"Advocate", "Portrait of Suzanne", "My Country So Beautiful" and "Once Aurora" are the golden winners of the 59th Krakow Film Festival. On Saturday, June 1, in the Kijów.Center, in a room that was filled to the brim, the international jury awarded prizes to the best documentary, short and animated films that competed for the praise of experts and audience in Krakow cinemas throughout the whole festival week.

- The evening that we have before us will be full of joy, emotions and surprises - said Patrycja Wanat, who is the host of the closing gala of the 59th Krakow Film Festival while launching the evening. The award ceremony was attended by representatives of the film industry and cinema lovers from around the world. The evening was graced with a recital by Mikołaj Trzaska, who was also a member of the jury of the DocFilmMusic competition.

The documentary film "Advocate" (directed by Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaiche) secured the victory in the International documentary film competition, and thus the opportunity to apply for an Oscar nomination. Leah Tsemel, the protagonist of the film, has been defending cases deemed for failure for fifty years. Being an Israeli activist for human rights, she became famous mainly as a judicial defender of the Palestinians, including those accused of terrorism. The jury, chaired by Jacek Petrycki, which also included Talal Derki (Germany), Marja Pallassalo (Finland), Shane Smith (Canada) and Ágnes Sós (Hungary), recognized that this film was created with precision, insight and humor, that not only shows a heroic woman struggling against adversities, but also a person who inspires us with her unwavering conviction that justice can and ultimately will win. The film also received the KFF recommendation for the European Film Award.

The Silver Horn for the medium-length documentary was given to David Ofek and Tal Michael for the film " Around the Bed of a Dying Collaborator" (Israel), while the second Silver Horn, for the best full-length documentary, went to Adán Aliagi and Àlex Lora for "The Fourth Kingdom" (Spain, USA) , Mexico). The documentary has also received the award of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI).

The winner of the oldest festival competition - International Short Film Competition - was Izabela Plucińska for the film "Portrait of Suzanne" (Poland, Germany, France). The jury, led by Polish director Xawery Żuławski, awarded the director with the Golden Dragon award for mastery in shaping matter and a brilliant balancing between surrealistic vision and reality. According to the jury, this work is complete and delightful.

Silver Dragons are prizes awarded to the best short films representing all film genres of the competition. The Silver Dragon for the best documentary was awarded to Aleksandra Maciejczyk for the production of "Connected" (Poland). The best animated film has been recognized as the French-Belgian “Under The Rib Cage" (directed by Bruno Tondeur), and the Silver Dragon for best short feature film went to Dekel Berenson for the film "Ashmina" (Great Britain, Nepal). The Macedonian animation "Edna" directed by Vuk Mitevski has been chosen the KFF candidate for the European Film Award in the short film category.

The Norwegian documentary "Once Aurora" (directed by Stian Servoss, Benjamin Langeland) was chosen by the Jury chaired by Brett Morgen as the best documentary musical film and at the same time the laureate Golden Heynal.

The main character of the film Aurora Aksens is called the wonderful child of Björk and is one of the most charismatic singers of the young generation. In the film, the artist opens the door to her magical world . The jury awarded the film for raising the genre, which is a musical document, to a higher level. The film also received the student jury award.

The Golden Hobby-Horse in the Polish Competition was awarded to Grzegorz Paprzycki's "My Country So Beautiful". The jury, under the leadership of Maciej Karpiński, awarded the prize for taking up the current topic, following the tradition of the Polish documentary film participating in public life.

The best Polish animated film was "Acid Rain" by Tomasz Popakul. This is the second Silver Hobby-Horse in the artist's career - the first one he received for the film "Ziegenort" in 2013. This time, the jury appreciated the director for proving that the visually attractive animation language can be a tool for understanding important phenomena of the present day.

The Silver Hobby-Horse for the director of the best documentary film went to Andrea Kutsila for the film "Summa", which according to the jury  has a humanistic message, expressed in a mature, harmonious form.

The third Silver Hobby-Horse, for the best feature film, went to Helena Oborska for the film "Bitten" for a different approach to interpersonal relationships and for the search for the original language in film.

The Norwegian documentary "The Men’s Room" directed by Petter Sommer and Jo Vemud Svendsen was recognized by the festival audience as the best film of  59.KFF.

At the end of the Krakow Film Festival, the awards of KFF Industry and DOC LAB POLAND were also presented.

The screenings of the awarded films will take place on Sunday, June 2 in the Małopolska Garden of Arts starting from 12:00.

A detailed program can be found at: www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

The 60th Krakow Film Festival will take place from May 31 to June 7, 2020.

EU Copyright Directive

20/05: How to Implement Article 17 DSMD? Have Your Say! - Kluwer Copyright Blog

A pilot debate organised on June 13 to discuss Article 17 (ex-13) of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (DSMD) and its implementation.

20/05: Open Letter: Copyright Working Group Must Include NGO Voices - Civil Liberties Union for Europe

The open letter signed by Liberties and more than 40 other human and digital rights organizations calls for their inclusion in the implementation process of the EU Copyright Directive.

EU Online Broadcasting Directive

17/05: Creativity Works! reiterates the importance of territorial exclusivity for the creation, financing, production and distribution of creative content - Creativity Works!

Following the final adoption of the Online Broadcasting Directive, Creativity Works! issued a statement to reiterate and stress the importance of the territoriality of copyright and exclusive licensing to the creative sectors in Europe and to protect these principles going forward.

