EU Copyright Directive

13/02: Agreement reached on digital copyright rules – European Parliament

Creatives and news publishers will be empowered to negotiate with internet giants thanks to a deal reached on copyright rules which also contains safeguards on freedom of expression.

13/02: EU copyright rules adjusted to the digital age – European Council

The EU is amending its copyright legal framework to make it fit-for-purpose in today's digital environment. Representatives of the Romanian presidency of the Council  reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on a draft directive that introduces changes to existing EU copyright rules as part of creating a true EU digital single market.

13/02: Digital Single Market: EU negotiators reach a breakthrough to modernise copyright rules – European Commission

The European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the Commission found a political agreement to make the copyright rules fit for digital era in Europe and bring tangible benefits to all creative sectors, the press, researchers, educators, cultural heritage institutions, and citizen.

EU Platform-to-Business Regulation

14/02: Online platforms required by law to be more transparent with EU businesses – European Parliament

EU lawmakers agreed on a set of measures to halt unfair practices in the digital market. More than a million EU enterprises trade via platforms to reach their customers.

14/02: Questions and answers – EU negotiators agree to set up new European rules to improve fairness of online platforms’ trading practices – European Commission

EU Elections 2019

18/02: First seat projections for the next European Parliament – European Parliament

Parliament released the first seat projections, based on a cross-section of national polls, for the composition of the next (9th) European Parliament.

Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU 

12/02: Romanian EU Council Presidency: Presenting a united front – The Parliament Magazine

The Romanian EU Council Presidency comes at a time of multiple challenges for Europe, writes Claudia Ţapardel.

Events

19-20 March: EP Creative Week

25 March: EU SatCab Directive - European Parliament plenary sitting

25-28 March: EU Single Use Plastics Directive - European Parliament plenary sitting

8-12 April: EUIPO Working Group meetings

Al Jazeera Balkans announces a Call to authors and production companies to participate in the second edition of the Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC), which will take place in Sarajevo from 20th to 24th September 2019. The Festival will focus on documentary films intended for television broadcasting.

Warsaw, 22^nd February 2019 - The new Polish 30% cash rebate scheme that was announced last year is active now. The scheme is based on first come, first serve rule and the Polish Film Institute has just begun to accept applications.

After many years of effort by the local film industry, Poland finally got its own incentive scheme. From February 2019 the Polish Film Institute, the main funding body supporting film production in the country, provides access to a generous 30% cash rebate on productions, including feature films, animations, documentaries and series made in Poland.

The scheme is managed by the Polish Film Institute and offers reimbursement of production costs incurred in Poland in the amount of 30% of Polish eligible expenditures. The funds come directly from the state budget and are distributed throughout the year on the first come, first served basis. At least 10% of the annual budget is intended to support animated productions.

Reimbursement is available for feature films, animations, documentaries and series - fiction, animated and documentary. The return is available for the production of Polish and international co-productions and services provided for foreign productions. To apply for support a Polish partner or company registered in Poland is required.

To enter the scheme an applicant needs to pass the qualification test and meet minimum spending thresholds. The minimum spending levels are different for different genres – i.e. for feature films the threshold has been set at PLN 2.5 million (approx. EUR 600,000 for those applying in 2019 (increase to PLN 3 million / EUR 715,000 next year and PLN 4 million / EUR 950,000 from 2021), for feature animation on PLN 1 million (EUR 240,000) and documentaries on PLN 300,000 (EUR 70,000). The producers of series need to prepare to spend at least EUR 240,000 per episode in case of fiction live action series; and PLN 1 million (EUR 240,000) per season in case of documentary or animated series. There is a cap per project – PLN 15 million (EUR 3.33 million) and a cap per applicant per calendar year – PLN 20 million (EUR 4.76 million). The reimbursement is paid after the presentation and positive verification of the final report on production or the stage of work covered by the support.

