The following grants were announced by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre on 13 March 2019.

Barcelona: 11 June 2018 – During his keynote address at CineEurope 2018, Phil Clapp, President of the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), the European Cinema trade grouping, reflected on the success of a sector which continued to thrive due to investment, innovation and diversity.

Welcoming yet another increasingly diverse and engaging CineEurope programme, he also pointed to the importance of support for European content and its position in the global box office landscape, whilst extending his gratitude to the numerous partners and organisations that help make the convention a success year-on-year.

Reporting on cinema-going across UNIC territories in 2017, he mentioned the “renewed confidence” the year had brought in terms of increasing admissions, which:

“… confirms that the cinema-going public recognise the massive levels of investment that European operators are making in all aspects of the Big Screen experience.”

Furthermore, he noted the crucial role of Europe’s diversity with regard to film content, noting that domestic titles are now better able to find audiences across the region due to digital advances across the sector and declaring that their importance could not be overstated in terms of catering for audiences from all backgrounds. Special mention was also given to efforts by partners in production and distribution in enabling audience-friendly domestic films to “find their way to their natural home on the Big Screen.”

Pointing to the continued need for diversity also in the cinema workforce, he also noted the success of the UNIC Women’s Cinema Leadership Programme, which looked to tackle underrepresentation of women in senior roles across the industry. The second edition of the Programme would be announced later in the week at CineEurope.   

Touching upon another important development over the last year, he updated attendees on the status of the Global Cinema Federation. Established by UNIC, the US trade body the National Association of Theatre Owners and eleven of the world’s leading cinema operators, the Federation’s recently published policy statements would, he hoped, provide not only a “clear sign of the progress made by the Federation over the last year” but also “a rallying point for operators across the world.”

In closing, he highlighted the importance of three main pillars behind the industry’s success, declaring that despite the challenges the European cinema sector faced, operators could remain confident:

“Knowing that whatever the distractions posed by the unsustainable business practices of so-called ‘disruptors,’ our focus will remain on sustaining the diversity, innovation and investment that is the hallmark of our industry and the key to its ongoing success.”

Notes for editors

A copy of Phil Clapp’s keynote speech is attached to this Press Notice (check against delivery).

CineEurope
CineEurope 2018 will take place from 11-14 June at the Centre Convencions Internacional Barcelona (CCIB) in Barcelona, Spain. CineEurope is the longest-running and most successful European convention and trade show for Major, Regional, and Independent cinema professionals. CineEurope will feature exclusive screenings and product presentations of upcoming films, sponsored events, timely and informative seminars and the CineEurope Trade Show. CineEurope is the Official Convention of the Union Internationale des Cinémas/International Union of Cinemas (UNIC).

The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC)

The Union Internationale des Cinémas/International Union of Cinemas (UNIC) represents the interests of cinema trade associations and cinema operators covering 37 countries in Europe and neighbouring regions.

The Film Expo Group

The Film Expo Group is the premier organizer of events in the motion picture industry. The Film Expo Group produces CineEurope, held in Barcelona; ShowEast, held in Miami; and CineAsia, held in Hong Kong. Additionally, the group publishes Film Journal International, a trade magazine and website covering the motion picture industry with a special emphasis on theatrical exhibition.

At this year's international 53rd film festival in Karlovy Vary, which is to take place between 29 June and 7 July, the feature film History of Love by the screenwriter and director Sonja Prosenc will be featured in the official competition program. This will also be the film's world premiere.

History of Love is the first co-production between Slovenia, Italy, and Norway, with authors and actors from all three countries. The film has already received several development awards and has also been supported by Eurimages. Sonja's approach to film language has so far been appreciated by both cinephiles and film critics, and she was described as "a distinctively talented young filmmaker … who can tell a story in a startlingly unconventional manner" by The Hollywood Reporter and selected among eight notable up-and-coming European female directors by Cineuropa.

