The new director of connecting cottbus, Marjorie Bendeck, introduced herself at the traditional East European Brunch in the State Representation of Brandenburg at the Federal Government during the 68th Berlinale. The East West co-production market celebrates its 20thanniversary this year and will take place on Nov 8th and 9th, 2018 during the 28th Cottbus Film Festival (Nov 6th-11th, 2018).

Marjorie Bendeck has been appointed new director of connecting cottbus, taking over the artistic direction of the co-production market: "Eastern Europe is quite a fascinating region, with a unique convergence between history, politics and arts, home to many talented filmmakers. I look forward to working more intensively with them."

Originally from Honduras, based in Germany since 2003, Bendeck has an international standing from working with various funds, industry and training events as a selection, development and pitch consultant; she has worked with the pitching participants of coco since 2013.

"We sincerely thank Rebekka Garrido. Over the past three years, she has played a decisive role in boosting and reshaping the profile of the connecting cottbus co-production market with her commitment", says Andreas Stein, Managing Director of coco organizer pool production.

As the first official act of the new connecting cottbus director, Bendeck presented the Special Pitch Award to Polish director-screenwriter Anna Jadowska. This prize enables Jadowska to pitch her new project at the 20th connecting cottbus co-production market. Jadowska won four prizes at the 27th FilmFestival Cottbus with her film WILD ROSES (Main Prize for Best Film, Award for Outstanding Actress for Marta Nieradkiewicz, FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury).

Bendeck also gave an outlook on the 20th edition of coco: “Besides the usual public pitch of our selected projects, we will continue with the work in progress section introduced last year, which was well received. We will organize case studies around outstanding completed projects which were pitched in previous coco editions. We are also planning a spotlight on Georgia, sharing the focus of the Film Festival Cottbus.”

 

 

An ever larger part of our lives takes place in virtual space, and so the question of human rights increasingly touches on cyberspace as well. What are our rights to privacy, how much does our online data say about us, how can it be misused for human rights violations, and what challenges does the spread of social networks bring to our real, offline lives? All these subjects are explored by the opening film of this year’s One World film festival, The Cleaners, which looks at the work of content moderators on social networks. Nameless people in nameless buildings in the Philippine capital of Manila decide about what we see on our Facebook wall. The film will be personally introduced by director Moritz Riesewieck. But One World looks beyond cyberspace – this year’s festival offers a look at human rights issues from many different, often surprising, angles and presents films from 52 countries from around the world.

This year for the second time, an international jury will choose the best documentary in the Czech Competition category, in which ten Czech productions films will vie for the main prize. World premieres in this section include director Saša Dlouhý’s God Forsaken about the life of immigrants in the Czech Republic, Andran Ambramjan’s Empire builders, which presents a staged show by local anti-Islam extremists, and AsexuaLOVE, which is the first film to explore our country’s asexual subculture. Another three films will be presented as Czech premieres: Nothing like before by the directorial duo of Lukáš Kokeš and Klára Tasovská is a contemporary coming-of-age story set in a small town on the country’s borders, When the War Comes (dir. Jan Gebert) looks at the controversial extremist group Slovak Fighters, and Petr Horký’s The Russian Job explores the fate of the Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ and the legendary Lada cars.

Two other competition categories are International Competition and Right To Know. The first presents documentaries characterized by a unique and original style, and these will compete for the prize of best film. One World will present the documentary I know you are there (dir. Thom Vander Beken), which follows the story of Quentin, who woke up in the state of minimum consciousness after a car accident and his family, who has been taking care of him for ten years. The documentary Of Fathers and Sons by successful filmmaker Talal Derki deals with war theme and portrays Islamic radicalization of children, encouraged by their closest family.

In the category Right To Know, twelve films will be vying for the attention of the Václav Havel Jury. The participating films reveal serious human rights violations or present strong stories of people actively fighting for human rights. Director Barbet Schroeder’s The Venerable W. looks at the discrimination and repression of the Rohingya ethnic minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, and specifically at the Buddhist monk Wirath who promotes ethnic violence despite the peaceful principles of his religion. Another director to come to Prague is Margarita Cadenas, the creator of Women of the Venezuelan Chaos, which explores one of the worst crisis in the history of Venezuela through the personal stories of five women of various generations. The documentary A Woman Captured by Hungarian director Bernadett Tuza-Ritter reveals a case of domestic slavery that still exists in Eastern Europe today through the story of its main character Maris.

One new addition to the festival this year is the section Americana, which takes a look at the current state of the USA. It has been a year since the election of Donald Trump, and his path to the White House is captured in Trumped by the directing trio of Ted Bourne, Mary Robertson, and Banks Tarver. Another burning issue, the status of African Americans, is the subject of Whose Streets? (dir. Sabaah Folayan) and For Ahkeem (dir. Jeremy S. Levine). And the country’s past injustices against its original inhabitants are explored in Jeremy Williams’s On a Knife Edge.

Another category, Eurodrome, looks at the challenges that Europe has had to face in the past few years: mass migration, growing populist movements, and the economic crisis. One country to have faced growing nationalism in recent years is Greece, where the extremist Golden Dawn party took third place in elections. Golden Dawn Girls (dir. Håvard Bustnes) shows us the daughters, mothers, and wives who try to keep this movement afloat while its leaders spend four years in prison. The recent terrorist attacks have affected not only native Europeans but also those who came to Europe in search of a safe haven. One such person is Zineb El Rhazoui, the subject of Nothing is Forgiven, who must come to terms with the assassination of her colleagues from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Both El Rhazoui and director Vincent Coen will accompany the film to Prague.

