10/10/2008

The eighth edition of the East European Forum of documentary films and the East Silver market, dedicated to East European documentary films, open Oct 22 in Jihlava, Czech Republic.

The Forum is the largest meeting of its kind, introducing documentary filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe to leading European commissioning editors, distributors, buyers and film funds. Directors and producers attending can offer their projects for co-production, pre-buy agreements and other forms of financial support.

Since 2001, over 45 films have been made with the help of the Forum, with more films completed each year. In 2008, a number of these received top honours at major international festivals. Beata Dzianowicz’s Kites (Poland) received the Critic's Week Award at Locarno. Juraj Lehotsky’s Blind Loves [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Slovakia) received, among others, the Art Cinema Award at Cannes.

This year's pitching session includes 10 projects from across Eastern Europe and will host the largest number of commissioning editors, buyers, sales agents, distributors and film fund representatives in its history. Among those on hand will be Claudia Bucher and Alex Szalat of Arte (France), Cynthia Lopez of PBS (USA), Milka Pavlicevic of ZDF/ARTE (Germany), Rahdi Taylore of the Sundance Documentary Fund (USA), and Katja Wildermuth of MDR (Germany).

The Forum opens the industry section of the 11th Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival (Oct 24–29).

East European Forum projects:

Czech Peace (dir. Vit Klusak, Filip Remunda; prod. Vit Klusak, Filip Remunda, Hypermarket Film; Czech Republic)
Journey Into the Unknown, Or Holiday in the DPRK (dir. Linda Jablonska; prod. Milan Kuchynka, Negativ; Czech Republic)
68 (dir. Michael Wong; prod. Petra Ondrejkova, L'automat; Czech Republic)
The Pit (dir. Marianna Kaat; prod. Marianna Kaat, Baltic Film Production; Estonia)
Restaurant Bakhmaro and Those Who Work There (dir. Salome Jashi; prod. Anna Dziapshipa, Sakdoc Film; Georgia)
Left Right Left Right (dir. Erzsebet Racz; prod. Kristina Konrad, weltfilm; Germany/Hungary)
Dybbuk (dir. Krzysztof Kopczynski; prod. Krzysztof Kopczynski, Eureka Media; Poland)
Metrobranding (dir. Ana Vlad, Adrian Vlivu; prod. Anca Puiu, Mandragora; Romania)
Yugoslavia on the Couch (dir. David Salomon; prod. Marija Asanovic, On the Couch Films; Serbia)
The Cans of the Time (dir. Marek Sulik; prod. Michal Hlavacka, Protos Productions; Slovakia)