History of Love is an elegiac tableau of a family dealing with the loss of the mother in the light of a new discovery about her. We witness the struggle of those who are left behind – people incapable of sharing their loss and connecting with each other in their almost physical pain, who are thus in danger of becoming nothing more than bodies of grief – until something is sacrificed and the family is able to reconnect.

In the words of Sonja Prosenc herself: “In my first film The Tree, I focused on three distinct forms of imprisonment – physical, within a system, and by our own feelings of guilt – all of this by means of a single story about a blood feud. In History of Love I venture away from this kind of commentary on a social issue in order to explore an intimate tale of Iva and her family. However, the urge to explore the characters' inability to connect with each other during the worst moments of their lives still derives from a reflection on the society: the currently prevalent nihilism, violence, and emotional detachment. One of the possible oppositions to this, which I have tried to keep in mind while making the film, is beauty as an aesthetic as well as ethical category.

Stepping away from a linear narration, the film follows the main character, builds on her subjective experience, and uses the story as a framework. Contrary to what one might think, this kind of a film requires a very precise screenplay in order to determine the exact line between how much of a story to present without creating an impression that the point of the film is to tell a story, while also providing the most appropriate story clues to create a film universe wherein we can explore the inner states of the characters as well as the more abstract concepts of emotional detachment and other main leitmotifs. I have had an opportunity to develop the concept during a very fruitful collaboration with Midpoint and Torino Film Lab script consultants. Together with the actors, we have created characters who are alienated from themselves and each other, while we can at the same time sense the pain that they cannot escape as well as their underlying need to connect.

Furthermore, the sound design for this film has been a special process in itself, as the sound carries as much of the film's weight as the visual narration does. It connects the parts that could be perceived as past and present into a meandering of events, memories and thoughts, with shots or sequences echoing variations and details.”

Starring the young Slovenian actress Doroteja Nadrah, known to the Slovenian audience particularly for her role in the film Class Enemy, and the renowned Norwegian actor Kristoffer Joner. During his long career as a film actor, Kristoffer Joner also appeared in the Scandinavian box-office hit and Norwegian Academy Award candidate The Wave; in King of Devil Island, where he performed side by side with Stellan Skarsgård; and in The Revenant by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, which won as many as three Oscars. Kristoffer also received the EFP Shooting Star Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

The film was produced by Rok Sečen, this year's Producer on the Move from the Monoo production house. Sečen has worked as a producer since 2012, and among other works he has also produced the previous festival hit by Sonja Prosenc: her debut The Tree (2014), which has also been one of the Slovenian candidates for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The world premiere of The Tree took place in 2014, also in Karlovy Vary – though in the East of the West competition programme, intended for first and second films.

History of Love is financially supported from Slovenian Film Centre and will be screened at the Karlovy Vary festival on Saturday, 30 June, as well as on 1 and 3 July.

On Tuesday, 19 June, the shooting of the third live-action feature Don't Forget to Breathe by the director Martin Turk, born in Trieste in 1978, began. Turk's films have been presented at more than a hundred film festivals all around the world, and he was the first Slovenian to be chosen for the prestigious Cinefondation Residence programme of the Cannes Festival in 2009.

At the beginning of the shooting the director stated that "the film Don't Forget to Breathe is an intimate and atmospheric drama about growing up, jealousy, first love, and strong emotions that one is often overcome with during this period of life. As a screenwriter and director, I want to relive this important time and the formative feelings we were all familiar with once, but that we have since forgotten in the haste of our daily lives, even though they have shaped our personalities decisively.«

The film focuses on the fifteen-year-old Klemen, who lives with his elder brother Peter and single mother in a small and remote rural town. Klemen's well-established routine of spending time with his beloved brother on the tennis court and by the nearby river gets interrupted by Peter's sudden and passionate love affair with his gorgeous peer Sonja, which triggers a torrent of conflicting emotions and reckless actions in Klemen.

