The competition programme "New Europe - New Names" at the Vilnius International Film Festival "Kino Pavasaris" has selected a formidable collection of Eastern and Central European films. The audience is invited to 11 thrilling, refreshing brand new films thoroughly selected by an international jury. These particular foreign films are all contenders in the line to become the highlights of the festival. They have already proved their potential at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Pusan, San Sebastian, Locarno and Warsaw film festivals.

The competition programme "New Europe - New Names" will kicked start in the second half of the festival programme on the 26th of March at "Forum Cinemas Vingis" with the romantic comedy "Hello! How Are You?". This film once again proves that Roumania is a country of unfading talents. The best film will be screened on the closing day of the festival (31st of March), which will be decided by the five member jury.

Jury members at the Vilnius international film festival are: Milcho Manchevskij, macedonian director; Nadya Turyncev, producer, Gary Mc Vey, director of American cinema foundation, Alante Kavaite, lithuanian director and script writer, currently living in France and Fred Kelemen, director and cinematographer.

CICAE jury will also evaluate the films and will search for the one, that would fit into repertoirs of European independent cinemas. The members of CICAE jury, who came to Vilnius, are - Tejinder Jouhal from Institute of Contemporary art (ICA) London, Peter Muscatics, communication director of Hungary's leading international film festival CineFest and Christopher Gatt, General Manager of St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Malta.

"Woman With the Broken Nose" is a playful film starring Braca Katič, who has also appeared in the famous Emir Kusturica comedy "Black Cat White Cat". This film debuted at the Novi Sad and Karlovy Var film festivals and won the Grand Prix at Zurich Film Festival in 2010.

Marek Lechki‘s drama "Erratum" received the Best Debut award at Gdynia Film Festival in 2010 and continues to fetch awards all over the world. This Polish film was given a second place title at Pusan Festival, triumphed at the Chicago Film Festival and was awarded for the Best Debut at Thessaloniki International Film Film.

Polish cinema will be represented by "The Christening" - Best Film award winner at Gdynia Film Festival. Loosely based on the biblical story of Cain and Able, the film is a chilling story about the underground Warsaw, governed by mafia rules. This film has been screened at Toronto, San Sebastian, Reykjavik and Hong Kong Festivals.

You will not see any real fights in the Hungarian kung-fu comedy "Children of Green Dragon", but rather sincere conversations between two oddballs. This film began its festival tour with Pusan, Valladolid and Warsaw.

The most awarded contestant of the "New Europe - New Names" is the famous documentary director Sergej Loznica, whose first feature is about a lory driver and his adventures on the tricky roads of Russia. The film‘s scandalous debut earned invitations to Toronto, London, New York and Rotterdam, and won main prizes at Kiev, Minsk and Tallinn.

Rightly acknowledged by the New Directors programme, the Bulgarian director Dragomir Sholev drama "Shelter" tells a story about rebellious teenagers‘ struggle through adolescence. The film is co-written with the screenwriter of the famous "Death of Mr. Lazarescu" Razavan Radulescu. Irena Hristoskova, who convincingly played the teenage punk, will be coming to Vilnius to present the film.

The audience of "Kino Pavasaris" will also have a unique opportunity to meet the European Cinema Academy nominated Croatian National Theatre actress Zrinka Cvitešic. She played a dramatic role in the Jasmila Zbanič film "On the Path", where her character fights the pressures of fundamentalist religious community, that is destroying her love. Jasmila Zbanič has previously been awarded a "Golden Lion" at Berlin Film Festival for "Grbavica", which was show in "Kino Pavasaris" in 2007.

Awarded a "Future Lion" at Venice Film Festival, "Majority" is a feature that tackles the issues of hierarchy in the domestic life of a traditional Turkish family. Usurping father forbids his grown up son to date a girl of Kurdish decent.

Similar problems occur in the Slovakian family drama "The House", where a despotic father stands in the way of his daughters happiness. This Zuzana Liova film premiered at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival.

