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Switzerland’s Ibicaba - Visions Of Paradise directed by Andrea Štaka has scooped the top prize at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The feature won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, worth €20,000, which went to Cinédokké & Okofilm Productions.

Štaka is best known for her 2006 Locarno Golden Leopard winner Das Fräulein. Her most recent feature was 2020’s Mare starring Marija Škaričić.

A further four cash awards and one in-kind prize was awarded to feature film projects at the market, which ran February 15-19.

A prize also worth €20,000 was donated by Eurimages to support a promising Ukrainian project: the Eurimages Special Co-production Development Award.

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” won best film, director, screenwriter and actress at the 37th European Film Awards, which were held Saturday in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The best film nominees included narrative features “The Room Next Door,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” “The Substance” and “Vermiglio,” as well as documentaries “Bye Bye Tiberias,” “Dahomey,” “In Limbo,” “No Other Land” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” and animated films “Flow,” “Living Large,” “Savages,” “Sultana’s Dream” and “They Shot the Piano Player.”

The statuette for actress was won by Karla Sofía Gascón for “Emilia Pérez.” The other nominees were Renate Reinsve in “Armand,” Trine Dyrholm in “The Girl With the Needle,” Vic Carmen Sonne in “The Girl With the Needle” and Tilda Swinton in “The Room Next Door.”

The director award went to Audiard for “Emilia Pérez,” who beat Andrea Arnold for “Bird,” Pedro Almodóvar for “The Room Next Door,” Mohammad Rasoulof...

Macedonian producer and actress Labina Mitevska will be honoured with the Eurimages Co-Production Award at theEuropean Film Awards, held in Lucerne on December 7.

She is managing director and producer at family-run production company Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production, based in Skopje, North Macedonia. Her sister TeonaSturger Mitevska is a director and her brother Vuk, a painter and sculptor, works as set designer and animator.

Labina Mitevska began her career as an actress, appearing in Milcho Manchevski’s Before The Rain (1994), which won the Golden Lion in Venice and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Sisters and Brother Mitevski’s first...

Macedonian producer and actress Labina Mitevska has been selected as the recipient of this year’s Eurimages International Co-production Award, honoring producers for their contribution in fostering international film collaboration. Mitevska, who co-founded Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production in Skopje, North Macedonia, will receive the award from European film subsidy group Eurimages and the European Film Academy.

Mitevska began her acting career in Milčo Mančevski‘s 1994 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winner Before the Rain, which was also Oscar-nominated. Together with siblings Teona and Vuk she set up her own production company, Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production, in 2001. Labina produces, Teona directs, and Vuk works as the company’s animator and set designer.

The company’s filmography includes their debut short Veta (2001), which received Special Jury recognition at the Berlin International Film Festival. Their first feature, How I Killed a Saint (2004), premiered at Rotterdam. Subsequent productions include I Am from...

A fresh, new talent in North Macedonia cinema, Dina Duma is currently in go kick-flip mode with her sophomore feature. FilmNewEurope report that production began this past month (in Skopje) on Skateboarding Is Not for Girls — and will wrap in a couple of weeks from now. The North Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia and Croatia coproduction was selected for the 2022 Session of the 44th Cannes Residence. Her debut, Sisterhood, was selected to represent her country in 2021. Efqar Abaz, Jefrina Jashari, Simonida Selimović and Ganimet Abdula star. Producers include Macedonian’s Sisters and Brother Mitevski’s Labina Mitevska, Terminal 3’s Vanja Sremac, Vertigo’s Danijel Hočevar, Entre Chien et Loup’s Sébastien Delloye.…...

Olivér Rudolf’s “My Mother, the Monster” has won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink, its industry section that featured projects from Southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

The Hungarian feature film project, which is produced by Genovéva Petrovits at Kino Alfa, received a cash prize of €20,000.

The film focuses on Éva, a mother in her forties who is disappointed with her life and tired of feeling insignificant. She finds a new identity behind a scary monster mask which liberates her.

The Post Republic Award, in the CineLink Work in Progress section, went to “One of Those Days Where Hemme Dies,” directed by Murat Fıratoğlu. The project, which is produced by Nefes Polat at Turkey’s Nefes Films, receives post-production services worth €30,000.

The film shows one day in the life of Eyüp, a poor guy in the city, working hard drying and salting tomatoes under the summer sun.

Dina Duma’s upcoming feature “Skateboarding Is Not for Girls” turned heads at Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry section CineLink this year. The story about a Romani Muslim girl from Skopje, Adela, trying to save her sister from being sold to the bridal market and dreaming of joining a group of female skaters, received the Film Center Serbia and the Female Voices awards. The latter, sponsored by Slovenian Film Center, aims to support and promote female voices from the Southeast European film industry.

“For us, filmmakers from the region, CineLink has become indispensable for development of our new projects,” observes producer Labina Mitevska of Sisters and Brother Mitevski, also behind “God Exists, Her Name Is Petrynia.”

“As we were developing our company, we were guided by the belief that it’s our duty to speak openly about the world today. To comment, fight and try to change it. I recognized...

