VENICE: Land of Oblivion, a Polish coproduction directed by Israeli director Michale Boganim and starring Olga Kurylenko and Andrzej Chyra, will have its world premiere on 3 September 2011 in the International Film Critics Week of the 68th Venice International Film Festival, before heading to the Toronto International Film Festival. International audiences will remember Kurylenko as the "Bond Girl" in Quantum of Solace. Chyra is one of Poland's hottest young stars which should give the film plenty of traction at the box office.
FNE together with Europa Cinemas continues its Cinema of the Month series. In recognition of the hard work and excellence of European cinema operators we choose a cinema from each country covered by FNE each month. We look at the challenges and the successes faced by those cinemas with a special series of interviews that offer insights that other operators can benefit from and a platform for the exchange of ideas. This month we focus on Bulgaria and Vladimir Trifonov who is programme manager 0f the Cinema House in Sofia.
CANNES: Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev returns to form with his new feature Elena fulfilling the promise of his 2003 debut The Return. Elena deservedly won the Special Jury Prix in the Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival 2011. The story revolves around an elderly couple, Elena and Vladimir. Elena played by Nadezhda Markina is a seemingly docile wife who met the wealthy Vladimir played by Andrei Smirnov when she was a nurse and he was recovering in hospital.
CANNES: Lars Von Trier's latest film Melancholia is ostensibly about the end of life on planet Earth, although the planet that Von Trier presents us with bears little resemblance to any Earth we know of.
CANNES: Director Terrence Malick has succeeded in creating the very first American myth as film for the post war generation. No American who grew up in the 1950's will fail to recognize the images and the feelings of childhood from Malick's epic.
CANNES: Director Aki Kaurismaki’s first film in French language, Le Harve, loses none of the distinctive Kaurismaki style and ironic humour. Shot in the French seaport of Le Harve, the film continues the character of Marcel Marx begun by the director in his film La Vie de Boheme. Marx is played by Andre Wilms in both films and in Le Harve we find the former author and Bohemian working as a shoe shiner and married to Arletty played by Kaurismaki regular Kati Outinen.
CANNES: Nanni Moretti's story of drama and humour inside the Vatican manages to take a witty yet reverent look at the institution of the papacy. His story unfolds as the Pope has just died and a new Pope is selected. Moretti focuses on the crushing weight of responsibility that the Pope bears and his first scene is stunningly effective. The cardinals have met in Conclave to select a new Pope and each and every one of them is praying that they will not get the job.
CANNES: Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to Cannes IFF for the fourth time with Once Upon A Time in Anatolia and looks set to take home another prize with this latest film that turns a search for a missing corpse in central Turkey into a journey of discovery of a completely different kind. His previous films Distant, Climates and Three Monkeys all screened in Cannes with Distant winning the Grand Jury Prix in 2002.
WARSAW: French films made major gains at the Polish box office in 2010 compared to 2009 with 6.050.224 Euros earned by French films in 2010 compared to 1 463 955 Euros in 2009. This represents a gain of 4.2% in 2010 compared to 2009.
VIENNA: The Austrian Film Institute has announced funding of 3.16m Euros for 45 new projects including just over 2m Euros for eight new feature film projects.
