The two initiatives by Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event that work with script projects, have announced the 2017 participants. 

Script Pool Tallinn is the new script development competition that is launching at this year’s Industry@Tallinn with the main prize including 5000 euros and mentoring sessions with a professional script doctor, both provided by the European leading licensing company Telepool. Seven teams consisting of scriptwriters and producers will be competing in Tallinn at the open pitch on the November 30th of November.

Triin Tramberg, Industry@Tallinn ScriptPool competition coordinator comments: "We are positively surprised to have such a diverse and great selection of projects for the premier edition of Script Pool and it's wonderful to welcome back a couple of filmmakers who already have a history with the Black Nights Film Festival."

Selected projects 

Pekka Lehto, Mika Purola (Finland) - The Box
In the fatal fall of the Finnish mobile giant Nokia, a middle-aged lawyer lost his fortune and decided to commit a perfect crime to save himself and his family from ruin. The Box is by well-known Finnish film writers and directors, Pekka Lehto and Mika Purola.

Marteinn Thorsson (Iceland) - Yosoy
Yosoy is the only TV-series selected in Script Poo and isl by the director Marteinn Thorsson who directed the very controversial XL. Yosoy is about a celebrated neurologist hired by a shadowy group of billionaires to investigate YOSOY, an underground circus of extreme performance artists in a village in Iceland. At the same time, a burnt and dismembered body is discovered in a nearby glacial lagoon.

Aleksander Kott (Russia) - The Lighthouse
The Lighthouse is set on a remote island. The story follows the aging lighthouse keeper, Zavyalov, and how his life irreversibly change after he finds a pregnant woman washed up on the shore after the boat she was on sank during a storm. Alexander Kott is a Russian director known for his 2014 film The Test and 2015 Insight, which travelled around the world - including Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival - winning various prizes for script, direction, and cinematography.

Igor Cobileanski (Romania) - Coma
Coma is a third person told drama that tries to follow, in a linear manner, the evolution of the main character – Alina – a 45-year-old woman, religious, modest, sincere – medical nurse at the emergency hospital. The context in which life puts her are complex and Alina has to make an important decision that will shatter her personal, moral and religious principles. The film is from Igor Cobileanski, whose 2016 Eastern Business premiered in the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Official Selection.

Andrea Pallaoro, Orlando Tirado - Monica
Monica is an intimate observation of a transgender woman returning to her Ohio hometown to take care of her dying mother, who is in the advanced stages of breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Monica has not seen her mother in over 35 years, since being kicked out of her home. The project is by Andrea Pallaoro whose recent film Hannah premiered in the main competition of the 2017 Venice International Film Festival and will screen at Black Nights. Orlando Tirado has been collaborating with Andrea since 2000, co-authoring projects including Wunderkammer and the award-winning Medeas.

Andrius Lekavicius (Lithuania) - Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday VR is an experience based on real events that happened on January the 13th 1991, in Vilnius, Lithuania. Using the archive audio and real setting of the events animated in 3D, the VR experience will create a based-on-true-event storytelling piece where the user can make his own decisions. Screenwriter Andrius Lekavicius is an all-around media storyteller and interactive orchestra conductor for the images, forms, and medias. He has built a profile of projects on various media platforms: from creating brand image to VR experiences, from directing high-end commercials to his first feature documentary Game of the Nation.

Shonali Bose (India)  - The Sky Is Pink
Shonali Bose is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker. Both her feature narrative films – Amu and Margarita, With a Straw – played in over 150 film festivals including TIFF, Berlin and Black Nights and has won numerous prestigious international awards. Her The Sky Is Pink is based on a true story that spans 30 years in the life of a family who find the ability to remain positive and happy in the face of terrible tragedy.

POWR Baltic Stories Exchange gives Nordic and Baltic screenwriters access to an informal and international forum where they can present their projects and writing talent during the largest regional film market in Northeastern Europe. This year’s selection includes projects from I@T&BE’s focus region Flanders, Belgium. The workshop mentor is Valeria Richter (Denmark/TFL), pitch coach Helene Granqvist (Sweden), and selected industry guests. The open pitch will take place on November the 29th, and will be followed by a round-table session where selected producers and other film industry representatives will share their feedback and advice.

