The 25th Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries will run on 1-12 September in Riga and online, with a total of 18 film projects to be presented at the training and pitching forum, as well as a programme of masterclasses and film screenings. 

Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries, established in 1997 in Denmark, will be hosted in Riga for the 17th year where the forum for documentary industry professionals has been complemented with a public film programme.

“We are very happy to see that over the 25 years Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries has retained its position as an important and necessary event for film professionals from the Baltic Sea region, Eastern Europe and beyond. It has been a springboard for many filmmakers in the past, and it continues to be such a platform. Films from recent editions have enjoyed great festival runs – like “The Earth is Blue as an Orange” by Iryna Tsilyk, “Courage” by Aliaksei Paluyan, or Antonia Kilian’s “The Other Side of the River” and many others. Even though this anniversary edition will be held in a hybrid form with just a few onsite participants, we will make every effort to have as productive an event as possible, and we do hope that next year we will be able to welcome everyone in Riga again,” comments project manager of the forum Zane Balčus.

18 film project representatives from 17 countries will first participate at a three day workshop aimed at enhancing the participants' presentations prior to the upcoming pitching sessions. The training will be led by seven tutors: the documentary film consultants Tue Steen Müller and Mikael Opstrup (Denmark), Salomé Jashi (Georgia), director of “Taming the Garden” (2021) and “The Dazzling Light of Sunset” (2016), documentary expert Gitte Hansen (Switzerland), film editor Phil Jandaly (Sweden), producer, director and head of programmes at Estonian Television Marje Tõemäe (Estonia), and film director and scriptwriter Dāvis Sīmanis (Latvia).

The pitching sessions on 8-9 September will take place online, with representatives from the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) present at the Baltic Sea Docs studio in Riga. The projects will be presented to a number of decision makers from TV channels, sales and distribution companies, film funds and industry events such as Cat & Docs (France), Syndicado (Canada), Taskovski (UK), BBC (UK), NHK (Japan), EER (Estonia), LTV (Latvia), YLE (Finland), ZDF / Arte (Germany), Current Time TV (USA), Al Jazeera (Qatar), SVT (Sweden) and others. Selected projects will be awarded with prizes from partners Documentary Association of Europe and post-production company BB Post House.

Additionally, on 6 September Baltic Sea Docs will host two masterclasses (available online to forum participants and general audience upon prior registration)—by the Lithuanian producer Dagne Vildžūnaite and Latvian film director Laila Pakalniņa (both moderated by Tue Steen Müller).

The industry event programme will also feature a seminar on film distribution while the traditional methods are blocked, focusing on how and why this hurts documentaries. The seminar, organised by the Creative Media Office of Latvia, will be led by Gitte Hansen on 7 September.

For the fifth year, Baltic Sea Docs will partner with Artdocfest, a festival and industry platform for independent filmmakers from the former Soviet Union. A selection of 10 film projects will be presented at the Artdocfest pitching session on 8 September.

In parallel to industry events, Baltic Sea Docs will present a film programme of international documentaries to the wider public, with Aliaksey Paluyan's “Courage” (2021) as the opening film. “Courage” follows three actors of an underground theatre in Minsk during the democratic protests against the president Lukashenka's regime. The film was presented at Baltic Sea Docs pitching forum in 2020 and received the Current Time TV award.

In addition to the cinema programme, Baltic Sea Docs will mark its 25th edition with a special anniversary film selection showcasing nine films that have been, throughout the years, presented at the forum at a project stage. The anniversary programme will be screened on the platform www.filmas.lv administered by the National Film Centre of Latvia (organiser of Baltic Sea Docs), and three of the titles will be available for viewers worldwide on 12 September: the long-time forum participant Ivars Seleckis' “New Times at Crossroad Street” (1999)—the second film in the trilogy about the inhabitants of the small street in Riga; one of the most internationally acclaimed Lithuanian documentaries, Arūnas Matelis' “Before Flying Back to the Earth” (2005); and Maj Wechselmann's film following the life story of her mother Regina Korinman, “My Mother” (2017).

Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries is organised by the National Film Centre of Latvia and supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, State Culture Capital Foundation (special programme “KultūrElpa”) and Riga City Council. More information about the selected film projects and the event is available on the forum homepage: http://balticseadocs.lv

There are 50% more entries than last year, from 34 countries and 5 continents.

BRNO/PRAGUE/CZECH REPUBLIC – More than 200 documentary films have been submitted to the 47^th edition of the International Film Festival about the Environment EKOFILM. The programming team is currently selecting 25 most interesting films that will qualify to the final competition. Germany is leading with 37 submitted films, filmmakers from the United States submitted 34 films and Czech Republic is the third country with the most irons in the fire. Most of the films are European, but there are also films from exotic countries like Australia, Hong Kong, Chile, India, Kuwait or Iran. The selected films will compete in three categories – Beauty of Nature, Central European Films and Short Films.

