It's a great pleasure to announce the 6 selected projects for the 2018 edition of MIDPOINT TV Launch, the international idea-to-market program for emerging TV series creators.

The selected projects and its 15 participants will go through a 9 month development program, which takes their original TV series ideas through an intensive script writing process, and on to meet the international market and decision makers.

First workshop takes place already this coming November in the intimate setting of Banska Stiavnica in Slovakia. Second workshop is held during the film festival Finale Plzen in Czech Republic in April '18, and the final workshop takes the participants to the vibrant film market CineLink during Sarajevo Film Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

The 6 projects come from Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece and Serbia, and they are:

Dropping the Ball – writer Maria Hatzakou, director Alkin Papastathopoulos, producer Amanda Livanou (Greece)

Promotion – writers Eva Pjajcikova & Malgorzata Biedronska (Czech Republic)

THE EVIL GOOD – writerproducer Arne Kohlweyer, writer/producer Eike Goreczka (Germany)

The Mind of Primitive Man – writers Christian Falvey & Ondrej Gabriel, writer/producer Andrea Culkova (Czech Republic)

Transit – writer Domien Huyghe, producer Melissa Dhondt (Belgium)

TURBO – writers Milica Zivanovic & Boris Grgurovic, writer/producer Matthias Nerlich (Serbia)

Tutors

This year, TV Launch's Head of Studies Alan Kingsberg is joined by two new Core Tutors, Gabor Krigler and Maggie Murphy, as well as Guest Tutors Giacomo Durzi, Ben Harris and Steve Matthews for Workshop 1 in November.

Awards

In the end of the 9 month workshop program, the TV Launch awards are handed out. The HBO Europe Award goes to the best project, and the C21 Media Award is handed out to one participating producer. 

Read more about the program here, and follow our updates on the participating projects on our website, Facebook and Twitter.

MIDPOINT TV Launch is supported by Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund, Slovak Audiovisual Fund, International Visegrad Fund, and presented in collaboration with HBO Europe, Finale Plzen, Sarajevo Film Festival – CineLink Industry Days, CHARACTER – Film Development Association, Serial Eyes, C21 Media, Barrandov Studio & AMU.

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MIDPOINT Intensive SK

We are also very pleased to announced the project selection for this year's intensive workshop which takes place in Slovakia this November. 

The 3 projects are:

The Owners' Assocation – writer Jiri Havelka & producer Marek Jenicek

Villa Lucia – writer/director/producer Michal Kollar & writer Lukas Sigmund

White Horse – writer Jakub Medvecky & producer Andrej Kolencik

The program is realized in collaboration with CHARACTER – Film Development Association, Slovak Audiovisual Fund and Czech Film Fund.

 

 

Digitally restored classic Bloody Lady at Lumière Festival

The re-release of Viktor Kubal’s Bloody Lady (1980), that was digitized and restored by the National Film Archive of the Slovak Film Institute, will take place at the 9th Lumière Festival. The film will be screened within the section Archival treasures and curiosities, that offers unique restored archive films from all over the world.

Animated film Bloody Lady tells a story of crime and love, inspired by the historical legend of Elizabeth Báthory, the bloody countess of Čachtice. The eternal conflict between good and evil is captured against the backdrop of a romantic love story with comic and tragic elements.

"The Bloody Lady is an example of screen writing mastery and precise dramaturgic composition despite the reduced imagery and limited animation the director Viktor Kubal has the skill to pace suspense and play the audiences emotional strings. Well observed elements of melodrama together with Kubal´s natural affinity for parody turned this film into an original synthesis of the two genres. Inevitably a comparison comes to mind with another master of horror (and it´s parody) Alfred Hitchcock.“ Rudolf Urc

Read more here: _link_

Slovak nomination for the Oscar bid is The Line

The Line by Peter Bebjak continues the successful path that started at Karlovy Vary IFF 2017 where it received the Best Director Award. Since then, it has broken box office records in domestic cinemas and now is trotting the festival circuit.

The Line narrates a story of Adam Krajňák, the head of the family and also boss of a gang of criminals smuggling cigarettes across the Slovak-Ukrainian border. The failure of one of the transports triggers an avalanche of consequences that compels him to question his own boundaries, none of which he had planned on crossing. Until now.

The Line also participates in the European Film Promotion projectScreenings of Oscar® Submitted Films during the American Film Market.

Read more here: _link_

 

Co-production support - Strasbourg, 25.10.2017 - At its 148th meeting held from 16 to 20 October 2017 in Skopje, the Board of Management of the Council of Europe's Eurimages Fund agreed to support 22 fiction, 7 documentaries and 1 animation film projects for a total amount of €5,598,535.

These grants were announced by the Georgian National Film Center in July 2017.

These production grants were announced by the Georgian National Film Center in April 2017.

Every year, it's the audience that decides some of the winners at Warsaw Film Festival. With A Hustler’s Diary chosen as the Best Feature Film, here is the full list.