These are the production and development grants announced by the Estonian Film Institute between April 2018 and October 2018.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam is the largest and most important showcase of documentary films in the world. This year’s 31^st instalment will host Czech director Helena Třeštíková as a guest of honor, screening a retrospective of her work and ten of the films that most influenced her career, among them works by Věra Chytilová and Miloš Forman. The Czech documentary When the War Comes by director Jan Gebert has also been selected for the festival, where the Czech Film Center will also be in attendance as an industry program partner.

The festival will recognize Helena Třeštíková’s career of more than 40 years, over which time she honed her unique style of “longitudinal documentaries” – long-term projects revealing the personal transformations of their protagonists over huge spans of time. Over the course of those years the director has garnered numerous awards, including a “European Oscar” in 2008 for the documentary René. The festival will present a retrospective of six of her films including Katka, Mallory, the aforementioned René and the popular Marriage Studies, as well as the director’s first film, The Miracle, from 1975, and her study of the actress Lída Baarová,Doomed Beauty. Audiences can engage with the director herself in the Filmmaker Talks and elsewhere at the festival, where she will be presenting the ten works of cinematography that most impacted her own filmmaking, half of which are Czech films. Amsterdam attendees will thus have a chance to see Miloš Forman’s The Firemen’s Ball, Věra Chytilová’s Something Different and Prague: The Restless Heart of Europe, Citizen Havel by Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek and 66 Seasons by Peter Kerekes.

Director Jan Gebert’s documentary When the War Comes has been included in the Best of Fests category – a selection of the best films screened at international festivals this year. The film observes the topical trend of youth paramilitary organizations in Europe and takes a close look at the issue of crowd manipulation. The documentary’s main character is a seemingly ordinary Slovak college student preparing himself for a career in politics as the self-appointed chief of a hundreds-strong private militia. The documentary was made with the backing of the Czech Film Fund which provided a production grant of 1.5 million Czech crowns. Gebert’s breakthrough at the festival is of particular note as the organizers decreased the number of films this year to less than 300, meaning no more than 12 films in each competitive category.

The Czech Film Fund will also be in attendance at the festival, where it will be organizing the Guests Meet Guests event for film industry professionals at 6 pm on Tuesday, November 20, in the Zuidekerk area of Amsterdam’s historical city center. "IDFA is the world’s premiere event for documentary filmmaking, so it is the ideal place to promote national cinematography among the key players in the film industry who are deciding which films are going to be successful," says Markéta Šantrochová, head of the Czech Film Center department.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam will be underway from November 14^th to 25^th

It’s that time of the year again, the nights are long and dark. And, that can only means one thing, it’s time to head to the cinema because Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has started. It’s an internationally known rule: when the Black Nights Film Festival kicks off, Industry@Tallinn will soon follow. 

The Festival + Industry Badge gives you the right to claim a single ticket (valid with badge) for any of the screenings of the festival's main programme, Just Film and PÖFF Shorts, when there are vacant seats. You can claim four tickets a day, with a maximum of 40 tickets. You also have the right to enter the festival's screenings without a ticket, however, not more than 5 minutes before the screening starts and when there are vacant seats. And of course, it reserves you access to Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event 2018.

We also recommend joining the Wolf Pack, a brand new loyalty programme initiated this year. For more information how to find you pack, click here.

See you at PÖFF, 22nd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival! In the meantime, we will keep you updated on what's happening this week, before the official start of Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event on November 26. 

For full programme click HERE.

RE-ACT Co-Development Funding scheme supports a maximum of 6 projects with a minimum financial support of 10.000 Euros per project per year. The Programme Council appointed by three member funds reads and evaluates the projects in collaboration with external experts.

The recipients of RE-ACT co-development funding for the year 2018 will be announced in January 2019 during the When East Meets West Co-production Forum in Trieste, Italy.

New deadline for application is 19 November 2018.

For guidelines, eligibility criteria and application form visit www.filmreact.eu. 

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (or PÖFF), the biggest international film event in the Baltics, kicks off today. This year, the A class festival is exceptionally rich in Lithuanian offerings: as the Baltic states are celebrating the centenary of their statehood, PÖFF features the biggest programme of Lithuanian cinema in the festival’s history along with two Lithuanian films to have their world premieres in Tallinn.

