Marygoround - Daria Woszek

“Dark, sexy, eccentric, estrogen-fueled comedy about a Virgin Mary-obsessed 50-year-old woman who never had sex in her life.” That’s how Daria Woszek, the director and co-writer of the film is pitching it. 

Mary’s life isn't all that exciting. One day, plagued by the annoying symptoms of her menopause, she overdoses on the hormone patches her doctor prescribed to her. And when her vibrant and free-spirited niece Helena decides to crash at her house, Mary’s senses and imagination suddenly come alive. The two women are not only forced to redefine their relationship but also break free once and for all.

It is a story of a woman reclaiming her own body — as well as a moving tale of fantasy and reality clashing in a world that ignores the power of women.

The film has been developed during Less is More – LIM, the program launched by Le Group Ouest. It also has been presented at Works in Progress section at Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum in 2019, where it won the HASF Goes To Cannes Award. It has also been selected to the Coming Soon section at Meeting Point Vilnius 2019. It is a Polish production by Jutrzenka Studio in a co-production with TVP, All Muses, Super Krak, Krakow Festival Office, co-financed by Polish Film Institute. Media Luna New Films manages the worldwide sales.

The festival premiere will be held on March 14th. More info on the Festival official website.

EMERGING PRODUCERS 2021, 9th edition October 27 – November 1, 2020 / 24th Ji.hlava IDFF / Czech Republic February 8 – 12, 2021 / Berlin / Germany 

Promotional and networking project presenting a new generation of talented European documentary film producers. 

The aim of the project is to introduce an up-and-coming generation of talented European producers to professionals from various fields of the film industry. The project creates a platform for meetings of film professionals with an emphasis on documentary cinematography. 

The project is organised and curated by Ji.hlava IDFF. The selection of producers will be announced during summer 2020. 

SELECTION CRITERIA 

- A producer with a several years’ experience in the local market (i.e. not a student or recent graduate) with a capacity for professional growth and with ambitions to be active on the European market - At least one realized film (fiction or documentary, mid-length or feature) which has entered theatrical distribution, has been screened at a festival etc. - Producers from all European countries are eligible. The guest country of the Emerging Producers 2021 edition is Israel. 

More information here.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: March 15, 2020 Contact: Jarmila Outratová / Head of Industry Office / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival opens film submissions with a green initiative. Sub-festival PÖFF Shorts becomes Academy Qualifying festival.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival aka PÖFF, the only A-category film festival in Northern Europe has opened submissions for its 24th edition, which is set to run from the 13th until the 29th of November.

As a new endeavour, Black Nights has joined a group of film festivals pledging to do more in engaging in sustainable activities in 2020 and support and spread the word of people who are trying to make a change. A Green Pledge of film festivals is currently also in the works with several major film festivals. As a first step, however, Black Nights has decided to donate one euro from every submission fee received to the restoration of the forests that burned in Australia. 

Hannes Aava, the head of communication and one of the advocates of the green initiatives at Black Nights commented: as the impending climate crisis is becoming a reality that can already be felt in most parts of the world, collective global action is needed more than ever. Like most other organisations on the planet, film festivals also need to critically assess their practices and make changes where they can. Showing films that are tackling these issues is just not enough anymore. I sincerely hope that these first, small steps we are taking right now, are only an introduction to bigger and more fundamental ones to follow and also serve as an inspiration for those who have not started to think on these matters.’

PÖFF has opened submissions in Filmfreeway for the main festival and its two sub-festivals: youth and children’s film festival Just Film and short film and animation festival PÖFF Shorts. The regular deadline with a lower fee -  is set on July the 1st, while the final deadline is the 24th of August.

PÖFF Shorts is now an Academy Award Qualifying Festival

The team of Black Nights celebrates the news that the international short film and animation festival PÖFF Shorts - that was combined of former animation festival Animated Dreams and short film festival Sleepwalkers in 2017 – has become an Academy Qualifying film event. The status means that, should they be eligible, films winning a qualifying award at PÖFF Shorts will be eligible to submit their films for consideration for both the Live Action and Animation Short Awards at the Academy Awards. Competition winners in both the International and National competitive sections of PÖFF Shorts will be eligible for possible qualification.

