As some of our team members are getting ready to attend the European Film Market to prepare for the year ahead, we are glad to announce that we'll be opening our film submission on the 1st of March.

This year, some things will be different, however, as Black Nights, in league with other festivals feels that festivals need to do more in the context of the looming climate crisis. A festivals' Green Pledge in the works, but as a first step we announce that for every official film submission we receive this year, one euro will be donated to the reforestation of Australia's areas that were destroyed in the devastating bushfires.

PÖFF TITLES > CINANDO

A selection of the competition titles from #PÖFF23 are now available on Cinando for the film industry professionals! The list includes films from the Official Selection, First Feature Competitios, Rebels with a Cause and the Baltic Competition programme.

Among others you will be able to watch:
* Grand Prix award winner Kontora
* Best Cinematography award winner Coming Home Again
* Best Actress award winner Gipsy Queen
* Best Screenplay and NETPAC award winner Golden Voices
* Best first feature film Stories From the Chestnut Woods
* Rebels with a Cause competition winner Feast

DISCOVER THE FILMS

RECOGNITIONS

On Tuesday, February 4, Japanese Ambassador Hajme Kitaoka's residence was handed over to the Japanese Foreign Minister for the Black Nights Film Festival and Japan's Asashio.

Black Nights Film Festival was honored by the Japanese Embassador in Estonia, mr Hajime Kitaoka, who presented a letter of appreciation on behalf of the Foreign Minister of Japan.
Black Nights has screened over a hundred Japanese films and made several thematic focus programmes of Japanese cinema.
Find out more!

Tiina Lokk-Tramberg Autor/allikas: PÖFF

The founder and director or Black Nights, mrs Tiina Lokk will receive the annual national culture prize from the government of Estonia for the success of the 23rd edition of Black Nights as we broke several records.
It is noteworthy that four out of the five prizes went to people working in the film industry.
Find out more!

EUROPEAN GENRE FORUM KICKS OFF

Miguel Llansó pitches his project Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway at the European Genre Forum (© BNFF)

European Genre Forum has opened submissions! EGF is a pan-european training programme organised by Black Nights, Imagine FF from Amsterdam and Fantastic Zagreb FF.  Its aim is to boost the genre film industry through two talent labs, packed with trainings, panels mentoring and pitching sessions. 
The Producing Lab takes place in Zagreb during Fantastic Zagreb in July. The Marketing & Packaging Lab takes place in Tallinn during PÖFF, in the final week of November.

READ MORE AND APPLY HERE

LONG READS

23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Award Ceremony | PÖFF 2019

The Echoes of #PÖFF23
The last edition of the festival created buzz, sprouted numerous international success stories and offered an enormous amount of interesting articles, reviews, roundups and interviews.
Here is A SELECTION OF THEM! 

Premiere of Outlaw at #PÖFF23. Ksenia is the second person on the right

“Sure it would be nice if a gay filmmaker would have made this Russian LGBT-film. But they didn’t. So I did.”
Russian director Ksenia Ratushnaya talks on shooting Outlaw, her LGBT-themed debut, in Russia and the deteriorating social situation of sexual minorities in the country. 
Read the INTERVIEW.

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Visitors can expect not only an attractive film festival, but also a spectacular celebration and a number of extraordinary surprises.

2020: Back to the Future, the announced theme of the 60th Zlín Film Festival, has also inspired the authors of the visual that the organizers of the festival unveiled today at the Congress Center in Zlín. It is again based on a monkey, albeit in a completely new form. Combining digitally modified drawings of a monkey head and a robot head created a new graphic element: the "Robo-monkey". The festival will take place from May 29 to June 6. 

The sixtieth year of the oldest and largest film festival of its kind in the world will be in the spirit of the theme 2020: BACK TO THE FUTURE.

"Back" represents a respectable history of the festival and "the future" promises to fulfill the vision of its modern form developed through science, technology and education,"

said festival president Čestmír Vančura. 

The authors of this year's visual are again the artist Petr Nikl and designer Zdeněk Macháček. It has been based on combining the drawings of a monkey and a robot and thus creating a new whole: a graphically solid digi-icon ROBO-MONKEY.

"We want to prove to the public that a visual created combining the described elements will evoke an atmosphere of eternal desire to "touch the stars" – a message that can speak to every generation,"

says Zdeněk Macháček from Studio 6.15 in Zlín. 

