LJUBLJANA: Italian-born Slovenian director Martin Turk began shooting his third feature film Don't Forget to Breathe / Ne pozabi dihati on 19 June 2018. The coming-of-age drama is produced by an all-female Slovenian/Croatian/Italian coproduction team.

LJUBLJANA: The Slovenian Film Centre decided to support five minority coproductions with the amount of 480,000 EUR including technical service and equipment from FS Viba.

LJUBLJANA: Ninety percent of the films made in Slovenia from 1995 to 2017 were directed by men, according to research commissioned by the Slovenian Film Centre.

LJUBLJANA: The Slovenian Film Centre is organising the international panel discussion Women in the Film Sector: A Gender Issue at Klub Lili Novy at Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana on 20 March 2018. The participants are film directors, critics and the representatives of Eurimages.

LJUBLJANA: The Slovenian government green lighted an MP-sponsored bill aimed at securing additional funding for arts and culture in 2020-2026. The funds will be earmarked for various urgent areas including film and cultural heritage and purchasing contemporary artworks. The bill is now waiting to be approved by the Parliament.

BERLIN: The Slovenian drama Ivan, directed by Janez Burger and produced by Miha Černec through Staragara, has been sold to the Chinese distribution company Huaulu, with plans for it to be released during 2018. The deal was scored at the EFM by Manuela Buono from Slingshot Films, the Italian based company handling the international sales of the film.

LJUBLJANA: There were no major changes in 2017 in terms of general admissions in Slovenian cinemas, as well as film production and grants awarded by the Slovenian Film Centre. More Slovenian titles were released, but the audience’s interest in domestic films decreased by approximately five percent, which is still above the last five years’ average.

LJUBLJANA: The Slovenian Film Center together with the Slovenian Film Archive digitally restored the Slovenian classic comedy hit Real Pests! / To so gadi! (1977, Viba Film) directed by Jože Bevc. The Slovenian Film Center secured 20,000 EUR for film restoration in 2018 and has already started to publish the restored films in a new collection on Blu-ray.

LJUBLJANA: More domestic films were released in Slovenian cinemas 2017, but admissions to domestic films dropped from 230,851 in 2016 to 163,500 due to the fact that no major domestic hit like At Hostar was released in 2017.

LJUBLJANA: The first edition of CEE Animation Workshop, a new initiative bringing together 19 Creative Europe Desks from Central and Eastern Europe, wrapped with the signing of the Ljubljana Accord, an official statement on the common steps needed to support regional growth of the animation industry.