Both Romanian contestants in "Kino Pavasaris" started off at Locarno Film Festival, which opened the doors to international audiences. Marian Crisan, who debuted with the comedy drama "Morgen" fetched four prizes - Special Jury, Ecumenical Jury, Youth Jury Diploma and an International Film Club Award "Don Quixote". Shot on the border between Roumania and Hungary the film is about a Romanian sheltering a Turkish immigrant, who hopes to cross the border and escape to Germany.

Columbia graduate film director Bogdan George Apetri co-wrote his award winning debut scrip with the famous writer Cristianu Mungiu ("4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days") and two other co-writers. "Pacific" - the "Golden Alexander" prize winner at Thessaloniki Film Festival - is a film about a woman who is released from jail for 24 hours, but has no intention of coming back. Ana Ularu received the Critic‘s prize at the Locarno Film Festival for the phenomenal portrayal of the prisoner; she later received Best Actress prizes at Warsaw and Thessaloniki.

For more information:

Rita Stanelytė

Public realtions officer

16th Vilnius International Film Festival "Kino Pavasaris"

Tel. 8 618 19659

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All information about the festival, and images:

http://kinopavasaris.ftpserveris.lt

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In cooperation with EAVE, the Georgian National Film Center organized the Workshop I for film professionals from Georgia.

5 producer-writer/director teams with feature film projects in development and 5 participants without project attended the Workshop I.

The workshop was given by EAVE experts:

· Alan Fountain (Head of studies, Luxemburg)
· Clare Downs (Script consultant, UK)
· Riina Sildos (Group leader, Estonia)
· Denis Vaslin (Co-production expert, the Netherlands)


Workshop I covered following aspects:

· Script development
· Project development
· Financing on the development and production stages; financing of co-production
· Pitching
· Project packaging

Mini EAVE Georgia 2011 participants are:

With project:

1. Charter Flight (Producer: Irakli Bagaturia, Director: Vakho Varazi)
2. Professor in Love (Producer: Archil Gelovani, Director/Writer: Levan Koguashvili)
3. Hippocratic Oath (Producer: Anna Dziapshipa, Writer: Sandro Jandieri)
4. Tortoise (Producer/Writer/Director: Valerian Kirkitadze)
5. Tomorrow (Producer: Sophie Bazgadze, Director/Writer: Keti Machavariani)

Participants without project:

1. Sofia Roinishvili
2. Irakli Sharabidze
3. Zviad Eliziani
4. Nika Mdivani
5. Sandro Katamashvili

Mini EAEV Georgia is fully subsidized by the Georgian National Film Center.

The second workshop will be held on July 15-17, 2011. Thanks to a special partnership with Baltic Event, one of the mini EAVE projects will have the opportunity to be selected for participation at the Baltic Event in Tallinn, Estonia, in December, 2011.


MEETINGS ON THE BRIDGE 2011


In its sixth year, the Meetings on the Bridge (MoB), aims at creating a platform, a meeting point for the film industry within the frame of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival. The programme continues to bring together Turkish and European producers, directors, scriptwriters and representatives of institutions to provide the opportunity for Turkish filmmakers to make the first international presentations of their feature film projects, and build a platform for co-productions.


Meetings on the Bridge is introducing the Turkish-German Co-Production Film Development Fund in collaboration with Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg and Hamburg Schleswig Holstein Funds and the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism,with a budget of 150.000 Euro.


In addition, for the first time, Turkish-French Co-production Meetings and meetings with Italian Filmmakers Meetings will take place.


The guests of this year's platform include Eric Garandeau, President of CNC; Marit van den Elshout, Head of Cinemart / Rotterdam Film Festival; Marten Rabarts, Artistic Director of Binger Lab; Claire Launay from ARTE; Mira Staleva from Sofia Film Lab; Roberto Olla, Executive Director - Eurimages; Savina Neirotti, Head of Torino Film Lab; Sonja Heinen, Head of Berlinale Co-production Market; Thibaut Bracq, Head of Paris Project; Katriel Schory, Head of Israel Film Fund; and award winning producers such as Cedomir Kolar (No Man's Land), Ilann Girard (Lebanon, Goodbye Bafana, March of the Penguins); and Stéphane Parthenay (Pyramid and co-producer of Three Monkeys).