The unifying theme of the documentaries in the category Beyond the Horizon is distance – between continents and people, and from ourselves. The participating films look at place beyond our physical as well as mental horizons. The diversity of distant shores is represented by three coming-of-age stories from the Far East: Becoming Who I Was (dir. Moon Chang-yong, Jeon Jin) from northern India, The Next Guardian (dir. Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó) from Bhutan, and Almost Heaven (dir. Carol Salter), an unusual, sensitive portrait of a girl working in a Chinese funeral home.

The subjects of the films in the category of Art For Change use music, film, or poetry to try to effect change on the personal or societal level. The focus of the Silvana (dir. Olivia Kastebring, Mika Gustafson, Christina Tsiobanelis) is a young Swedish woman with Syrian-Lithuanian roots who uses rap music to express her views on racism and xenophobia and to promote LGBT and women’s rights. When God Sleeps (dir. Till Schauder) follows the Iranian musician Shahin Najafij, who was subjected to a fatwah for criticizing religious fanaticism and censorship in his home country. Women’s equality in Saudi Arabia is still in its infancy, but Hissa Hilal has succeed in breaking this taboo. She is the first woman to reach the final round of the popular television contest Million’s Poet, and her life is the subject of The Poetess. All three subjects have accepted our invitation to attend our festival.

The documentaries in the category of Journeys To Freedom look at countries in which the nonprofit organization People in Need is active or that have long been the subject of their attention. Director Feras Fayyad’s Last Men in Aleppo, which has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, shows the impact of the war in Syria. A Cambodian Spring (dir. Christopher Kelly) spent six years following people’s protests against the confiscation of the land on which they live.

The internet, social networks, and other digital worlds have become a new reality in which users change – or, conversely – fortify their identity. The category One Zero looks at stories of people who have become entangled in the digital web. After filming her portrait of Edward Snowden, Oscar-winning director Laura Poitras looks at the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange in her new film Risk. Germany’s Pre-Crime (dir. Matthias Heeder, Monika Hilscher) shows how big data can be used to predict possible future crimes.

The subjects of the films in Long Live Life! break down ingrained stereotypes to show that even in today’s stressful and fast-pasted world, you can follow your own path and enjoy life on your own terms. One unusual form of entertainment is riding wooden horses, which is a popular pastime among Scandinavian teenagers. This unusual hobby is the subject of director Selma Vilhunen’s Hobbyhorse Revolution. Meanwhile, the protagonists of Ultra push their physical abilities to the limits as they prepare for the Spartathlon – a 246-kilometer-long race that the film’s director Balázs Simonyi participated in as well.

Environmental issues are the subject of the films in the category UnEarthed. Humankind has still not managed to slow the worsening state of the environment. Guardians of the Earth (dir. Filip Antoni Malinovski) returns to the year 2015 to capture the atmosphere and the actions of politicians at the Paris climate conference, which is one of the most important such conferences in history. War reporter Kate Brooks’s The Last Animals looks at the problem of animal poaching, which every year kills thousands of elephants and rhinoceroses. Her film even took her to the Zoo in Dvůr Králové.

In the traditional category Panorama, the festival presents documentaries that have been successes at important foreign festivals. The film Better Man (dir. Attiya Khan, Lawrence Jackman) focuses on the topic of domestic violence. The camera follows the meeting of Attiya and Steve, who - after twenty years - decided to talk about the reasons of their breakdown. In Deaf Child, director Alex de Ronde shows the childhood and adolescence of his deaf son Tobias and his struggle for the respect for the hearing impaired.

News and interesting facts for the 20th anniversary festival

Talking Cinema

The festival cinemas will do more than just screen films. Another new addition this year is Talking Cinema, which will present six public discussions on selected films related to current issues that resonate throughout society. The discussions will be in English, with simultaneous translation into Czech. Three of the discussions will be translated into sign language. The topics of debate will be predictive crime-fighting, the contemporary state of politics in the USA, populism in Europe, and the power of disinformation. The invited guests include journalist David Patrikarakos (author of the book War in 140 Characters) and Polish activist and founder of the Cziarny Protest movements Marta Lempart. The film The Venerable W will feature a special guest, the internationally renowned Burmese political activist Wai Wai Nu, who will give a solo talk.

The co-organizer of the Talking Cinema programme is the Goethe-Institut Prague.

Virtual reality

This year for the third time, One World Interactive invites viewers into a virtual environment containing documentaries about real people and events. This year will be the first time that audiences can see the films at the same time and in the same place as other viewers in a special VR cinema. This section presents three thematic sub-categories: the films about the environment (A Journey to the Arctic , Planet, Under the Canopy) look at the disappearing Amazon rainforest or the slowly melting glaciers of the Arctic, documentaries about the migrant crisis (Sea Prayer, Limbo, Life in the Time of Refuge) let audiences feel what it is like to have left one’s home country. Bloodless (Korea), Francis (Ghana), and Collisions (Australia) take viewers on a journey to distant places on our planet.

The partner of the VR programme is Alza company.