New Lithuanian-produced or co-produced features, documentaries, shorts and a restored classic film will screen in the festival’s competition and non-competitive sections and will be presented by a big delegation of filmmakers. Lithuanian film industry professionals will also present their projects at PÖFF’s annual industry events. Delegates of the Lithuanian Film Centre will acquaint the international film community with the results and future outlook of the government’s tax incentive for film production in Lithuania.

PÖFF’s competitive programme First Feature Competition, showcasing debut features representing youthful vivacity, questing ideas and unexpected viewpoints, will include the world premiere of Ernestas Jankauskas’ Sasha Was Here (production company Dansu Films). The film will compete with 18 other works from over 20 countries across Europe and the world, including Morocco, India, Iran, Mexico, Canada and Japan. Sasha Was Here will be presented by the film’s director Jankauskas, producers Gabija Siurbytė and Rūta Petronytė, scriptwriter Birutė Kapustinskaitė, cast members Valentin Novopolskij and Markas Eimontas.

After a seven-year break, this year’s PÖFF returns with the Baltic Film Competition. Of the 11 fiction films, documentaries and animations in the programme, seven have been produced or co-produced by Lithuanian production companies.

Among them are Edita Kabaraitė’s documentary 100 Years Together and Audrius Stonys’ and Kristīne Briede’s Bridges of Time which has recently won the Best Documentary award at the Latvian national film awards. The Baltic Film Competition also includes three Lithuanian feature films: Marija Kavtaradzė’s road movie Summer Survivors, Giedrė Beinoriūtė’s drama Breathing into Marble and Marius A. Markevičius’ Ashes in the Snow.

Lithuanian filmmakers have also been involved in the minority co-production of several other films presented in PÖFF’s Baltic Film Competition: Bille (directed by Ināra Kolmane, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic), a family film that has received the Best Film award in Latvia, and Foam at the Mouth (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland), directed by Latvian filmmaker Jānis Nords.

This year’s PÖFF competition programmes also feature Lithuanian jury members. The composer Martynas Bialobžeskis, who last year received the festival’s prize for the score he composed for the Estonian-Lithuanian co-production The Man Slayer. The Virgin. The Shadow (directed by Sulev Keedus), has been invited to judge films in the Official Selection. Meanwhile Lina Užkuraitytė, the director of International Vilnius Film Festival for Children and Youth, will be a member of the ECFA jury to award the Best Children’s Film at Tallinn Black Nights sub-festival Just Film.

PÖFF non-competitive programmes will also be rich in Lithuanian offerings. In Focus: 100-Year-Olds, showcasing the Baltic nations’ film heritage on the occasion of their statehood centenary, will feature one of the best works of classical Lithuanian cinema, Arūnas Žebriūnas’ The Beauty (1969). The film, whose restoration and digitisation was commissioned by the Lithuanian Film Centre, will be presented by the film historian Lina Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė.

The non-competitive programme Panorama, made up of a broad selection of internationally recognised films, will screen minority co-production Core of the World (Russia, Lithuania) directed by well-known Russian filmmaker Natalia Meshchaninova.

PÖFF Shorts, a sub-festival for short and animated films running on November 20–28, collects some of the best new shorts by Lithuanian young-generation filmmakers. The special programme Baltic 100: Lithuanian Stories includes By the Pool directed by Laurynas Bareiša, Snake directed by Titas Laucius, The Last Day directed by Klaudija Matvejevaitė, The Mother’s Day directed by Kamilė Milašiūtė, and Watchkeeping directed by Karolis Kaupinis.

Another programme DOC@Shorts includes the world premiere of Ričardas Matačius’ short documentary Nest. A Movie About Two People and Two Birds. The film will be presented by the producer Urtė Aškelovičiūtė (Incubus Films) and cinematographer Adomas Jablonskis.

PÖFF’s 17th Baltic Event Co-production Market, running on November 27–30, has selected 16 feature film projects in development. Among them is Ernestas Jankauskas’ Oxygen (produced by Dansu Films). The intense four-day Co-production Market will allow filmmakers to present their projects to potential supporters, co-producers and sales agents. The best project will receive Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of 20 000 Euros.

Films in production from the Baltic region and Finland will be presented in the Baltic Event Works in Progress programme. The annual event, launched in 2003, this year will include Marat Sargsyan’s feature The Flood Won’t Come (produced by Tremora) and Latvian-Czech-Lithuanian co-production City on the River (directed by Viesturs Kairišs).

