The grants for short animated films were announced by the Georgian National Film Center (GNFC) on 5 October 2020.

The fiction feature directed by Danilo Šerbedžija and written by Lana Barić, Tereza37, will have its world premiere in the Discoveries section of the Warsaw Film Festival, held 9th – 18th October. The Polish festival will also screen the animated short, Hedgehog Spikiney, directed by Tihoni Brčić.

scene from Tereza37

scene from Hedgehog Spikiney

The international premiere of Tereza37 will take place in WFF’s Discoveries section, a programme dedicated to fiction and documentary films from across the globe that deal with contemporary topics.  

The film follows the titular Teresa, a 37-year-old woman living in Split. After several miscarriages, she learns that she might not be genetically compatible with her husband. Feeling pressured by her surroundings, she begins to question her marriage that has been in a rut for some time, triggering a series of events that will transform her life in the direction of new-found freedom and personal truth.

In the most „starry” of our sections, we included stories of Czech car mechanics in love with Elvis, outsiders, ex-cons, writers, nuns and window cleaners. We visit them in their natural surroundings and they, although quite reluctantly, open their doors to their fascinating worlds. See these stories on the big screen – stories awarded at major film festivals, with Maya Hawke, Andrew Garfield, James Norton, Ivan Trojan, Lili Taylor, Elisabeth Moss and Sandra Huller in the lead. A truly explosive mixture!

***ATTENTION: TICKET PRESALE BEGINS ON OCTOBER 1!***

PRESS CONFERENCE OF 36. WFF WILL TAKE PLACE ON WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 23 AT 12.00 NOON IN KULTURALNA, PALACE OF CULTURE – COME JOIN US!

On the 1^st of October at 20.00 CET,
a unique conversation will be held
#online between Agnieszka Holland
and the Polish film critic Barbara Hollender

The latest film by the acclaimed director, “Charlatan”,
will be presented in Sofia at the special
FIPRESCI Gala Screening on the 3^rd of October
at 18.00 at Cinema House

The 6th edition of Pustnik - the international screenwriters residency opened its gates to the online edition of 2020 on Monday, the 7th of September and ended last week, on the 14th. 

Due to the current global travel restrictions, the 8 finalists coming from six different states around the world have gathered online, in a special and atypical edition. The work on their feature length scripts within the 10 days of the residency has been followed by tutoring sessions with Bianca Oana (producer of “Touch me Not” - directed by Adina Pintilie, and “collective” - directed by Alexander Nanau), Alexandru Baciu (script doctor and scriptwriter), Jullie Billy (producer for Haut et Court, supervising productions such as “Gagarine”, “The Lobster”) and Philippe Barriere (script consultant & screenwriter). Furthermore, they have enjoyed 3 evenings of discussions on the tutors’ most well-known projects, as well as 2 evenings of talks on their fellow residents’ previous works.

Only until September 25, cinema enthusiasts aged 18-25 can register for international film workshops during the 7th edition of the WAMA Film Festival in Olsztyn. The task of the participants of this year's meetings will be the production of short films on social issues focused on issues related to climate balance. Participation in all classes is free, and the number of places is limited.

Event: Kids Kino Industry - an international co-production forum for the film industry and people interested in creating audiovisual content for young viewers.
Date: 29 September - 2 October 2020
Location: online

There are less than two weeks to go before the start of the 4th edition of Kids Kino Industry, the international co-production forum. This year's edition has been moved to the online world, resulting in the programme being extended from three to four days. As part of the lead-up to this year's edition, the organisers also prepared a series of free webinars on Zoom and the last one is due to take place on 21 September, one week before the event starts. 

scene from The Dawn

The second title in The Sun Trilogy – The Dawn, a fiction feature directed and written by Dalibor Matanić and produced by Kinorama, will have its world premiere in competition of the prestigious Black Nights festival held in the Estonian capital. The 24th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival will take place 13th – 29th November.

connecting cottbus, the East-West co-production market taking place in November during FilmFestival Cottbus, presents its selection of 13 projects in development and 6 works in progress for this year’s online edition.

From 4-6 November 2020, the 22nd edition of connecting cottbus (coco) will take place  online, presenting exciting feature film projects to a select audience of co-producers, sales  agents and other potential partners. This year, 13 cocoPITCH and 6 cocoWIP projects  from 13 countries in broader Eastern Europe will be pitched. All projects compete for a  variety of awards. Their producers and directors will take part in in-depth feedback  sessions with industry experts in the cocoLAB, while all industry participants can join online  networking events and a framework programme focusing on current production topics.

Despite all collective hardships at the festival circuit this year, we are proud of the coco  alumni projects released in 2020: besides SERVANTS (Slovakia/Ireland/Czech Republic/  Romania) by Ivan Ostrochovský, which competed at Berlinale Encounters in February, Ivan  Tverdovskiy’s CONFERENCE (Russia/Estonia/Italy/UK) premiered at Venice Days. THE  CAMPAIGN (Romania) by Marian Crisan will premiere in Moscow in October, while Piotr  Domalewski’s I NEVER CRY (Poland/Ireland) will be part of the New Directors Competition  at upcoming San Sebastian. 

