As organisations working across the European audiovisual sector, and in the context of the discussions surrounding the next Multi-annual Financial Framework, we would like to reiterate our support for the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme, a vital component of the European audiovisual landscape, and call for an ambitious budgetary proposal to ensure the continued success of the European audiovisual sector in the future.

dok.incubator has just announced the final selection of talented filmmakers whose projects will be supported in 2018. dok.incubator is a well-established rough-cut stage workshop that is unique in its format and impact on filmmakers. Its aim each year is to offer individual mentorship for eight documentary projects with a focus on dramaturgy, distribution and marketing strategy and audience building in order to premiere at prestigious festivals and reach a wide distribution.

The teams behind the projects come from the whole world and their projects cover a wide range of topics and genres.

A rather intimate portrait Story of B., the disappearance of my mother (IT) by Italian filmmaker Beniamino Berrese, depicts the director’s own. An iconic model from the 1960s, she now wishes to withdraw into solitude and literally “disappear” from public.

Mercurius of Molenbeek (FI, BE, DE), a Finnish documentary by Reetta Huhtanen, follows a six-year-old boy in the world he’s created for himself in the shaken Molenbeek Muslim neighbourhood as he seeks something bigger than everyday reality.

From the remote mountains of Albania in Avenge (SI, XK), Marija Zidar tells a story of family pride, and of deep-rooted principles of revenge and forgiveness while fighting the omnipresent corruption and prevailing communist residues.

Stella van Voorst van Beest’s I will never leave you (NL) brings the study of Rotterdam’s municipality social project involving dozens of volunteers visiting elderly citizens, each trying in their solitude to find a way to live together in the ever changing urban environment.

César Jaimes’ Lapü (CO) from Colombia is an artistic portrayal of rituals concerning life and death in the Wayuu tradition, where dreams and everyday reality are inseparable and represent both sides of the documentary protagonists lives.

A Latvian project People From Nowhere (LV, DE, CZ, EE) by Gints Grube uncovers family history in a picture of a father and daughter emigrating during the Cold War to New York. It is a search for the truth, a portrayal of family values, and a confrontation with choices that will change their lives.

Searching Eva (DE) by Pia Hellenthal is the tale of a modern icon, growing up in the age of the internet and turning the search for oneself into a public spectacle. It is a hybrid of fiction and documentary, of offline and online, about a German young woman searching for her place in a modern world.

Petter Sommer’s team from Norway presents a portrait of The Mens’s Choir (NO), whose hard-boiled, beer thirsty members are confronted by life’s reversed face – their beloved conductor is diagnosed with cancer. Can they make it to their last ever concert together?

These eight projects have been selected out of 101 applications and they now have the opportunity to join ranks of the other successful documentaries which were developed at the dok.incubator workshop. Over the six years of dok.incubator, over one third of the films have been screened at IDFA, six have competed at Sundance, and many more have been at Visions du Reel, CPH:DOX, Hots Docs, and other similar festivals.

Find more information about the projects here.

EU Copyright Directive

12/04: Call to the European Council: Secure the aims of the Proposed Copyright Directive in the DSM - IFPI Website

IFPI and wide range of European creators, producers and performers urge no fudging of EU Value Gap fix.

EU Cultural Budget

09/04: Boosting the EU culture budget – A call from Europe’s cultural and creative sectors – IMPALA Website

On the 9^th of April, 66 organisations from across Europe’s cultural and creative sectors sent an open letter to the EU institutions urging them to give a significant boost to the EU budget dedicated to culture.

Copyright enforcement

10/04: Speech by Vice-President Andrus Ansip on copyright – European Commission

“Our copyright reform gives publishers and authors the means to negotiate better with digital platforms. Rights holders will be in a stronger and fairer position to negotiate and be paid when a platform puts their work online. The legal bargaining position of press publishers needs similar improvement and clarity” stated Vice-President Ansip.

/04: Recommendation on measures to effectively tackle illegal content online – EAO Newsletter

The present Recommendation constitutes additional measures and builds further on various voluntary initiatives already undertaken by hosting service providers in their fight against illegal content online, such as the EU Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online.

Data Protection

/04: Guidance on the direct application of the General Data Protection Regulation – EAO Newsletter

In the light of the General Data Protection Regulation, which will become directly applicable on 25 May 2018 and will replace the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) and the Police Directive (2016/680/EU), the EU Commission issued a Communication aimed at guiding all relevant actors in their preparations vis-à-vis this new legal instrument.

Events

17, 18 & 19 April: EUIPO Working Group Meetings 17 April: SatCab Trilogue 26 April: AVMS Trilogue 3 May: AAPA/EUIPO - Enforcement Database and Online Digital Infringements 12 May: European Audiovisual Observatory Conference - Cannes 12 May: UNIC Cocktail - Cannes 13 May: Europa Cinemas Conference - Cannes 14 May: European Film Forum - Cannes 15 May: Creative Europe MEDIA Stakeholders' Meeting - Cannes 20-21 June: European Parliament Vote - Copyright Directive