March 19 - 23, 2019 / Bratislava

Visegrad Film Forum 2019 – World famous filmmakers close enough to touch!

An international event at the Film and TV Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava will launch on Tuesday, March 19th. It offers way more than just film screenings. For five days, viewers can look forward to a rich program, consisting of lectures and screenings with seven renowned guests. Evening parties are also an inseparable part of the program, attracting participants with a wide range of music genres and performers.

“This year, the Visegrad Film Forum brings a balanced program from the world of film production. Not only for filmmakers, but for all people who want to look behind the scenes of filmmaking. The program will feature guests who have worked on major films in the positions of directors, cinematographers, editors and production designers,” says managing director Jakub Viktorín. This is also reflected by the names that received the invitation for this year´s festival. Haneke's editor Monika Willi, the favourite of the A-list festivals Sergei Loznitsa, production designer of Cuaron's Roma Eugenio Caballero, Oscar nominated cinematographer Phedon Papamichael and cinematographer of the documentary film Citizenfour Kirsten Johnson and others.

PROGRAM
https://www.visegradfilmforum.com/2019/programme/

Monika Willi - editor

This Austrian filmmaker, anchored herself in the editing room after years of switching out roles in the cinematographic industry. Although she never studied film, she worked as the favourite editor of director Michael Haneke. Her first film on which she worked with him, was the drama The Piano Teacher. From their later years of collaboration, films such as White Ribbon, Amour, and the most recent Happy End came out. In her career, however, she also worked with another director, the documentarist Michael Glawogger. At the Visegrad Film Forum 2019, she will present her film Untitled, which she finished after the director's unfortunate death.

Sergei Loznitsa - director

In 2018, the ambitious Ukrainian director presented three films at festivals in Berlin, Cannes and Venice. He drew attention to himself after he published the film Maidan (2004), which captures a turbulent civil protest against President Viktor Yanukovich in Ukraine. In addition to documentary films, he also made feature films My Joy (2010) and the war story In the Fog (2012), premiered at Cannes. He will present the film The Trial at the Visegrad Film Forum for the first time in Slovakia. The film presents unique archival footage of one of the first constructed political trials conceived by Stalin.

Eugenio Caballero – production designer

This film architect from Mexico is an Oscar winner for the Best Production Design for Pan´s Labyrinth directed by Guillermo del Toro. In addition, Caballero participated in the third sequel to Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control (2009). He was also nominated for an Oscar for his contribution of Alfonso Cuarón's Roma. The director's personal black-and-white statement will be presented at the Visegrad Film Forum 2019.

Phedon Papamichael - cineatographer

The Greek cinematographer collaborated with prominent German director Wim Wenders on the Million Dollar Hotel (2000), that starred stars like Mila Jovovich and Mel Gibson. He also cooperated with director James Mangold on Walk The Line (2005), which portrays the life and death of guitarist and country singer Johnny Cash. One of the most important films he worked on is Nebraska. This black-and-white road-movie about a senior who believes he has won millions of dollars in a lottery has won up to 6 Oscar nominations. Nebraska will be screened as a closing film of Visegrad Film Forum.

Kirsten Johnson - documentarist

This New York City director, producer and cinematographer has made over 40 documentaries. As a cinematographer, she worked on the Oscar-winning film Citizenfour (2014), about a former US security analyst. She also worked as a cinematographer with director Michael Moore on a documentary about America after the twin tower attacks - Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). Her own documentary film, Cameraperson, premiered at the Sundance festival in 2016 will be screened during Visegrad Film Forum. It combines radical footage from the Middle East war and personal material from her childhood and the last days of her dying mother..

Hakim Belabbes – director, lecturer

Morocco-based director Hakim Belabbes, who is currently teaching film at Columbia University, has founded a Sahara Lab project with two of his filmmaker colleagues Don Smith and Hammad Gueroum, that provides young Moroccan filmmakers with learning and personal growth opportunities that public institutions and schools do not offer. His film Sweat Rain (2016) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Marcin Luczaj - sales agent

Marcin Łuczaj, former Warsaw Film Festival and ZUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival programmer, works for New Europe Film Sales, a Warsaw-based sales agency for both features and shorts - a company which represented films premiered at Berlinale, Venice or Cannes.   

Film students from around the world

The school representatives and the filmmakers themselves will introduce the student projects.

In a discussions student will talk about the films themselves, as well as the conditions in which the films were made. The friendly meetings of future filmmakers can be seen in the following blocks: Czech TBU Zlín and the Moroccan Sahara Lab, Polish WRiTV Katowice and Romanian UNATC Bucharest, Hungarian SZFE Budapest and Ukrainian KNUTCT Kiev, Slovak FTF VŠMU Bratislava and Estonian BFM Tallinn.