Applications are submitted in Polish and can be made at the earliest 6 months before and at the latest 2 months before the start of the part of the production to which the application relates. The Polish Film Institute takes up to 28 calendar days to assess the application.

In addition to the new incentive scheme Poland offers extensive opportunities for film and TV productions, from a wide range of diverse locations, through an experienced pool of incredible local talents who have been responsible for a wealth of outstanding films including the Oscar nominated “Cold War” by Paweł Pawlikowski or the European Film Awards winner “Another Day of Life” by Damian Nenow and Raúl de la Fuente, up to state-of-the-art facilities and sound stages.

More information about the 30% cash rebate scheme is available at the Polish Film Institute website: http://en.pisf.pl/incentives.  

The 26th edition of Astra Film Festival, the most important event dedicated to non-fiction cinema in Romania, held from October 14th-20th, 2019, awaits its film submissions in the competition sections of AFF 2019, the deadline for submitting entries being March 25th. Nonfiction film professionals have 4 weeks to complete the sign-up process.

The eight Visegrad Film Forum will welcome the Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa. He has been exceptionally successful in the last year and his films are highly desired by many renowned film festivals.

 Visegrad Film Forum will host top-notch filmmakers from all over the world for the eight time. From the 19th to the 23rd of March they will introduce themselves to the public in an informal atmosphere via lectures and their best-known films.

Controversial filmmaker of a festival favorite?

We are, of course, talking about the ambitious Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa. In a single year, he managed to show three of his films at three A-list festivals. His name started to show up in the news after he shot the documentary Maidan (2004). The feature captures the passionate civil protest against Viktor Yanukovych, the president of Ukraine at the time. Of the countless hours of material, he managed to produce a portrait of an awakening nation with a newfound identity. Later, he stirred the waters again with the feature Austerlitz (2016). In this black and white documentary he visits concentration camps and observes the behavior of tourists that pass through daily.

His last two documentaries have lured the attention of festivals and praise from critics. One of them is Victory Day (2018), that had its’ world premiere at the festival in Berlin and The Trial (2018), that was introduced in Venice.

Apart from documentaries, he has done live-action films My Joy (2010) and a war feature In the Fog (2012), that premiered in Cannes. He was nominated for a Golden Palm in Cannes for the movie A Gentle Creature (2017), that is inspired by the Dostoyevsky novel of the same name. A year later at the same festival he received an award for best director in the category Un Certain Regard for the movie Donbass (2018). The film consists of 13 episodes, each telling a story from the enemy-held area from 2014 to 2015.

Woman behind the camera?

Kirsten Johnson, the director, producer and cinematographer from New York bas more than 40 documentaries under her belt. She worked as a principal cinematographer on the Oscar winning movie Citizenfour (2014) about a former analyst of an American security agency and The Invisible War (2012), documenting sexual abuse in the army, which was Oscar-nominated. Furthermore, she worked as a cinematographer with the director Michael Moore on the documentary about the USA after the 9/11 attacks called Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). She also contributed to a feature called Risk (2016), that follows the story of Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.

Her own documentary Cameraperson premiered at the Sundance festival in 2016. It connects radical shots from the war in Middle East and her personal childhood materials as well as material from the dying days of her late mother.

Do you know the film schools of the V4 countries?

Visegrad Film Forum brings new chances for film schools of the V4, which is why we continue with the exchanging of partner schools. Students from The Tomas Bata University in Zlín will introduce their films, representing the Czech Republic. Students from WRiTV in Katowice form the Polish delegation. Representing Hungary will be the students of SZFE in Budapest. The home team will be well represented by one of the co-organizers of the event – the Film and TV Faculty VŠMU.

Early bird accreditations valued at 20 EUR (10 EUR for students) are available only until 19.2.2019, after that the price goes up.

