WARSAW: The French black comedy Grand Froid by debut director Gérard Pautonnier will begin filming in Krakow in January 2016.

PRAGUE: The leading pitching competition for animation in CEE, the Visegrad Animation Forum (VAF), is accepting applications from projects in development for the 2016 session, held 5-8 May in the South Bohemian spa town of Trebon.

Applicants have until 7 December to apply for the free documentary workshop.

WARSAW: Producers from Poland and Germany are invited to apply for funding from the Polish-German Film Fund.

HAMBURG: The Board of Directors of European Film Promotion (EFP) appointed Sonja Heinen to replace Renate Rose as Managing Director of the pan-European network at their recent meeting in Hamburg.

BRATISLAVA: Slovak production company Alef Film&Media Group is developing a documentary about an 81-year-old Slovak artist, Alex Mlynarcik.

PRAGUE: The Czech Lion Awards, the national awards of the film industry, announced the addition of three competition categories for television production.

PRAGUE: Vojtech Jasny was given Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts Golden Medal, its highest honour, on 30 November 2015. Jasny was an early graduate of the academy’s film programme, FAMU.

FNE asked Mirsad Purivatra the winner of this year’s Europa Cinemas Entrepreneur of the Year Award about how festivals and cinemas can work together and what role innovation can play to bring European films to a wider audience.