Film Development Workshop, 13-14 April
The fourth Film Development Workshop, which receive great attention from cinema professionals, organised as part of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival will take place on April 13 and 14 this year.

The producers and directors of the 12 film projects selected from among the 99 projects submitted this year will be having one-to-one meetings with producers, distributors and the representatives of international institutions including Rotterdam Film Festival, Eurimages, ARTE, Cinemart, Binger Lab, Torino Film Lab, and Fortissimo Films. Through these meetings, directors and producers of the elected projects find the opportunity to make the preliminary preparations and spadework for international co-production workshops and markets they will be taking part in. They also get the chance to realize the initial contact with producers and distributors who are interested in their projects and perform their international presentations without leaving the country.

At the end of the meetings, two projects will receive the $10.000 Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism Development support, the 25.000 TL worth Melodika Post-Production Support, and 10.000 Euro CNC Support. For the first time this year, Dutch film institution Binger Lab will award a project with 2.500 Euro worth of Script Development Scholarship.

The award winning project of 2008, Zefir (Zephyr) by Belma Baş was completed in 2010 and it received the Artistic Achievement Award at the 51st Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Rajata Chakoram Award (Silver Crow Pheasant) in the 'Best Debut Film' category at the 15th Kerala International Film Festival. Zephyr continues the festival tour.

The shooting of Sesime Gel (Come to My Voice) by Hüseyin Karabey, that received the 2009 award, will start in October 2011 and the shooting of Babamın Sesi (Voice of My Father) by Orhan Eskiköy - Zeynel Doğan, one of the award winning projects of 2010, will start in May 2011. Another award winning project, Üst Kattaki Terörist (Terrorist Upstairs) by Emre Yeksan, is currently in script writing stage. Ebedi Uykusuz (Last Sleepless) by İlke Yeşilay, which was considered praiseworthy by the jury, received the 10,000 Euro support award of the Balkan Fund at the 51st Thessaloniki Film Festival.

The Film Development Workshop is frequented especially by European producers and distributors who wish to get informed on film projects and meet the filmmakers . This year, 14 film professionals will conduct meetings with the producers and directors of the projects .

Turkish-German Co-Production Film Development Fund

The Istanbul Film Festival - Meetings on the Bridge, in collaboration with Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg and Hamburg Schleswig Holstein Funds with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is proud to set up for the first time this year, the Turkish and German Co-production Development Fund. The foundations of the fund had been laid during the Turkish-German Co-Productions Panel conducted within the scope of the Meetings On The Bridge Platform of the 29th Istanbul Film Festival.

Set up for encouraging new co-productions and cultural interaction between the two countries, the fund was formed by these three institutions with a total budget of 150,000 Euro. The fund is open to applications of Turkish-German co-productions, which haven't started shooting yet. The projects receiving funds will be announced on 14 April, following the evaluation by the jury consisting of representatives of the three institutions.

Turkish-French Co-production Meetings and Panel

This year, again for the first time, Turkey-France Co-production Meetings will be organized in cooperation with CNC, Unifrance and the French Embassy, bringing together film professionals from the two countries with the purpose of building a platform for co-productions. Filmmakers from Turkey whose projects were selected will be making their presentations to producers, distributors and representatives of funds and institutions from France.

Apart from project presentations, Turkey-France co-productions will be discussed over case studies at a panel. Open to all film professionals and film buffs, the panel will be held at the French Cultural Center on 12 April. (advance accreditation TL 75 / at the entrance TL 100)

Turkish-Italian Cooperation Meetings

Within the scope of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival, the Italian Trade Commission / Centre and Rome MedFilm Festival / MedFilm Festival from Rome are organizing bilateral / B2B meetings between Italian film producers and Turkish TV channels, film buyers and distributors on 14 April at Lütfi Kırdar Congress Center. The aim of these meetings is to initialize possible cooperation between the film industries of these two countries.