The role of Klemen has been entrusted to Matija Valant, pupil of the Pre-School Education and Grammar School (Arts High School) in Ljubljana, who has auditioned with more than 200 candidates. His brother Peter will be played by Tine Ugrin, who has already appeared in the films Nika and The Invisible Hand of Adam Smith, both directed by Slobodan Maksimović. The fatal girl will be portrayed by Klara Kuk, a student of acting at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television.

A prominent role has also been entrusted to Jakob Cilenšek and Ronja Matijevec Jerman, whom we still remember from the film Come Along, while Klemen and Peter's mother will be portrayed by Iva Krajnc Bagola. The role of the tennis coach has been assigned to Nikola Đuričko, the star of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, who has also appeared in many international and Serbian film productions: In the Land of Blood and Honey (directed by Angelina Jolie); Genius (with Geoffrey Rush); Legends (with Sean Bean); Shadows over Balkans; Montevideo, God Bless You; and many others.

Apart from renowned Slovenian authors, an international team is taking part in the film as well: this is the fifth time that Turk is working with Radislav Jovanov – Gonzo, the Croatian director of photography and cult director of music videos by almost all of the more important musicians from the former common country. Furthermore, the film score will be written by the Italian composer and musician Teho Teardo, who has, among other things, also created the music for the films by Paolo Sorrentino and Gabriel Salvatores. In Slovenia he is mostly known for his music projects with Blixa Bargeld.

"We will spend six of the planned seven weeks of shooting at locations in Bela krajina, especially in the municipality of Metlika," says Ida Weiss, the producer of the film. "The director Martin Turk wrote the script with the hills of Bela krajina and the green river Kolpa in mind, and therefore we are more than happy to be so warmly welcomed by the inhabitants of Metlika – including Mayor Darko Zevnik, the municipal administration and councillors, the public utility company, the Youth Centre, the Bela krajina hotel, and everyone that we have already worked with and have yet to cooperate with during the next month and a half," Weiss adds.

The Bela film production house, named by Ida Weiss precisely after the Slovenian region of Bela krajina, thus returns to these parts almost twenty years after Maja Weiss's Guardian of the Frontier was filmed here –at the exact time when the river Kolpa and the local border keep appearing in the media because of the current refugee crisis. The film crew thus hopes that their presence can positively influence the local tourism as well as enliven the local scene.

Film is produced by Bela film in co-production with Quasar (Italy), Studio Dim (Croatia), RTV Slovenija and RAI Cinema (Italy), with financial support of Slovenian Film Centre, FVG Audiovisual Fund, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Creative Europe - Media programme, Re-Act development scheme and with the technical support by FS Viba film.

World sales are handled by Intramovies (Italy).

 

Conceived and directed by: Martin Turk

Producer: Ida Weiss

Script: Martin Turk, Gorazd Trušnovec

Director of photography: Radislav Jovanov – Gonzo (Croatia)

Music: Teho Teardo (Italy)

Production design: Marco Juratovec

Costumes designer: Emil Cerar

Makeup design: Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska

Editor: Beppe Leonetti (Italy)

Sound recordist: Antonio Petris (Italy)

Production manager: Matija Kozamernik

Co-producers: Marta Zaccaron, Darija Kulenović Gudan, Marina Andree Škop

 

Cast: Matija Valant, Tine Ugrin, Iva Krajnc Bagola, Klara Kuk, Nikola Đuričko, Ronja Matijevec Jerman, Jakob Cilenšek, Miha Rodman, and many others.

March 19 - 23, 2019 / Bratislava

From the 19th to 23rd of March, the eighth annual Visegrad Film Forum will feature the Oscar – winning Roma by Alfons Cuarón and the black-and-white road-movie Nebraska with 6 Oscar nominations. Participants can see the documentary Untitled by Haneke´s long-term editor Monika Willi, the (a)political documentary The Trial by the darling of top-notch film festivals, Sergei Loznitsa, the autobiographical Cameraperson debuted at Sundance, and the documentary set in Tel Aviv, Central Bus Station. Everything will be screened with the personal attendance of the creators.