Retrospective: Kim Longinotto

“Sometimes you don’t even have to understand what your subjects are saying. It’s enough to truly listen to them,” says British director Kim Longinotto, who often films herself in countries where you will not get by on English alone. In her observational documentaries, she focuses almost exclusively on stories of strong women who refuse to be told what they should do. Her films have appeared at One World since the festival’s founding, and on our 20th anniversary we will be screening three of them – Dreamcatcher, Pink Saris, and Sisters in Law.

Films that change the world

Some documentaries aim for more than just audience applause and a full house. This year’s festival is showing 23 films whose goal is to affect real social change: Some of the filmmakers have launched their own campaigns that the public can join, and for other films the organizers of One World have prepared special accompanying events. You might think that the pollution of the ocean does not really affect us in the Czech Republic. Watching Blue is guaranteed to change your mind. The oceans are full of plastics and trash, and the ecosystem affects global warming. Both have negative impacts on underwater life. Each and everyone of us can contribute to  change – specific tips along with the inspirational stories of the Ocean Guardian community can be found on the film's website.The fight for equal opportunity for men and women is depicted in various ways in many films in this year's festival. The Film A Theory of Equality  presents several Czech initiatives for gender equality. One of them is the organization Genderman, that offers a possibility to compare life experiences from the point of view of gender. Workshop with the Genderman organisation will – among other things – deal with the campaign "#metoo" and its impact the Czech Republic.  

 

One World for All

This is the second year of One World for All, which aims to make screenings accessible to the largest possible number of people regardless of age, handicap, or native language. As part of this effort, we will be showing ten films with subtitles for the hearing-impaired (City of Ghosts, Golden Dawn Girls, A Woman Captured, Deaf Child, Stranger in Paradise, The Cleaners, Becoming Who I Was, Blue, Nothing Like Before, The Limits of Work), plus four films with audio commentary (The Limits of Work, Non-Parent, Mečiar, and Czech Journal: A Theory of Equality). A new addition this year are “relaxed” screenings, which are intended for viewers with mental handicaps and difficulties concentrating, but also for anyone seeking to simply relax during the screening. During these screenings, the lighting and audio are subdued, and the films are shown without trailers or advertisements. There will be six relaxed screenings: The Limits of Work, Czech Journal: A Theory of Equality and (as a set of three shorts) Rozárka and Homeless Cooks, Girl Against Gravity and Lenno & the Angelfish. 

East Doc Platform 2018: Critical documentary film has become a risky undertaking

Running concurrently with the One World festival is the East Doc Platform (EDP), the largest event for documentary filmmakers in Central and Eastern Europe. Over the course of a week, Prague will host a gathering of top film professionals, with a wide range of interesting public lectures by leading experts. The subject of the seventh annual EDP, “The New Dissent,” looks at the current political situation, at attempts at limiting documentary freedom, and at critical voices in the media. What influence do these trends have on the life and work of documentary filmmakers? These and other questions will be addressed by a panel discussion at 4pm on Tuesday 6 March at the French Institute’s Kino 35. East Doc Platform will cover a wide range of subjects, including important issues for filmmakers such as financing distribution, which in recent years have undergone dramatic changes. The panel discussion on this subject will feature representatives from the prestigious American film funds Chicken & Egg Pictures and the Tribeca Film Institute, who will join other investors that bring together film and the private sector in order to discuss new ways of financing. Another lecture sure to be interesting is the talk by one of the world’s most successful creators of film trailers, Fraser Bensted, who created the trailers for popular films such as Slumdog Millionaire or Billy Elliot. New innovations in interactive work will be presented by Liz Rosenthal, curator of the world’s first festival competition in the area of virtual reality, held during the Venice Biennale. For more on the East Doc program, visit dokweb.net. The event is organized by the Institute of Documentary Film.

Screenings for schools 

As in the past, One World offers matinee screenings for primary and secondary schools from throughout the country. For children aged 8 to 14, we are preparing a series of short films; for older students, we will have selected medium-length films from the One World festival program. The screenings are followed by discussions during which young viewers can learn more about the subject of the film and are given the chance to express their own views. Also this year, we are organizing family screenings at which we will show six films through which children can learn about the life of their peers throughout the world.

One World in numbers

• this year’s program presents 128 films from 52 countries in 15 categories
• 20 premieres (5 world, 12, international, 3 European)
• this year festival will visit 38 cities (5–14 March Prague, followed by regional towns and cities and Brussels)
• more than 120 confirmed festival guests
• as part of One World for All, we will show 10 films for the hearing impaired and 4 films with audio commentary
• we will screen 6 films for families
• 119498 people visited One World in 2017

Practical information

• Ticket sales in Prague start on Monday, 26 February. Tickets are CZK 60 for starting at 5pm or earlier; evening screenings are for CZK 100. Tickets to the VR cinema as part of One World Interactive programme cost CZK 60. There will be a children’s play corner at the Audience Center in the Tibet Open House (Školská 28, Prague).
• ZTP cardholders and ZTP/P cardholders have reduced entry fees for all projections by 50%.
• The assistents of ZTP/P cardholders have free entry.
• To book reservations for ZTP and ZTP/P holders and to get additional infromation (barrier-free, seniors, interpreting to Czech sign language, audio commentary) please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or +420 777 787 925.
• The number is reserved only for information on the accessibility of the festival. It does not serve as a number for regular screening reservations.