Grete Nellis, head of PÖFF Shorts commented: “We are honoured and truly excited about this recognition the Academy Award qualification status brings to PÖFF Shorts. While those who have screened at and attended the festival in the past already know the quality of everything we do, the qualification adds a further confirmation both for our own team and to the filmmakers making their choices around the yearly festival calendar – that PÖFF Shorts is a valuable place for any filmmaker with a short to consider.” 

“It’s also really a testament to the hard work of all the previous heads of the festival, programme directors and all the other people, who gave so much of themselves to make PÖFF Shorts possible, on the level it is today. s. Not to mention our ‘parent’ festival Black Nights who have let us develop our own identity whilst under their auspices and constantly given invaluable help,” she went on to add.

In addition to being an Academy Award qualifying festival, PÖFF Shorts is also a European Film Award Qualifying Festival – whereby one film in competition will be chosen by a jury for consideration for possible nomination in the short category at the European Film Awards – and a BAFTA Qualifying festival where live-action British films screened in competition are eligible to submit their films for consideration for the BAFTA Awards.

This year’s edition of PÖFF Shorts will take place from 17th–25th November 2020.

Dates & Submission links

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival - 13-29 of November
https://filmfreeway.com/blacknightsfilmfestival

Youth and Children’s Film Festival Just Film - 13-29 of November
https://filmfreeway.com/just

International Short Film and Animation Festival PÖFF Shorts - 17-15 of November
https://filmfreeway.com/POFFShorts

Black Nights FF Opening Ceremony (photo by Ahto Sooaru)

PÖFF Shorts Closing Ceremony

PÖFF Shorts screening

Vodka, meme exhibition and short Films for Evening Strollers // Talents Take Flight // Accreditation and Press Conference

Wiesbaden/Frankfurt, 2 March 2020

International meets local: with the generous support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the “Pan-European Picnic” programme is back for its second edition this year. The project aims to make Central and Eastern European culture in the region visible. One of this year’s highlights is an evening short-film walk scheduled for the festival Friday, 8 May: expanding cinema beyond the silver screen, the films featured here will be projected onto the walls of houses, bridge pillars and shop windows in Wiesbaden’s Klarenthal district. Participants can expect a cinema experience that shows the neighbourhood in a new light. The idea for this unorthodox screening comes from the Hamburg-based artist collective “A Wall is a Screen”. In a re-definition of public space, the audience will stroll through a section of Wiesbaden that is also populated by many individuals with Central and Eastern European roots – an experience bringing Wiesbaden residents of diverse backgrounds and age groups together that is sure to open up unfamiliar perspectives, both regarding the films on display and the architectural surroundings.

In a curated exhibition, film critics Vladan Petković (Serbia) and Vassilis Economou (Greece) are bringing online meme culture to the goEast Festival Centre. As exhibition co-ordinator for goEast’s Pan-European Picnic Anastasiia Melai explains: “Memes are an important expression of today’s vox populi, the voice of the people. They demonstrate in a humorous way what’s going on in society at large and in people’s heads in particular, just as cinematography does too.”

In the scope of interactive language courses in an Eastern European supermarket, the Pan-European Picnic’s role as a cultural intermediary comes to the fore: under the guidance of a language tutor, attendees have the opportunity to buy goods in Polish or Romanian. Afterwards, there’s not much standing in the way of that next shopping spree in Warsaw or Bucharest!

Finally, in a casual, congenial atmosphere, the cultures of East and West will encounter one another on Saturday, 9 May, between 10 am and 3 pm at Wiesbaden’s Schlossplatz square. Guests large and small will come together over goulash and music and experience Central and Eastern European culture up close at a host of stands representing cultural associations from the Rhine-Main region. Actor Ivan Shvedoff, among others known for Babylon Berlin, will join us once again for a multi-lingual scenic reading.