In addition to the traditional COMPETITION and the section entitled FESTIVAL CLASSICS, the dramaturgy of the 60th festival will focus on films in a special anniversary edition called 2020: BACK TO THE FUTURE.

“This section aims to broaden the horizons of young visitors in the area of science and technology. The films will be dramaturgically divided into three groups: documentary films on science and technology , live-acted sci-fi fiction films for children and youth , and a section devoted to special effects in film,”

explains art director Markéta Pášmová. A series of documentary films informs young audiences about key concepts such as space, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, computer games, and information technology.

“In addition to the films themselves, this mini-section will be complemented by lectures for schools and the public, and will try to answer the question of how technology makes our lives easier for us, and vice versa, what dangers do we face from it,”

says Markéta Pášmová. The mini-section of science fiction films should provide young audiences with fun and adventure, as well as learning experiences and opportunities to expand their horizons. The most common theme, encounters with extraterrestrial civilizations, will be supplemented by stories about robots, exploring new worlds and alternative futures. 

In 2020, one of the most important pioneers of cinematic tricks would have been 100 years old: American filmmaker and artist Ray Harryhausen, who created unique puppets for the films Clash of the Titans, Jason and Argonauts, and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. This contemporary of Karel Zeman's (who would have turned 110) has inspired the directors Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, Tim Burton, and many others.

“We would like to pay tribute not only to him in the Magic of Film Tricks section, but also to other special effects creators who, with the help of the latest technology, have provided incredible film experiences to audiences over the years,”

explains Markéta Pášmová.  

This mini-section consists of films that were revolutionary in terms of special and visual effects. Special screenings of films such as Metropolis, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Jurassic Park, Matrix, and Gravity will be accompanied by an introduction by the experts Kamil Fila and Boris Masník.  

The festival's program department and the special effects artist and film effects supervisor Boris Masník, who is one of the best experts in the Czech Republic and often also participates in projects abroad, have created a section dedicated to film effects. 

“For this year's festival theme - and the sci-fi genre in general - film tricks are one of the basic means of expression. It is a pleasant challenge for me to introduce the festival's visitors to the history film tricks and to what goes on behind the scenes,”

says Boris Masník and adds:

“During my meetings with festival-goers, I would like to point out, among other things, that the film tricks carried out in our films haven't lagged behind in quality in terms of world film productions. And this is evidenced by the fact that Czech special effects specialists and companies are successfully cooperating and successfully building on the tradition established by Karel Zeman and our other special effects artists.” 

A no less important theme of the festival, which will be reflected especially in the supporting program, is the celebration of the festival's 60th year.

“This important year, which rounds the impressive numbering line to the sixties, will not be without wonderful meetings, surprises and events. I believe our visitors will enjoy it,”

says Executive Director Jarmila Záhorová and she gives examples from the upcoming program:

“We will certainly please audiences during the opening of the festival itself in the form of a public opening on the Gahura Prospect; we are preparing a big children's party for the youngest of our visitors.”

There will also be an exhibition of large format crowd photographs from past festivals, a modern virtual gallery mapping the festival's history, a special festival time machine, and another activities. The history of the festival will also be commemorated by an upcoming documentary by Czech Television directed by Tomáš Luňák, a Zlín native. 

A traditional part of the Zlín Film Festival will again be the auction of artistically rendered film clapperboards. The 23rd Clapperboard Salon will start on March 17 in Prague. CLAPPERBOARD TOUR 2020 will again have 5 stops this year – starting in Prague, it will then head out to Mladá Boleslav, Olomouc, Brno and Zlín, culminating in a traditional auction, which will take place on May 31 at the Congress Center. 

For the fifth time, the film festival in Zlín will finish with the Festival Half-Marathon MONET + Zlín, which is scheduled to start on Saturday, June 6 at 4 pm, again starting at the Zlín Congress Centre.  Preceding this, at 2 pm, will be the popular Festival Family Run; it's a 1400-meter course designed for parents with children and for those who prefer shorter runs. It will start again on the main square at Náměstí Míru. 

The Zlín Film Festival will move to Mikulov from June 12 to 16, where the Mikulov Echoes of the Zlín Film Festival will take place for the fourth time. 

Film submission for 60th Zlín Film Festival

Submission deadline is March 1, 2020.
more...