The long shadow of the war and its ravages continue to haunt a group of late middle-aged Sarajevan friends in the low-budget, tonally uneven dramedy “May Labor Day” from Bosnian multi-hyphenate Pjer Žalica. Although the material is both a little thin and a tad familiar, the script ticks off a range of contemporary social problems and issues such as the brain drain to Europe of the educated younger generation, junkie no-hopers who get clean through faith, the orphan kids kept off the street through charitable ventures and the nagging dissatisfaction felt by the ordinary men who fought for their country, but feel that it has lost its way.

Serving as the closing night attraction of this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival, “May Labor Day” is a co-production of all the territories of former Yugoslavia and features an ensemble of the region’s best-known actors, who appear to take great pleasure in performing together.

New Female Voices CineLink Award worth €10,000 launched this year.

The Sarajevo film festival (August 12-19) has revealed the nine feature projects and seven drama series from Southeast Europe that will take part in its Co-Production Market running as part of the CineLink industry Days.

This year the festival has also launched the Female Voices CineLink Award, worth €10,000 and presented by the Slovenian Film Centre, for one participating project in the market.

The selected projects include Hear The Yellow directed by Banu Sivaci, whose first film The Pigeon played in Generation 14plus strand at the 2018 Berlinale; and Patrimonial Fears And Other Symptoms from Elina Psykou,...

The film is a fictionalised version of how a nun became the religious icon.

Award-winning North Macedonian filmmaker Teona Strugar Mitevska has revealed her next project will be Mother, a story about the real person behind the myth of Mother Teresa.

The director describes the project as “not a biopic” but rather “a story depicting five days in the life of a 44-year-old ambitious woman, just at the moment when she is to leave St. Mary’s convent and create her own religious order.”

“We want to make a film about the real person, the woman behind the myth,” said Mitevska.

The joint initiative between European Film Promotion and the Arab Cinema Center, aiming to promote European cinema to the Arab world, handed out its award at the Cairo Film Festival. Efp (European Film Promotion) and the Arab Cinema Center (Acc) have presented the first Arab Critics' Award for European Films to God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya by Teona Strugar Mitevska. 42 film critics from 13 Arab countries selected the best European film out of 24 nominations submitted by national film promotion institutions from throughout Europe. During a festive event at the Cairo International Film Festival, Sonja Heinen, Alaa Karkouti, Maher Diab and festival director Mohamed Hefzy presented the Arab Critics' Award to Labina Mitevska, producer and one of the lead actresses of the winning film (and the director's sister). In a joint statement, the creative sisters thank the jury: "We come from a country, a region, a zone of...

Feature revolves around woman who challenges male-only tradition.

North Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska’s drama God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya has won the inaugural Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films.

The prize was announced on Saturday evening at the Cairo International Film Festival.

The new awards are a joint initiative between European Film Promotion (Efp), the Arab Cinema Centre (Acc) and online platform Festival Scope. It involves 42 film critics from 13 Arab countries who screened 24 European features.

Efp managing director Sonja Heinen was in Cairo to present the award alongside Acc co-founder Alaa Karkouti.

The other two nominated films...

“God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya,” a satirical drama by Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska, has won the inaugural Arab Critics’ Award for European Films. The film, which positions itself as “a feminist cry against a patriarchal Macedonia in the grips of bullying machismo and hidebound religion,” according to its review in Variety, was selected by 42 Arab film critics from 24 nominations submitted by national film institutions from across Europe.

European Film Promotion, an agency that boosts the global profile of European cinema, and the Arab Cinema Center revealed the winner on Saturday at the Cairo Intl. Film Festival.

The aim of the award is to promote European cinema in the Arab world, and raise the interest of Middle Eastern distributors and other industry players in European films, as well as putting a spotlight on the work of film critics from Arab countries in bridging cultural differences and introducing audiences to new forms of cinema.

The industry section of the 25th Sarajevo Film Festival has handed out its awards. The CineLink Industry Days, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry section, which ran from 17-22 August, has handed out its awards. The CineLink Co-Production Market jury, comprising Sehad Čekić (Film Centre of Montenegro), Georges Goldenstern (Cinéfondation), Behrooz Hashemian (Silkroad Production), Čedomir Kolar (A.S.A.P. Films), Annamaria Lodato (Arte France Cinéma) and Emma Scott (Screen Ireland), decided to present acclaimed Macedonian filmmaker Teona Strugar Mitevska with the €20,000 Eurimages Co-production Development Award for her project The Happiest Man in the World or Lessons in Love. Written by Mitevska and Elma Tataragić, who previously collaborated on the Berlinale-awarded God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya, the project’s producer is, for the fifth time, her sister Labina Mitevska, of Macedonian production company Sisters and Brother Mitevski. The story follows Asja, who’s trying to find love in Sarajevo.

