. One of the most important films he worked on is Nebraska. This black-and-white road-movie about a senior who believes he has won millions of dollars in a lottery has won up to 6 Oscar nominations. Nebraska will be screened as a closing film of Visegrad Film Forum.

Kirsten Johnson - documentarist

This New York City director, producer and cinematographer has made over 40 documentaries. As a cinematographer, she worked on the Oscar-winning film Citizenfour (2014), about a former US security analyst. She also worked as a cinematographer with director Michael Moore on a documentary about America after the twin tower attacks - Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). Her own documentary film, Cameraperson, premiered at the Sundance festival in 2016 will be screened during Visegrad Film Forum. It combines radical footage from the Middle East war and personal material from her childhood and the last days of her dying mother..

Hakim Belabbes – director, lecturer

Morocco-based director Hakim Belabbes, who is currently teaching film at Columbia University, has founded a Sahara Lab project with two of his filmmaker colleagues Don Smith and Hammad Gueroum, that provides young Moroccan filmmakers with learning and personal growth opportunities that public institutions and schools do not offer. His film Sweat Rain (2016) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Marcin Luczaj - sales agent

Marcin Łuczaj, former Warsaw Film Festival and ZUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival programmer, works for New Europe Film Sales, a Warsaw-based sales agency for both features and shorts - a company which represented films premiered at Berlinale, Venice or Cannes.   

Film students from around the world

The school representatives and the filmmakers themselves will introduce the student projects.

In a discussions student will talk about the films themselves, as well as the conditions in which the films were made. The friendly meetings of future filmmakers can be seen in the following blocks: Czech TBU Zlín and the Moroccan Sahara Lab, Polish WRiTV Katowice and Romanian UNATC Bucharest, Hungarian SZFE Budapest and Ukrainian KNUTCT Kiev, Slovak FTF VŠMU Bratislava and Estonian BFM Tallinn.

Visegrad Film Forum 2019
Date: 19th – 23rd of March 2019
Place: Bratislava, Slovakia
Venues: Film and TV Faculty VŠMU, Cinema Lumière
web: http://www.visegradfilmforum.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisegradFilmForum
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vffbratislava/
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mpj2r4K88c

Organized by: Boiler NGO
Co-organized by: Film and TV Faculty VŠMU
Financial support: International Visegrad Fund, Audiovisual Fund, 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 Kiev, BFM Tallinn, Sahara Lab and UNATC Bucharest