The press center, where we will be issuing press accreditation during the festival, can be found at the People in Need Center in the Langhans Buildings (Vodičkova 37, Prague), which is open from 5 to 14 March from 10am to 6pm.

A complete program and festival visuals are available at www.oneworld.cz

A list of guests is attached. Photographs and access to films are provided upon request.

To arrange interviews with festival guests, please contact our media coordinator:

Gabriela Gálová – media coordinator

mobile: + 420 777 787 962

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

Organizer:

People In Need

Co-organizer:

Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic

Support:

State Cinematography Fund

The City of Prague

Creative Europe – Media programme

Avast Foundation

Zátiší group

Knihy Dobrovský

General media partner:

Czech Television

Main media partner:

Czech Radio

 

Special thanks:

Tibet Open House

 

 

Awards Ceremony for the 2018 European Shooting Stars at the Berlinale Palast

Tonight the EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS 2018 were welcomed to the Berlinale Palast stage by former Italian Shooting Star Alba Rohrwacher - who just celebrated the world premiere of her new film DAUGHTER OF MINE in the Official Competition yesterday - and presented with the EUROPEAN SHOOTING STAR Award donated by longstanding partner Leysen1855. The prominent talent programme, which is celebrating its 21st edition, is financially supported by the Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union and participating EFP member organisations. 

After a busy few days of networking events with casting directors, producers, industry insiders and introductions with international media, tonight's red carpet affair and awards ceremony is the thrilling highlight for these talented young actors. 

EFP (EUROPEAN FILM PROMOTION) and its supporters are delighted to once again bring the EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS programme to the Berlin International Film Festival. Tonight's ceremony was held in the presence of Festival Director Dieter Kosslick and Monika Grütters, German Federal Government Commissioner of Culture and the Media.

The European Shooting Stars 2018 are supported by the following EFP member organisations: British Council, EYE International (The Netherlands), Flanders Image (Belgium), Georgian National Film Center, German Films, Hungarian National Film Fund, Istituto Luce Cinecittà (Italy), Norwegian Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute and Swiss Films.

See full information HERE.

 

 

The 53rd Karlovy Vary IFF (June 29 – July 7, 2018) will dedicate a special section to the Austin Film Society (AFS), the non-profit film organization founded in 1985 which has grown into one of the USA´s key film institutions. “A tribute to AFS represents an exciting chapter in KVIFF´s long-lasting focus on American independent film production. Richard Linklater and his colleagues have been a huge inspiration to film communities around the world and we´re delighted to embrace the incredible achievement of the organization with a selection of outstanding films from Texas filmmakers that have been supported by AFS,” says Karlovy Vary IFF´s artistic director Karel Och.

The Austin Film Society, founded in 1985 by Richard Linklater, began as a film club that attracted students, artists and cinema die-hards. AFS quickly grew into an institution supporting film culture and film production in a vibrant and growing Texas film community. Since its inception, AFS has awarded over $2 million in filmmaker grants that have supported the production of hundreds of Texas films and jump-started the careers of filmmakers like David Lowery (A Ghost Story, Pete’s Dragon), Athina Tsangari (Attenberg), Kat Candler (Queen Sugar) and the Zellner brothers (Damsel; Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter). Today, AFS operates a studio facility that supports film production in Austin; a community media and film education center where independent filmmakers, youth and the community can access filmmaking equipment and production resources; and the AFS Cinema, a two-screen art house and repertory theater, which is home for Austin’s cinephiles.

Founder and Artistic Director Richard Linklater commented on the Karlovy Vary honor with the following: "I'm so proud that AFS is receiving this incredible honor from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. KVIFF is fully committed to the discovery of new voices. It's deeply humbling that they've chosen to tribute AFS by shining a light on the community of independent artists that we've worked so hard to nurture. With this series of films, KVIFF celebrates creativity and uniqueness of vision, which have been the only consistent themes in the many wonderful films that have come out of Texas over the past 40 years."

Made in Texas: Tribute to Austin Film Society will present nine feature-length films and two programs of short films. Slacker, the iconic first feature of the Austin Film Society’s founder Richard Linklater, takes us to roam around Austin’s streets during an ordinary hot Texas day, meeting one-of-a-kind locals and eccentrics. Contemporary western action El Mariachi, the debut feature by Robert Rodriguez, tells the story of a kind-hearted musician who accidentally gets entangled in a web of violence.

Offbeat indie The Slow Business of Going by Greek writer-director Athina Rachel Tsangari showcases a more experimental side of film production coming from Austin. The documentary scene will be represented by Laura Dunn’s The Unforeseen, a striking, deeply poetic take on the clash between greedy developers and the local community defending the environment of the recreational area in Barton Springs.

Among the recent films from Texas, the festival will show Take Shelter, the award-winning psychological thriller of Cannes favourite Jeff Nichols, David Zellner’s minimalistic drama Kid-Thing, Bob Byington’s witty comedy Somebody Up There Likes Me and Andrew Bujalski’s retro stylised drama Computer Chess, set in a software programmers’ community, as well as a program of contemporary short films by notable up-and-coming Texas filmmakers.

