SOFIA: The Bulgarian/Danish/French coproduction Godless directed by Ralitza Petrova has been nominated for the European Film Academy’s European Discovery 2017 – Prix FIPRESCI.
Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event announce the projects for the Script Pool and POWR Baltic Stories Exchange
Festivals 19-10-2017
The two initiatives by Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event that work with script projects, have announced the 2017 participants.
Script Pool Tallinn is the new script development competition that is launching at this year’s Industry@Tallinn with the main prize including 5000 euros and mentoring sessions with a professional script doctor, both provided by the European leading licensing company Telepool. Seven teams consisting of scriptwriters and producers will be competing in Tallinn at the open pitch on the November 30th of November.
Triin Tramberg, Industry@Tallinn ScriptPool competition coordinator comments: "We are positively surprised to have such a diverse and great selection of projects for the premier edition of Script Pool and it's wonderful to welcome back a couple of filmmakers who already have a history with the Black Nights Film Festival."
Selected projects
Pekka Lehto, Mika Purola (Finland) - The Box
In the fatal fall of the Finnish mobile giant Nokia, a middle-aged lawyer lost his fortune and decided to commit a perfect crime to save himself and his family from ruin. The Box is by well-known Finnish film writers and directors, Pekka Lehto and Mika Purola.
Marteinn Thorsson (Iceland) - Yosoy
Yosoy is the only TV-series selected in Script Poo and isl by the director Marteinn Thorsson who directed the very controversial XL. Yosoy is about a celebrated neurologist hired by a shadowy group of billionaires to investigate YOSOY, an underground circus of extreme performance artists in a village in Iceland. At the same time, a burnt and dismembered body is discovered in a nearby glacial lagoon.
Aleksander Kott (Russia) - The Lighthouse
The Lighthouse is set on a remote island. The story follows the aging lighthouse keeper, Zavyalov, and how his life irreversibly change after he finds a pregnant woman washed up on the shore after the boat she was on sank during a storm. Alexander Kott is a Russian director known for his 2014 film The Test and 2015 Insight, which travelled around the world - including Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival - winning various prizes for script, direction, and cinematography.
Igor Cobileanski (Romania) - Coma
Coma is a third person told drama that tries to follow, in a linear manner, the evolution of the main character – Alina – a 45-year-old woman, religious, modest, sincere – medical nurse at the emergency hospital. The context in which life puts her are complex and Alina has to make an important decision that will shatter her personal, moral and religious principles. The film is from Igor Cobileanski, whose 2016 Eastern Business premiered in the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Official Selection.
Andrea Pallaoro, Orlando Tirado - Monica
Monica is an intimate observation of a transgender woman returning to her Ohio hometown to take care of her dying mother, who is in the advanced stages of breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Monica has not seen her mother in over 35 years, since being kicked out of her home. The project is by Andrea Pallaoro whose recent film Hannah premiered in the main competition of the 2017 Venice International Film Festival and will screen at Black Nights. Orlando Tirado has been collaborating with Andrea since 2000, co-authoring projects including Wunderkammer and the award-winning Medeas.
Andrius Lekavicius (Lithuania) - Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday VR is an experience based on real events that happened on January the 13th 1991, in Vilnius, Lithuania. Using the archive audio and real setting of the events animated in 3D, the VR experience will create a based-on-true-event storytelling piece where the user can make his own decisions. Screenwriter Andrius Lekavicius is an all-around media storyteller and interactive orchestra conductor for the images, forms, and medias. He has built a profile of projects on various media platforms: from creating brand image to VR experiences, from directing high-end commercials to his first feature documentary Game of the Nation.
Shonali Bose (India) - The Sky Is Pink
Shonali Bose is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker. Both her feature narrative films – Amu and Margarita, With a Straw – played in over 150 film festivals including TIFF, Berlin and Black Nights and has won numerous prestigious international awards. Her The Sky Is Pink is based on a true story that spans 30 years in the life of a family who find the ability to remain positive and happy in the face of terrible tragedy.