This year’s cocoPITCH selection covers a variety of stories and characters, from accidental  millionaires to greedy aunts and sad mathematicians. Once again the majority of  protagonists are strong-willed women. Topics include home displacement, immigration  and workers’ rights, corruption and sensationalist journalism, as well as a little-known  practice called Catholic divorce. Debut feature projects are set alongside new work by  award-winning filmmakers like Roman Bondarchuk, Robert Budina and Svetla Tsotsorkova,  who received the Special Pitch Award FilmFestival Cottbus 2019 to present FORTUNE  TELLER. Pre-selected by coco at partnering events were SEP & ANA by Paul Cioran,  winner of the Transilvania Pitch Stop - coco Award at TIFF 2020, and VACUUM by  Yelizaveta Smith, which took the Midpoint - coco Award (Midpoint Feature Launch) at  Karlovy Vary Eastern Promises 2020.

The line-up of cocoWIP is equally diverse in terms of genre, ranging from dark comedy  and savvy coming-of-age to vibrant historical epos. We are pleased to present two coco  alumni projects: SISTER (WT; North Macedonia/Kosovo/Montenegro/France) by Dina  Duma and STOP-ZEMLIA (WT; Ukraine) by Kateryna Gornostai.

This year, connecting cottbus takes place entirely online on 4-6 November 2020.

Producers, sales agents, commissioning editors and other industry representatives active in East-West European co-production can apply to attend without a project by 7 October 2020.

Selected cocoPITCH Projects 2020 

CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC | Croatia | dir: Vanja Juranić |  prod: Damir Terešak | Maxima film  

FLOOD | Slovak Republic | dir: Martin Gonda |  

prod: Katarína Krnáčová, Tomáš Gič | Silverart  

Special Pitch Award FilmFestival Cottbus 

FORTUNE TELLER | Bulgaria | dir: Svetla Tsotsorkova |  prod: Svetoslav Ovcharov | Omega films  

HONEY BUNNY | Croatia | dir: Igor Jelinović |  

prod: Rea Rajčić | Eclectica  

KIRIL’S LUCK | Bulgaria | dir: Milena Andonova |  

prod: Katya Trichkova, Rali Ralchev | Contrast Films  

NORWEGIAN DREAM | Norway, Poland | dir: Leiv Igor Devold |  prod: Håvard Wettland Gossé, Bartek Glinski | Spætt Film / Impakt Film  

PARADE | Lithuania | dir: Titas Laucius |  

prod: Klementina Remeikaite | afterschool production  

Transilvania Pitch Stop - coco Award 

SEP & ΑΝΑ | Romania | dir: Paul Cioran |  

prod: Claudiu Mitcu | We are Basca  

SWAPS | North Macedonia | dir: Gjorche Stavreski |  

prod: Gjorche Stavreski, Ivana Shekutovska | Fragment Film  

THE EDITORIAL OFFICE | Ukraine | dir: Roman Bondarchuk |  prod: Darya Bassel, Darya Averchenko | Moon Man / South Films  

Midpoint - coco Award (Midpoint Feature Launch)  

VACUUM | Ukraine | dir: Yelizaveta Smith |  

prod: Aleksandra Kostina | Bosonfilm  

WATERDROP | Albania | dir: Robert Budina |  

prod: Sabina Kodra | Erafilm  

WHEN YOU ARE 17 | Georgia | dir: Giorgi Mukhadze |  prod: Nato Sikharulidze | Terra Incognita Films

Selected cocoWIP Projects 2020 

EVICTION | Hungary | dir: Máté Fazekas |  

prod: Gábor Osváth, Péter Fülöp | Filmfabriq / FP Films  

FIRE! | Russia | dir: Maria Ignatenko |  

prod: Egor Odintsov, Konstantin Fam, Ekaterina Mikhailova | Ark Pictures  

SISTER (WT) | North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, France | dir: Dina Duma |  prod: Marija Dimitrova, Liridon Cahan, Biljana Vusovic, Guillaume De Seille | List Production / Added Value Films / Videa Production / Arizona Productions 

STAND BY ME | Russia | dir: Tamara Dondurey |  

prod: Katia Filippova | Pan-Atlantic Studio  

STOP-ZEMLIA (WT) | Ukraine | dir: Kateryna Gornostai |  

prod: Vitaliy Sheremetiev, Vika Khomenko, Natalia Libet, Olha Beskhmelnytsina | Esse Production House  

SUPERMARKET | Montenegro, Serbia | dir: Nemanja Becanovic |  

prod: Milena Charan, Jelena Angelovski | VHS / Tri Osmine

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connecting cottbus is supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Creative Europe/MEDIA, MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and Land Brandenburg  

Thanks to our partners: D-Facto Motion, Avanpost, Midpoint, Producers Network, Transilvania Pitch Stop,  New Horizons Film Festival, eave, CineLink, Filmarket Hub, Odesa International Film Festival, Meetings on the  Bridge, When East Meets West, Berlinale World Cinema Fund.  

Organiser: pool production GmbH