The section will also include Last Night at the Alamo directed by a pioneer of Texas independent film scene, Eagle Pennell, and shot two years before the foundation of the Austin Film Society. Other early works will include a program of six shorts originally curated by Jonathan Demme as a snapshot of the punk and new wave scenes of Austin in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

 

 

Flying in from all over Europe the group of ten outstanding acting talents finally arrived to start their busy days in Berlin. Presented at the Berlin International Film Festival, EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS is celebrating its 21st edition. The programme supports young acting talent from across Europe. Their tailor-made schedule of events include industry panels and meetings with casting directors, agents and important players in the industry, and culminates with the awards ceremony on Monday night, which provides the young talents with a very special Berlinale moment. 

EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS is widely regarded as an important stepping stone towards an international career - with past Shooting Stars including Alicia Vikander, Pilou Asbæk, Alba Rohrwacher and Daniel Craig. EFP's talent platform is financially supported by the Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union and participating EFP member organisations and our loyal partners. 

The EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS Award will be donated by Leysen1855 (formerly Tesiro), official Berlinale partner since 2009. In spring 2017, Tesiro was delighted to announce a corporate merger with the Warrant Holder of the Court of Belgium, Leysen1855. And Leysen1855 is going to celebrate the 10th anniversary during the upcoming festival and carries on the support of the EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS, that helped to develop this initiative into an important networking-platform. Tesiro CEO Richard Shen will present each actor with a personally designed gift made by "Blue Flame" - also a Tesiro brand - as a splendid reminder of their very special Berlinale experience. Tesiro will also honour their own three Brilliant Stars, to support rising young acting talents from across Asia.

AUDI Deutschland once more backs the EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS buy providing 

 

 

Two coproductions of Polish company Message Film will have their world premieres at the International Film Festival in Berlin. Russian/Polish/Serbian DOVLATOV by Russian director Alexey German Jr will be presented in the Competition. Ukrainian/Polish/Macedonian production WHEN THE TREES FALL by Marysia Nikitiuk, a debuting director and scriptwriter, will be premiered within the Panorama 2018 programme.

The Polish producers of both films are Dariusz Jabłoński, Izabela Wójcik and Violetta Kamińska, with many years’ experience in international projects: It’s a great joy for us to hear that this year Berlinale has appreciated two films coproduced by us. Both films were created out of passion for cinema and for discovering still new directions and personalities.

DOVLATOV is a continuation of our cooperation with one of the most outstanding Russian directors Alexey German Jr and a great friend producer, Artem Vasiliev. In 2015 "Under the Electric Clouds” received the Silver Bear at Berlinale for "Outstanding Artistic Achievements".  

WHEN THE TREES FALL is a debut by Marysia Nikitiuk, a Ukrainian film director, scriptwriter and writer, who impressed us with her talent, charisma and energy from the very first meeting. Her imagination combined with the artistry of one of the best Polish cinematographers, Michał Englert, brought a truly magical effect.

DOVLATOV
premiere February 17th 2018

The film charts six days in the life of brilliant, ironic writer who saw far beyond the rigid limits of '70s Soviet Russia. Sergey Dovlatov and poet Joseph Brodsky, both of whom would emigrate to New York, fought to preserve his own talent and decency while watching their artist friends getting crushed by the iron-willed state machinery.

Alexey German Jr. returns to Berlin, where his previous film UNDER THE ELECTRIC CLOUDS won a Silver Bear in 2015. The son of maverick Russian director Alexey German, who battled the censors and prevailing notions of hero/anti-hero until his final masterpiece HARD TO BE GOD (2015), German Jr. made DOVLATOV partially as an homage to the '70s Leningrad intelligentsia of his father's generation. This loosely connected group of friends fought for creative freedom during Brezhnev's period of stagnation. German Jr. had already explored the stifling grip of Soviet culture in his third feature PAPER SOLDIER, which won a Silver Lion in Venice in 2008.

German Jr. leaves behind some of the more well-known actors he has been working with for a group of relatively unknowns, most notably the young Serbian actor Milan Marić, who does an excellent job of portraying the outsider status of the Jewish-Armenian Dovlatov, who encountered casual anti-semitism on a daily basis. Brodsky is played by the Russian actor Artur Beschastny, who already played the poet in the theater. In Russia, actor Danila Kozlovsky (David, artist-turned-black marketeer) is more established.  

German Jr's approach is one of strong stylization, not quite the hyperrealism of his father and certainly not the typical bio pic genre. Having coached powerful performances from his actors, he has created a fictional world, amplified by stunning cinematography by Oscar nominated Łukasz Żal (IDA) and meticulous art direction by Yelena Okopnaya. 

DOVLATOV - BERLINALE SCREENINGS:
17.02.2018 9:00  Berlinale Palast Press 
17.02.2018 15:00  Berlinale Palast Gala Premiere 
18.02.2018 9:30  Friedrichstadt-Palast 
18.02.2018 17:55  CineStar 1 (Market Screening) 
18.02.2018 21:30  Haus der Berliner Festspiele 
18.02.2018  22:30 International 
22.02.2018  11:45 CinemaxX 10 
25.02.2018 17:15  Haus der Berliner Festspiel

WHEN THE TREES FALL
premiere February 20th, 2018

In a godforsaken village in Ukraine a rebellious little girl learns about life watching her teenage cousin’s romance with a young criminal. But when he flees after a murder, her cousin is forced to marry someone else, and this little heroine has to understand just how important it is to fight for your dreams.

WHEN THE TREES FALL aroused the interest of the international film community as early as the script stage, winning the 10th Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award for the Best Script from Eastern Europe, presented at Cannes Film Festival  2016.