Visegrad Film Forum 2019
Date: 19th – 23rd of March 2019
Place: Bratislava, Slovakia
Venues: Film and TV Faculty VŠMU, Cinema Lumière
web: http://www.visegradfilmforum.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisegradFilmForum
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vffbratislava/
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mpj2r4K88c

Organized by: Boiler NGO
Co-organized by: Film and TV Faculty VŠMU
Financial support: International Visegrad Fund, Audiovisual Fund, Nadácia SPP

Partner schools: The Academy of Performing Arts, Film and TV Faculty in Bratislava, The University of Silesia in Katowice, The Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, KNUTCT Kiev, BFM Tallinn, Sahara Lab and UNATC Bucharest

The seventh edition of the CEE Animation Forum (formerly known as Visegrad Animation Forum) will showcase thirty-three animated projects in development in three categories: short films, series / TV specials and feature films. The majority of selected teams are coming from Central and Eastern Europe – the Czech Republic 6x, Hungary 3x, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Romania 2x, Slovenia, Latvia or Ukraine 1x.

After the successful first edition of the feature films pitching competition, the organizers decided to open a regular call for this category. “Receiving many feature animated film entries to this year’s call is a confirmation to us that the animation industry in the region and in the EU has a bright future as the level of the quality of projects in development is quite high. We intend to support all of the projects in pitchings, including feature projects, with a boost towards building international coproductions, pre-sales and promotion to access international markets,” explains Matija Šturm, Executive Director of CEE Animation. The winning project of the CEE Animation Forum 2018 was Of Unwanted Things and People, which was recently presented at Cartoon Movie and received the Eurimages Development Coproduction Award.

This year, the CEE Animation Forum have selected several promising projects directed by experienced filmmakers such as Czech author Michaela Pavlátová (Tram, 2012) or Martin Kotík (Harvie and the Magic Museum, 2017). Several authors will return to the pitching competition: Hungarian director Iván Tamás after having received a special mention at VAF Třeboň 2015 for his animated series How the World Began or Slovenian director Timon Leder for the successful short film The Weasel (VAF Třeboň 2014 special mention).

CATEGORY FEATURE FILMS IN DEVELOPMENT:

Allah Is Not Obliged (d. Zaven Najjar, p. Sébastien Onomo; France)

Babu in the Night City (d. Petr Vodička, p. Radim Procházka; Czech Republic)

The Guardian of Legends (d. Tomek Niedzwiedz, Waldek Mordarski, p. Magdalena Rawa, Tomasz Paziewski; Poland)

My Sunny Maad (d. Michaela Pavlátová, p. Kateřina Černá, Petr Oukropec; Ron Dyens, Peter Badač; Czech Republic, France, Slovakia)

Pearl (d. & p. Martin Kotík; Czech Republic)

Piece (d. Alan Holly, p. Ciarán Deeney, Carla Vulipiani; Ireland)

Sidi Kaba and the Gateway Home (d. Rony Hotin, p. Sébastien Onomo; France)

Solo Lobo (d. Zoltán Miklósy, Attila Herkó, p. Éva Konrád; Hungary)

CATEGORY SERIES / TV SPECIALS FILMS IN DEVELOPMENT:

The Brownies (d. Jordan Brankovski Zoltán Miklósy, p. Lachezar Velinov, Alexandra Lopez-Koleva; Bulgaria)

The Cat Princess (d. Iván Tamás, p. Bálint Gelley; Hungary) *

Grandma's Pond (d. Friedrich Schäper, p. Ivan Zuber, Antoine Liétout, Friedrich Schäper; Germany) *

Kosmix (d. Klára Jůzová, Vojtěch Dudek, p. Martin Jůza; Czech Republic)

Move It or Lose It (d. Raffaele Compagnoni, p. Federico Riboldazzi; Italy)

Some of Us (d. Matan Rochlitz, Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo, p. Laurent Duret; France, Italy)

Street Pack (d. & p. Matěj Holub; Slovakia)

The Very Hairy Alphabet (d. Eliza Plocieniak-Alvarez, p. Laura Messner; Germany)

The Wind Over Aleppo (d. Agnieszka Sadurska, p. Maria Deskur; Poland) *

* TV Special

CATEGORY SHORT FILMS IN DEVELOPMENT:

Amok (d. Balázs Turai, p. Gábor Osváth, Péter Benjámin Lukács; Hungary)

Butterfly on the Hook (d. Valeria Cozzarini, p. Remigio Guadagnini; Italy)

Family Portrait (d. Lea Vidaković, p. Draško Ivezić; Croatia)

The Goose (d. & p. Jan Míka; Czech Republic)