2020: Back to the Future
as a theme for the anniversary 60th Zlín Film Festival

The section aims to broaden the horizons of young visitors in the area of science and technology. The films will be dramaturgically divided into three groups: documentary films on science and technology, live-action sci-fi films for young audience, and a section devoted to visual film effects.
more...

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Submission deadline
is approaching!

Dear filmmakers, you still have a few days till the submission deadline for 60th Zlín Film Festival that takes place from May 29 to June 2020. It is looking for new feature films for children and youth, short animations, European documentaries and feature debuts and student films.
Please submit your films by March 1, 2020.
more...

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The way we were
Discover & Explore

Thematic section of 59th ZFF was Discover & Explore showing films about nature, travelling and indigenous people. In total 280 films from 51 countries were screened. More than 170 delegations arrived in Zlín to introduce 80 films. Films screenings were attended by 42,000 viewers.
Take a tour of the past edition in this video.
more...

The Zlín Film Festival – International Film Festival for Children and Youth is the oldest and, currently, largest film festival of its kind in the world. The festival’s mission is to present a wide range of high-quality international film productions for children and teenagers and to make them accessible to a young audience. An important aspect of the festival is to develop the young audience’s aesthetic, social, and moral feelings, and to expand their awareness of the outside world. Every year the festival welcomes more than 100,000 visitors, hosts numerous international film delegations presenting their creative work, and attracts children’s film professionals from around the globe. The aim of the program is to contribute to the development of Czech cinema for children and youth. The organizer of the festival is the company FILMFEST, s.r.o.

Thanks to film incentives, nearly 80 films and series were shot in the Czech Republic in 2019. Implementation of projects brought revenues of almost CZK 9 billion (USD 393 million / EUR 363 million) to the Czech economy. A large portion of this comprises series filmed for online platforms such as Netflix or Amazon.

"We have calculated the revenue from projects filmed in the Czech Republic last year at CZK 8.9 billion. Foreign productions alone almost doubled compared with 2018, and are at their absolute peak since we began following this indicator. For the state it is most advantageous to provide as many film incentives as possible because higher incentives generate higher returns for the Czech economy," said Helena Bezděk Fraňková, director of the Czech Film Fund.

Among the most significant projects filmed in 2019 in the Czech Republic were major television series such as the second season of Carnival Row for Amazon and the epic fantasy The Wheel of Time for Amazon and Sony. Filming of both series will continue this year. The family film A Boy Called Christmas, the fantasy series The Letter for the King, and the sci-fi drama Tribes of Europa were all filmed in the Czech Republic for Netflix. Other productions included the mystery thriller Shadowplay, the second season of the wartime drama Das Boot, as well as the second season of Miracle Workers starring Steve Buscemi and Daniel Radcliffe. 

Over the past two years, the pressure to produce audiovisual content has increased worldwide. Individual countries have begun responding flexibly, introducing film incentives in places where they previously didn’t work, and increasing the percentages. Head of the Czech Film Commission Pavlina Žipková confirms this increase in foreign productions, particularly television series: "In 2018, series made up about 65% of the total; in 2019 that increased to nearly 80%. More and more often, entire series are filmed here, not just several or even individual episodes, as was the case in the past. The primary attraction for foreign producers is and will be film incentives – there's no question. But the wide variety of Czech locations, the architectural diversity, and more also play a huge role, not to mention our highly-skilled Czech craftsmen. Our film professionals are some of the best in the world – Czechs excel not only in directorial positions but also in individual production departments." 

In 2019, the Czech Film Fund paid a total of CZK 1.2 billion (USD 52.4 million / EUR 48.3 million) in incentives to 71 projects. This total includes projects that were filmed in the Czech Republic in previous years, such as the first season of Carnival Row with Hollywood megastar Orlando Bloom (filmed for Amazon in 2017-2019). This project is also the current record holder, incurring almost CZK 1.7 billion (USD 74.2 million / EUR 68.5 million) of eligible costs. The Czech Film Fund refunded an amount of CZK 296 million (USD 13 million / EUR 12 million) to the project. Film productions spend much more in the Czech Republic than only eligible costs, such as expenses that are not eligible under the incentive system, as well as private expenses incurred by actors and crew members. 

In 2019, the Czech Film Fund received 117 applications for registration of new projects that would be filmed here. These included not just turnkey production for international projects, but also co-production projects. In comparison, in 2018, 112 applications were received and 76 in 2017.

