FNE at Zlin IFF: Michal Hogenauer in Postproduction with Certain Kind of Silence
Czech Republic 30-05-2018ZLIN: Certain Kind of Silence, a coproduction between the Czech Republic, Latvia and The Netherlands, is being readied for a summer 2018 release.
FNE at Zlin IFF: Slovak Music Film BACKSTAGE Set to Premiere in Czech Republic
Czech Republic 30-05-2018ZLIN: BACKSTAGE, a music film coproducion between Slovakia and the Czech Republic, directed by Andrea Sedláčková, will open in Czech cinemas on 7 June 2018 distributed by Bontonfilm. The film is screening in the Main Competition of the 58th Zlin IFF.
PRAGUE: The Karlovy Vary IFF announced the 12 films that will screen in the main competition. Ten of the films will be world premieres. The festival will take place 29 June – 7 July 2018.
ZLIN: The celebratory zero clapperboard at 58th Zlin IFF launched the production of Crime Story 5.C, an upcoming Czech/Slovak coproduction for children directed by Juraj Nvota.
KOSICE: Eleven full-length films and four short films will screen in the packed Slovak Season section of the 26th Art Film Fest, which runs 15 – 23 June in the Eastern Slovak city of Kosice.
BANJA LUKA: The boutique animation studio Aeon Production is producing The Adventures of Tubby and Stretch, a children’s animated TV series for the national TV station of Bosnia and Herzegovina RTRS.
WARSAW: FNE has teamed up with the Brussels based team of the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC) to bring you regular updates on EU cinema policies that impact all industry professionals across Europe. Click here for FNE UNIC EU Cinema Policy Update.
Krakow, 27th May - 58th edition of Krakow Film Festival, one of the oldest and the most recognizable events dedicated to documentary, animated and short films has started tonight. Sergei Loznitsa, Talal Derki, and Etgar Keret are among the guests.
During the 8 festival days, the audience has a chance to see about 250 films from the whole world, presented in 4 competitions and 12 non-competing sections. The screenings are complemented with Q&As, workshops, exhibitions, concerts and KFF Industry events for the professionals, including presentations of the new Polish documentary and animated projects.
The festival has opened with the world premiere of a music documentary “Concerto for Two” by Tomasz Drozdowicz – the colourful story of an outstanding conductor, pianist and composer Jerzy Maksymiuk, as well as an intimate description of a special relationship he has with his wife Ewa. The film takes part in the international music documentary films competition DocFilmMusic and in the national competition.
This edition’s special guest is Estonian cinema. In the “Focus on Estonia” section the latest productions from this Baltic country will be presented: documentaries, shorts, a special programme for kids and teenagers and a selection of student films. The film professionals from Estonia and Poland will meet at the industry conference to discover the opportunities for collaboration. The section will be inaugurated with a daring documentary “Rodeo. Taming a Wild Country” showing the process of breaking free from the Soviet regime.
This year’s Dragon of Dragons award for lifetime achievement will go to Sergei Loznitsa („Donbass”, „A Gentle Creature”, „Blockade”), an outstanding documentary filmmaker, a multiple Krakow Film Festival winner. The programme includes the retrospective of Loznitsa’s films and his master class devoted to using of archival footage and one’s own life experiences in filmmaking.
Another highlight of the festival is a visit of Etgar Keret, one of the most famous and popular Israeli writers, a master of short fiction, screenwriter and lecturer. The documentary “Etgar Keret: Based on a True Story” will be shown as a part of “World Stories” section, and director Stephane Kaas, writer Rutger Lemm, and the protagonist are expected at the festival and will take part in meeting with an audience.
One of the more distinctive and very popular section of the festival is Docs+Science, a cycle dedicated to science films accompanied by the meetings with the experts and organized for the fifth time, in cooperation with the Foundation for AGH. One of the films presented in a section is a documentary “Jane” focusing on the story of an exceptional researcher Jane Goodall, who spent most of her life among chimpanzees. The film is directed by Brett Morgen, known for “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck” awarded in Krakow in 2015.
As a matter of fact, this edition seems to be marked with returns. Syrian filmmaker Talal Derki, a Silver Horn 2014 laureate for “Return to Homs”, comes with “Of Fathers and Sons”, a close up on a life of jihadists, awarded already at Sundance. Till Schauder, the last year’s winner of the DocFilmMusic competition brings to Krakow “The Reggae Boyz” about Jamaican football team. Kaleo La Belle, the winner of the KFF documentary competition in 2010 in “Fell in Love with a Girl” tells the story of his own attempts to create a perfectly functioning patchwork family. Last but not least, Zosya Rodkevich, the Golden Horn 2016 winner for “My Friend Boris Nemtsov”, comes back with “White Mama”, a documentary about a woman who, having six black-skinned children born out of her relationship with an Ethiopian man, decides to adopt a white boy with mental health problems.