“This year, we focus on themes connected with real issues at sites where man collides with nature or where man is trying to give back to nature her original space. We only have one planet. We nevertheless believe that there are many films among the submitted entries that deal with traditional themes of nature and climate change which our audience shouldn’t miss. Most of the entries come traditionally from Germany, but we were surprised that the United States with their 30 films had come ahead of the Czech Republic. The diversity of the selection is supplemented by cinematographic visions of filmmakers from Australia, Chile or Kuwait. The programming team will now spend several weeks of conscientious decision-making in order to prepare a selection of 25 films that will compete in the finals for prizes,” says the head of the programming team Jitka Kotrlová about this year’s edition of the festival.

The official motto of this year’s EKOFILM is “Address: Planet Earth”, which reminds us that we only share one planet.

“It appears that filmmakers are reacting very sensitively to environmental problems of today, which is reflected in their work. To select 25 films will be extremely hard, but it will be our EKOFILM audience who will benefit from it in the end because they will be able to see on the big screen the best of the best from today’s documentary filmmaking about the environment. Films will be accompanied by debates with experts, which will help the audience to reflect upon the main theme of this year’s edition, i.e. green architecture and smart city planning, in a wider context,” adds another member of the programming team Martin Čech.

The filmmakers also have a financial incentive to submit their films. The awarded films will get a bonus of about 2733 USD.

As every year, you will also be able to see all the festival films thanks to Echoes of EKOFILM. To screen any of the films at your non-commercial event that has to be produced and promoted under the title “Echoes of EKOFILM”, send the list of the titles you want to screen to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information and conditions, see the section Echoes of EKOFILM on our official festival website.

47^th EKOFILM IFF is held under the auspices of Richard Brabec, Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic, Jan Grolich, Regional Council President of the South Moravian Region, Markéta Vaňková, the Mayor of Brno, Vojtěch Mencl, the Mayor of the city district Brno-střed, Martin Bareš, rector of Masaryk University and Danuše Nerudová, rector of Mendel University.

Festival website: www.ekofilm.cz

Contact: Vratislav Vozník, PR, +420 607 258 508, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

FNE correspondent and film critic Alexander Gabelia spoke to one of Georgia’s active and promising producers Tiko Nadirashvili, who works for Millimeter Film, about the challenges she has faced as a producer during the pandemic, as well as on the challenges and activities of the film industry, that Georgian producers face due to lack of funding and various difficulties, on site as the Georgian film industry begins to recover from the pandemic. Tiko is a new board member of Atelier Network.

FNE correspondent and film critic Alexander Gabelia spoke to Lukas Gira, head of Marketing andFNE correspondent and film critic Alexander Gabelia spoke to Lukas Gira, head of Marketing andDistribution at Continental Film, about the challenges he has facedas a distrubutor during the pandemic, as well as on the challenges and activities of the film industry,on site as the Slovak film industry begins to recover from the pandemic.

CONTINENTAL FILM is located in Bratislava - mestská časť Petržalka, Slovakia and is part of theMotion Picture Production & Distribution Industry. CONTINENTAL FILM has 17 employees at thislocation and generates $6.51 million in sales (USD). There are 14 companies in the CONTINENTALFILM, s.r.o. corporate family.

FNE correspondent and film critic Alexander Gabelia spoke to Hana Kutlikova, assistant manager at Artkino Metro, about the challenges Slovak cinemas are facing as they struggle to re-open, as well as on the program, tasks and activities of the cinema, on site as the Slovak film industry begins to recover from the pandemic.

Built in between the two world wars, in 1938, ArtKino Metro belongs to the most traditional cultural venues in the city of Trenčín. Its goal is to bring the cinema through the challenges of the 21st century film distribution by restoring the charm and the sense of community that cultural events used to bring in the past.

FNE Georgian correspondent and film critic Alexander Gabelia spoke to producer Wanda Adamík Hrycová, the president of the Slovak Film and Television Academy, and a member of the Association of Independent Producers, about the challenges she has faced as a producer during the pandemic, as well as on the challenges and activities of the film industry, on site as the Slovak film industry begins to recover from the pandemic.

The 2021 Year of Recovery for Film in Visegrad Countries (YR2021) project brings together filmmakers and cultural professionals across the V4 to cooperate in the recovery of the film industry which has been badly damaged by the COVID pandemic and to reconnect with cinema audiences across the region and across borders. We want to share the lessons learned about reaching audiences online and the advantages of hybrid events in creating new connections across the Visegrad region. Our partner for this in Slovakia is the Slovak Film Institute.

Date: 29 June 2021 10:30-12:00 (CET): Pre-registration is required for access, details below.

YR2021 kicks off with a live panel discussion in Bratislava hosted by Film New Europe (FNE) in cooperation with the Slovak Film Institute that will also appear online as a live podcast.  It will also be available online as a video recording after the event.

We are extending the film submission deadline to 47TH EKOFILM IFF 2021!

The EKOFILM International Environmental Film Festival has extended the deadline for film submissions to June 30, 2021.

If you were hesitating to submit your film to the festival and waiting until you could screen your film in the cinema, we have good news, EKOFILM 2021 will take place! You can submit your film at https://filmfreeway.com/EkoFilm-556504 and you can look forward to live screenings and Q&As with your audience in Brno from October 20 to October 23, 2021.