This rich cultural experience will be rounded off by the RheinMain Short Film Award: eight short films from Central and Eastern Europe will be competing for the prize, endowed with 2,500 euros and presented by a jury composed of independent cinema operators from the Rhine-Main region.

Up-and-Coming Talents Take Flight

Young filmmakers still have the chance to register for the East-West Talent Lab until 5 March. In goEast’s programme for emerging artists, 30 filmmakers present their current projects, develop them further and extend connections among their peers and within the film industry. New points of focus this year are the ethics of working with actors and protagonists, as well as the production of serial formats. The grand finale is a public pitching session, presided over by a three-member jury made up of editor Jutta Krug (WDR/ARTE), feature-film producer Kirill Krassovski and producer/author Ira Tondowski. The most innovative project is honoured with the goEast Development Award, featuring a cash prize of 3,500 euros. In addition, a research grant, also valued at 3,500 euros, is awarded to a documentary film project with a focus on human rights issues. As Andrea Wink, co-ordinator of the talent development programme at goEast, states: “The East-West Talent Lab has become a crucial component in the development landscape for young filmmakers. goEast fosters young talents from Central and Eastern Europe here. Aside from providing a forum for the development of new projects, the goEast Development Award also brings them a significant step closer to realisation.”

Accreditation and Press Conference

Members of the press can register for accreditation for goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film from now until 24 April at: Accreditation

The press conference for the 20th anniversary edition of goEast will take place at 11 am on 29 April at Wiesbaden’s Caligari FilmBühne. Please contact us to RSVP if you would like to attend.

Filmstill_Fritzi

Last year was a breakthrough one, especially for the youngest generation of filmmakers - they were successful at the most important international festivals and at the American Film Academy, so one could say that a “new wave” of animators was born in the Czech Republic.

Czech animation in Czech cinemas

A total of five animated feature films were produced in 2019, four of which were screened in cinemas, the fifth one’s distribution premiere is planned for early 2020 (The Impossible Voyage). Several of these were sequels to popular films or television and comics series (The Great Adventure of the Lucky Four, Pat and Mat: Handymen’s Adventures, TvMiniUni: The Question Thief). Cinema releases also included the coproduction Fritzi – A Revolutionary Tale, which familiarizes children with the fall of the Iron Curtain. 

More and more often, short film reels for children and adults are shown in Czech cinemas. In 2019 Three Voices was presented to the audience, a set of three puppet student works created simultaneously at three Czech art schools - FAMU, UMPRUM and University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The organizers of Anifilm festival compiled two short film reels for cinemas: Ready, Get Set, Go! (Ke startu připravit) or a set of films called The Grim Reaper Doesn’t Mow (Zubatá nekouše) directed by animators who took a close look at death – both in a serious and not so serious way.

International short film achievements

The Czech animations most talked about abroad were shorts. Diana Cam Van Nguyen’s animated documentary about the loss of a loved one, Apart, premiered at the prestigious festival in Rotterdam in January. In February Martin Smatana followed up on that success with his The Kite, about the relationship between a little boy and his dying grandfather, which was screened at the Berlinale. Both films managed to just about circle the globe during the year, even making it to the important Annecy International Animation Film Festival.  

Annecy also hosted the premiere of what was without a doubt the most successful animated short of the year, Daughter, by Daria Kashcheeva. The puppet film about a girl trying to rekindle a relationship with her father after many years won the main Cristal for a Graduation Film at Annecy IAFF as well as the Junior Jury Award for a Graduation Film. A climax of the film successes its victory at the Sundance Festival, the Student Oscar for best animated film in the section for international schools and a nomination for the “classic” Oscar in the Animated Short Film category. 

In the autumn, festival programmers’ attention turned to the short film SH_T HAPPENS by creative duo Michaela Mihályi and Dávid Štumpf loosely based on the story of Noah’s ark, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and later appeared at Sundance too. 

Student work from the city of Zlín is making itself known in the world as well. Director Zuzana Čupová was awarded the Golden Slipper at the Zlín Film Festival with her film Cloudy, and, most recently, the Leaf by Aliona Baranová has made it to Berlinale 2020.