Among Polish filmmakers attending 58.KFF there will be: Marta Prus, the author of the widely known documentary “Over the Limit”, that secured her a place on the prestigious Variety magazine list; Marta Pajek, last year’s winner for her animation “Impossible Figures and Other Stories II”, whose latest film “III” was selected to the competition in Cannes and Grzegorz Zariczny, the director of awarded at Sundance “The Whistle”, who comes back to the festival with “The Last Lesson” about high school graduates from the Krakow.
Traditionally in the programme there are the screenings of music films in the open air cinema at the foot of Wawel Castle (Sound of Music), films awarded in the befriended festivals (Festival Award Winners), showcase of the latest Polish productions (Polish Panorama), cinema for the young (Kids&Youth), last year’s most widely discussed documentaries from different parts of the world (World Stories) and films made in European countries (Somewhere in Europe).
58th Krakow Film Festival will last until Sunday, 3rd June, the award ceremony will take place on Saturday, 2nd June.
Public Consultation
/05: Public consultation on measures to further improve the effectiveness of the fight against illegal content online - EUSurvey
Through the present public consultation the Commission seeks to gather views from all relevant stakeholders. The questionnaire is targeted to the general public, hosting service providers such as online platforms, organisations reporting the presence of illegal content online, competent authorities and law enforcement bodies, and academia, civil societies and other organisations.
Digital Single Market
15/05: EU Leaders’ meeting in Sofia: Completing a trusted Digital Single Market for the benefit of all – European Commission
Ahead of the entry into application of the General Data Protection Regulation, the European Commission presented a set of concrete actions that European leaders can take to protect citizens' privacy and make the EU's Digital Single Market a reality before the end of 2018.
EU Copyright Directive
17/05: Bulgarian Presidency of the Council’s new compromise text on the Copyright Directive – Council of the EU
The proposed Directive is one of the Commission’s initiatives under the Digital Single Market Strategy and aims to further harmonise the Union law applicable to copyright and related rights in the framework of the internal market, taking into account in particular digital and cross-border uses of protected content.
14/05: Joint press release: Audiovisual organisations unveil new international legal study supporting fair remuneration of audiovisual authors - SAA
Organisations representing authors in the audiovisual sector welcomed a new global study calling for legal reforms to help screenwriters and directors earn royalties for the use of their works.
Copyright Enforcement
/05: Committee of Ministers – Recommendation on the roles and responsibilities of Internet intermediaries – EAO Newsletter
In order to provide guidance to all relevant actors faced with the complex task of protecting human rights in the digital environment, the Recommendation sets out a number of recommendations for member states, including that member states implement the “Guidelines for States on actions to be taken vis-à-vis Internet intermediaries with due regard to their roles and responsibilities” (which are annexed to the Recommendation) when devising and implementing legislative frameworks relating to Internet intermediaries.
Creative Europe MEDIA
22/05: An online directory of European films – European Commission
Commissioner Gabriel’s project of a creating an online directory of European films has received large support by the audiovisual sector last week in Cannes. Further to a roundtable organised in the context of the Cannes festival on 15 May 2018 on this subject, a number of organisations signed a manifesto supporting the project.
EU Budget
02/05: A financial commitment to secure Europe’s digital future into the next decade – Andrus Ansip Blog
“I am very pleased that my fellow European commissioners supported digital in the European Commission's proposals for the EU's multi-annual budget, starting from 2021. Here, digital has a strong and separate presence: you can see its footprint everywhere, spread over many different programmes” stated Commissioner Ansip.
21/05: MFF post-2020: Towards a two-speed Europe? – The Parliament Magazine
The Commission’s recently unveiled proposal for the next EU long-term budget contains few surprises. As it had been rumoured in the financial press and hinted at by Brussels diplomats, the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework will be less about cohesion and more about other ‘priorities’, including ‘values’.
European Commission
22/05: Fact Sheet - Building a stronger Europe: new initiatives to further boost role of youth, education and culture policies – European Commission
The initiatives adopted by the Commission today will advance work towards building a European Education Area by 2025, set out how to better harness the potential of culture in driving economic and social development and boost young people's participation and resilience.
Events
CineEurope, 11 – 14 June, Barcelona – please register here
20-21 June: European Parliament Vote - Copyright Directive
Twelve documentary film projects have been selected for the 16th Ex Oriente Film Workshop.
