VIENNA: Domestic by Romanian director Adrian Sitaru won Best Film and the Bulgarian documentary The Last Black Sea Pirates by Svetoslav Stoyanov won Best Documentary at the 2nd edition of the LET’S CEE festival of films from Central and Eastern Europe.

MISKOLC: Katrin Gebbe’s Nothing Bad Can Happen (Tore tanzt) won the Emeric Pressburger Grand Prize of the 10th edition of the Jameson CineFest, named in honor of the Miskolc-born Academy Award winning director. The film won the FICC prize as well.

The “Young Producer” workshops are changing their formula. Apart from the meetings with the producers and the trainings on preparing the applications, we would like to offer our students practical help in realizing their first independent movies. During the closed part of the workshops, young producers will have an opportunity to meet the experts who will advise them on the ways of developing their projects, the kinds of financing sources that should be searched for, the places where one should head to at the beginning, in order to receive financial support for the realization of a scenario. In small groups we will analyse the chances of particular projects, the co-production possibilities and the development potential on the international market. We will discuss the strategies of sales and promotion, but we will also take a look at how similar projects are developed abroad. The students will have an opportunity to talk about the problems connected with financing their projects, and they will also be able to build a realistic structure of their financing. The program will end with a pitching, together with the representatives of the film funds from the whole Europe, producers and guests of the festival.

To take part in the workshops we would like to invite the students of production, and the graduates of film schools with small experience, who are thinking about developing their own projects, and have an already prepared, or an almost prepared, scenario. We would like to encourage you to download the entry form from our website, fill it, and send it back to the address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. together with adequate appendixes. We do not specify the length of the films, yet we assume that they will be mostly one-reelers. The workshops will be conducted in English, and the costs of participation is 140 PLN. The deadline for application is 4th October.

 

WARSAW: FNE would like to thank everyone who participated in our Reader Survey earlier this year.  We would also like to congratulate Charlie Cockey who was the winner of a beautiful boxed set of DVDs of recent Polish films courtesy of the our sponsor the Polish Film Institute. The prize winner was selected in a blind draw from among everyone who participated in the survey.

COTTBUS: Thirteen Eastern European pitching projects ranging from slacker comedy to closeted homosexuality have been selected for the 15th edition of connecting cottbus (www.connecting-cottbus.de 7-8 November, 2013), the East-West coproduction market at the FilmFestival Cottbus (www.filmfestivalcottbus.de).

European distributors arrived in Bratislava for a DOK.Incubator workshop.

MISKOLC: The 10th Miskolc International Film Festival (12 - 22 September 2013) will screen 17 features in the main competion, and three other regular competition section for short films, documentaries and animated films.

GDYNIA: Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) CEO and producer Mike Downey re-affirmed at the 38th Gdynia Film festival his company’s ongoing commitment to making films in Poland and, working with Polish talent, as well as bringing international projects to shoot and post in Poland.

BATUMI: The 8th Batumi International Art house Film Festival (15 - 22 September 2013) will have three competitive sections and also non-competitive sections such as  Georgian Panorama, Music World, Meet the Jury, Masters Collection, Focus on UK, and Short Matters! EFA Short Films Tour this year.

PORTOROZ: Rok Bicek’s Venice Critics’ Week winner Class Enemy won the Vesna Award for best feature film (producer Triglav Film) at the 16th Festival of Slovenian Film which ended on 15 September 2013 in the Adriatic resort town of Portoroz. The film won seven prizes, including the Audience Award and Critics’ Prize.