Television production of Czech authors

Viewers of the channel CT:D have started watching the Kosmix series from the directorial duo formed by Vojtěch Dudek and Klára Jůzová this year. Children can look forward to a total of 26 five-minute episodes about Kit the robot’s space adventure. Other upcoming TV projects have very good prospects too: the series Barney the Piglet (Filmovy uzel), Little Pilot (Kouzelná animace) and a children’s series based on Karel Zeman's Journey to the Beginning of Time (BareBear production) are being developed in Zlín. The nutprodukce company is preparing the series Overboard!, Bionaut is developing Animalies and Old & Rich Production is working on the Baldies project.

Upcoming feature films

Several animated films currently in development received positive attention at foreign coproduction markets in 2019. In March, the professional jury at the Cartoon Forum awarded the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award to the feature-length project Of Unwanted Things and People, based on a book by Arnošt Goldflam (MAUR film). Among the 66 projects from around the world another Czech project was presented – Pearl by director-producer Martin Kotík (Rolling Pictures) along with two other co-production films of the MAUR film company: The Crossing and Fritzi - A Revolutionary Tale.

Great news for Czech animation is the participation of three feature projects at the CEE Animation Forum - the aforementioned Pearl, Babu in the Night City from director Petr Vodička (Kuli Film), and My Sunny Maad, directed by Michaela Pavlátová. 

What’s being prepared in Czech animation

Among the projects supported by the Czech Film Fund – both in development and production stages – there are several student short films worth noticing by film schools students and graduates, who made their mark in animation in 2019: including Abandon by Daria Kashcheeva, Hello Summer by Martin Smatana, Love, Dad by Diana Cam Van Nguyen, Mud Pie! by Kateřina Karhánková or The World’s End by Martin Kukal. 

Supported feature animation projects in development include Aurel Klimt´s new film Tapa-boys (Studio Zvon). In 2019 the Czech Film Fund granted substantial support to production of animation feature films Babu in the Night City (Kuli Film, EUR 392 157), Rosentaal (MAUR film, EUR 392 157) and Diplodocus (PFX, EUR 196 078).

2020 Releases

Even Mice Belong in Heaven, directed by Denisa Grimmová and Jan Bubeníček, is nearly finished. The second half of the year should see the completion of the latest feature from director Jan Balej, A Colourful Dream or the ambitious French-German-Czech coproduction The Crossing by the debuting director Florence Miailhe.

To see the catalogue of Czech animated features and shorts (currently in postproduction, production and development) and which were supported by Czech Film Fund, please click here.

This press release was prepared in cooperation with the Czech Film Center.

What is ASAF?

Since 2014 the Association of Czech Animation (ASAF) has been bringing together animated film producers and representing the Czech animation community in relation to relevant institutions both in the Czech Republic (Czech Film Fund, Ministry of Culture, Czech TV) and abroad, especially in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. 

One of our aims is to develop the animation industry as a significant part of creative industries in the Czech Republic. That’s why the Association of Czech Animation has published the “Strategic Concept of Animation Industry Development in the Czech Republic” to define steps to set up conditions for the development of animation on an industrial scale. The Association was at the origin international CEE Animation platform (known as the Visegrad Animation Forum earlier) with the aim of boosting the animation industry in the Central and Eastern European region. It creates opportunities for meetings between producers, studios, TV stations and film distributors that lead to collaboration on animation projects.

For more information about our activities see www.asaf.cz.

MORE ON THE FILMS

The Impossible Voyage (Media Film)
> for more information on the film go to http://www.cestadonemozna.sk/o-filme-cesta-do-nemozna.html
> trailer here 

The Question Thief (Evolution Films)
> for more information on the film go to https://evolutionfilms.cz/?evofolio=tvminiuni-a-zlodej-snu

Fritzi – A Revolutionary Tale (MAUR film)
> for more information on the film go to http://www.maurfilm.com/portfolio-items/fany-a-pes/

Daughter (FAMU, MAUR film)
> the trailer, visuals and presskit can be downloaded here