Money and Happiness (d. Ana Nedeljkovic, Nikola Majdak Jr., p. Jelena Mitrovic; Serbia)

Mouse House (d. Timon Leder, p. Jure Vizjak, Polona Kumelj; Slovenia)

Paolo´s Happiness (d. Thorsten Droessler, p. Grit Wisskirchen; Germany)

Playing God (d. Matteo Burani, p. Giancarlo Grande; France)

Raft (d. Marko Meštrović, p. Mia Bučević; Croatia)

Where To (d. Asparuh Petrov, p. Vessela Dantcheva; Bulgaria)

Selected authors will have a unique opportunity to consult projects with invited experts and receive valuable feedback and advice on how to improve their presentation, script, or production strategy. Competition participants can secure a chance to find a co-production partner by presenting it in front of almost two hundred film professionals, including producers, TV programmers, festival directors, distributors, investors or representatives of national film funds.

The last session of the CEE Animation Workshop will take place from May 4th to 9th and will be organized alongside the CEE Animation Forum. For this reason, several wild cards have been issued for projects to be presented in front of an audience.

FEATURE FILMS:

Gentle Jaco (d. Anthony Ho Wong, David Toušek, s. Hana Lehečková p. Marek Toušek; Czech Republic)

Twice Upon a Time (d. Vojin Vasovic, p. Vojin Vasovic, Milorad Kocić; Serbia)

SERIES:

Summer Kingdom (d. Roman Kepkalo, p. Yana Palamarenko; Ukraine)

SHORT FILMS:

Grandpa Is Sleeping (d. Matei Branea, p. Helga Fodorean; Romania)
Letter to Milena (d. Zane Oborenko, p. Sabine Andersone; Latvia)
Viskovitz (d. Serghei Chiviriga, p. Ioana Lascar; Romania)

CEE Animation Forum (May 6th – 8th, 2019) takes place within the Anifilm International Festival of Animated Films (May 7th - 12th, 2019). CEE Animation is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and co-funded by state funds and foundations and professional organisations from the Czech Republic (ASAF, Association of Czech Animation), Hungary (MOME ANIM, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest), Poland (SPPA, Polish Animation Producers Association), Slovakia (APAF, Slovak Association of Animated Film Producers) and Slovenia (DSAF, Slovenian Animated Film Association).

ABOUT CEE ANIMATION

• previously known as VISEGRAD ANIMATION FORUM, or VAF

CEE Animation is an umbrella of regional activities for promotion and development of the animation and its talents in more than 20 countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The objective of CEE Animation is to raise the competencies of professionals and give them equal access to financing and the markets as their Western peers, by fostering co-production and sustainable business models.

CEE ANIMATION FORUM – access to markets, tutoring, pitching, networking

CEE ANIMATION WORKSHOP – dynamic tailor-made workshop for experienced animated film producers

CEE ANIMATION TALENTS – dissemination and promotion of short films by promising young talents

 

Slovak Audiovisual Fund's Production and Development Grants for 2018

Slovak Audiovisual Fund's Production and Development Grants for 2017

EU Copyright Directive

26/02: Copyright: MEPs back provisional agreement – European Parliament

The Legal Affairs Committee approved the reform of EU copyright rules provisionally agreed with EU Ministers.

Antitrust

07/03: Antitrust: Commission accepts commitments by Disney, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Sky on cross-border pay-TV services – European Commission

The European Commission has made commitments offered by Disney, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Sky legally binding under EU antitrust rules. These commitments address the Commission's concerns regarding certain clauses in these studios' film licensing contracts for pay-TV with Sky UK.

Circulation & Promotion of European Films

26/02: European movies on the move: ten actions for better circulation across Europe – European Commission

The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) group of experts on circulation of films has published a paper featuring good practices and recommendations to enhance the circulation of European films across the EU.

Gender Balance

08/03: Public Consultation – Gender equality in the EU – European Commission

The Commission is launching a public consultation to gather opinions from all interested groups about the current situation regarding gender equality in the EU and the priorities for the next 5 years.

07/03: Statement by the European Commission on the occasion of International Women's Day 2019 – European Commission

“Women remain underrepresented in politics. In the upcoming European elections, we would like to see more women across the EU not only voting, but standing and succeeding as candidates. The Commission also calls for more women to be represented in the highest level of all EU institutions, including as Commissioners”, states the European Commission Statement.

2019 European Elections

05/03: Party leaders to join ECR group after EU elections – The Parliament Magazine

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, who leads French party Debout la France, and Thierry Baudet, who leads Dutch party Forum for Democracy, both signed declarations with ECR co-leader, Ryszard Legutko.