Watching a woman take control of her destiny after being told she’s worthless can make for one of cinema’s more empowering moments, but how satisfying is it really when her struggle for self-esteem takes a back seat to the happiness of being validated by a handsome man? “God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya” positions itself as a feminist cry against a patriarchal Macedonia in the grips of bullying machismo and hidebound religion, yet the genial rushed ending undercuts its gender-equality thrust by presenting Petrunya’s emotional savior as a mustachioed guy in uniform.

Teona Strugar Mitevska (“I Am from Titov Veles”) delivers her most focused film to date, with a concentrated plot mined — at times over-mined — for opportunities reinforcing the ways ignorant tradition traps women in subservient roles, yet her finale panders to audiences wanting their bitter draft to finish with a sweetened aftertaste. The film undoubtedly has...

New films by Agnieszka Holland, Agnes Varda and Isabel Coixet have been added to the official lineup of the upcoming Berlin Film Festival, along with special screenings of directorial debuts by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and “Narcos” star Wagner Moura of Brazil.

The Berlinale added 11 titles to its competition slate Thursday, representing countries such as China, Norway, Mongolia and Israel. Of the 18 competition titles selected so far, eight are directed by women, including festival opener “The Kindness of Strangers,” by Danish director Lone Scherfig.

Holland’s eagerly anticipated “Mr. Jones,” starring James Norton and Vanessa Kirby, will have its world premiere in Potsdamer Platz. The politically charged film centers on the real-life Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (Norton), whose reporting uncovered a deadly famine in Ukraine in the 1930s.

Another famine-themed film heading to Berlin is Ejiofor’s “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” which was recently acquired by Netflix and...

The Berlin Film Festival has added movies by Agnès Varda, Agnieszka Holland, Hans Petter Moland, Isabel Coixet and Wang Quan’an to its competition programme. Chiwetel Ejiofor’s directorial debut The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind will play in the Berlinale Special strand. Scroll down for the full list of additions to the batch of films already announced for the competition.

Coixet’s (The Bookshop) black-and-white feature Elisa & Marcela, the true-story of two women who got married in Spain in 1901 after one adopted a male identity, will likely receive an extra dose of media attention given that it is a Netflix acquisition, marking the streaming giant’s first film to screen in competition in Berlin. Festival director Dieter Kosslick has previously said that competition films must have a theatrical release.

Among other highlights announced today are James Norton and Vanessa Kirby starrer Mr. Jones from Polish director Agnieszka Holland and Italian mafia pic Piranhas,...

God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija

Macedonia’s Teona Strugar Mitevska fifth feature is the intriguingly titled God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija. Produced by Labina Mitevska through Sisters and Brother Mitesvski Production, and co-produced by Entre Chien et Loup, Vertigo Productions and Spiritus Movens, Mitevska employs her I Am From Titov Veles Belgium cinematographer Virginie Saint-Martin. Newcomer Zorica Nusheva makes her debut as Petrunija. Mitesvka’s 2004 debut How I Killed a Saint went to Rotterdam and her 2007 title I Am From Titov Veles won a Special Jury Prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival and was programmed in Berlin’s 2008 Panorama Program.…...

Kim Jiseok Awards went to Jamshid Mahmoudi’s Rona, Azim’s Mother and Zhang Wei’s The Rib.

The 23rd Busan International Film Festival (Biff) wrapped on October 13 with the New Currents Awards going to Chinese director Cui Si Wei’s Savage and Korean filmmaker Kwon Man-ki’s Clean Up.

The New Currents jury, headed by Hong-Joon Kim with Nansun Shi, Jun Kunimura, Labina Mitevska and Nashen Moodley, unanimously awarded Savage as “a strikingly accomplished and riveting first film, exhibiting a mastery of genre cinema, with multi-dimensional characters and thrilling action sequences.”

They also unanimously awarded Clean Up, saying they...

Kim Jiseok Awards went to Jamshid Mahmoudi’s Rona, Azim’s Mother and Zhang Wei’s The Rib.

The 23rd Busan International Film Festival (Biff) wrapped on October 13 with the New Currents Awards going to Chinese director Cui Si Wei’s Savage and Korean filmmaker Kwon Man-ki’s Clean Up.

The New Currents jury, headed by Hong-Joon Kim with Nansun Shi, Jun Kunimura, Labina Mitevska and Nashen Moodley, unanimously awarded Savage as “a strikingly accomplished and riveting first film, exhibiting a mastery of genre cinema, with multi-dimensional characters and thrilling action sequences.”

They also unanimously awarded Clean Up, saying they...

Chinese title “Savage” and Korean psychodrama “Clean Up” split the prizes in the main New Currents competition at the Busan International Film Festival. The prizes were announced on Saturday morning.

The Kim Ji-seok Award, named after the festival’s co-founder and head selector who died suddenly last year, was also shared. It went jointly to Jamshid Mahmoudi’s “Rona, Azim’s Mother” and to Zhang Wei’s drama about the clash between Christianity and a man who wants a sex change, “The Rib.”