POWR Baltic Stories Exchange gives Nordic and Baltic screenwriters access to an informal and international forum where they can present their projects and writing talent during the largest regional film market in Northeastern Europe. This year’s selection includes projects from I@T&BE’s focus region Flanders, Belgium. The workshop mentor is Valeria Richter (Denmark/TFL), pitch coach Helene Granqvist (Sweden), and selected industry guests. The open pitch will take place on November the 29th, and will be followed by a round-table session where selected producers and other film industry representatives will share their feedback and advice.
Selected projects
Birute Kapustinskaite (Lithuania) – 200 Beats per Minute
Elina Veira (Latvia) – Met-a-way
Gilles Weyns (Flanders, Belgium) – My Name is Howitt
Heidi Lindén (Finland) – The Night Train is Coming
Hilde Heier (Norway) – The Opera Singer
Osmond Karim (Sweden) – The Macabre Mysteries of Viktor Kasparsson
Teresa Mecklin (Finland) – The Pretending Game
Valeria Richter, POWR Head of Studies says: "This year you’ll meet two strong biopics, one about a British female historical painter, writer and women’s rights activist, and one telling the story of a world famous Norwegian opera singer; two family dramas each with their unique comic voice; a dark action story set in the corporate world; a strong character drama laced with magic realism; and finally, a grand fantasy story based on two graphic novels."
2017 marks the 10-year anniversary of POWR Baltic Stories Exchange. The workshop was launched by our region’s MEDIA Desks with the goal to bring forward the young talent of the Nordic and Baltic countries. A few years into its success, POWR was moved under the Baltic Event Co-Production Market to give the participants an even wider forum to present their stories. Over the years, many participating projects have found a producer from Baltic Event. Several stories have become films and travelled Europe and beyond. We are especially proud of the Estonian scriptwriters Livia Ulman and Andris Feldmanis, whose film Pretenders (formerly Metaphors We Live), directed by Vallo Toomla, was a POWR project in 2012.
Happy 10th anniversary to all the POWR participants throughout the years!
Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event take place during Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival from November 27 until December 1.
Joining the programmes of its previous sub-festivals Animated Dreams and Sleepwalkers, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) introduces PÖFF Shorts, the newest festival in the Baltics dedicated to short films and animation.
The new format will keep the Animated Dreams and Sleepwalkers programmes with their respective competition programmes and programming teams. The animation programme will be curated by the award-winning animation director Priit Tender, with Laurence Boyce continuing as the live action short film programmer.
"It's great the PÖFF Shorts is here to showcase the absolute best of animated and live action shorts with the Black Nights Film Festival," said Laurence Boyce. "The legacy of Sleepwalkers and Animated Dreams will continue by screening audiences films from cutting edge talents and bold visionaries from across the world."
PÖFF Shorts Competition Programmes
In addition to the Sleepwalkers and Animated Dreams competition programmes, PÖFF Shorts will be hosting a joint National Competition programme designed to provide a platform for Estonian filmmakers and animation directors.
- Animated Dreams International Competition
- Sleepwalkers International Competition
- Animated Dreams Student Competition
- Sleepwalkers Student Competition
- PÖFF Shorts National Competition
The full competition programme and jury will be revealed by November 3rd, 2017.
Industry events
Parallel to PÖFF Shorts there will be an industry event Baltic Preview, a piloting networking event in the framework of PÖFF Shorts for film professionals initiated and coordinated by Estonian Short Film Centre ShortEST and Creative Gate. It’s goal is to be a representational and lobbying event for Baltic short films on the international level. During the 2-day event we showcase exclusively around 20 short films from Baltic countries, both works in progress and films straight out the oven to our invited guests - international programmers, agents and distributors.
Baltic Preview will take place from 24 - 25 November, 2017.
Tickets and passes
PÖFF Shorts passes available now Piletilevi: http://bit.ly/2yTIPdB
Single tickets will be available from November 10.
PÖFF Shorts press accreditation
The press accreditation for the 21st Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is open. For applying please visitvp.eventival.eu/poff/21.
The prices of the PRESS badge
18 August – 31 October – 35 EUR
1 November – 3 December – 50 EUR
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) is a unique event combining a feature film festival with the sub-festivals of animated films, short films and children/youth films. The festival aims to present Estonian audiences a comprehensive selection of world cinema in all its diversity, providing a friendly atmosphere for interaction between the audience and filmmakers from all around the world.