Selected projects

Birute Kapustinskaite (Lithuania) – 200 Beats per Minute
Elina Veira (Latvia) – Met-a-way
Gilles Weyns (Flanders, Belgium) – My Name is Howitt
Heidi Lindén (Finland) – The Night Train is Coming
Hilde Heier (Norway) – The Opera Singer
Osmond Karim (Sweden) – The Macabre Mysteries of Viktor Kasparsson
Teresa Mecklin (Finland) – The Pretending Game

Valeria Richter, POWR Head of Studies says: "This year you’ll meet two strong biopics, one about a British female historical painter, writer and women’s rights activist, and one telling the story of a world famous Norwegian opera singer; two family dramas each with their unique comic voice; a dark action story set in the corporate world; a strong character drama laced with magic realism; and finally, a grand fantasy story based on two graphic novels."

2017 marks the 10-year anniversary of POWR Baltic Stories Exchange. The workshop was launched by our region’s MEDIA Desks with the goal to bring forward the young talent of the Nordic and Baltic countries. A few years into its success, POWR was moved under the Baltic Event Co-Production Market to give the participants an even wider forum to present their stories. Over the years, many participating projects have found a producer from Baltic Event. Several stories have become films and travelled Europe and beyond. We are especially proud of the Estonian scriptwriters Livia Ulman and Andris Feldmanis, whose film Pretenders (formerly Metaphors We Live), directed by Vallo Toomla, was a POWR project in 2012.

Happy 10th anniversary to all the POWR participants throughout the years!

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event take place during Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival from November 27 until December 1.

 

 

Joining the programmes of its previous sub-festivals Animated Dreams and Sleepwalkers, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) introduces PÖFF Shorts, the newest festival in the Baltics dedicated to short films and animation.

The new format will keep the Animated Dreams and Sleepwalkers programmes with their respective competition programmes and programming teams. The animation programme will be curated by the award-winning animation director Priit Tender, with Laurence Boyce continuing as the live action short film programmer.

"It's great the PÖFF Shorts is here to showcase the absolute best of animated and live action shorts with the Black Nights Film Festival," said Laurence Boyce. "The legacy of Sleepwalkers and Animated Dreams will continue by screening audiences films from cutting edge talents and bold visionaries from across the world."

PÖFF Shorts Competition Programmes

In addition to the Sleepwalkers and Animated Dreams competition programmes, PÖFF Shorts will be hosting a joint National Competition programme designed to provide a platform for Estonian filmmakers and animation directors. 

• Animated Dreams International Competition
• Sleepwalkers International Competition
• Animated Dreams Student Competition
• Sleepwalkers Student Competition
• PÖFF Shorts National Competition

The full competition programme and jury will be revealed by November 3rd, 2017.

Industry events

Parallel to PÖFF Shorts there will be an industry event Baltic Preview, a piloting networking event in the framework of PÖFF Shorts for film professionals initiated and coordinated by Estonian Short Film Centre ShortEST and Creative Gate. It’s goal is to be a representational and lobbying event for Baltic short films on the international level. During the 2-day event we showcase exclusively around 20 short films from Baltic countries, both works in progress and films straight out the oven to our invited guests - international programmers, agents and distributors.

Baltic Preview will take place from 24 - 25 November, 2017.

Tickets and passes

PÖFF Shorts passes available now Piletilevi: http://bit.ly/2yTIPdB
Single tickets will be available from November 10.

PÖFF Shorts press accreditation

The press accreditation for the 21st Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is open. For applying please visitvp.eventival.eu/poff/21.

The prices of the PRESS badge
18 August – 31 October – 35 EUR
1 November – 3 December – 50 EUR

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) is a unique event combining a feature film festival with the sub-festivals of animated films, short films and children/youth films. The festival aims to present Estonian audiences a comprehensive selection of world cinema in all its diversity, providing a friendly atmosphere for interaction between the audience and filmmakers from all around the world.

PÖFF Shorts international short film and animation festival takes place November 21-26 in Tallinn, Estonia.

The 21st Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) takes place November 17 to December 3 in Tallinn and Tartu.

PÖFF Shorts, http://shorts.poff.ee/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/poffshorts
Black Nights Film Festival, http://www.poff.ee
ShortEst Estonian Short Film Center, www.shortest.eu

Contact
Heinrich Sepp
PÖFF Shorts Marketing and Communications
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+372 5656 5599 

 

 

The European Film Academy congratulates the nominees for the EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2017 – Prix FIPRESCI, an award presented annually as part of the European Film Awards to a young and upcoming director for a first full-length feature film.

Nominated are:

BLOODY MILK (Petit Paysan) by Hubert Charuel (France)
GODLESS (БЕЗБОГ) by Ralitza Petrova (Bulgaria, Denmark, France)
LADY MACBETH by William Oldroyd (UK)
SUMMER 1993 (Estiu 1993) by Carla Simón (Spain)
THE EREMITS (Die Einsiedler) by Ronny Trocker (Germany)

check out the nominated films

 

Open letter to the Minister of Culture and National Heritage

ISFMF is one of only few festivals of this kind in the world. The mission of the festival is the promotion of film music and sound ad irreplaceable elements of the film, networking of composers, sound designers and engineers, filmmakers an other film and film music enthusiasts.

 

The 19th edition of the Bratislava International Film Festival will revolve around and explore film acting, emerging stars of the contemporary film scene as well as time proven festival hits. Its Lexicon section will shed some light on the specifics, history and future of acting for film, starting with the perfect acting opposites of silent slapstick comedy – Chaplin and Keaton – and ending with virtual actors in the era of 3D cinema. As a traditional part of the festival programme, three finalists of the LUX Prize will also be introduced. The Bratislava IFF will moreover present a number of other notable European films from various prestigious festivals in their exclusive Slovak premieres.

By selection of its dramaturges, the main theme of the 19th edition of the Bratislava Film Festival will be the film actor. Its Lexicon programme section will comprise several films illustrating the history as well as specific challenges that the work of a film actor entails. In the genre of silent slapstick comedy, Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton are regarded as acting opposites. In the film The Floorwalker (1916), we’re following a hero who actively moves the plot forward and whose clumsiness serves as a source of various comic situations taking place in a department store. The main character in the film One Week (1920) is, by contrast, a passive and stoic "receiver" of different comic disasters.

In terms of acting work, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) with the legendary Marlon Brando in its lead role can be considered a breakthrough film due to its application of the so-called method acting principles. When compared to other actors starring in the film, Brando’s acting is noticeably more civil and more complex when dealing with emotions. The adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ theatre classic is a story of a woman struggling to preserve her mental health. Searching for a peaceful haven in the home of her sister Stella and her husband Stanley, she's unable to find it even there.

The section’s highlights will include a study of a consuming physical and psychological transformation of an actress who gradually merges with her character. The film Kate Plays Christine (2016) is the winner of last year’s Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in the category of documentary films. As a filmmaker, the film’s director Robert Greene systematically explores the concepts of fact and fiction, pretending and performing in different forms and contexts.

The Lexicon section also comprises accompanying programme, which will, among other things, demonstrate new technologies and working with a virtual actor. One of the top Slovak post production studios, Studio 727, will present the participants of its masterclass with motion-capture technology and a full-body scan, both a prerequisite for the future of film acting in the era of computer-generated and trick films.

Another film, loosely connected with this year’s main theme, is Requiem for Mrs. J. (Rekvijem za gospođu J., 2017), directed by Bojan Vuletić. The actress who plays a blinder is the fantastic Mirjana Karanović. The main character, whom she plays, virtually never leaves the projecting screen, remaining present in every shot. This tragicomedy with a successful festival career tells the story of an unemployed widow, meticulously preparing for her suicide. She pays her debts to the neighbours, tries to make peace with her pregnant daughter and submits an order at the stonemason’s. There are just a few more formalities to take care of, but in a country tossed in the midst of a social and economic transformation, not even these simple acts are easy.

In addition to its acting section, the Bratislava Film Festival will please its visitors with several acclaimed film hits. One of the Slovak premieres to look forward to is a new release of the all-star French director François Ozon called The Double Lover (L ' amant double, 2017). Chloé has a crush on her psychologist Paul, but gradually begins to realize that his past hides some truly dark secrets. One of them is the existence of his twin. This erotic film tells the story of the sexual imagination of a young torn woman, toying with the line between fantasy and reality. The film’s complex dual role is played by the Belgian actor Jérémie Renier.

A controversial portrait of one "velvet neo-Nazi", The White World According to Daliborek (Svět podle Daliborka, 2017), is the work of the acclaimed Czech director Vít Klusák. A soon to be forty-year-old worker and author of amateur horror videos Dalibor K. from Prostějov hates Jews, homosexuals, the Roma people, immigrants and spiders. He’s never had an actual relationship with a woman and still lives with his mother Věra. “He’s a good guy, he just has stupid opinions," says Věra about her son. However, it is opinions just like his that become symptomatic for whole groups of people in today's society.

The 19th edition of the Bratislava IFF also features three finalists of the LUX Prize, awarded by the European Parliament since 2007. As its current President Antonio Tajani said: "The Lux Prize not only brings cinema closer to citizens, but Europe to Europeans.”

In accordance with this creed, three remarkable European films made it to the finals. A French "queer" drama 120 Beats per Minute (120 battements par minute, 2017) by Robin Campillo, telling the story of the activist movement ACT UP, which tried to increase awareness of HIV in the early nineties in Paris. A character study on contemporary Europe, problems of integration and the search for identity called Western (2017), shot by the renowned German director and screenwriter Valeska Grisebach and Sami Blood (Sameblod, 2016), an engrossing directorial debut of a talented upcoming Swedish screenwriter Amanda Kernell, dedicated to a dark chapter of the Swedish colonial history.

The festival will also introduce the film Ciambra (A Ciambra, 2017), one of the top ten nominees for this year's LUX Prize and, at the same, Italy’s candidate for the Academy Awards. Ciambra is the name of a ghetto in southern Italy and the home of a closed Roma community. One of its members is a 14-year-old Pio, who piously looks up to his older brother Cosimo. One day Cosimo suddenly disappears and Pio decides to take his place. During his rapid maturation, Pio is accompanied by his good friend Aiyva, an illegal migrant from Burkina Faso. After his acclaimed feature debut Mediterranea, the talented director Jonas Carpignano has filmed yet another realistic film that so fantastically works with the spontaneity of its non-actors. Both films are part of a loose trilogy connected by the main protagonists. While in Mediterranea, the fate of a migrant called Aiyvu lies at the forefront of the story, Ciambra follows the life story of a young Roma boy Pio.

For latest updates on the programme of the 19th Bratislava International Film Festival, please visit our official website at www.bratislavaiff.sk or our official Facebook account at www.facebook.com/bratislavaiff.

You can buy Festival Pass or Student Festival Pass online (more information: http://bratislavaiff.sk/en/service/tickets-and-festival-passes/ )

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19 th BRATISLAVA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
November 9 – 16, 2017
Main Organisers: Partners Production
The Festival is held with the generous financial support of Slovak Audiovisual Fund.
Main Partners: Slovenská elektrizačná prenosová sústava, KiK textil a Non-Food, Transpetrol, innogy Slovensko
COME AND EXPERIENCE IT!

 

 

We announce the line-up of the Documentary Features Competition "IMAGE OF THE WORLD AND WORLD IN IMAGES" of the 25th anniversary edition of theInternational Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE.

The aim of the competition is to recognize the art of documentary filmmaking as creative interpretation of reality. Putting emphasis on the visual and aesthetic aspects of the selected nonfiction entries, the jury awards the best cinematographers in the competition.

Good Postman, The

A small Bulgarian village just by the Turkish border has found itself in the middle of a European crisis – at night asylum seekers sneak past the border. The forgotten village has become the most important secret loophole of Europe. Ivan, the local postman, has a vision. He decides to run for mayor and bring the dying village back to life by welcoming refugees. His opponents want to close their eyes, close down the border, and reintroduce communism.

Original title: Hyvä postimies
Polish title: Dobry listonosz
Director: Tonislav Hristov
Cinematographer: Orlin Ruevski
Produced by: Soul Food, Making Movies Oy
Finland, Bulgaria, 2016

Grey Matter

In Grey Matter, director Jan Louter follows neurosurgeons Clemens Dirven and Arnaud Vincent during the treatment of various patients with brain disorders, a very intensive process for both surgeon and patient during which – besides life and death – personality, the essence of the patient, is at stake.

Original title: Hersenleed
Director: Jan Louter
Cinematographer: Roel Van 't Hoff
Produced by: Basalt Film
Netherlands, 2017

Kreatura

A young woman detaches herself from her family as she goes on an ecstatic journey to the birthplaces of her Ukrainian-German-Jewish self. Instead of finding support, she loses herself in the midst of national and religious conflicts. Leaving her cultural past behind, she embraces the idea of having no identity at all – in the void of the biblical desert. Kreatura is biographical and fictitious, like identity itself.

Director: Viki Aleksandrovich
Cinematographer: Dino Osmanovic
Produced by: Pronoia
Germany, 2017

Last Men in Aleppo

After five years of war in Syria, Aleppo’s remaining residents prepare themselves for a siege. The main characters of the film – Khalid, Subhi, and Mahmoud – are members of the White Helmets, also called the Syrian Civil Defence, which consists of common people that decided to stay in the city to help the victims of bombing. Until now, they have managed to save over 60,000 lives, often by pulling them from debris with their bare hands. The film, directed by Feras Fayyad, makes us experience not only the huge devastation of war, but also the personal story of everyday people that became real heroes in the face of a mass tragedy playing out in front of the eyes of the entire world.

Original title: De sidste mænd i Aleppo
Polish title: Ostatni w Aleppo
Director: Feras Fayyad
Cinematographers: Fadi Al Halabi, Mojahed Abo AlJood, Thaer Mohammed, Hassan Kattan
Produced by: Larm Film Aps
Polish distributor: Against Gravity Sp. z o. o.
Denmark, Syria, Germany, 2017

Life Is Be

There are five main characters in the film, and each of them has their own history. They live in Telavi (Eastern Georgia) in the same neighbourhood. Two homeless German men. One of them plays the piano at the Charity House. He is a former fireman. He saved Tsinandali Museum from burning down. He lives in an abandoned canning factory and is trying to set up a chicken farm, but he keeps getting robbed. It has been 20 years since the electricity supply was cut off for the other German man. He invented a stove which produces electricity. He calls his semi-dilapidated house the symbol of ‘the Broken Soviet Union’ and he considers himself as the museum exhibit. The third character is an 80-year-old former communications office director. His house is a historical monument protected by the government. But the house is in poor condition. As soon as the owner tries to repair it, he is fined by City Hall. The fourth character is a former engineer, a former lecturer of Telavi University, but now he only stays at home and listens to rock music and complains about his life. He has a dream to establish an elite pool in Telavi and is in search of the first million dollars. So far, he only lives on the support of his wife. The fifth character is a successful farmer and businessman. He needs some additional workers to assist him, but he can’t find anybody. Nobody wants to work. On his farm he has a mini chapel where he prays for the best future.

Original title: Eto jizn
Director: Vakhtang Kuntsev-Gabashvili
Cinematographer: Vakhtang Kuntsev-Gabashvili
Produced by: The Production Studio "Akrobat"
Georgia, 2016

New Wild, The: Life in the Abandoned Lands

As rural populations age and decline, new and surprising landscapes are appearing across Europe. Farmland lies abandoned, reclaimed by a self-willed natural world: trees are growing where once there were fields; wild animals roam free amongst the debris. Away from the pull of our economic centres, marginalised regions are witnessing a demographic and cultural collapse. Ways of life become stories, stories become history, and as the city grows the memory fades. But things grow from the cracks of ruin, and in the cracks of great change are small stories. In an abandoned alpine valley, one village’s precarious attempt to survive offers a series of reflections on our changing relationship with the countryside and as such with the natural world itself.

Director: Christopher Thomson
Cinematographer: Christopher Thomson
Produced by: Christopher Thomson
UK, Austria, Italy, 2017

Normal Autistic Film

Direct and thoughtful, Luka has a distinctive sense of humour; he loves movies and he writes his own screenplays. Piano virtuoso Denis is able to play demanding classical pieces; he is also incredibly intelligent and well-read. He adores The Little Prince so much that he keeps rereading it. Majda likes to rap and isn’t shy about it; her bold lyrics expose the surrounding world with disarming accuracy. Marjamka is able to tell long stories in English, while her tireless brother Ahmed is uncommonly friendly. Five remarkable children that society has consistently and unflatteringly labelled ‘autistic’. A foremost Czech documentarian with a unique authorial vision challenges us once and for all to stop perceiving autism as a medical diagnosis and to try to understand it as a fascinating way of thinking that’s often maddeningly difficult to decipher. Because who’s to determine what’s normal? Living in a constant rush while disregarding the absurdity of modern life, or wistfully seeking order, peace, and tranquillity in the world?

Original title: Normální autistický film
Director: Miroslav Janek
Cinematographer: Miroslav Janek
Produced by: Mimesis Film
Czech Republic, 2016

On Yoga the Architecture of Peace

The film is based on Michael O’Neill’s book of the same name published by Taschen. This project tells the story of the ten years the author spent photographing yoga’s great masters. It has been created as a deep extension of the original book. By posing very human questions from our current perspective and mixing them with elements of movement and experiential sound, a new view of the Art of Yoga will emerge.

Director: Heitor Dhalia
Cinematographer: Adolpho Veloso
Produced by: Paranoid Filmes
Brazil, 2017

Potentiae

Potentiae is an intimate portrait of people with different disabilities. These people form groups according to their specific condition, becoming then a living organism, a blend through which individuals are supplemented through the capacities of others, thus developing, as a multiplicity, new strengths and possibilities. The camera follows them closely in their everyday activities, and a minimal story serves as an excuse, a provocation to bring them all together in a thread of perceptual experiences that lasts one single day. The film becomes a one-day epic of senses and lives.

Director: Ricardo Garfias
Cinematographer: Javier Toscano
Produced by: Alejandra Liceaga Cevallos
Mexico, 2016

Radio Kobanî

The Syrian border town of Kobanî was occupied and destroyed by IS. When liberation came, 20-year-old Kurdish reporter Dilovan started a radio station. She and her friend Biter report on refugee camps, talk to survivors, and interview fighters and musicians. The broadcasts seem to offer their listeners comfort and a sense of stability as reconstruction gets underway and they cautiously dare to think about the future again. The film documents events in Kobanî over a three-year period, both during and after the fighting. Over subdued images of the war torn town, Dilovan reads a letter to the child she hopes to have one day, describing the merciless terror to which IS subjected Kobanî and the terrible effects this has had on the lives of her friends and family. Slowly but surely, Dilovan is able to enjoy the lighter sides of life again: listening to music, flirting in the park, falling in love.

Director: Reber Dosky
Cinematographer: Nina Badoux
Produced by: Journeyman Pictures Ltd.
Netherlands, 2016

To Stay Alive: A Method

In 1991, an unknown writer Michel Houellebecq published an essay titled Rester Vivant (To Stay Alive). The relatively short text fascinated Iggy Pop, who recognized the French writer’s anguish as his own pain accompanying him on stage for so many years. Houellebecq's essay is a brilliant collection of tips for “those who are about to give up”. It is a praise of creative freedom and a lesson that an uncompromising realization of “self” comes with great suffering. Iggy Pop, the pop culture icon, plays a major role in the film – that of our guide. To Stay Alive: A Method follows Iggy to Michel’s house... Although it’s not exactly Michel, and it’s not exactly his house...

Polish title: Przeżyć: metoda Houellebecqa
Directors: Arno Hagers, Erik Lieshout, Reinier van Brummelen
Cinematographer: Reinier van Brummelen
Produced by: AT - Production
Polish distributor: Against Gravity Sp. z o. o.
Netherlands, 2016