International productions spent over 1400 shooting days in the Czech Republic last year making it over 400 more than in 2018. Interest in filming in the Czech Republic continues to rise.

In addition to the short film entitled Dcera (Daughter), two more films developed in the Czech Republic within the dok.incubator workshop also scored points at the prestigious Sundance American film festival awards ceremony on Saturday. The Ukrainian filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk won the Documentary Directing Award for her debut documentary The Earth is Blue as an Orange depicting a family facing life traumas in the middle of a war zone. The camera prize went to Mircea Topoleanu and Radu Ciorniciuc for the peculiar Romanian documentary Acasa, My Home. Radu Ciorniciuc, director, screenwriter and director of photography, presents a dramatic story of a family forced to leave the Bucharest Delta wilderness and to adapt to the life in the city. Both are debut films by young filmmakers. They succeeded in getting to Sundance film festival also thanks to the remarkably high-quality film production and creative editing which they worked on for six months under the professional guidance of twenty leading European lecturers within the Czech dok.incubator workshop.

The prestigious Prague workshop which has been helping to develop ambitious documentary projects from all over the world for nine years, has achieved great success this year. And it was not only the success of the three films at the Sundance competition. Two other films that went through the dok.incubator were shown at Berlinale last year (Lapü and Searching Eva), one film was nominated at the European Film Awards (The Disappearance of My Mother), and another film won the Emmy Award (Worker’s Cup). The dok.incubator films are frequently acquired by the major world players and can be viewed on Netflix, HBO or as a part of POV television series. 

The dok.incubator is a unique workshop intended for documentary filmmakers with international ambitions that does not operate exclusively within the European context. It helps with creative editing, but it also focuses on marketing and distribution planning, ensuring the documentaries stand the best chance of succeeding in the international competition. “Dok.incubator has proven to be an invaluable source of fresh talent and surprising, unconventional approaches to storytelling. Based on our experience, I can say that this is a workshop that is very intense on the one hand but, on the other, has the capacity for finding a very personal approach of lecturers and mentors to each film. And it is this very approach of lecturers and mentors that helps to create the most interesting film stories,” says Sundance festival selector Harry Vaughn who regularly visits the workshop to select films for the competition section. The Earth is Blue as an Orange, the Sundance winning film, will have its Czech premiere in Prague as a part of the One World film festival (5th – 14th March 2020), with the award-winning film director Iryna Tsilyk expected to be present.

Detailed information about the dok.incubator: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Web

Established in 2010 in collaboration with the DOK Leipzig festival, dok.incubator is a think-tank of experienced providers of professional education intended to help medium-sized and small production companies from different countries to face the crisis of the audiovisual industry. The first year took place in 2012 and a great success followed immediately. The film entitled The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear won the main prize for directing at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States. Another success came the following year and the good reputation of the workshop made it possible to recruit the most well-known editors from Europe and other countries, invite respected sales agents as well as producers and selectors of the leading international festivals. These experts count among active players of the world cinematography and participate in creation of numerous international films. Both their practical experience and their know-how contributed significantly to the development of the practical format of the workshop.  

The workshop also collaborates with Czech filmmakers and participated in a whole range of important Czech documentaries and has helped a number of Czech film directors with introducing their debut documentaries to the leading European film festivals. These documentaries included, for instance, the following: 

Planeta Česko (Wilder Than Wilderness), Švéd v žigulíku (The Russian Job), Budovatelé říše (The Empire Builders) and Central Bus Station. “As early as the first year, we offered the Czech film professionals intensive editing and dramaturgic consultations that often spontaneously led to a longer-term collaboration based on the enthusiasm of the lecturers. The success of the student film entitled Nebezpečný svět Rajka Dolečka (The Dangerous World of Doctor Doleček) which came to us in its creative crisis and was taken care of by the French editor Yael Bitton or the Stále spolu (Always Together) documentary made by the journalist Eva Tomanová, has shown us to what extent the long-term creative and production support as well as the fresh outside view can affect the quality and distribution of Czech films,” explains the workshop director Andrea Prenghyová.    

 

The doc.incubator project is supported by Creative Europe - MEDIA Program, State Cinematography Fund, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Audiovisual Fund, EEA and Norway Funds, International Visegrad Fund, APA - Audiovisual Producers Association, AVEK - Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture, Nordisk Film & TV Fond and the Czech Centre.