Headed by Korean director Kim Hong-joon, the New Currents jury praised “Savage” as a “strikingly accomplished and riveting first film, exhibiting a mastery of genre cinema, with multi-dimensional characters and thrilling action sequences.” Of “Clean Up,” the jury said that the film was “original, surprising and deeply emotional, with detailed characterization, perfect control and masterful psychological development.” The jury included Japanese actor Kunimura Jun, Macedonian actress Labina Mitevska,...

Japanese actor said to be suffering ”extreme mental and emotional pain” after backlash his comments at Biff jury press conference.

Busan International Film Festival (Biff) officially apologised today to New Currents jury member Kunimura Jun after the Japanese actor was criticised in his country’s media for remarks he made at the jury press conference on October 5.

The veteran actor, whose credits include Godzilla Resurgence, Kill Bill Volume 1 and Outrage, is best known in Korea for his role as a demon in Na Hong-jin’s supernatural thriller The Wailing.

In recent weeks, Koreans had been protesting the Japanese navy’s...

Japanese actor said to be suffering ”extreme mental and emotional pain” after backlash against his comments at Biff jury press conference.

Busan International Film Festival (Biff) officially apologised today to New Currents jury member Kunimura Jun after the Japanese actor was criticised in his country’s media for remarks he made at the jury press conference on October 5.

The veteran actor, whose credits include Godzilla Resurgence, Kill Bill Volume 1 and Outrage, is best known in Korea for his role as a demon in Na Hong-jin’s supernatural thriller The Wailing.

In recent weeks, Koreans had been protesting the Japanese navy...

Macedonian actor and producer Labina Mitevska has called for gender parity in film festival programming. Speaking at a press conference to introduce the Busan New Currents jury, juror Mitevska said, “When art is good, its good, no matter if it is male or female. We need to have more female programmers, most of them are men. Things need to change, and it needs to be fast.”

Mitevska is a co-producer on Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “The Wild Pear Tree”, which played at Cannes in competition and is Turkey’s entry in the Oscar foreign-language race. Speaking about the “macho Balkan culture,” Mitesvka recalled her experience working on a production 17 years ago where she and her sister, the writer/director Teona Strugar Mitevska, would return home in tears after every day of the shoot. She recounted how 20 men would stand around, ignoring Teona’s instructions on where to place the camera,...

Jury members of New Currents, the Busan International Film Festival’s (Biff) main competition section for first or second features by Asian filmmakers, gathered on Friday to share their prospects of viewing this year’s 10 titles. This year’s jury headed by South Korean filmmaker-professor Kim Hong-joon includes Hong Kong producer Shi Nansun, Macedonian actress and producer Labina Mitevska, Sydney Film Festival director Nashen Moodley, and Japanese actor Jun Kunimura.

Jury members were happy to discuss diversity issues in Asian cinema, including gender equality. This year’s selection features a noticeable presence of female directors; two selections from South ...

Jury members of New Currents, the Busan International Film Festival’s (Biff) main competition section for first or second features by Asian filmmakers, gathered on Friday to share their prospects of viewing this year’s 10 titles. This year’s jury headed by South Korean filmmaker-professor Kim Hong-joon includes Hong Kong producer Shi Nansun, Macedonian actress and producer Labina Mitevska, Sydney Film Festival director Nashen Moodley, and Japanese actor Jun Kunimura.

Jury members were happy to discuss diversity issues in Asian cinema, including gender equality. This year’s selection features a noticeable presence of female directors; two selections from South ...

Ryuichi Sakamoto played at the opening ceremony with stars including Bai Baihe, Yang Kuei-mei, Jang Dong-gun and Hyun Bin on the red carpet.

The 23rd Busan International Film Festival (Biff) kicked off tonight (October 4) with a windy, star-studded red carpet and a piano performance from Asian Filmmaker of the Year award winner Ryuichi Sakamoto, amidst reports of an approaching typhoon.

Reinstated festival head Jay Jeon and chairman Lee Yong-kwan emphasised a return to “stability and harmony” after four years of conflict over freedom of expression issues that swept through South Korea, as well as Biff, as part of deposed president Park Geun-hye’s blacklisting efforts.

Efp’s European Shooting Stars and Producers On The Move Alumni at the Cannes Film Festival 2018Euphoria with European Shooting Stars Jasmine Trinca (Italy 2007) and Riccardo Scamarcio (Italy 2006) was produced by Viola Prestieri (Producer on the Move Italy 2013).International sales agent: True Colors. (­ Andrea Pirrello).

European Film Promotion (Efp) and its member organisations are pleased to announce that 28 former participants of Efp’s Producers On The Move programme and seven Shooting Stars will be presenting their films at the Cannes Film Festival.

Efp Managing Director Sonja Heinen says:

We are delighted that we can support such outstanding acting talents and producers at an early stage of their careers by shining a spotlight on and opening new doors for them. Together with our members, we would like to congratulate them on their inspiring work being presented in Cannes.

European Film Promotion (Efp) is a unique network of 38 European member organisations who...

Birgitta Bjornsdottir and Marco Alessi, the producers, respectively, of Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week title “Woman at War,” and Directors’ Fortnight documentary “Samouni Road,” are among the 20 selected for the 2018 edition of European Film Promotion’s Producers on the Move initiative.

