BUCHAREST: Donbass by Sergei Loznitsa has been selected as Ukraine’s entry for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ award in the best foreign language film category. The film is a German/French/Ukrainian/Dutch/Romanian coproduction.

We are pleased to announce a list of Decision Makers, who will attend Warsaw Kids Film Forum 2018. The list is available on our website: www.warsawkidsff.pl.

This year's edition will bring together distinguished guests from Poland and from abroad, representatives of various film industry sectors - committees and film institutes, distributors, television, vod platforms or sales agents.

There is a large representation of sales agents among the invited guests there was a large representation of sales agents. Warsaw Kids Film Forum will host Ruta Svedkauskaite from Pluto Film Distribution (Germany), Martin Ilievski from Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden), Xiaojuan Zhou from Attraction Distribution (Canada), Barbara Tonelli from Charades (France) or Bettina Birk from Global Screen (Germany), as well as Izabela Kiszka-Hoflik from IKH Pictures Promotion and Katarzyna Siniarska from New Europe Film Sales.

Some European distributors also confirmed their attendance: Marko Pekic from Radar (Croatia), Alexandre Dupont-Geisselmann from Farbfilm (Germany), Lise Cosentino from Millimages (France) or Bregt Van Wijnendaele from JEF (Belgium). The list also includes distributors from Spain, Serbia and Poland.

We are extremely pleased that a large group of foreign and domestic television representatives will join us. Meet some of our Decicion Makers: Chrystel Poncet -

responsible for license purchases in Canal +, Vicky Schroderus - Director of licensing purchases in Finnish YLE television or Hedda Bruessing from the Dutch national television NTR where he is responsible for national productions and international co-productions as well as Anna Kazejak, head of the department production of the Showmaxx platform, Anna Waśniewska-Gill - head of the role production department in TVN, Małgorzata Jurczak - Head of the Film and Serial Production Department at Canal + Poland and Justyna Karnowska - Director of the TVP ABC channel.

We will also have the pleasure of hosting Signe Zeilich-Jensen - a consultant for full-length children's films at the Dutch Film Fund and representatives of Polish film commissions from Łodź, Podkarpacie, Cracow, Poznań and Mazovia Warsaw Film Comission - a partner of the Forum. Małgorzata Szczepkowska-Kalemba responsible for the Department of Film Production and Film Project Development at the Polish Film Institute also confirmed her presence.

The full program of the event will be announced in a week. Today we are happy to present you with names WKFF 2018 Experts. On the first day of the Forum, they will present their analyses and case studies of successful marketing and sales campaigns. They will also talk about success stories of selected television productions. Our Experts board will include Maurice Wheeler from Kids Industries - an agency based in London, specializing in building and developing film brand, Riikka Takila - producer from Finnish YLE television, Gisle Halvorsen - showrunner in Norwegian NRK, Gerry Shirren - Director of British Animation Cartoon Saloon. Full list of experts is available here: https://warsawkidsff.pl/ experts.

We encourage you to register to the Warsaw Kids Film Forum, until 16.09.2018. Just fill in the Observer form. Registration to Consultants’ Tables is also open. Consultants’ Tables are 40-minute individual meetings with experienced script consultants. This year, we wanted to invite guests specialized in various film genres, meeting the needs of creators of both feature and series, as well as those who work on projects in the transmedia field. The already confirmed Consultants are: Alison Norrington - screenwriter and producer, Artistic Director of the London Storycentral studio (transmedia projects); Armin Prediger - screenwriter, coach, among others, at the Academy for Children's Media in Germany, known for his original ideas and adaptations in film and television (TV series projects) and Signe Zeilich-Jensen mentioned before.

Participants for both Observers and the Consultants’ Tables will be chosen in accordance with the order of applications.


Leading Polish film producers Ewa Puszczyńska (Ida, Cold War) and Klaudia Śmieja (High Life, Gareth Jones, The Innocents, Under the Tree) are teaming up with Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales (Rams, Summer 1993) to set up a new production outlet called NEM Corp. The new company’s aim will be attracting prestigious international film projects to Poland, both as co-production and service work, as well as developing new projects with the most interesting Polish talents.

The company is working on a slate of projects already and wants to take advantage of the 30% tax incentives newly introduced by the Polish parliament as well as the soft money and private funding opportunities available in the country.

Ewa Puszczyńska is an Oscar and European Film Award winner for Ida and Cannes award-winner for Cold War (Cannes and TIFF 2018), both by Paweł Pawlikowski. She also coproduced Robert Schwentke’s latest film The Captain the Berlinale-selected Hostages and works as an expert for the Torino Film Lab, among others. Klaudia Śmieja is the producer of Agnieszka Holland’s upcoming $8,5mln historical drama Gareth Jones and Claire Denis’ High Life (TIFF 2018). She also coproduced some of the most successful Polish minority co-productions in recent years –   Anne Fontaine’s The Innocents, Haffstein Gunnar Sigurdsson’s Under the Tree and Babis Makridis’ Pity.

New Europe Film Sales – run by Jan Naszewski and Katarzyna Siniarska is one of the leading European sales agencies with films such as Grimur Hakonarsson’s Rams (Prix Un Certain Regard 2015), 2016 Silver Bear winner United States Of Love by Tomasz Wasilewski, Venice/TIFF-selected Under The Tree (sold to over 30 countries), 2017 Berlinale best debut Summer 1993 by Carla Simon, and Locarno winner Winter Brothers by Hlynur Palmason. New Europe Film Sales has also a leading position in the short film market and over the years has represented over 10 Oscar® shortlisters and shorts by Ruben Östlund, among others.

The group hopes to use its combined resources and international and domestic position to become a leading European production outlet and a go-to address for top international partners and local talents. New Europe also plans to further cement its position on the European market and enter projects not only as a sales agent but also as a co-producer, especially on the new films by the filmmakers discovered by the label. The representatives of the group will attend Venice, Telluride and Toronto this year to discuss projects with key partners.