The camerawork was carried out by Michał Englert, rewarded at Berlin and Sundance festivals (BODY/CIAŁO), and Mateusz Wichłacz. The film was edited by the outstanding Polish editor Milenia Fiedler as well as Blaze Dulev (Macedonia) and Ivan Bannikov (Ukraine). The creative team also included the set designer Vlad Dudko (Ukraine); Tetyana Khoroshun and Tetyana Bovt (Ukraine) who were the make-up artists; the composer Mykyta Moiseiev (Ukraine) together with Aleksandre Pejovski (Macedonia); whereas the costume design was prepared by Kostyantyn Kravets (Ukraine).

WHEN THE TREES FALL -  BERLINALE SCREENINGS:
20.02.2018 22:30  CinemaxX 7 (Premiere) 
21.02.2018 17:45  CineStar 3  
22.02.2018 22:30  Cubix 7 
23.02.2018 20:00  CinemaxX 7
24.02.2018 14:00 International

* * *

DOVLATOV
Director: Alexey German Jr.
Writers: Alexey German Jr., Yulia Tupikina
Cinematography:  Łukasz Żal
Editing: Sergey Ivanov, Darya Gladysheva
Set decoration: Elena Okopnaya
Costume design: Elena Okopnaya
Make up: Natalya Ratkevich
Sound design: Ivan Gusakov
Cast: Milan Marić, Danila Kozlovsky, Helena Sujecka, Artur Beschastny, Anton Shagin, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Elena Lyadova, Piotr Gąsowski, Eva Gerr
Producers: Dariusz Jabłoński, Izabela Wójcik, Violeta Kamińska, Miroslav Mogorovich, Rushan Nasibulin, Eduard Pichugin, Maxim Lojevsky
Production company: SAGaCo-production: METRAFILMS, Message Film, Art&Popcorn
Executive producer: Andrey Savelyev, Artyom Vasilev, Konstantin Ernst
Supported by: Polish Film Institue, Eurimages, Russian Federation Ministry of Culture, Russian Film Fund, Filmski Centar Srbije
World sales: Alpha Violet, http://www.alphaviolet.com
Festivals: Berlinale 2018 Competition, world premiere

WHEN THE TREES FALL

Written and directed by: Marysia Nikitiuk
Cinematography: Michał Englert, Mateusz Wichłacz
Music: Mykyt Moiseiev
Editing: Blaze Dulev, Milenia Fielder, Ivan Bannikov
Set decoration: Vlad Dudko
Costume design: Kostyantyn Kravets
Make up: Tetyana Khoroshun, Tetyana Bovt
Production manager: Dmytro Chervonyi
Cast: Anastasia Pustovit, Sonya Khalaimova, Maksym Samchyk, Maria Svizhinska, Petro Pastukhov, Mariia Trepikova, Yevgenii Grygoriev, Aelita-Viktoriia Avierman, Alla Samoylenko, Ivan Blindar
Producers: Igor Savychenko, Roman Klympush, Volodymyr Fillipov, Serge Lavrenyuk (Ukraine), Dariusz Jabłoński, Violetta Kamińska, Izabela Wójcik (Poland), Darko Basheski (Macedonia), Antonio Saura, Oscar Alonso, Juan Torres, Marta Hernando (Spain)
Production company: Directory Films
Co-production: Message Film, Latido Films, Fokus In, Solar Media
Co-financing: Ukrainian State Film Agency, Polish Film Institute, Macedonian Film Agency
World sales: http://www.latidofilms.comFestivals: Berlinale 2018 Panorama, world premiere

 

MIDPOINT Intensive Serbia announced + Meet us at Berlinale

We are very pleased to announce the first intensive workshop in Belgrade aimed at the Serbian film professionals. Thanks to a partnership with Film Center Serbia, this 4-day workshop has been made possible.
Hungarian writer, director and script consultant Csaba Bollok will act as Core Tutor, and the workshop consists of both group feedback, individual consultations, and plenary sessions and meetings with international decision makers.
MIDPOINT Intensive Serbia runs parallel with Feature Launch's second workshop, which is also supported by Film Center Serbia, and it takes place on April 29 – May 2, 2018.
4 feature film projects will be selected, and Serbian creative teams of writers, directors and producers can apply. The deadline is March 23, 2018.
Read more and apply here.

Meet us at Berlinale 2018

From tomorrow Friday 16, we will be in Berlin and we'll be happy to meet you. Please reach out to set up a meeting, or find us at Martin-Gropius-Bau around the Central European Cinema Stand no. 137.

We would also like to congratulate our friend and Feature Launch lecturer Katriel Schory, producer and executive director of Israel Film Fund, on the honorary award he will receive at Berlinale. And equally congratulations to Czech director and actor Jiri Menzel.

MIDPOINT team at Berlinale:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Director

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Executive Director

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Program Coordinator, TV Launch

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This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., International Relations

You can also meet our artistic advisors, Head of Studies of Feature Launch Danijel Hocevar and Artistic Director Pavel Jech.

 

LIVE PITCH! Iikka and Mikael will conduct a live pitch and Q&A – OPEN LECTURE
Saturday March 3 | 17:30-19:00 |Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes
A welcome session to deep-dive in one of the hottest topic of the workshop Ex Oriente Film: Ikka Vehkalahti and Mikael Opstrup will give a realistic simulation of a professional pitch. Food for thoughts for the following days waiting the final East Doc Forum presentation.