The up-and-coming producers, who must have had production experience and an international film release, are selected by Efp and its members. Hamburg-based Efp is a network of 38 European film and talent organisations. The 19th Producers on the Move runs in Cannes, starting May 10.

Across the five-day event, which is backed by the European Union’s Creative Europe – Media Program, the producers take part in networking and co-production events.

Multiple previous participants in the Producers on the Move program have films in competition in Cannes including Didar Domehri and Vladimer Katcharava who produced Eva Husson’s “Girls of the Sun.” Other alums with Cannes pictures include Tiziana Soudani who produced “Happy as Lazzaro,...

This year’s line-up includes producers of A Woman At War and Samouni Road.

20 up-and-coming European producers have been selected for the 2018 edition of European Film Promotion’s (Efp) networking platform Producers on the Move, which takes place at Cannes Film Festival.

As in previous years, the five-day event (May 10-14) will include pitching sessions, one-to-one meetings, case studies and other meetings with the international industry gathered in Cannes.

Two producers from this year’s group will present their films in the festival. A Woman At War by Benedict Erlingsson and co-produced by Iceland’s Birgitta Björnsdóttir will screen in the Critics’ Week.

Six projects selected for second edition of festival industry event.

Returning in 2017, Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Drama strand has selected six projects for its second edition.

Showcasing television series in development, the aim of the initiative is to bolster regional TV production.

The projects will be shown to European and regional broadcasters, VoD and SVoD Operators, and will include an open pitch session followed by one-on-one meetings.

This year will also see the introduction of a new development award - a €10,000 cash prize sponsored by Film Centre Serbia.

The jury awarding the prize will consist of Meinolf Zurhorst, Tatjana Andersson and Giacomo Durzi, who will select the most promising project out of the six chosen.

Jovan Marjanović, Sarajevo’s head of industry, commented: “We were excited to get so many submissions for the new drama series. The projects that have been selected promise to bring a new chapter to regional screens. The potential...

Two of this year’s group have films playing at the festival.

The UK’s Chris Martin, Switzerland’s Ivan Madeo [pictured, left] and Poland’s Maria Blicharska [pictured, right] are among the 20 up-and-coming European producers to be selected for the 2017 edition of European Film Promotion’s (Efp) networking platform Producers On The Move, which takes place at Cannes Film Festival.

As in previous years, the five-day event (May 19-23) will include pitching sessions, one-to-one meetings, case studies and other meetings with the international industry gathered in Cannes.

Two of the producers from this year’s line-up have films in the festival’s programme: Poland’s Maria Blicharska will be presenting Frost in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, while France’s Didar Domehri was a co-producer on Argentinian director Santiago Mitre’s La Cordillera which will have its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section.

Producers on the Move (PoM) from previous editions of the initiative also regularly return to Cannes...

Godless wins Special Jury Prize and Best Actress.Scroll down for the full list of winners

Turkish director Mehmet Can Mertoğlu’s Album has won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20).

The comedy, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes in May, follows a middle class Turkish couple who try to cover up the forgery of their family history.

The decision was made by a jury led by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman. The award comes with a prize of $18,000 (€16,000).

Album producer Yoel Meranda commented when receiving the award: “Many people here know that most of the stuff that helped this film get made happened in Sarajevo. It started in Sarajevo, and it’s amazing that we have completed this circle.”

Ralitza Petrova’s Godless was awarded two prizes: the Special Jury prize and Best Actress for lead Irena Ivanova.

The Bulgarian-French-Danish...

Projects previously presented at the market include Laszlo Nemes’s Oscar-winning Son Of Saul.

The 14th CineLink Co-Production Market (Aug 18-20), the backbone of Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry section, will this year present 15 projects from South-East Europe, and three guest projects from Qatar and Mexico.

CineLink boasts an impressive track record. An average of 60% of the projects that have taken part at the market in the last 13 years went all the way from development to production.

The most recent success is Laszlo Nemes’ Son Of Saul which won the Grand Prix at Cannes 2015 and Oscar for Best Foreign Language Films.

Other titles developed at the market include two winners of Venice’s Lion of the Future: White Shadow by Noaz Deshe, and Mold by Ali Aydin; two Berlinale Silver Bear winners: Harmony Lessons by Emir Baigazin and If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle by Florin Serban; and Semih Kaplanoglu’s 2010 Golden Bear winner Honey.

The...

The UK’s Lucas Ochoa and Poland’s Klaudia Smieja are among upcoming European producers set for neworking initiative in Cannes.Scroll down for the full list

European Film Promotion (Efp) has selected 20 emerging European producers for the 17th edition of its Producers on the Move networking initiative, which will be held during the Cannes Film Festival between May 14-17.

The participating producers will take part in a programme of round-table project presentations, one-on-one speed dating pitches and case studies of successful projects.