Audiovisual Policy - Council conclusions

22/05: Draft Council conclusions on improving the cross-border circulation of European audiovisual works, with an emphasis on co-productions - Council of the European Union

The Audiovisual Working Party has prepared the draft conclusions with a view to their adoption at the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council.

EU Single-use Plastics Directive

21/05: Council adopts ban on single-use plastics - Council of the European Union

The EU is cracking down on plastic pollution. The Council adopted a directive which introduces new restrictions on certain single-use plastic products. The formal adoption of the new rules by the Council is the final step in the procedure.

EU Elections

27/05: Voter turnout in EU elections up 10 per cent on previous vote - The Parliament Magazine

EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager has sounded a note of caution over the larger-than-expected turnout in the European elections.

27/05: 2019 European election results - European Parliament

The election results including seats per political group and country are presented.

Culture

20/05: Joint Statement by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini and Commissioner for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Tibor Navracsics on the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development - European Commission

Events

7 June: European Film Forum @ Transilvania International Film Festival (Cluj-Napoca)
12-13 June: International Forum on IP Enforcement, Paris 
13 June: IPKat/BLACA – 'The EU DSM Directive: End of the Story?', London
13 June: European Copyright Roundtable: 'How to implement Article 17 DSMD?'
17-20 June: CineEurope 2019, Barcelona
19-20 June: Conference on New Challenges regarding Copyright in the Digital Single Market, Bucharest
20-21 June: European Council Summit
24 June: Composition of European Parliament political groups
1 July: Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU
2-4 July : First European Parliament Plenary, Strasbourg
15-18 July : Second European Parliament Plenary, Strasbourg
- Possible election of European Commission President
21-24 October: Election of new European Commission

The North Macedonia Film Agency has become the 34th member of the European association of Film Agencies, the EFADs, as of May 2019.

The North Macedonia Film Agency joins the EFADs as an associate member, a status open to any film agency located in a country member of the Council of Europe. It allows it to take part in all activities of the association and have partial voting rights.

“We strongly believe that the North Macedonia Film Agency would greatly benefit by becoming a member of the EFADs association, which contributes to the actualization of European policies and initiatives by focusing on promotion and distribution of European works and the challenges of the European film industry. Joining the association enables us to exchange information, to share experiences and to strengthen our common aims for European audiovisual industries, by targeting key issues on digital change, copyright, fight against piracy and media literacy. I hope that our collaboration will enable a greater visibility and more intensive collaboration in the years to come.” declared Gorjan Tozija, Director of the North Macedonia Film Agency.

ABOUT THE NORTH MACEDONIA FILM AGENCY

The North Macedonia Film Agency as a governmental body, established under the Film Industry Law officially began its operation in 2014 as a legal successor of the Macedonian Film Fund.

• The overall responsibility of the Agency is to ensure growth of Macedonian film industry, film tradition and film culture through continuous support of its development, production, distribution, exhibition and promotion. In order to achieve its goals the Agency aims at providing a continuous support to the production of films of national interest, stimulating international filming co-productions (majority and minority co-production), encouraging expert and professional education of film industry professionals, stimulating the creation of national screenplays, promoting Macedonian cinematography at renowned international film festivals, promoting North Macedonia as a filming location as well as administering the Film Production Incentive Programme, aimed to encourage and stimulate investments in film/television projects.
• It is funded by the grant-in-aid from the Government and through contributions such as broadcasters, cable operators, Internet providers, cinema exhibitors and distributors.

ABOUT THE EFADs

The EFADs is the voice of European Film Agencies, bringing together 34 organisations. European Film Agencies champion European film across different formats and platforms. Their mission is to enable local cultures and different language communities to see their lives represented on screen and for powerful, culturally expressive films to deeply affect hearts and minds to the benefit of the well- being of society across Europe.

EFADs members promote film literacy and storytelling in support of freedom of expression and film culture to ensure filmmaking, film heritage and film as art are accessible and relevant to the many, not the few

List of EFADs’ members: http://www.efads.eu/members/all-our-members.html

@Sufferosa, a Mystery Adventure in III Acts, is an interactive Instagram series that reflects on youthfulness, beauty, and the sense of being lost in a maze you can’t escape. Watch the trailer here.

Thematically, @Sufferosa is a neo-noir thriller and a satire on the cultural obsession with beauty and youth in the present-day world. The story follows a private eye Ivan Johnson looking for a missing woman. His investigation leads him to Carlos von Braun’s Clinic. This is when the interactive part begins - the user becomes the detective and unfolds the story piece by piece adding suspense and intrigue to a narrative.

In this artistic, non-commercial storytelling experiment the directors duo The Kissinger Twins strive to create a new kind of serialized storytelling in social media. @Sufferosablends original footage with samples from classic film, literature, and music (Glass Candy, Sonic Youth), taking influences from adventure games. 

Find a woman trapped in a clinic perfecting eternal youth. Explore all twenty-four accounts of Carlos von Braun’s clinic with videos, stories, carousels, captions, and IGTV.

Act I out now @sufferosa www.instagram.com/sufferosa 

The Kissinger Twins are the directors duo and new media artists. They directed

award-winning interactive experiences and films for Samsung, Channel 4, Philips as well as art projects, such as Webby Awards winning The Trip or SXSW finalist Forget Me Not.

www.kissingertwins.com