PROGRAMME

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

 

Love. Courage. Hope. Change. Home. ROMA.

“ROMA is an attempt to capture the memory of events that I experienced almost 50 years ago.”, says the Oscar – winning director Alfonso Cuarón. “It is an exploration of Mexico's social hierarchy, where class and ethnicity have been perversely interwoven to this date and, above all, it's an intimate portrait of the women who raised me in a recognition of love as a mystery that transcends space, memory and time.”, Cuarón continues. His latest film won the main prize at the Venice Film Festival and, more recently, won the Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. The viewers will have a special chance to see the film on the big screen with the personal attendance of the film architect Eugenio Caballero.

Black and white unsentimental wandering. Nebraska.

Director Alexander Payne managed to reveal the underbelly of America matter-of-factly and without emotional coercion in the black-and-white road-movie Nebraska. The film attracted the attention of critics and received a nomination for the Palme d´Or in Cannes and six Oscar nominations. "I've won a million dollars," says Woody Grant, a retired eighty-year-old from Montana, as he waves around a letter from a publisher the likes of Reader's Digest. He forces his son to take him on a trip from Montana to Nebraska to pick up the winnings. The son reluctantly goes even though he suspects that his father's winning ticket is just one of many personalized flyers spread across America. The film will be introduced by cinematographer Phedon Papamichael.

A path with open eyes and an open mind. Untitled.

Despite the fact that Monika Willi has never studied film, she has worked alongside directors such as Michael Haneke and Michael Glawogger. At the Visegrad Film Forum 2019 she will present Untitled which she finished after Glawogger´s tragical death, and will hold master class about her work including cooperation with Michael Haneke on films such as White Ribbon, Amour or Happy End. In the December of 2013, director Michael Glawogger set off on a fateful documentary journey. As an observing wanderer, he wanted to travel around the world and capture it in its entirety without defining a subject, having a firm plan, or issuing preliminary judgments. He was conducted only by the principle of happy coincidence or providence. Unfortunately, in 2014, he died of malaria and his journey ended. The processing of the filmed material became an commitment for Glawogger's editor Monika Willi in the name of the deceased adventurer. Thus, she cuts, edits and finishes the film without the director’s input. A journey into the world with open eyes and an open mind -  observing, listening and experiencing. The concept for filming and cutting the film is a happy coincidence.

The drama is real, but the story is made up. The Trial.

Unique archive footage is the reconstruction of one of the first elaborate political trials orchestrated by Stalin, which unfolds almost like a theatrical performance with actors who deceive themselves, the audience and the whole world. "I decided to make a movie during which the spectator had the chance to spend two hours in the USSR in 1930. To see and experience the moment when Stalin's state terrorist machine was put into action." Slovak premiere of the film will present Sergei Loznitsa.

What does it mean to film and be filmed? Behind the camera (Cameraperson).

Award-winning cinematographer Kirsten Johnson, that participated in the making of the Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour, will introduce her personal debut premiered at the Sundance at the Visegrad Film Forum 2019. During her 25-year career, she has filmed thousands of human dramas. In an impressive collage of the shots she had collected during that time, she asks intense questions about her own work and the documentary genre as such. Is it ethical to film your own mother, whose mind is slowly being overtaken by Alzheimer’s disease? When becoming witness to a potentially dangerous situation, when should a documentary filmmaker intervene and when should he just look on and stay impartial?

The city under one roof. Central Bus Station.