Jorė Janavičiūtė will present her short film On Time at Baltic Preview, a networking event for professionals within the framework of PÖFF Shorts.

The Lithuanian Film Centre is an official partner of Baltic Event, also partially supporting the participation of Lithuanian film industry professionals at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

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At its 10^th edition, Meeting Point - Vilnius, the industry event of Vilnius Film Festival Kino Pavasaris, renews its structure and programme. Alongside with these changes, Rita Stanelyte who has lead 8 years of successful editions is stepping out of her role as the director of MPV. 

„It‘s always difficult to part with immense members of the festival team. Rita has made MPV one of the key industry platforms in the Baltics as well as in the international panorama. Many projects presented at MPV continue to thrive in international film festivals and the distribution circuit all thanks to Rita and the team she leads. The whole gang of VIFF Kino Pavasaris and Meeting Point – Vilnius thank Rita for the tremendous job done. We all wish her great success for her new and exciting adventures” - says Vilnius Film Festival’s executive director Algirdas Ramaška. 

In its edition in 2019, Meeting Point – Vilnius team will be led by Alessandra Pastore who has acquired exceptional experience in film production and development.  Alessandra has been working in production and international training for almost 15 years and she is part of the co-production market When East Meets West team. She, joining the team, marks the international dimension and direction of the event.

“It’s terrific to take over the direction of such a high level event. MPV will continue to facilitate the cooperation between European macro-regions and will push further in the direction of talents development and support”, - explains Alessandra.

New call for projects, sessions and programme will be announced soon.

More information: www.kinopavasaris.lt/en

After the great success of the first season, the filming of the second season of Shadows over the Balkans, a series by the author and director Dragan Bjelogrlić, has recently begun. Between Friday and Sunday (16 – 18 November), the shooting took place in the Slovenian town of Piran as well.

The Slovenian partner is the Perfo production house with producers Aleš Pavlin and Andrej Štritof, who, on this occasion, said the following: "We are proud to be able to actively participate in the making of the second season. The cooperation took place due to the successful past cooperation with Dragan Bjelogrlić and our sincere wish to ensure that Slovenia can participate in the project as well, at least partly. We are happy that the project is also taking part in the Cash Rebate Scheme for film and audio-visual projects at the Slovenian Film Centre. We are convinced that this will ensure an even greater recognition of Slovenia as a film location."

Slovenian filmmakers are participating in the film crew as well – in the fields of costumes design, makeup design, and production design. The character of Major Kosmač is played by Miha Rodman; while Vlado Novak has transformed himself into the famous pre-war politician and theologian Anton Korošec, who also became the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1928.

Like in the first season, the music will be written by Robert Pešut Magnifico.

 "Some of the names of our characters are known to the wider public, for example Ivan Meštrović and Josip Broz, but also the famous Slovenian politician and theologian Anton Korošec and Ante Godina, the right-hand man of Al Capone and Ante Pavelić. We will also reveal how the unveiling of the Monument to the Unknown Hero at Avala came to pass," Bjelogrlić, who also stars in the series, stated at the beginning of the shooting.

As the filming began, the second season of Shadows over the Balkans and its numerous and well-established team returned to Jatagan mala, where the first scenes of this dramatic thriller were shot. The new season takes place six years after the events from the first season. The main characters of Tane (Dragan Bjelogrlić) and Stanko (Andrija Kuzmanović) are once again in the centre of a mystery that could alter the fate of Europe. International conspiracies, secret societies, extreme ideologies, "narco" wars, and decadence in face of the imminent catastrophe represent the historical setting for the exciting resolution of the mysterious and chilling crimes that shake Belgrade in 1934. The new season, which depicts the hidden history of the Balkans even more ambitiously, offers a spectacular mix of action and drama, mystery and suspense; and it takes us from the muddy streets of Jatagan mala to the shiny corridors of the Vienna authorities.

Apart from Slovenia, the series will also be shot at authentic locations in Serbia and Austria; while the premiere is planned for 2019.

PRODUCTIONS FUNDED BY THE POLISH FILM INSITUTE IN THE 3rd SESSION OF 2018 INTERNATIONAL MINORITY COPRODUCTIONS: