Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan will receive the Award in recognition of outstanding contribution to the art of film and support of Sarajevo Film Festival.
The Award to Nijaz Hastor, the owner and founder of the ASA Prevent Group and founder of the Hastor Foundation, is given for the continuous support in development of the Festival and exceptional contribution to the affirmation and development of film in South-East Europe.
The 71st Locarno International Film Festival, which kicks off today, is exceptionally rich in Lithuanian accents. Three Lithuanian films or co-productions have been selected to participate in the festival’s programmes and will have their world premieres in Locarno, to be presented by their filmmakers. In addition to film screenings, three promising Lithuanian producers will represent their country at the festival’s industry days.
Lithuanian films or co-productions will compete in two programmes in Locarno. Laurynas Bareiša’s short film Caucasus (produced by Klementina Remeikaitė) will have its world premiere in the Pardi di domani programme, while Trot (orig. Trote), a Spanish-Lithuanian co-production feature directed by the Spanish director Xacio Baño and co-produced by Marija Razgutė (production company Čiobreliai (M-Films)), has been invited to screen in the Concorso Cineasti del presente programme of film debuts. It is the first time that Lithuanian films are competing for prizes at Locarno IFF since 2014 when Pardi di domani screened Karolis Kaupinis’ debut short The Noisemaker.
The Locarno International Film Festival will also see the premiere of Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė’s documentary Acid Forest, an anthropological-philosophical enquiry into how people respond to an unfamiliar species; when tourists come to see a dead forest destroyed by cormorants, they are not only observing, but also being observed by the black birds.
The festival’s industry days will also feature Lithuanian elements. Match Me!, a platform for new and upcoming producers, is focusing on the Baltics this year and has invited two producers from each of the Baltic States. The networking forum is dedicated exclusively to promoting new production companies and helping them develop. Producers and experienced lecturers will discuss the changing international cinema market and opportunities therein for each young company. Ieva Biliūnaitė, who represents the company In Script and has titles such as Miracle (dir. Eglė Vertelytė), Together For Ever (dir. Lina Lužytė) and Radviliada (dir. Ramunė Rakauskaitė) under her name, and Medeina Birgilaitė of Artbox, a coordinator of many of the company’s co-productions (Tulipani: Love, Honour and a Bicycle, Foam at the Mouth, Tokyo Trial), are the Lithuanian participants. Another Lithuanian producer, Justė Michailinaitė, is going to a 5-day Documentary Summer School that focuses on issues in research and production of documentary cinema.
The participation of the Baltic States at the Locarno International Film Festival’s industry events continues a partnership that was started in 2017. Last year, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian filmmakers presented their films in post-production to potential financiers, distributors and festival programmers in the First Look programme.
The 71st edition of the Locarno International Film Festival is running between 1–11 August in Switzerland. Launched in 1946, it is one of Europe’s oldest and most significant film events, a prestigious platform for world auteur cinema.
The production of the three films and participation of the Lithuanian representatives in the festival and Match Me! event was supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre.
WARSAW: Participants from Poland, Lithuania, Georgia, Hungary, Israel and Ukraine have been selected for the 6th edition SOFA School of Film Agents, set to take place in Warsaw from 26 to 31 August 2018.
WROCLAW: Polish Film Institute and EAVE will grant for the third year a scholarship to one Polish producer for the EAVE 2019 Producers Workshop. The winner will be chosen among the participants at the Polish Days (30 July – 1 August 2018), held in the framework of the New Horizons International Film Festivaal (26 July – 5 August 2018).
Collaboration between Polish Film Institute and EAVE yields new scholarships for Polish producers
Press releases 31-07-2018Polish Film Institute and EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs), one of the leading professional training, project development and networking organizations for audiovisual producers, are happy to announce the continuation of their successful partnership that will again and for the third time offer a scholarship for one Polish producer and project for the EAVE 2019 Producers Workshop.
The award of 30.000 PLN, sponsored by the Polish Film Institute, towards the costs of the participation in the EAVE 2019 workshops will be granted to one of the selected projects in development pitched at the Polish Days (July 30 – August 1, 2018), the most important industry event in Poland, held in the framework of the New Horizons International Film Festival (July 26 – August 5, 2018) in Wroclaw.
The award will be presented during the Polish Days awards ceremony on August 1, 2018, by EAVE’s CEO Kristina Trapp.