WORKING WITH SALES AGENTS IN 2018 – WHAT HAS CHANGED AND WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW – OPEN LECTURE
Sunday March 4 | 10:00 - 11:30 |Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes
We will go through a sales agent´s contract and explain all things important to know. In a new digital era, distribution has changed so what are the new distribution rights. An interactive session with distribution & financing consultant Peter Jaeger CEO of Jaeger Creative.

LET’S PLAY! A JOURNEY INTO THE DYNAMICS OF EDITING – OPEN LECTURE
Sunday March 4 | 18:00 - 19:30 |Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes  
Editor, actress and producer Dounia Sichov has worked with masters of contemporary cinema such as Sharunas Bartas, Denis Coté and Abel Ferrara. Among other she edited the last film by iconic Magnum Photographer Antoine d'Agata, Atlas, of which she also edited the installation version. Her versatile profile makes her a unique figure in nowadays international cinema. In her masterclass, she will share with us her experience in the editing room in both documentary and fiction and tell us about the journey it takes to arrive to the final cut of a movie.

THE PERFECT PREMIERE, FESTIVAL STRATEGIES – OPEN LECTURE
Monday March 5 | 10:00 - 11:30 | Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes
A session dedicated to producers and directors to orientate them in the International Film Festival Galaxy. Since the first pitch to the release of your film, festivals are offering a vast array of possibilities to independent filmmakers. How to capitalize those opportunities? How to exploit the marketing and communication chances? How to use them to reach the ultimate goal of all filmmakers, to be seen by a regular audience? From markets to rough-cut labs to premieres and beyond, young veteran Vanja Kaludjercic (Holland Film Meetings, Sarajevo IFF, Rotterdam IFF, Les Arcs IFF among many others) will guide the audience in the fast changing world of international film festival.  Coming Soon! 

HOW TO BRING YOUR VR PROJECTS TO LIFE? Financing and distribution models for VR/ AR/ XR (or immersive content) – OPEN LECTURE
Monday March 5 | 18:00 - 19:30 | Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes
Virtual reality is the current buzzword attracting many creators, including documentary filmmakers. Exciting opportunities to tell the stories in a new way brings also questions how to finance and distribute this kind of content. An insight to the new media landscape, emerging distribution channels and financing options for Immersive Content presented by Liz Rosenthal (Power to the Pixel, Venice VR section at The Venice Film Festival).

CREATING AUDIO VISUAL MARKETING MATERIALS – OPEN LECTURE
Tuesday March 5 | 11:30 – 13:00 | Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes
Marketing expert Fraser Bensted (EAVE) will speak avout the theoretical and creative process of producing audio visual marketing materials and the impact they have on the positioning of a film and it's reception by it's chosen target audience. Covering sales promos, mood reels or taster tapes, and teaser and regular trailers, this will be an in depth examination of the thoughts and considerations being made when the time comes for a film to be pitched or sold to potential financiers, buyers or the general public. With a focus on documentary trailers but also looking at drama we will see how a film can be shaped into various marketing materials in order for it to be presented in a way that creates maximum engagement with an audience.

CZECH DOCS… COMING SOON – PUBLIC PRESENTATION
Tuesday March 6 | 14:00 - 15:15 | Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes
An event dedicated to Czech documentary projects within East Doc Platform programme. Five upcoming feature documentaries will be presented to an audience of the invited representatives of prestigious film festivals, sales agents, distributors and to the wide public. This event is organized in cooperation with the Audiovisual Producers' Association (APA).

NEW RESISTANCE; Media, Film and Politics – PUBLIC PANEL DISCUSSION
Tuesday March 6 | 16:00 - 17:30 | Cinema 35, French Institute
Critical filmmaking is becoming a risky business, not only in the Central/Eastern Europe. Populistic governments discover once again the charm of propaganda, media manipulation, and censorship - the old beasts we all believed to be safely locked in 1989. How does it affect the life and work of documentary makers and is their stubborn refusal to close an eye really more important than ever?

IF/THEN SHORT DOC PITCH COMPETITION – PUBLIC PRESENTATION
Wednesday March 7 | 10:00 - 12:00 | Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes
A brand new pitching competition of the best short documentary films from the Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2010, five Polish shorts have been nominated for Oscars, one won. A Hungarian short received the Academy Award in 2017. What makes Eastern shorts so successful that Tribeca Film Institute decided EDP to be the only European pitching with price worth $20.000?

GET YOUR SECOND BREATH - PUBLIC PANEL DISCUSSION
Wednesday March 7 | 15:00 - 16:30 | Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes
Where to seek financing for your film outside the traditional national funding and co-productions? What outcomes has brought the research of new alternative/equity funding opportunities? Is the American financing model a complete science fiction or could it be an inspiration for Europe? Why is it especially documentary to be ideally positioned for attracting alternative finance? A panel discussion of the representatives of key international funds (Tribeca Film Institute, Chicken and Egg Pictures, IDFA Bertha Fund Europe, Whicker´s World Foundation), and Media Deals, the pan-European investor network.

