The Dreamers (Zoufalci) was a surprise critical success in autumn 2009 in the Czech Republic. A story about six former class-mates in their early 30's who are drifting and decide to change their problematic lifestyle was the feature debut and diploma movie for director Jitka Rudolfová at FAMU film academy in Prague (www.famu.cz).

Hungarian director János Szász will be taking on an English speaking project with working title Goodbye Komárom.

In the last session of financing for 2010, the Polish Film Institute announced funding for debuts, veteran filmmakers, and several international co-productions.

Johannes Naber, one of the scriptwriters of Philipp Stölzl's North Face (2008) and director of several documentaries and TV shorts, makes his feature directing debut with The Albanian, the story of an illegal immigrant living in Germany. Naber, who studied philosophy and philology in Berlin and documentary directing in Ludwigsburg, worked in TV productions as gaffer and developed a serious interest in illegal immigration in Germany.

Jerzy Hoffman has begun filming The Battle Of Warsaw 1920, one of the biggest Polish film projects of the last decade and the first with full 3D technology.

Hungarian director János Szász is preparing for his new film, an adaptation of Le Grand Cahier (The Notebook), a novel by Agota Kristof.

Recognized as talented Serbian scriptwriter (The Trap, 2007, Love and Other Crimes, 2008) and original film director (The Red Colored Grey Truck, 2004) the Sarajevo born Srđan Koljevićgave his second feature the peculiar title The Woman with a Broken Nose.

With his first feature, Dolls/Kuklalar, Chingiz F. Rasulzadeh returns to a period 20 years earlier in his home country of Azerbaijan, before the fall of the Soviet Union. He follows several young men working at a seaside park disguised as famous characters (such as Mickey Mouse) as they try to cope with the changes in the society and their own growing up in the process.

Czech director and cinematographer F.A. Brabec, (Kytice, 2000, Bolero, 2004, May 2008) has begun shooting his latest film Under the Duvet (V peřinách ), which he calls "the first 3D feature length fantasy musical." Produced by Hollywood Classic Entertainment (www.hce.cz), Under the Duvet is scheduled for a March 2011 release.

Aurora, Cristi's Puiu tale of murders, is the second in his project Six Stories From the Outskirts of Bucharest, which began with the acclaimed The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu in 2005. Following that black comedy, the Romanian helmer returns with the dark story of a recently divorced father of two wandering through Bucharest and trying to put an end to his nervousness.

Slovenian director Igor Šterk's forth film 9:06 (www.film-906.com) had its world premiere in competition in Montreal World Film Festival 2009 (www.ffm-montreal.org) and in October 2009, won nine awards on 12th Festival of Slovenian film (www.fsf.si) including award for best film, director, screenplay and best performance by an actor in a leading role, and became most successful Slovenian festival film.

BUDAPEST: Hungarian director Robert Pejo is in pre-production on his new film, Paw, a story based on the real life of the famous Hungarian rescue dog and his trainer Laszlo Lehoczki. Produced by Laszlo Kantor's Uj Budapest Filmstudio the film is set to shoot in autumn. Pejo's wife Magda Dajni has written the script.

The first Estonian film ever to screen in the Sundance comptetition, The Temptation of St.Tony by Veiko Õunpuu launched to a controversial reception domestically and became an unexpected box office victim due to the crash of a cinema ceiling. But then, nothing less would be expected from a black-and-white film featuring naked jogging in the snow, dead dogs and bodily dismemberment mixed with Belle Epoque style cabaret performances.

Slovenian director Andrej Košak has started production on his third film, State of Shock (Stanje šoka), produced by Danijel Hočevar of production company Vertigo/Emotionfilm (www.emotionfilm.si). This is the first collaboration of this popular director and the successful producer.

With Don't Look into the Mirror/Mi nayir hayelun, Armenian helmer Suren Babayan directs an ambitious adaptation of the novel written by Perch Zeituntsyan. Producer Vardan Abovyan told FNE that he was fascinated when reading the script "by the way it dealt with the material from the novel," and found "its language was readable for the audience."

Andrzej Saramonowicz, the creator of Polish box office hit Ladies signed an agreement with Warner Bros. Entertainment Poland to produce and distribute at least two new films by the end of 2011.