The documentary, that won a special mention award at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, will be personally presented by its director, Tomáš Elšík, along with the protagonist  Yonathan Mishal. "For me, the central bus station is not only a strange place, but it's also a place where everyone can find a piece of home," the director says. The Tel Aviv´s central bus station has been the largest in the world up until recently. However, the oversized space does not serve its original intention any longer - to attract crowds of people who, confused by the optical illusion of the interior design, end up contracting shopping fever. The concrete monster, which can not be easily dismantled, has gradually become a sanctuary that is temporarily occupied by people from the edge of society - refugees, criminals, prostitutes. The director of the feature, as well as itsmain character, the tourist guide Yonathan, confess in the documentary that they are fascinated by one of the wonders of the world of wastefulness and the microcosm of those who live there.

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 Fud, 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

Thematic Focus: “Everything Remains Different? – The Wild 90s” // “Pan-European Picnic”: Literature, Music Videos and Ukrainian Hip-Hop from alyona alyona // Opening Film: GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA by Director and goEast Jury President Teona Strugar Mitevska // Press Accreditation Available Until March 29th // goEast Press Conference on April 4th

Thematic Focus: “Everything Remains Different? – The Wild 90s” In November, Germany is due to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Especially in the capital a multitude of events are planned along the “Route of Revolution”. goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, is already taking up the topic of this momentous transition this spring – and directing attention far eastwards beyond Berlin. What did the fall of the Iron Curtain mean for the formerly socialist countries of Europe? How did the collapse of an entire political system and the accompanying establishment of a new order find expression in the films of the early 1990s? The film and talk series “Everything Remains Different? – The Wild 90s”, a joint project from goEast and FilmFestival Cottbus, funded by the Federal Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East Germany, will examine these questions. Featured here are works that shed light on the challenges of ordinary people in a world turned upside down, such as Lucian Pintilie’s THE OAK (BALANTJA, Romania, France, 1992) or István Szabó’s SWEET EMMA, DEAR BÖBE (ÉDES EMMA, DRÁGA BÖBE, Hungary, Germany, 1991). Alongside them, films devoted to topics that seemed unscreenable during the reign of state socialism, such as Wojciech Marczewski’s ESCAPE FROM “LIBERTY” CINEMA (UCIECZKA Z KINA “WOLNOŚĆ”, Poland, 1990) will be featured. The “wild 90s” oscillated between the poles of euphoria regarding newly gained freedoms and the hard reality of a global market economy – it is not only in the East that many individuals look back at this era today, 30 years later, and feel that their personal experiences have not been represented or are neglected entirely. In the scope of the interdisciplinary panel “What Went Wrong in the Nineties?”, filmmakers, journalists and scholars from the fields of political science and history will tackle this multifaceted topic.

“Pan-European Picnic”: Literature on Wiesbaden’s Funicular Rail Line // “Music Videos Are Back!” // alyona alyona in concert

In summer 1989, a peace demonstration staged by artists and activists managed to open the border between Austria and Hungary for a couple hours – around 700 East German citizens vacationing at Lake Balaton took advantage of the occasion to emigrate spontaneously to the West. On this afternoon, art overcame borders – goEast is celebrating this event with its very own “Pan-European Picnic”. In addition to a genuine picnic, during which Wiesbaden’s Schlossplatz square will be transformed into a place for encounters between international festival guests, cultural associations representing local Eastern European life and the Wiesbaden

audience, the programme features the photo exhibition “Eastern Fairy Tales” as well as a literary excursion on Wiesbaden’s Nerobergbahn funicular train line, during which actor Ivan Shvedoff, a familiar face from the series Babylon Berlin, will be reading in German, English and Russian from Venedikt Yerofeyev’s cult novel “Moscow-Petushki“. In the spirit of Yerofeyev, a vodka tasting will take place at the halfway point of the journey. In addition, with the programme “Music Videos Are Back!” goEast is paying tribute to the artistic combination of music and moving images. Thanks to their dissemination via alternative media channels such as YouTube, music videos today have the potential to communicate subversive, critical or politically uncomfortable messages while reaching a wide audience. In countries like Russia and Hungary, where media and state cultural subsidies are more strongly regulated, video clips (not long ago nearly laid to rest in the wake of the on-going crisis in the digital music industry) are enjoying a resurgence. goEast is showing twelve music videos, including works from Russia’s gothic rap duo IC3PEAK and rapper Husky, who regularly struggle with performance bans or even arrest in their native country. Ukrainian rapper alyona alyona is also represented here – her concert at Schlachthof Wiesbaden also promises to make the place shake with fat beats and critical lyrics. The 27-year-old was still a pre-school teacher until recently, up to the point where her YouTube videos started to break through the 2-million-view mark regularly. She’s seen as the new hope of the Ukrainian music scene: with her flow, attitude and lyrics as socially critical as they are self-ironic, alyona alyona has already won over a huge fan block. goEast is thrilled to present the first German performance of the Ukrainian hip-hop phenomena.