PÖFF Shorts international short film and animation festival takes place November 21-26 in Tallinn, Estonia.
The 21st Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) takes place November 17 to December 3 in Tallinn and Tartu.
PÖFF Shorts, http://shorts.poff.ee/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/poffshorts
Black Nights Film Festival, http://www.poff.ee
ShortEst Estonian Short Film Center, www.shortest.eu
Contact
Heinrich Sepp
PÖFF Shorts Marketing and Communications
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+372 5656 5599
The European Film Academy congratulates the nominees for the EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2017 – Prix FIPRESCI, an award presented annually as part of the European Film Awards to a young and upcoming director for a first full-length feature film.
Nominated are:
BLOODY MILK (Petit Paysan) by Hubert Charuel (France)
GODLESS (БЕЗБОГ) by Ralitza Petrova (Bulgaria, Denmark, France)
LADY MACBETH by William Oldroyd (UK)
SUMMER 1993 (Estiu 1993) by Carla Simón (Spain)
THE EREMITS (Die Einsiedler) by Ronny Trocker (Germany)
WARSAW: Polish private broadcaster TVN has commissioned a second season of the hit costume series Belle Epoque produced by Akson Studio.
WARSAW: Roman Polanski returned to Krakow for the shoot of a biographical film about his childhood, accompanied by his friend and photographer, Ryszard Horowitz.
COTTBUS: Four films have been selected for the first presentation of Works in Progress at the 19th edition of connecting cottbus, which takes place 9 – 10 November 2017.
Open letter to the Minister of Culture and National Heritage
This year's edition of The International Sound & Film Music Festival (ISFMF) will be held at Pula, Croatia from 20th to 22nd of October.
Festivals 13-10-2017ISFMF is one of only few festivals of this kind in the world. The mission of the festival is the promotion of film music and sound ad irreplaceable elements of the film, networking of composers, sound designers and engineers, filmmakers an other film and film music enthusiasts.
Lexicon of film acting, LUX Prize finalists and a selection of the most interesting European films in Bratislava IFF’s programme
Festivals 18-10-2017
The 19th edition of the Bratislava International Film Festival will revolve around and explore film acting, emerging stars of the contemporary film scene as well as time proven festival hits. Its Lexicon section will shed some light on the specifics, history and future of acting for film, starting with the perfect acting opposites of silent slapstick comedy – Chaplin and Keaton – and ending with virtual actors in the era of 3D cinema. As a traditional part of the festival programme, three finalists of the LUX Prize will also be introduced. The Bratislava IFF will moreover present a number of other notable European films from various prestigious festivals in their exclusive Slovak premieres.
By selection of its dramaturges, the main theme of the 19th edition of the Bratislava Film Festival will be the film actor. Its Lexicon programme section will comprise several films illustrating the history as well as specific challenges that the work of a film actor entails. In the genre of silent slapstick comedy, Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton are regarded as acting opposites. In the film The Floorwalker (1916), we’re following a hero who actively moves the plot forward and whose clumsiness serves as a source of various comic situations taking place in a department store. The main character in the film One Week (1920) is, by contrast, a passive and stoic "receiver" of different comic disasters.
In terms of acting work, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) with the legendary Marlon Brando in its lead role can be considered a breakthrough film due to its application of the so-called method acting principles. When compared to other actors starring in the film, Brando’s acting is noticeably more civil and more complex when dealing with emotions. The adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ theatre classic is a story of a woman struggling to preserve her mental health. Searching for a peaceful haven in the home of her sister Stella and her husband Stanley, she's unable to find it even there.
The section’s highlights will include a study of a consuming physical and psychological transformation of an actress who gradually merges with her character. The film Kate Plays Christine (2016) is the winner of last year’s Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in the category of documentary films. As a filmmaker, the film’s director Robert Greene systematically explores the concepts of fact and fiction, pretending and performing in different forms and contexts.
The Lexicon section also comprises accompanying programme, which will, among other things, demonstrate new technologies and working with a virtual actor. One of the top Slovak post production studios, Studio 727, will present the participants of its masterclass with motion-capture technology and a full-body scan, both a prerequisite for the future of film acting in the era of computer-generated and trick films.