The 2016 selection includes the UK’s Lucas Ochoa, producer on Andrea Arnold’s Cannes competition entry American Honey. Ochoa has had winning films at the Sundance Film Festival for four years in a row including Robert Egger’s multi-award winning The Witch and this year’s Michal Marczak documentary All These Sleepless Night.

Poland’s Klaudia Smieja, an executive producer on Icelandic hit Rams, has also been selected. Her additional...

Cristi Puiu has reteamed with his The Death of Mr. Lazarescu actor Mimi Brănescu on the filmmaker’s fifth feature film currently filming in Bucharest until sometime in March. Filmneweurope reports that the film, repped by the Wild Bunch folks, is targeting a 2016 release. So definitely no Cannes this year. Mandragora’s Cristi & Anca Puiu are producing, while Studioul de Creaţie Cinematografică Romania’s Lucian Pintilie, 2006 d.o.o.’s Mirsad Purivatra and Sabina Branković, Spiritus Movens’ Zdenka Gold, Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production’s Labina Mitevska and Alcatraz Films’ Laurence Clerc and Olivier Thiery-Lapiney are all co-producing.

Gist: Back from a business trip in Paris, a neurologist (Brănescu) at the pinnacle of his career has to pick up his wife so that they can attend a family meal to commemorate his father, who passed away in the previous year. At his mother’s apartment, the guests are awaiting the...

Georgia was the big winner at the 18th edition of the Sofia International Film Festival (Siff) which closed at the weekend with the Grand Prix for Best Film and Best Director award going to Levan Koguashvili’s second feature Blind Dates.

The melancholic comedy, which premiered at the Berlinale’s Forum last month, also received the Fipresci International Film Critics’ Prize. Handled internationally by Films Boutique, it is already booked to screen at the April festivals in Wiesbaden (goEast) and Lecce and in Odessa in July.

Presenting the Grand Prix to Koguashvili, the International Jury’s president producer Alexander Rodnyansky said that the jury’s discussion on the top prize had ¨lasted only about 10 minutes and was unanimous. This film has become the absolute winner of this festival!¨

In addition, Vladimer Katcharava of Tbilisi-based 20 Steps Production received the Sofia Meetings’ €10,000 Digimage - Lvt Postproduction Award for Miriam Khachvani’s Dede which he pitched in the Plus Minus...

European Film Promotion has special programs highlighting talent in Berlin (Shooting Stars), a Producer Lab in Toronto, 10 Directors to Watch at Karlovy Vary, European Directors at Busan and a great networking party at Afm. For 14 years Efp has hosted Producers on the Move in Cannes. This year 29 producers from 29 different European countries will take part in the event from 18 to 21 May, 2013. The Republic of Kosovo* and Montenegro will both be represented for the first time this year with a producer. These are the producers who set the ball rolling on projects, forge coalitions and conjure up a film out of an idea. Film producers are increasingly looking past their national borders. In order to facilitate an exchange with similarly ambitious colleagues from other European countries and showcase their range of achievements, European Film Promotion (Efp) offers a platform for networking to carefully selected producers. 12 of the 29 producers are women ♀.

Looking back at the 2012 edition of Producers on the Move, almost all of the producers are still in contact with one another to follow up on ideas. 17 from last year's 25 participants (68%) are already working on 15 co-productions.

The group of former participants includes such internationally known and award-winning producers as Ada Solomon from Romania (Child's Pose), Bettina Brokemper from Germany (Bal), Louise Vesth from Denmark (Melancholia) and Siniša Juričić from Croatia (Sofia’s Last Ambulance).

Scheduled during the Cannes International Film Festival, the program provides its participants with an additional visibility they get at this melting pot for filmmakers, sales agents, financiers and the international media. Producers On The Move's schedule with pitching sessions, one-on-one speed-dating meetings and various opportunities to build up business relationships and to exchange knowledge enables the selected filmmakers to return home with advanced film projects and, sometimes, with a co-production deal. At the Producers' Lunch, they can, moreover, get in contact with participants from previous years.

The participants have already realized joint European film projects which were noticed on the international radar, but they still are on their way to becoming international players. Many of them produced feature films as well as documentaries, and some are additionally active in the field of animation films.

For the fourth time, Efp will be cooperating for Producers On The Move with the pan-European co-production fund Eurimages.

The following producers were selected by Efp member organizations from their respective countries:

