Polish Film Institute Sets Strong Berlinale Line-up

 The Polish Film Institiute (www.pisf.pl) will see its largest presence at the Berlinale, with five films screening at the festival. The 2011 representation is a big improvement in comparison to the previous years, a result of PFI's determination to make Polish cinema visible and easily available abroad.

"This kind of presence in Berlin was long awaited. We have five films in the official selection, practically in every section. It is a sign that Polish cinema is important, that it counts on the international arena. It is important to note that all the movies presented in Berlin this year have been produced with the support of PFI. Their presence in the main selection is a result of the Institute's policy. There are more Polish films now then a couple of years ago and many more of them good and excellent," Izabela Kiszka, the Head of International Relations at PFI, told FNE.

Poland is represented in the main competition by The Prize (El Premio) directed by Paula Markovitch. The co-production between Mexico, France, Poland and Germany is a moving drama about the childhood of a young girl hiding with her mother in military Argentina in the 1970's. The companies involved in this project are Mexico's Kung Works, France's Mille et Une (www.1001productions.net) and Germany's Niko Film. The Polish co-producer is Małgorzata Staroń and her company Staron-Film, while her husband Wojciech Staroń was the cinematographer.

"We got involved in this project because of the powerful true story and personality of the director. From the very beginning we were convinced that this will be a great movie. I noticed that Wojtek and Paula use the same artistic language and thus understand each other very well," Małgorzata Staroń told FNE.

El Premio was produced with a budget of 3.5 million PLN (EUR 900,000), with 300,000 PLN from Staroń Film matched by PFI.

"The film has a universal theme of the relationship between the child and the parent and how this relationship can be altered by the historical and political circumstances. For us as Poles it is also interesting as it is a story of growing up in a military, oppressive state - an experience we can relate to due to our own history," explained the producer.

The international premiere of Suicide Room, a long awaited Polish drama directed by Jan Komasa, will be a part of the PANORAMA SPECIAL section, that includes films especially recommended by the festival's selectors as projects with big distribution potential.

"Berlin likes films with modern, current and engaged topics. The Suicide Room is such a film: a very mature debut and an important voice of a young filmmaker, produced on the highest international level," Kiszka told FNE. The film is a fusion of different feature film techniques and over 20 minutes of computer animation. The script evolves around a teenage boy who finds himself trapped in a dangerous relationship established trough an online game.

"I am always interesting in exploring new themes and techniques," Komasa told FNE. "Three years ago, when we started this project, themes of internet and virtual reality were closer to science-fiction. Now they are more real and we can observe a wave of movies focused on this subject, such as Avatar or The Social Network. For Poland it is a first project of that kind, both on the script and technology level," Komasa said.

Suicide Room was produced by Studio Filmowe KADR (www.sfkadr.com). The total budget of the film was over 5 million PLN with 2 million PLN of financing from the Polish Film Institute. The close co-operation between KADR and PFI resulted in finding an international sales agent, the Dutch company LevelK, during the production of the film.

"We were considering a premiere during other big international festivals but finally chose Berlin as it marks the begining of the distribution year. We plan to distribute this film internationally, and we are especially interested in meetings with American companies, as the subject of the picture might be especially appealing for the audience in USA," Komasa said. The Polish distributor of the picture is ITI Cinema (www.iticinema.com.pl) and the local premiere is planned for the 4 March 2011.

The Polish title in the FORUM section is Made In Poland directed by Przemysław Wojcieszek. The drama evolves around a 16-year old Boguś, an ex altar boy, who acts out on his disappointment with God. He tattoos "fuck off" on his forehead, arms himself with a metal rod and sets out to start a revolution on his block and look for new spiritual guidance. The movie was shot in July and October 2008 on location in Wrocław. The producer of Made In Poland is Gruppa Rafał Widajewicz (www.gruppa.pl) in co-production with Canal + (www.canalplus.pl). The budget of the picture was 1.5 million PLN (EUR 373.000) with 1 million PLN of financing from the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl) and 200,000 PLN from Canal +. The film premiered in Poland on 26 May 2010 and was distributed by Kino Świat (www.kinoświat.pl).

Polish culture and typically Slav artistic qualities are present in The Lost Town Of Świteź, an animated Polish title competing in the Berlinale Shorts section. Directed by Kamil Polak, the film is based on a romantic ballad written by Adam Mickiewicz. The film combines elements of oil painting and tempera transformed into 3D and joins them with the classic animation technology,CG animation and visual effects. The Lost Town Of Świteź is considered to be one of the most elaborate and artistically excellent Polish animations ever done.

The production of the film took almost seven years and involved several Polish and foreign artists and companies, with Se-Ma-For (www.se-ma-for.com) initiating the project and the Warsaw-based CG studio Human Ark (www.human-ark.com) as the film's leading producer. The film received 925,000 PLN of financing from the Polish film Institute. "It is an exceptional short film, that will be entered as a Polish Oscar candidate for the Best Short Feature next year," Kiszka told FNE.

The GENERATION section, focused for the film for the younger viewers, includes the critically praised Polish drama Tomorrow Will Be Better by Dorota Kędzierzawska. Three young boys who are living at a railway station in one of the Russian cities and decide to cross over to Poland in search of a better life. The drama explores the realities of human existence, so frequently determined by accident, and the universal hope that somewhere life is different and better. The producer is KID Film, a company founded by Kędzierzawska and Arthur Reinhart, in co-production with Pioniwa Film Inc (www.pioniwa.com), The Chimney Pot (www.chimney.pl), Non Stop Film Services (www.nsfs.pl) and Film Ilumination (www.filmilumination.pl).The budget of the film was 3 million PLN with 2 million PLN from the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl).

For the first time there will be a separate Polish cinema stand in Berlin created by the Polish Film Institute in co-operation with the Polish Filmmakers Association (www.sfp.org.pl) and public broadcaster TVP SA (www.tvp.pl). The stand is located in the Martin Gropius Baus space, where European Film Market is held.

"This event has developed to be an important platform for marketing and sales. This year we are organizing industry screenings of Polish films but more significantly the PR management of all Polish productions is for the first time in the hands of a professional press agent. This is a practice which has been used for years all over the world and we hope that it will bring measurable results for the Polish cinema. If so, it will surely be continued," said Kiszka.


TVP Presents Three Films in Berlin

Polish public broadcaster Polish Television (TVP, www.tvp.pl) will presents three films at the European Film Market in Berlin. Venice screens 11.02 at 12:30 in Arsenal 2. Made in Poland screens 13.02 at 13:30 in CinemaxX 16. Blind Date screens 13.02 at 17:00 in CinemaxX 16.


Venice, directed by Jan Jakub Kolski, won the Best Artistic Contribution Prize at the Montreal World Film Festival in August 2010 and is one of TVP's most important productions of the past year.

The film is set during World War II. A cellar of one house becomes a place to hide and to cherish the deepest, most vital human dreams. At first these are the dreams of children, filled with an innocent belief in making all things possible by force of will and mind. Eventually, the other generations of large family joins them in a play that changes into a ritual of an attempt of overcoming the hostile world by the human spirit.

The special old family home seems to be a final asylum and brings a promise of safety. Thisfeeling gradually flows over to the family's outlying circles of friends, neighbors and - finally - total strangers who one day come inside. The film examines the question of how the dream will stand up to a confrontation with the cruelty of war.

Made in Poland, a 90 minute film, begins with a 17-year old alter boy, Bogus, who wakes up one morning and realizes the only message he want to convey to the world is embodied by the phrase "fuck off" which he then tattoos on his forehead.

When demolishing telephone boxes and cars parked near the crowded apartment blocks does not diminish his fury, he turns to authoritative role-models in hope of help. Unfortunately, the priest (Edmund) is unable to lessen Bogus' frustration, as the priest himself avoids facing the ordinary day by escaping in the realm of belief and revelations. Bogus' former teacher, a lonely alcoholic, (Wiktor) tries to convince the boy to cope with daily reality by quoting the masterpieces of literature, through which the teacher perceives his own defeat in a universal context, but he doesn't propose any concrete solution. Bogus' Mother, a big fan of Polish pop singer Krzysztof Krawczyk, disregards her son's distractions; she only worries he will have trouble finding a good job because of the tattoo. She hopes that through motherly love, she will make her son abandon his revolutionary thoughts.

Sister and brother Monika and Emil (who moves on an invalid cart) are fascinated with Bogus radicalism, his slogans and calls for rebellion. Emil, wishing to overcome his limitations, joins Bogus; and thanks to Monika, for the first time Bogus starts to feel something other than rage.

The dynamic plot is strengthened by a gangster motif. Bogus, in a revolutionary fury, destroys a car belonging to a local gang. The cruel bandits demand money, threatening the boy. With the help of the priest and the intervention of the outside power, the gangsters are convinced to forgive the debt. Monika and Bogus can marry, which makes all the members of the local community happy, and all of them enjoy the wedding which the divine Krzysztof Krawczyk gives splendor to.

Blind Date (95 minutes) is the name of a popular entertainmet show on TV which Karol (portrayed by leading young Polish actor Borys Szyc) attends as the result of his bet with couple of friends. He never imagines that it will put him on the front line of a male-female war that has no rules. Majka (Katarzyna Maciąg) has just broken up with her boyfriend Cezary (Bogusław Linda), who betrayed her with sexy Czech - Karolina (Petra Tumova). Majka's crazy girlfriends decided to help

her through a difficult period, and after their intrigue she ends up on "Blind date" as one of the candidates picked by Karol. Unexpectedly she wins exotic trip to be spent with self-righteous Karol. They are travel together with a cutthroat and highly attractive reporter Kinga (Anna Dereszowska) and a distance cameraman (Zbigniew Zamachowski).

World sales:

 Telewizja Polska S.A.

17 Woronicza Str.

00-999 Warszawa

Tel +48 22 547 38 07

Fax +48 22 547 57 44

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.international.tvp.pl

ALL THAT I LOVE by JACEK BORCUCH LEADS WITH 8 POLISH FILM ACADEMY AWARDS NOMINATIONS

Jacek Borcuch’s All That I Love has been nominated for the Polish Film Academy Awards: EAGLES in 8 categories, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Scriptwriter. The movie has the most nominations from all 32 candidates and is followed by Essential Killing by Jerzy Skolimowski (7) and Little Rose by Jan Kidawa-Błoński (7). The award ceremony will take place in Warsaw on the 7th of March 2011. All That I Love is available for professionals’ viewing at FestivalScope.com.

The new film project by Jacek Borcuch, Lasting Moments (working title), was presented last week at the CineMart in Rotterdam and is set to shoot this summer. Lasting Moments (working title) is produced by Mañana.

-----------------

Mañana

WORLD CINEMA IN POLAND

POLISH CINEMA IN THE WORLD

www.manana.pl

Logo_KINOPOLSKA_500x300

TeleCameras - the most important Polish award in the television industry for Kino Polska Television

TeleCameras , the awards of the “Tele Tydzien” weekly TV guide were handed over to the laureates at the ceremony in Warsaw, on February 7.

Kino Polska Televisin received the prize for the best movie channel receiving 50% votes.

It proves that Polish cinematography promoted and broadcasted on Kino Polska Television is popular among viewers.

TeleCameras of TeleTydzień is the biggest media event of the television world in Poland.

TeleCameras is the next, prestigious prize for Kino Polska Television.

In November 2010 our channel for the second time in its history received Hotbird Award - satellite Oscar.

We would like to thank all the participants for the votes!

TeleCameras statuette proves that our work and love for Polish cinema has been appreciated by the viewers.

Kino Polska TV is also the distributor of FilmBox channels (FilmBox, FilmBox Extra, FilmBox Family and FilmBox HD) - very popular channels in Poland and other European countries.

Olga Gontarska | Specjalista ds. Promocji i Marketingu

adres korespondencyjny: Kino Polska TV S.A., ul. Cybernetyki 7, 02-677 Warszawa | tel. kom. 0 512 097 559 | tel. /22/ 356 74 00 w. 417 | fax /22/ 356 74 01 | e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Kino Polska TV S.A.., ul. Puławska 61, 02-595 Warszawa | Sąd Rejonowy dla M.ST Warszawy w Warszawie, XIII Wydział Gospodarczy Krajowego Rejestru Sądowego | Numer KRS: 0000363674| NIP 521-32-48-560 | Kapitał zakładowy 987 000 zł

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

let us add to the list of newsletters also one about Slovak cinema.

As you may already know, two Slovak co-productions were selected to the FORUM section of Berlinale:

THE HOUSE, by Zuzana Liová, CZ – SK 2011, World Premiere
MATCHMAKING MAYOR, by Erika Hníková, CZ – SK 2011, International Premiere

Slovakia will also participate at the EFM 2011 – for the 6th time there will be an informational and promotional stand available for all interested in Slovak cinema, at the Central European Cinema stand No. 126 at the Martin-Gropius-Bau (a new location). The Slovak co-production film 3 SEASONS IN HELL (dir. T. Mašín, CZ – DE – SK 2009), recently awarded at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, will also have a market screening at the EFM.

Slovakia will be presented by accompanying events, as well:

CINEMA TOTAL 4 (organized by Collegium Hungaricum Berlin - .CHB)
Pitch Stop – presentation of projects: PIARGY by Lukáš Hanulák
True Stories – screenwriting debate: Zuzana Liová

Screening of THE BORDER (dir. J. Vojtek, SK 2009)

SCRIPTEAST – international training programme for scriptwriters: THE TOWN OF OTOL by Laura Siváková-Paššová and Biba Bohinská

The organizer of the Slovak cinema presentation at the EFM is the Slovak Film Institute, in co-operation with the Slovak Audiovisual Producers' Association, supported by the Audiovisual Fund. The particular events were supported by the Slovak Embassy in Germany, the Slovak Institute in Berlin and wine producer Chateau Topolčianky.

Contact:

CEC stand No. 126 – Slovak Film Institute
Alexandra Strelková – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Katarína Tomková – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For more information please visit: http://www.aic.sk/aic/en/news/slovakia-berlinale/whats-slovak-at-berlinale-2011.html

Looking forward to meeting you in Berlin,

Alexandra and Katarina

Slovak Film Institute

www.sfu.sk, www.aic.sk

Emails:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

LINE UP Berlinale 2011

Film Europe is an established distribution and production company specializing in world sales of high quality cinema and TV programs with an international market potential.

We are proud to announce the Market Premiere of our films:
WALKING TOO FAST
by Radim Spacek, THE GREATEST CZECHS by Robert Sedlacek and NICKY'S FAMILY by Matej Mináč


Marta Lamperova will be very pleased to meet you between the 10th-17th of February
at Martin Gropius Bau, Central European Stand, n126
Please find enclosed our lineup and contact us to schedule a meeting.


Best regards,

Marta Lamperova


WALKING TOO FAST
by Radim Spacek
(Drama | Czech Republic, 2010, 146 min)

EFM SCREENING
16.02. CineStar 7 at 09:00 AM

World premiere at Pusan IFF 2010
Czech Film Critics Awards 2010: The Best Film, The Best Script, The Best Actor in a Leading Role Awards & Newcomer of the Year for Ondrej Maly
Czechoslovakia, 1982. The totalitarian regime seems invincible. Antonín, a member of the secret police, is full of unfocused rage and everything around him - his work and family life - wears him down and bores him. He becomes fixated on Klára, a girl he has no hope of winning. He doesn't know what he wants but he wants it badly. There is no love in it or any other kind of genuine passion - only a burning desire to fulfill the fantasy of escaping from the cage of his boring and meaningless life. Antonín's senseless struggle to have Klára for himself not only turns him against the enemies of the regime but also against his own people and system itself. When Antonín breaks the rules of the organisation he serve, however, it is neither a civic or even political gesture, but rather purely personal and frenzied act of rebellion.
More information:
http://www.pouta-film.cz <http://www.pouta-film.cz>


THE GREATEST CZECHS by Robert Sedlacek
(Mockumentary | Czech Republic, 2010, 96 min)

Czech Film Critics Award 2010: The Best Actress in a Leading Role Award & six nominations
Film crew on the road: Director, producer, director of photography, and sound artist. Starving artists who already have a number of films to their names, Czech Lion award-winning films, excellent reviews and have been screened at numerous festivals, but they don't have audiences. Their next collaborative effort - the director's lifetime dream - is quickly becoming oblivion because he failed to win a grant, which means it won't be made. And so the frustrated director and his colleagues await their chance among record-holders of curious disciplines such as crawling with a squash racquet or collecting four-leaf clovers. How will the collision of these two worlds end?
More information:
http://www.nejvetsizcechu.cz <http://www.nejvetsizcechu.cz>


NICKY'S FAMILY by Matej Mináč
(Docudrama | Slovakia / Czech Republic, 2011, 90 min)


Nicky‘s Family is a continuation of the EMMY Award feature documentary Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good (2002) about the almost completely forgotten story of Sir Nicholas Winton, who in 1939, single - handedly and without any official support, organized Kinder transports that took 669 children from Prague through Hitler's Germany to safety in Great Britain. Nicky‘s Family shows the complete dramatic story of the rescue operation as seen from the point of view of the rescued children. We use reconstructed scenes that illustrate Winton's and the children's accounts of the real events. Besides the children, now in their 70s, the main narrative of the film is also narrated by Sir Nicholas Winton himself, now 100 years old and still in good health. Joe Schlesinger, the CBC reporter (and one of the rescued children), together with Christiane Amanpour, the chief CNN correspondent, guide us through the film and present how the motives of good and evil influence our lives.


BARDSONGS by Sander Francken
(Musical triptych | The Netherlands, 2010, 94 min.)

World premiere at Karlovy Vary IFF 2010
Dutch filmmaker Sander Francken directed the musical feature film BARDSONGS in India and Mali.
At the basis of this film are three folk tales from Rajasthan, Western Africa and Ladakh, turned to songs by musical celebrities from those regions and interpreted by local actors who knew these tales from their youth. The film focuses on the similarities between three totally different worlds: The world of Sahir, whose father refuses to pass judgement on his fate, the world of Bouba, a pupil at a Koran school who has to find the largest part of all knowledge and the world of Sonam, who has to sell his dzo (a crossbreed between a yak and a cow) and therefore journeys to town through the Himalayas with his daughter.
More information:
www.bardsongs.com <http://www.bardsongs.com/>
http://vimeo.com/10772679 <http://vimeo.com/10772679>


APRICOT ISLAND by Peter Bebjak
(1st feature / Drama | Slovakia, Hungary 2011, 96 min)

Apricot Island is a film about a girl, who raises passion and subsequent rage between two brothers. People in the neighbourhood have no idea what is going on between them. The only witness to their undistinguished, hidden and suddenly awakened love, which drives them hopelessly to a tragic end, is the beautiful nature surrounding the Danubian backwaters. Dawns and sunsets, hot summer, ripe apricots, the wide and lazily flowing Danube and love in all of its tragic and comical situations, are joined into a whole, which altogether makes a consensually suggestive film.


PIKO by Tomas Rehorek
(1st feature / Documentary | Czech Republic, 2010, 84 min)

Piko is contrasting the lives of three men whose fates were determined by drugs. One was among the chief inventors of pervitin, a Czech methamphetamine. The second worked in the anti-drug police squad and the third, a well-known rock star, became a drug addict. The dramatic twists and turns in the stories of these three real men later inspired the producers and creator of this film to combine documentary interviews with dramatized scenes mirroring the harrowing fall to the very bottom and the long road from hell back to life.
More information:
http://www.pikofilm.cz <http://www.pikofilm.cz>



Contact

Film Europe
Marta Lamperova

Head of Sales and Development
Cell CZ: +420 739 592 040
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.filmeurope.eu

SPI Office CZ
Branicka 209
14200 Praha
Czech Republic

Polish public broadcaster Polish Television (TVP, www.tvp.pl) will presents three films at the European Film Market in Berlin. Venice screens 11.02 at 12:30 in Arsenal 2. Made in Poland screens 13.02 at 13:30 in CinemaxX 16. Blind Date screens 13.02 at 17:00 in CinemaxX 16.

Prague, 4 February 2011 - This year the Czech Film Center will be representing Czech cinematography and the Czech film industry for the ninth time at the European Film Market (EFM), which is an integral part of Berlinale. The official partners of the CFC stand this year are Barrandov Studio and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

CFC, together with film institutions from Slovenia and Slovakia, will form a joint stand with an area of 57 m2 under the name of Central European Cinema from February 10th to 18th. The stand will serve to promote the national cinemas and will also be a base for distributors, producers and vendors of films from the aforementioned countries. The CEC stand, numbered 126, can be found on the 1st floor of the Martin Gropius Bau museum building, where the EFM's main exhibition space is located.

In 2010 a total of 6450 visitors from the world over participated in the EFM. There were 419 companies from 48 countries represented. Film projections at the market offered 666 films during 1024 projects for more than 1300 buyers.

In 2011 three feature films and one trailer will be shown at the EFM: Kuky se vrací (Kooky, dir.: Jan Svěrák, represented by: Fandango Portobello Sales, GB), 3 sezóny v pekle (3 Seasons in Hell, dir.: Tomáš Mašín, represented by: The Yellow Affair, SE/FI), Pouta (Walking Too Fast, dir: Radim Špaček, represented by: Film Europe, CZ/SK) and a preview of the film Odcházení (Havel's Leaving, dir.: Václav Havel, represented by: Simply Cinema, CZ)

This year all the Czech films are represented on the market by "Sales," which are companies that specialise in the international sale of films.

The accompanying events at this year's Berlinale include the presentation of a new compilation DVD entitled Nultá léta (Year Zero), issued by the Czech Institute of Animation. The DVD presents a selection of short Czech animated films from the period from 2000 to 2010. The presentation will take place on February 16th at 7 p.m. in Berlin's Czech Centre.

You will find enclosed a complete program of the projections of all Czech films at the Berlin International Film Festival and EFM including the accompanying events (only in English).

Contact

CFC, Jana Černík - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., mobile phone: 724 32 99 49

Lenka Šindelářová

Czech Film Center - Film Promotion

____________________________

Národní 28, 110 00 Praha 1

tel: + 420 221 105 398

gsm: +420 604 307 605

fax: + 420 221 105 303

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.filmcenter.cz

www.filmovakomora.cz

Dear Filmmakers and Film Lovers,

The 8th Cinefest International Festival of Young Filmmakers will take place between the 17th and 25th September, 2011, in Miskolc, Hungary.

We’re looking forward to meet young people and film experts again in Miskolc. In the past years our festival won renown and prestige not only in the region and in Europe, but all over the world. Every year we have several hundreds of entries, representing all countries, from Japan and Mexico to the farthest corners of the world, and the filmmakers who participate the event are offered, besides the screenings, a various scale of cultural programs.

We are waiting long feature films, short films, experimental films, documentaries and animation films as well.

The rules and conditions are the following: The director of the film must be under the age of 35 at the shooting of the movie, and the film cannot be older than 3 years (1 January, 2008). In terms of long features films the director’s age could be over 35, in case the film is the director’s first long feature film. There is no charge of application. The prizes of the festival (money and certificates) are awarded by an international jury.

We are waiting for applications from all over the world.

The entry form and the regulations can be downloaded from:

www.cinefest.hu

Deadline of application: 31 May, 2011.

We welcome you to the 8th Cinefest Festival this September 17-25, 2011!

Bíró Tibor

Festival Director

Contacts

General information:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Information in English:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Information in German:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wszystko jest możliwe, Poland, 52 min, Digi Beta, Portrait

A cottage with a small garden at the edge of the village. Windows decorated with geraniums. The two elderly dwellers, Teresa and Jan, couldn't be more different. She starts her mornings with a heart-pumping exercise routine, and keeps busy all day. He moons about the house as if he had all the time in the world.