Visegrad Film Forum 2019

Date: March 19-23, 2019

Place: Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Venue: Film and TV Faculty VŠMU

Film industry professionals will once again be able to buy accreditations allowing them access to the industry conference Meeting Point – Vilnius (MPV) as well as the VIFF Kino Pavasaris. The early bird accreditations are available until March 3, while the standard ones are on sale until March 18. Accreditations are available for purchase here: https://kinopavasaris.lt/en/accreditation-mpv 

Paid accreditations for industry professionals are common practice at international film festivals, giving professionals from various fields access to events they would otherwise not have. Two types of accreditations will once again be available this year. The Industry accreditation will allow access only to MPV on April 2–4. The Industry + Festival accreditation will let its owner attend the industry conference and all the VIFF Kino Pavasaris film screenings throughout the festival, taking place March 21–April 4.

The Early Bird accreditations are available at a discounted price until March 3. The Industry accreditation will cost 50 euros, giving access to the three-day long conference and networking events, while the Industry + Festival accreditation will be priced 90 euros, giving access to all the previously mentioned events, as well as unlimited festival screenings, including the ones that will take place during the festival extension.

Beginning March 4, the Industry accreditation will cost 70 euros and the Industry + Festival accreditation 150 euros.

Sales of all accreditations will be open until March 18. Last Minute accreditations will be available to latecomers for a higher price. However, this type of accreditation does not offer the possibility to appear in the MPV catalogue. The accreditations can be purchased here: https://kinopavasaris.lt/en/accreditation-mpv  

In 2018, the rapidly growing international industry event MPV received around 300 Lithuanian and international guests from more than 35 countries. In its 10^th edition, led by the newly appointed Alessandra Pastore, MPV promises three days packed with intensive Coming Soon work-in-progress pitching sessions, inspirational ToT – Talks on Tomorrow framework of panels and talks as well as networking events. This year’s MPV programme is also enriched with two new initiatives. Organised together with MAIA workshops, Talent Nest will aim to explore, nurture and offer industry and networking opportunities to emerging professionals from the Baltic countries, Belarus, Ukraine and the Caucasian countries. Shorts Library initiative will let industry professionals get acquainted with directors’ previous short films. More news about the MPV programme is coming soon.

As an instrument for cultural and political change, music plays a vital role in the fight for freedom. This year, music will also be at the center of the 24^th Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris, with Kirill Serebrennikov’s Summer (Leto) set to open the festival on March 21.

In his latest feature, Serebrennikov follows young musicians as they search for an escape in Leningrad’s underground rock scene of the 1980s. For young people who lived in the Soviet Union, freedom was defined by the music of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, David Bowie and others whose songs are included in Summer. Though fictionalized, the film pays tribute to Viktor Tsoi, the charismatic leader of the legendary band Kino.

Summer premiered at Cannes, where it competed for the Palme d’Or and won the Cannes Soundtrack Award. The film explores what it means to strive for artistic freedom while oppressed by restrictions. It therefore seems symbolic that Serebrennikov, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, finished making Summer under house arrest.

Summer trailer: http://bit.ly/2sNeqZh

This year, Vilnius IFF will pay tribute to emerging new filmmakers as well as already established masters. The festival will screen Hirokazu Koreeda‘s latest audacious drama Shoplifters, winner of the Palme d’Or and Academy Award nominee in the Foreign Language Film category. Also included in the programme are Nadine Labaki’s compelling story about anger and neglect Capernaum, which won the Cannes Jury Prize, and Berlin-based artist Jeremy Shaw’s psychedelic Quantification Trilogy . The complete festival line-up will be announced at the end of February.

Selected features will be screened across 5 sections: Festivals’ Favorites, Discoveries, Critics’ Choice, Masters and Competition of European Debuts. The programme will also include the retrospectives of two exceptional and unconventional master filmmakers who will be announced soon. 

The carefully selected programme and festival guests will invite filmgoers to stop rushing and let their imaginations take over. For two weeks, the 24^th VIFF Kino Pavasaris promises to inspire, shock and encourage to take action.