Belgium

Anton Iffland Stettner, Need Productions

i.e. Home by Ursula Meier ♀

selected by Wallonie Bruxelles Image

Bulgaria

Konstantin Bojanov, Argentum Lux Films

i.e. Avé by Konstantin Bojanov

selected by the Bulgarian National Film Centre

Croatia

Zdenka Gold, ♀ Spiritus Movens Production

i.e. A Stranger by Bobo Jelčić

selected by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre

Czech Republic

Viktor Tauš, Fog’n’Desire Films

i.e. House by Zuzana Liová

selected by the Czech Film Center

Denmark

Mikael Chr. Rieks, Nordisk Film Production

i.e. A Funny Man by Martin Zandvliet

selected by The Danish Film Institute

Estonia

Kiur Aarma, Traumfabrik

i.e. Disco & Atomic War by Jaak Kilmi & Kiur Aarma

selected by Baltic Films

Finland

Jussi Rantamäki, Aamu Filmcompany

i.e. The Painting Sellers by Juho Kuosmanen

selected by the Finnish Film Foundation

France

Mathieu Robinet, Révérence

i.e. Love is in the Air by Alexandre Castagnetti

selected by Unifrance films

Georgia

Zaza Rusadze, Zazarfilm

i.e. A Fold in my Blanket by Zaza Rusadze

selected by the Georgian National Film Center

Germany

Jochen Laube, teamWorx Ludwigsburg

i.e. Five Years by Stefan Schaller

selected by German Films

Greece

Giorgos Karnavas, Heretic

i.e. Boy Eating The Bird’s Food by Ektoras Lygizos

selected by the Greek Film Centre

Hungary

Andrea Taschler, ♀ Mirage Film Studio

i.e. Bibliothèque Pascal by Szabolcs Hajdu

selected by Magyar Filmunió / Hungarian National Film Fund

Iceland

Thorkell Hardarson, Markell Productions

i.e. Feathered Cocaine by Thorkell Hardarson & Örn Marinó Arnarson

selected by the Icelandic Fim Centre

Ireland

Conor Barry, Sp Films

i.e. Love Eternal by Brendan Muldowney

selected by the Irish Film Board

Italy

Viola Prestieri, Buena Onda

i.e. The Great Beauty by Paolo Sorrentino ♀

selected by Istituto Luce Cinecittà

Republic of Kosovo*

Valon Jakupaj, Gegnia Film

i.e. Adventures of Santa Clause by Valon Jakupaj

selected by the Kosova Cinematography Center

Luxembourg

Gilles Chanial, Red Lion

i.e. Le goût des myrtilles by Thomas de Thier

selected by Film Fund Luxembourg

Fyr of Macedonia

Labina Mitevska, ♀ Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production

i.e. The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears by Teona Mitevska ♀

selected by Macedonian Film Fund

Montenegro

Sehad Čekić, Cut-Up Production

i.e. The Ascent by Neminja Becanovic

selected by the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro

The Netherlands

Marleen Slot, ♀ Viking Film

i.e. Zurich by Sacha Polak ♀

selected by Eye International / Netherlands

Norway

Hans-Jørgen Osnes, Motlys

i.e. Oslo, August 31st by Joachim Trier

selected by the Norwegian Film Institute

Poland

Agnieszka Kurzydło, ♀ MD 4

i.e. In The Name Of by Małgośka Szumowska ♀

selected by the Polish Film Institute

Portugal

João Matos, Terratreme filmes

i.e. Lacrau by João Vladimiro

selected by Ica I.P. / Portugal

Romania

Anca Puiu, ♀ Mandragora

i.e. Rocker by Marian Crisan ♀

selected by the Romanian Film Promotion

Slovak Republic

Mira Fornay, ♀ Mirafox

i.e. My Dog Killer by Mira Fornay ♀

selected by Slovak Film Institute

Spain

María Zamora, ♀ Avalon P.C.

i.e. Todos están muertos by Beatriz Sanchis ♀

selected by Icaa / Spain

Sweden

Erika Wasserman, ♀ Idyll

i.e. Avalon by Axel Petersén

selected by the Swedish Film Institute

Switzerland

Joëlle Bertossa, ♀ Close Up Film

i.e. Body by Halima Ouardiri ♀

selected by Swiss Films

United Kingdom

Andrea Cornwell, ♀ Lobo Films Ltd

i.e. The Last Days On Mars by Ruairi Robinson ♀

selected by the British Council...

Following up the initial announcement of titles, the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival revealed it will open with the period drama Les Adieux à la reine (Farewell My Queen) today. From director Benoît Jacquot, the drama stars Inglourious Basterds lead Diane Kruger, as well as Léa Seydoux who broke-out in Midnight in Paris and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol this year. Based on, Chantal Thomas’ novel we have the first stills of the film (from Lumiere via The Playlist) that follows the “first few days of the French Revolution from the perspective of the servants at Versailles.”

Kruger, who plays Marie Antoinette here, has only appeared in one big film following her post-Basterds role with Unknown, but I look forward to her future work, especially with this film. I thought Seydoux was great as an action villain in Ghotocol and excited to see her career rise. Check out the stills below,...

The Berlinale's announced today that 20 films are now lined up for its Panorama program. All in all, around 50 titles will make up the main program, Panorama Special and Panorama Dokumente.

10+10 by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wang Toon, Wu Nien-Jen, Sylvia Chang, Chen Guo-Fu, Wei Te-Sheng, Chung Meng-Hung, Chang Tso-Chi, Arvin Chen, Yang Ya-Che and others, Taiwan — see a full report from the Taipei Film Commission: "Funded by the Golden Horse Film Festival and the Republic of China Centenary Foundation, 10+10 [is] a movie comprised of 20 short films by 10 renowned and 10 emerging Taiwanese filmmakers."