Jury President Teona Strugar Mitevska // Opening Film: GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA This year’s goEast Jury will be chaired by Teona Strugar Mitevska. The multi-award- winning Macedonian director is also the creator of this year’s opening film GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA (GOSPOD POSTOI, IMETO I’ E PETRUNIJA, North Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, France, 2019), a black comedy in which a young woman fights back against the patriarchal domination of society. In the film, per an Epiphany tradition a priest throws a cross into a river and a throng of young men dive in after it. Petrunya tumbles head over heels into the cold water too and somehow manages to pop back to the surface cross in hand. This causes a genuine scandal in her small town. Mitevska’s film was honoured with the Award of the Ecumenical Jury for Best Film in the Competition section at this year’s Berlinale.

Accreditation and Press Conference Members of the press can still receive accreditation for goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film until 29 March by registering at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/Press/accreditation.php The press conference for the 19th edition of goEast will take place at 11 am on 4 April at Wiesbaden’s Caligari FilmBühne cinema. Please RSVP to attend the event.

Festival images are available for download at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/de/presse/downloads.php

The full programme for the 19th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will be announced in the beginning of April.

goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and supported by numerous partners. The festival is primarily funded by the State Capital Wiesbaden, the Hessen State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland, Renovabis, BHF BANK Foundation, Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, the Federal Foreign Office and Deutsch-Tschechische Zukunftsfonds. Media partners include among others 3sat, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

For more information, please contact:

Ulrike Mascher Press & Public Relations This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. phone: +49-611-236 843-16

HOST: DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film Schaumainkai 41 D-60596 Frankfurt am Main

goEast Festival Office Friedrichstraße 32 D-65185 Wiesbaden phone: +49-611-236 843-0 fax: +49-611-236 843-49 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.filmfestival-goEast.de

TETA Association has launched the 5th edition of Pustnik Screenwriters Residency, which will take place 2–10 September 2019, at Port Cetate, Romania. Pustnik is the only Romanian initiative of this sort, dedicated to young and emerging filmmakers from all over the world.

During this nine-day retreat, eight screenwriters – three from Romania and five internationals – will develop their first or second feature-length screenplays. Besides dedicated writing time, Pustnik also offers participants the opportunity of meeting established European producers who will provide feedback on their projects.

Residents and invited experts will participate in roundtable discussions, masterclasses, and one-on-one talks. A local guest panel will also provide an overview of co-production opportunities in Romania.

Applicants are required to have previously written at least one short or feature-length film which has screened at a notable international film festival. The working language of the residency is English, so fluency in English is mandatory.

The deadline for applications is 22nd of April and filmmakers can apply online at www.pustnik.com. All the information regarding the application process can be found in the How to apply section. There are no application or participation fees, and the organisers cover the costs of accommodation and meals, as well as transport within Romania.  

Residents will be selected by Andreea Borțun (writer/director, Romania) and Bryn Chainey (writer/director, UK/Australia), co-founders of Pustnik.

One of the first confirmed special guests of the 2019 residency is Syrian filmmaker Soudade Kaadan. Her first feature fiction film, The Day I Lost My Shadow, was awarded The Lion of the Future award for best debut in Venice Film Festival 2018 and has been screened in several major festivals including TIFF (Toronto), BFI (London), Busan and IFFR (Rotterdam). Only a few months later, her short fiction film Aziza won the 2019 Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Soudade will share professional and creative insights with this year’s residents, particularly on transitioning from short film to features.

