EUFCN General Assembly in Brussels 2010 with training sessions on "3D" and "Film Tourism"

Brussels - The European Film Commissions Network association's yearly general assembly took place on December 4, 2010 in the city hall of Brussels. It included the 3rd elections of the board of directors. The EUFCN board has been reelected with great majority. The President of the association, Arie Bohrer (Austria) as well as the General Secretary of the board, Patrick Lamassoure (France) were confirmed in their office. Giuliana Tessera (Italy) was reelected. Elsa Martinez, the head of Spain Film Commission was elected as a new board member. Christiane Scholz (Germany) and Anja Metzger (Germany) stay for another term in office, as well as the Treasurer Truls Kontny (Norway).

For the first time the association's annual general assembly was embedded in two blocks of seminars. The agenda included a detailed training session on the specifics of 3D filmmaking. French 3D specialist Philippe Delbary explained the technological aspects of 3D and how it is used globally. Sebastian Cramer of Screen Plane GmbH, Germany described the work flow of 3D projects.

The second day was dedicated to sharing experiences with film tourism. Stefan Roesch, author of the book "The Experiences of Film Location Tourists", spoke about cooperating with the tourism industry, designing tourism marketing campaigns, and developing tourism products. Thomas Fuchs of CineTirol presented a case study on film tourism in Tirol, and Piluca Querol of the Andalucia Film Commission introduced her book "Movie Tourism: A New Promotional Strategy".

EUFCN President Arie Bohrer states: "To my great pleasure the EUFCN board has been reelected with great majority. This proves that our members are entirely satisfied with the new policy the Board of Directors has adopted. Our first training sessions "3D" and "Film Tourism" had been very useful to our members. This confirms our strategy to continue these training efforts in the future. We are convinced that all members belonging to the EUFCN, will be highly respected and most reliable partners for the national and international film industry. Providing those continuous training sessions, we guarantee that our film commissioners will be always on top of the latest technical and practical developments of the industry."

The umbrella association EUFCN representing film commissions in Europe was founded in 2007 to consolidate the evergrowing number of film and location offices all over Europe into one network. The EUFCN, which today already encompasses 78 Film Commissions in 24 European countries, is a non-profit association which supports and promotes the European film industry and culture. The constant growing of the network shows how important this association is for Europe.

This is the last call to submit your proposal for Ex Oriente Film - a year-long international workshop that supports the development and funding of creative documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe.

On December 11, the International Jury revelaed the winners of TIFF 2010 (www.tblisifilmfestival.ge). The Golden Prometheus for the best film went to Rusudan Pirveli for SUSA. The best director Vladimir Perisic was awarded with Silver Prometheus for ORDINARY PEOPLE.

Motive Television plc, the digital television technology, software and services provider, has successfully completed the technical pilot of its Bestv technology with Antenna Hungaria, a subsidiary of Groupe TDF. Antenna Hungaria operates a digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform in Hungary, offering consumers the choice of both free and pay television channels via a set top box.

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Let me inform you about film showings of Slovak films taking place in Serbia from Monday on!

In four Serbian cities - Beograd, Novi Sad, Nis and Backi Petrovac the Slovak Film Days will take place during December 13 - 23, 2010.
Seven fiction and documentary films are included in the programme. The presentation of Slovak cinema will be open by the film Bathory by Juraj Jakubisko, which is soon going to be distributed in Serbia.
The vent takes place with support of the Ministries of Culture of both countries, and with the extensive help and cooperation of the Film Centre Serbia.

For more information, see here: link - SLOVAK FILMS IN SERBIA.

At the same time, a collection of Slovak animation shorts is still travelling with the Festival on Wheels in Turkey – Ankara, Artvin and Ordu:
The selection of films consists of the archive animation films by Slovak renowned artists.
For more, see here: link - SLOVAK ANIMATION IN TURKEY.

In addition, about awards to Slovak films in recent weeks, you will learn here: link – AWARDS IN NOVEMBER.

Do not hesitate to contact us for any more information!

Wishing you a very nice weekend from freezing Bratislava!

Alexandra Strelkova
______________________________
National Cinematographic Centre - Slovak Film Institute
Grösslingova 32, SK 811 09 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Tel: +421 2 5710 1527, Fax: +421 2 5296 3461
Cell: +421 905 730 040
www.sfu.sk, www.aic.sk
FB: www.facebook.com/filmovyustav
TW: www.twitter.com/filmovyustav

Dorota Kędzierzawska has been honored with the Golden Alexander for her work as director at the honorary ceremony that took place at 51^st Thessaloniki International Film Festival on December 9th. The festival organized the director's retrospective that attracted enormous interest of the audience.

There are six feature films, all co-produced by TVP, shown within the retrospective, marking a spectrum of Ms Kędzierzawska's work: "Crows", "Devils, Devils", "I Am", "Nothing", "Time to Die" and "The End of the World" - her directorial debut from 1988. The films illustrate director's original, outstanding style that is characterized by the organizers as the one, in which the surrounding bleakness [...] serves as an unvarnished landscape for people's stories; the reliance, not on dialogue, but on cinematic language, such as tender close-ups, the play of people's eyes with the light, the glances that are the most faithful depictions of emotion; the spirit with which she focuses on her characters. None perhaps of her convictions is more evident than her compassion for the people she portrays and the profound respect she has for their choices.

more information on the festival:

www.filmfestival.gr

Ex Oriente Film is a year-long international workshop that supports the development and funding of creative documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe. At three workshops (the 4th session focused on rough cuts is for selected projects only) directors and producers develop their projects and funding strategies and benefit from the assistance and valuable advice provided by established European producers, directors, AV experts and commissioning editors. The Ex Oriente Film training programme is completed with the co-production meeting East European Forum that gives documentary filmmakers a chance to pitch their project and secure funding from West European and North American broadcasters.

CAIRO: Born of the Sea by Polish director Andrzej Kotkowski got the Best Director Prize at the 34th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival that concluded on 9 December. The festival presented over 100 films and welcomed Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche as honorary guests this year.

CAIRO: Born of the Sea by Polish director Andrzej Kotkowski got the Best Director Prize at the 34th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival that concluded on 9 December. The festival presented over 100 films and welcomed Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche as honorary guests this year.

Giving out awards at this year's Baltic Event Co-Production Market was like searching for pearls among gems. With one of the strongest project slates of the market's history, voting ended up being across the board and the winners won by a margin. Nevertheless, the deserving projects and producers were announced and awarded at the ceremony that took place on December 3rd in Tallinn.