Death For Sale by Faouzi Bensaïdi, France

With Fehd Benchemsi, Fouad Labiad, Mouhcine Malzi, Imane Elmechrafi, Faouzi Bensaïdi

Die Wand (The Wall) by Julian Roman Pölsler, Austria/Germany

With Martina Gedeck — Synopsis from The Match Factory: "(1.) The wall is a highly unusual exploration of solitude and survival. (2.) It is the story of a woman who is separated from the...

9:06 (2009) Direction: Igor Sterk Screenplay: Igor Sterk and Sinisa Dragin Cast: Igor Samobor, Silva Cusin, Labina Mitevska, Jana Zupancic Igor Samobor 9:06 Some movies are hard to write about because they don’t have anything to say. Others are hard to write about because what they’re actually saying is either too complex and/or too muddled to be described in words. For better or for worse, you have to experience it. Igor Sterk’s sober, intriguing 9:06, which screens on Sunday at the South-East European Film Festival of Los Angeles at the Goethe Institut, falls into the latter category. Set within the framework of a mystery drama, 9:06 is actually a psychological study about a man, a Slovenian police officer named Dusan, obsessed with death. [...]...

Cologne, Germany -- Five veterans of the European film scene have been selected for the jury of the 2009 Shooting Stars, the talent scout event held every year during the Berlin International Film Festival.

U.K. film historian Peter Cowie, Belgian producer/director Marion Hansel, Macedonian actress Labina Mitevska, Spanish producer Antonio Saura, Portuguese casting director Patricia Vasconcelos will select the 10 European talents who will attend the 2009 event.

The new faces will be presented to the international industry at various events in Berlin between Feb. 7-9.

For the first time next year, one of the 10 young actors will be picked to receive the inaugural Shooting Stars Award, presented by Germany’s Studio Babelsberg.

There are a lot of beautiful shots in Michael Winterbottom's new film "I Want You", which screened at the Berlin Film Festival, but they are the picture's only redeemable feature.

This visually interesting film filled with attractive, hip, young actors should attract a young niche audience at first, but word-of-mouth will eventually hinge on one risky question: Will Winterbottom's target audience be so self-absorbed as to identify with these good-looking characters tormented by life, or will moviegoers be intelligent enough to recognize it all as a fake?

Martin (Alessandro Nivola) is a young stranger with a dark past who returns to the English seaside town of Haven, where he begins haunting his long-lost love Helen (Rachel Weisz) despite conditions of his parole that order him to stay away from her.

Yes, he is obsessed with her, and why shouldn't he be? She is very cute, after all.

But Martin is not the only one obsessed with Helen: Honda (Luka Petrusic), a young boy who refuses to speak -- yes, he too has been traumatized -- stalks her, secretly recording her lovemaking with long-distance mikes. Honda's big sister Smokey (Labina Mitevska), is a rock singer who sleeps around. We don't know whether she has been traumatized or not, but it's a safe guess she has been.

There are a couple real, even haunting, surprises at the end, but long before that, the film grows tedious and the characters be-come too obviously fake.

Winterbottom ("Welcome to Sarajevo") shoots the entire film as if it was one big montage sequence. He spends a lot of time on close-ups, comings and goings and running over fields of pebbles or through fields of grain -- for no apparent reason.

The audience soon realizes that this pseudo-artsy aesthetic is only a smoke screen for a deeper failure: Winterbottom (or screenwriter Eoin McNamee) doesn't know his characters. He has only pasted them together from a list of trendy trauma scenarios.

The characters to him, and to us, are like nameless faces in a TV commercial.

When the film begins to suggest that behind all these psychological traumata is some kind of corrupt, off-kilter modern world, Winterbottom doesn't come off as an angry young man, only as an angry young director of commercials.

Having said that, all performances and technical credits -- especially the gorgeous, always-engaging camerawork of Slawo-mir Idziak, aided tremendously by editor Trevor Waite and lavish production design by Mark Tildesley -- are polished to perfection.

Also appealing is the cast: Weisz is beautiful and sexy, Nivola looks good in a three-day beard, and young Petrusic is a scrawny, vulnerable young charmer. The hit of the film is Mitevska.

Winterbottom tries hard to paint a picture of fascinating young characters damaged by a corrupt society and burdened with a mysterious past. But he never succeeds in making contact with those characters, and in the end, the entire effort seems empty and precious.

I WANT YOU

PolyGram

Revolution Films

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Producer: Andrew Eaton

Executive producer: Stewart Till

Associate producer: Gina Carter

Screenplay: Eoin McNamee

Director of photography: Slawomir Idziak

Production designer: Mark Tildesley

Editor: Trevor Waite

Music: Adrian Johnston

Costume designer: Rachael Fleming

Color/stereo

Cast:

Helen: Rachel Weisz

Martin: Alessandro Nivola

Honda: Luka Petrusic

Smokey: Labina Mitevska

Amber: Carmen Ejogo

Bob: Ben Daniels

Old Man: Graham Crowden

Running time -- 87 minutes

No MPAA rating...