For more info:

Zeynep Özbaşaran, E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., T: +90 212 373 0300


Meetings On The Bridge continues to offer new opportunities to all filmmakers and support them in all stages of their films.
For further information, please contact:
onthebridge@iksvorg
T: +90 212 334 07 91
For media enquiries:

Elif Obdan
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T: +90 212 334 07 13

Kino Polska TV S.A., the producer and distributor of Kino Polska Television as well as of the television channels from the FilmBox Group, is planning to debut on the Stock Market. Kino Polska expects to gain between 36 and 40 million PLN from its first public offer. Kino Polska TV has closed the book-building. The final allocation of shares will take place on the 31 March.


With the funds obtained from the public market Kino Polska TV is going to develop its offer, as well as invest in its infrastructure introducing new thematic channels, both based on the Kino Polska formula (Kino Polska HD, Kino Polska Muzyka and Kino Polska Nostalgia), and stations from the FilmBox group. - We can see a vivid interest among our subscribers and operators in the introduction of channels based on a well received and successful Kino Polska Television model. In the near future we are planning to offer Kino Polska HD, a channel that will enable the reception of Kino Polska Television channels in High Definition and Kino Polska Muzyka that will feature the history of Polish popular music. We have already received the initial declarations from the cable and satellite television operators concerning the introduction of the new channels to their offer - says Piotr Reisch,


The President of Kino Polska TV Management Board. In addition, we are currently working on extending our premium services with new television channels from the FilmBox group: FilmBox Action HD, FashionBox HD as well as FightBox HD. - adds Piotr Reisch.


Kino Polska TV goals' are to become the leading player on the market of premium thematic television in Central and Eastern Europe.


The funds obtained from the investors will also enable the company to intensify its work on the digitalization of its film library, it will also enable the company to purchase new licenses that will enrich its offer, as well as to intensify its activity in the field of film production.


In the year 2010 Kino Polska TV generated sales revenues in the amount of 47 million PLN yielding a net profit of 9 million PLN.


NOBLE Securities is the entity offering the Kino Polska TV Company stocks.

Kino Polska TV S.A. is responsible for the production and distribution of Kino Polska Television (winner of the "Telekamery Tele Tygodnia 2011" award for the best film channel, two times winner of the prestigious Hot Bird TV Award, in 2005 and 2010, as well as the winner of the Polish Film Institute Award). Our television has for many years been in the forefront of the thematic channel ratings in Poland. What is more, the company produces and distributes the FilmBox theme channels. The Premium film channels offer consisting of FilmBox HD, FilmBox Family, FilmBox Extra is, next to HBO and Canal +, one of the best in Poland. Kino Polska and the other channels from the FilmBox group are distributed by the biggest and most important operators in Poland and across Europe.

At present, Kino Polska S.A. produces channels for the Czech, Slovakian, Hungarian, Romanian and Spanish markets. In the near future we will start broadcasting new theme channels produced by the company in other European markets. These will include, among others, FilmBox Action HD, FashionBox HD, and FightBox HD.

Another Kino Polska TV S.A. activity is film production. In the year 2009 Kino Polska Television produced a short film, Hanoi-Warsaw (Hanoi-Warszawa), directed by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz, which was awarded by the EFA (European Film Academy). Another film co-produced by Kino Polska, A Simple Story about Love (Prosta Historia o Miłości), has received high recognition among journalists and film critics (the Grand Prix of the Independent Cinema Competition at the 35th edition of the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia). Moreover, its director, Arkadiusz Jakubik, has been proclaimed the most outstanding newcomer of the year in film directing.

The Kino Polska Television Publishing House, which was established in 2008, continues the mission of the station. By releasing DVDs with the Polish film-makers' masterpieces, it popularizes Polish cinematography. The Publishing House promotes domestic culture not only in Poland, but also abroad. This activity has been acknowledged with an Award of the Polish Film Institute (PISF).

Kino Polska TV S.A. is also the owner of a majority share in Stopklatka S.A. - a film portal which has been awarded by the Polish Film Institute for its contribution

in the development of Polish cinematography. In July 2010, Stopklatka SA had its debut on the New Connect market.

For more information please contact:


Bogusław Kisielewski
The General Director of Kino Polska Television
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T: +48 22 356 74 00

Norbert Kozioł
Vice-President of NOBLE Securities Management Board
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T: +48 12 422 31 00


Aristoteles Workshop invites you to apply! Join us directly on www.aworkshop.org!