MASTERCLASS: KIM LONGINOTTO
Wednesday March 7 | 17:00 - 18:30 | Cinema Hall, Institute Cervantes
A masterclass of one of the foremost documentary filmmakers working today, Kim Longinotto is renowned internationally for creating extraordinary human portraits and tackling controversial topics with respect and sensitivity. Kim Longinotto has won numerous awards for her work, including a Peabody Award and the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Prix Art et Essai for Sisters in Law, a Special Jury Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam (IDFA) for Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, a BAFTA Award for Divorce Iranian Style, World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival for Rough Aunties. For Dreamcatcher she has won the Directing Award – World Cinema Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

EAST DOC FORUM – PUBLIC PRESENTATION – only for accreditations
Thursday March 8. | 9:30 - 13:30 | Image Theatre
For the eighteenth time, the prestigious pitch of the best Central and East European documentary projects will take place. In the seventeen years of its existence, the East Doc Forum has welcomed more than 700 filmmakers and supported 150 documentary projects, including award-winning films from key international festivals, such as Brothers, The Domino Effect, Blind Loves, At the Edge of Russia, Rabbit a la Berlin, Village Without Women, and Bakhmaro.

 

 

The international documentary event EAST DOC PLATFORM takes place March 3 – 8, 2018 in Prague. The week-long event will host leading film professionals, distributors, TV and festival programmers. Filmmakers will present documentary projects from Central and Eastern Europe that can win one of several prizes worth a total of EUR 35,000 for further film development.

This year’s EDP wants to open up a debate on the rise of nationalism and totalitarian tendencies in the region, as well as on the efforts to stifle critical voices in the media and independent documentary filmmaking that, in varying degrees of intensity, face and reflect on these challenges.

The theme “NEW RESISTANCE” implies the unwillingness of documentary filmmakers to suck up to totalitarian regimes or accept fascisizing symptoms (for instance, attacks on gays in Russia, university shutdown in Hungary, criminalization of abortion in Poland). Their resistance is manifested as dogged persistence with which they pursue these issues while maintaining critical thinking. They are resistant to the dangers they report on and immune to suggestions their work might be undesirable.

These issues are important on an international level as well, with similar troubling developments in the United States, the UK and across Europe. In Central and Eastern Europe, democracy is much younger and considerably more vulnerable. On the other hand, this region has a first-hand experience of totalitarian systems. We should now talk about this experience and draw on it at a time when freedom of speech is being restricted for political reasons.

While European cinema relies heavily on public funding, it is directly dependent and susceptible to any shifts in political climate. Once the authorities start restricting public funds and media, documentary filmmaking with its focus on current social issues is usually the first target. There are signals to that effect in Poland, Hungary and Russia.

We’d like to open up a debate, for instance, about the fact that the social media vox populi has propelled to power populists representing “the majority voice” and political hardliners promoting easy solutions. We’d like to invite Polish filmmakers who have lost funding because of a critical interview, Hungarian filmmakers who have moved to Portugal after making a cinéma vérité film set in a courtroom, as well as Russian filmmakers who often find themselves in personal danger.

 

Institute of Documentary Film - TEAM

Pavlína Kalandrová
IDF Creative Director

Pavlína Kalandrová graduated from Faculty of Arts at Palacky University in Olomouc (Theatre Studies and Czech Philology) and from Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Film and TV Production). She co-founded the production company Duracfilm where, until 2014, she produced mainly documentaries (Clouds, In Sight, The Tripoint – screened at FID Marseille, Ji.hlava IDFF, One World Prague, Shanghai IFF, Beijing IFF or Jaipur IFF), but also fiction films (short Kites or feature film Children – screened at Beijing IFF or Thessaloniki IFF). From 2014 to 2017, she was head of the Creative Europe Desk CZ – MEDIA. She is selector for the festival Finale Plzeň and member of expert commissions of the Slovak Audiovisual Fund.

Tereza Šimíková
East Doc Platform Manager

Tereza is Head of Industry of the East Doc Platform, the largest co-production market and pitching forum focused on the Central and Eastern European region, which takes place every March in Prague. After graduating with a degree in documentary filmmaking from FAMU, Prague in 2009, she directed short documentaries, including the award-winning Double Life of Saint Vitus. From 2012 to 2016, she was Program Manager of the international rough-cut workshop dok.incubator and served as the Program Director of its local workshops (DOK.Restart in Poland, DOK.SK in Slovakia and dok.elevator for Nordic producers). She serves on a number of selection committees, including the programming team of the Karlovy Vary IFF, and the IDFA Forum. As an international consultant, Tereza tailors international strategy for the grantees of Chicken and Egg Pictures, a US-based international fund and training for female documentary filmmakers. Within EDP, she is one of the selectors of interesting projects, invites renowned tutors and jury, and co-organizes open program that includes panels on alternative distribution, on TV formats, campaigns and new trends in narration.

Rebecca De Pas
Ex Oriente Film Manager

Rebecca De Pas started working for festivals in 2004, in the Bologna Film Archive. In 2009, she joined FID Marseille in the selection committee as well as co-head of the FID Lab, the international co-production platform. Beside her engagement in FID Marseille is currently in the selection committee for the Berlinale Talents, where she also advice for the participants producers and advisor for the Feature Expanded Program. In the past, she has been artistic director of the Journées Cinématographiques Dionysiennes and she collaborated with La Roche sur Yon IFF, the Orizzonti section of the Venice IFF, the Riviera Maya Film Festival and the Environmental Film Festival of Paris. She joined Ex-Oriente Film as manager in December 2017.