Moldova

/03: New Audiovisual Code – EAO Newsletter  

The new law replaces an earlier Audiovisual Code from 2006 (see IRIS 2006-9/27). It brings national legislation more into line with the AVMS Directive, especially in the fields of the protection of minors, the protection of consumers (commercial communications), incitement to hatred, events of major importance, the right of reply, material scope, jurisdictional issues, non-linear audiovisual media services, and the promotion of European works.

Studies & Data

/03: EFARN Film Research Library: Studies & data from the European film agencies – EFARN

Events

14 March: EAO Advisory Committee Meeting 
25-28 March: EU Single Use Plastics Directive - European Parliament plenary sitting
27 March: EU SatCab Directive - European Parliament plenary vote (TBC)
27 March: 28 Shades of AVMSD - A Changing and Challenging Digital Market 
27/28 March: EU Copyright Directive - European Parliament plenary vote (TBC)
8-12 April: EUIPO Working Group meetings
23-26 May: EU Elections

The Official Selection of the Annecy Festival 2019 was announced. There are 13 short films from Central and Eastern Europe in the competition.

Short Films in Competition

Acid Rain
d. Tomasz POPAKUL, p. ANIMOON SP. Z O.O., Zofia JAROSZUK, Poland, 2019, 26 min 16 s

A Demonstration of Brilliance in Four Acts
d. Lucija MRZLJAK, Morten TSINAKOV, p. EESTI JOONISFILM, Kalev TAMM, ADRIATIC ANIMATION, Drasko IVEZIC, Croatia, Estonia, 2018, 15 min 03 s 

Rain
d. Piotr MILCZAREK, p. Piotr FURMANKIEWICZ, FUMI, Mateusz MICHALAK, Poland, 2019, 5 min

Life24
d. Kristjan HOLM, p. KARABANA, Kristjan HOLM, Estonia, 2019, 9 min

Deep Love
d. Nykyta LYSKOV, p. TTM, Andriy GRANICA, Ukraine, 2019, 13 min 58 s

Story
d. Jolanta BANKOWSKA, p. POLISH FILMMAKERS ASSOCIATION MUNK STUDIO, Ewa JASTRZEBSKA, Poland, 2019, 5 min 08 s

Symbiosis
d. Nadja ANDRASEV, p. Pierre BAUSSARON, MIYU PRODUCTIONS, Pierre REYNAL, József FÜLÖP, SALTO, Orsolya SIPOS, France, Hungary, 2019, 12 min 41 s

> The project was pitched at VAF Třeboň 2017.

The Juggler
d. Skirmanta JAKAITE, p. ART SHOT, Agne ADOMENE, TRIPODE PRODUCTIONS AND PERSPECTIVE FILMS, Delphine SCHMIT, Lithuania, France, 2018, 11 min 05 s

Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild WolvesToomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves

d. Chintis LUNDGREN, p. CHINTIS LUNDGRENI ANIMATSIOONISTUUDIO, Chintis LUNDGREN, ADRIATIC ANIMATION, Drasko IVEZIC, MIYU PRODUCTIONS, Emmanuel-Alain RAYNAL, Croatia, Estonia, France, 2019, 18 min
> The project was pitched at VAF Třeboň 2018.

Perspectives Short Films in Competition

From Under Which Rock Did They Crawl Out
d. Daniel SULJIC, p. ZAGREB FILM, Sanja BORCIC, Croatia, 2018, 5 min 27 s

Winter in the Rainforest

d. Anu-Laura TUTTELBERG, p. OÜ NUKUFILM, Andres MAND, MOON BIRDS STUDIOS, Anu-Laura TUTTELBERG, ESTUDIO CARABÁS, Daniel IRABIÉN PENICHE, ART SHOT, Agne ADOMENE, Estonia, Lithuania, 2019, 8 min 36 s

Imbued Life 

d. Ivana BOSNJAK, Thomas JOHNSON, p. BONOBOSTUDIO, Vanja ANDRIJEVIC, Croatia, 2019, 12 min 15 s

Young Audiences Short Films in Competition

The Kite
d. Martin SMATANA, p. BFILM, LTD., Peter BADAC, Czech Republic, 2019, 13 min 10 s
> The project was pitched at VAF Třeboň 2017

Discover the complete list of selected short films here.

The nominee of other categories will be announced shortly: Short films, TV and commissioned films, graduation films: end of March, Feature films: end of April and VR Works: end of April.

It is with great pleasure that the animation film professionals from Central and Eastern European countries – united under the CEE Animation brand – have again accepted the generous offer of Creative Europe MEDIA to be part of their Umbrella Stand at MIFA in Annecy and present the industry, studios, institutions, authors and festivals of the Central and Eastern European animation.