Please find attached our call for entries for this summer.

The application deadline: May 31, 2011.

"Mountain Rescue Team" - the TVP1 series directed by Marcin Wrona has been nominated for the prestigious Golden Nymph Prize in four categories of the forthcoming Monte-Carlo TV Festival. Natalia Rybicka and Dorota Landowska got nominated in the Best Actress category, Tomasz Schuchardt and Przemysław Bluszcz - in the Best Actor category, while the producers were distinguished in the Best International and the Best European Producer categories. The 51st edition of the Monte - Carlo TV Festival will take place between June 6 - 10, 2011.

The protagonists are three film studios: in Russia (Mosfilm), in Poland (WFF nr1) and in Belarus (Belarusfilm) and three film directors: Vyrypayev, Żuławski and Kudinenko who currently work there. These were the three most important film studios in the former Eastern bloc. They were the birthplace for a generation raised in a controlled distribution of culture, socialist economy and permanent oppression. One day, the system collapsed and so did the studios.

The 8th East Silver, a documentary market specialized in Central and East European documentary films, is now open for submissions! Submit your film to the biggest internationally recognized database of creative feature and television documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe.

PRESS RELEASE

25th February 2011


EEFA TRAINING NETWORK DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS SELECTION


EAST EUROPEAN FILM ALLIANCE, a consortium of eleven Eastern European film organizations is announcing the selected documentary projects for this year’s training programme:

1. See you in Chechnia - Georgia - Lokokina Studio – with EEFA scholarship

2. How Much is Morality? - Ukraina - New Kyiv Production – with EEFA scholarship

3. Lost in Transition - Croatia - Kinematograph

4. In the Mirror - Bulgaria - KOTA + 1

5. Russian - French Family of Ivanovs - Lithuania/ Russia - Studja Ju

6. Grandparents' Tour - Estonia/ Ukraine - Red Fox

7. Hyjacked! - Romania - Hatch Films and Sub-cult-ura

Congratulations to everybody involved in the projects!

The schedule for the documentaries training programme is the following: Scriptwriting in Zagreb (3-7 March) in parallel with ZagrebDox, Management of Film Production in Kiev and Legal and Distribution Matters in Tallinn, and on the online platform, in between.

The first training will benefit of the presence of the following experts: Catherine Buresi – Head of Studies, Jacques Laurent – Content Expert, Dorota Roszkowska – Visiting Expert, and others.

The list above represents only the first half of the EEFA selected projects for this year, the fiction projects will be announced next week. The trainings for these will be held in Sofia, Kiev and Tallinn and also on the online platform.

The EEFA Consortium is coordinated by the RFS (Romanian Film Sector, Romania) and has for 2011 the following partners: HAVC (Croatian Audiovisual Center)– Croatia, IFF Molodist (Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist) – Ukraine, ALTFilm (ALTFilm) – Moldova, ASA (Ankara Cinema Association) – Turkey, BNFC (Bulgarian National Film Center ) and GEOPOLY (Geopoly Film) – Bulgaria, IFF Moscow (Moscow International Film Festival) – Russia, PÖFF Tallinn (PÖFF - Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival ) – Estonia, LNFC - National Film Centre of Latvia, Georgian National Film Center – Georgia and State Film Fund from Ministry of Culture and Tourism Azerbaidjan.

Alongside our partners, the initiative is supported by Media Mundus.

For all other information, please access http://eefa-eu.org/ or send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


CONTACT

Coordonator

CATALIN LEESCU

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Mobile +40 753 125 237

Project Executive

C.OANA A. VENAT-DUMITRIU

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Mobile: +40 753 125 247

Tel/fax: +40 21 320 60 72

Project Manager

RUXANDRA CERNAT

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Mobile: +40 753 166 046

Online Manager

SORINA DIACONU

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Mobil: +4 0742 140 43

Tel/fax: +40 21 320 6072

The 13th One World - International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival takes place March 8 - 17, 2011, with over 100 documentaries divided into several sections. Several new programmes have been introduced this year, such as New Media for Social Change, NonComm featuring social ads, and an industry section organized by One World and Documentary Campus, with support of IDF.