Another film, loosely connected with this year’s main theme, is Requiem for Mrs. J. (Rekvijem za gospođu J., 2017), directed by Bojan Vuletić. The actress who plays a blinder is the fantastic Mirjana Karanović. The main character, whom she plays, virtually never leaves the projecting screen, remaining present in every shot. This tragicomedy with a successful festival career tells the story of an unemployed widow, meticulously preparing for her suicide. She pays her debts to the neighbours, tries to make peace with her pregnant daughter and submits an order at the stonemason’s. There are just a few more formalities to take care of, but in a country tossed in the midst of a social and economic transformation, not even these simple acts are easy.
In addition to its acting section, the Bratislava Film Festival will please its visitors with several acclaimed film hits. One of the Slovak premieres to look forward to is a new release of the all-star French director François Ozon called The Double Lover (L ' amant double, 2017). Chloé has a crush on her psychologist Paul, but gradually begins to realize that his past hides some truly dark secrets. One of them is the existence of his twin. This erotic film tells the story of the sexual imagination of a young torn woman, toying with the line between fantasy and reality. The film’s complex dual role is played by the Belgian actor Jérémie Renier.
A controversial portrait of one "velvet neo-Nazi", The White World According to Daliborek (Svět podle Daliborka, 2017), is the work of the acclaimed Czech director Vít Klusák. A soon to be forty-year-old worker and author of amateur horror videos Dalibor K. from Prostějov hates Jews, homosexuals, the Roma people, immigrants and spiders. He’s never had an actual relationship with a woman and still lives with his mother Věra. “He’s a good guy, he just has stupid opinions," says Věra about her son. However, it is opinions just like his that become symptomatic for whole groups of people in today's society.
The 19th edition of the Bratislava IFF also features three finalists of the LUX Prize, awarded by the European Parliament since 2007. As its current President Antonio Tajani said: "The Lux Prize not only brings cinema closer to citizens, but Europe to Europeans.”
In accordance with this creed, three remarkable European films made it to the finals. A French "queer" drama 120 Beats per Minute (120 battements par minute, 2017) by Robin Campillo, telling the story of the activist movement ACT UP, which tried to increase awareness of HIV in the early nineties in Paris. A character study on contemporary Europe, problems of integration and the search for identity called Western (2017), shot by the renowned German director and screenwriter Valeska Grisebach and Sami Blood (Sameblod, 2016), an engrossing directorial debut of a talented upcoming Swedish screenwriter Amanda Kernell, dedicated to a dark chapter of the Swedish colonial history.
The festival will also introduce the film Ciambra (A Ciambra, 2017), one of the top ten nominees for this year's LUX Prize and, at the same, Italy’s candidate for the Academy Awards. Ciambra is the name of a ghetto in southern Italy and the home of a closed Roma community. One of its members is a 14-year-old Pio, who piously looks up to his older brother Cosimo. One day Cosimo suddenly disappears and Pio decides to take his place. During his rapid maturation, Pio is accompanied by his good friend Aiyva, an illegal migrant from Burkina Faso. After his acclaimed feature debut Mediterranea, the talented director Jonas Carpignano has filmed yet another realistic film that so fantastically works with the spontaneity of its non-actors. Both films are part of a loose trilogy connected by the main protagonists. While in Mediterranea, the fate of a migrant called Aiyvu lies at the forefront of the story, Ciambra follows the life story of a young Roma boy Pio.
For latest updates on the programme of the 19th Bratislava International Film Festival, please visit our official website at www.bratislavaiff.sk or our official Facebook account at www.facebook.com/bratislavaiff.
You can buy Festival Pass or Student Festival Pass online (more information: http://bratislavaiff.sk/en/service/tickets-and-festival-passes/ )
19 th BRATISLAVA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
November 9 – 16, 2017
Main Organisers: Partners Production
The Festival is held with the generous financial support of Slovak Audiovisual Fund.
Main Partners: Slovenská elektrizačná prenosová sústava, KiK textil a Non-Food, Transpetrol, innogy Slovensko
COME AND EXPERIENCE IT!