Past beneficiaries of the PFI/EAVE award have been Magdalena Kaminska (Balapolis), who is pitching her latest project BEFORE THE HORIZON ENDS by Anka Sasnal and Wilhelm Sasnal, as well as Marta Golba (Endorfina Studio), who is presenting her latest production WHITE CUBE by Wojciech Pustola at the Polish Days this year:
Magdalena Kamiska: “In 2016 I was awarded with the scholarship when pitching feature film WEREWOLF at the Polish Days New Horizons. Now the film is completed. Thanks to the PFI’s scholarship and EAVE I was part of the 2017 workshop that gave me energy, knowledge, professional contacts and new friendships. All the benefits and experience gained are working out well for me now.“
Marta Golba: “EAVE challenges, questions and sometimes deconstructs. All that to guide you, give tools and an amazing network of people from all arround the world to create a cinema beyond borders. I feel it is essential at this stage of my career and I would not be able to afford to participate in this adventure without the support of PFI.“
For more information about the programme and application procedure, please visit: www.eave.org
TALLINN: Calls for projects for Script Pool Tallinn, Baltic Event Co-Production Market and POWR Baltic Stories Exchange are open.
Start of the 6th edition (August 26-31, 2018)
They act as agents to the film industry and as ambassadors to the cinema audience.
SOFA – School of Film Agents invites film-related cultural managers to a unique pan-European think tank for the future of cinema.
International industry experts provide participants with creative support for their film- related cultural projects.
Cologne, July 30th, 2018 – SOFA – School of Film Agents’ sixth edition offers an exclusive group of cultural managers and film agents the opportunity to develop their projects for film infrastructure under the guidance of experienced experts. Following SOFA director Nikolaj Nikitin's invitation to Poland’s capital Warsaw, a team of internationally renowned industry professionals will provide the participants with the necessary input for a practical development of their project ideas. The six-day workshop will also stimulate an exchange about transnational communication, handling human resources in each of their home nation's creative industries and especially focusing on New Media, gender issues and post-production.
With this year’s motto “Agents breaking down borders”, the SOFA organizers are looking forward to welcoming the following SOFA Class of 2018/2019 participants with their projects in Warsaw:
Eva Brazdžionytė – WIFT LT (Women in Film and Television Lithuania)
WIFT LT aims to build and foster networking of women working in Lithuanian audio-visual and creative media industries, promote their professional activities, and promote Lithuanian AV industry from the gender equality perspective.
Agnieszka Kruk – Find Your Story
An online platform where screenwriters and filmmakers who are looking for screenplays or new talents can meet on a neutral ground and start fruitful cooperation.
Victoria Leshchenko – FAQ film fest – festival on science and technologies
FAQ showcases film and lecture events on science and modern technologies delivering the most provocative answers to the trivia questions.
Marat Parkhomovsky – IFA Digital Experiences
A state-of-the-art web platform dedicated to unlocking the treasures of the Israeli Film Archive to local and world public. The platform will design various VOD experiences based on the archive's rich historical documentary collection and its feature film collection.
Róbert Vámos – Satellite Trailers
Satellite Trailers’ mission is to help Central and Eastern European films maximize their audience and increase the share of regional films across European markets by delivering high-quality trailers, teasers, and promos.
Natia Nikoleishvili – Post Production Platform
A map of post-production capabilities in the Georgian film industry offering access to highly trained technicians and artists, freelance specialists, and experienced companies. Here you can estimate your budget and build up a professional team.
More information on the 2018 participants: http://www.joinsofa.org/projects-participants/.
SOFA again features successful industry experts who share knowledge and expertise with the participants. Confirmed experts so far are Funa Maduka (creative and acquisitions executive within Netflix Original Films, Amsterdam), Ewa Puszczyńska (producer, Łódź, IDA & COLD WAR), Anna Serner (CEO Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm), Oliver Baumgarten (Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis, Saarbrücken), Robert Groß (CEO ACT, Cologne), Jowita Michalska (CEO of Digital University, Warsaw), and Cristian Nicolescu (CEO Avanpost Digital Cube, Bucharest).
The complete list of experts as well as the full programme will be announced closer to the beginning of the SOFA workshop under www.joinsofa.org.
BELGRADE: Belgrade Escape by Wang Zhongyan, the first Serbian/Chinese coproduction, started shooting in Belgrade on 26 July 2018. The film is a coproduction between Chinese Fujian Broken Films and Serbian Emote Films, and is budgeted at around 1.5 m EUR.
WARSAW : Polish sales agent New Europe Film Sales has acquired Asaf Saban’s Israeli/Polish/German coproduction The Delegation which is still in development. 
MOTOVUN: Laura Mora’s Killing Jesus (Colombia, Argentina) was awarded Propeller of Motovun for Best Film at the 21st edition of Motovun Film Festival. After winning the prestigious Doc Alliance award in Cannes, Croatian documentary Srbenka by Nebojša Slijepčević had its domestic premiere in Motovun and received a Special Mention.