Our key words for this year’s residency are patience and perseverance. Writing a screenplay can take time – a really long time. Not always, but often. Especially if you’re juggling work, family and other commitments, then the original thrill of writing can get crushed by the pressure of getting it done. Our aim with Pustnik is to strip back pressures and distractions so we can get back to the basics: thoughts, feelings, dreams, stories, trees.

Besides spending quality alone time with your screenplay, you’ll hear from special guests on how they persevered through the process of writing and producing their films. We encourage our residents to not only take time to work, but to give time by listening to each other’s stories, ideas, obstacles, and goals. We might be stepping back from society and going hermit, but we’re going hermit together.

The residency is hosted at Cultural Port Cetate, a late-19th century site with an incredible history of its own, located on the Romanian shore of the Danube.

 

About Pustnik:

Pustnik is the first international screenwriters residency to take place in Romania. It aims to create an environment dedicated to clarity of thought, away from modern pressures. Pustnik is also a growing network of film professionals and a community whose aim is to ease and encourage collaboration across the international cinema industry.

For more information:

www.pustnik.com

www.facebook.com/pustnik

Dan Angelescu – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Pustnik is organized by TETA

TETA is an NGO founded in June 2006 and its main purpose is developing cultural activities and events to promote an alternative education for all participants enrolled in its projects and at the same time to offer a cultural revival to the communities in which the events take place. TETA is also producing films and theatre performances.

Cultural Project co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration

REPORT on EU Audiovisual Authors’ Workshop 2019, Ljubljana

REPORT on EU Audiovisual Authors’ Workshop 2019, Ljubljana Implementation of the Copyright Directive: Opportunities and challenges for AV authors to get fair value for their works’ exploitation

The 5th edition of the EU Audiovisual Authors’ Workshopin Ljubljana, organized in partnership by FERA, FSE (Federation of Screenwriters in Europe) and SAA (Society of Audiovisual Authors), and it was hosted by the Directors’ Guild of Slovenia, DSR Screenwriters and the Institute of Authors, Performers and Producers of Audiovisual Works of Slovenia (AIPA). The topic of this year’s workshop was the potential implementation of the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market and the opportunities and challenges faced by audiovisual authors in getting fair value for the exploitation of their work.

The workshop took place on 4-5 March 2019 at SLON Hotel in Ljubljana, gathering around 45 participants from Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, The Netherlands and United Kingdom, representing national directors’ and screenwriters’ organisations, as well as collective management organisations.

The workshop programme featured topical presentations Trilogue final agreement on authors’ remuneration provisions in the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, by FERA CEO Pauline Durand-Vialle, and Mapping of current practices in negotiating and managing audiovisual authors’ rights throughout Europe in a fast-changing distribution market, by SAA executive director Cécile Despringre, as well as case studies by Create Denmark CEO Kasper Halkier (DK), Laure Gicquel from SACD (FR), Susann Reck from Bundesverband Regie (DE) and Kinga Szelenbaum from ZAPA (PL). Expert panels discussed Grey zones in negotiating audiovisual authors’ rights: where can the Directive help?, moderated by FERA CEO Pauline Durand-Vialle, and Public relations: how to address decision-makers in implementing the Directive?, moderated by FSE Executive Officer David Kavanagh.

FERA warmly thanks our hosts AIPA and DSR for their generous hospitality, partners FSE and SAA, and all speakers, panelists and participants for their interest and involvement in the workshop.

As the adoption of the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is drawing nearer, it presents a concrete opportunity to empower a struggling European audiovisual authors’ community, as recent figures show. FERA is committed to provide all the necessary resources for its members to ensure meaningful progress in rights and remuneration of European directors in the digital era.