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The Czech Film and Television Academy has urged its voting members to select “Broken Voices” as the Czech Republic’s Oscar submission from a shortlist of three films, a move that has been slammed by some in the film industry as “manipulative,” “bizarrely undemocratic” and one that “risks undermining trust in the process.”

Ondřej Provazník’s drama focuses on the real-life sex abuse scandal centering on the Bambini di Praga choir in the Czech Republic. The film premiered recently in the main competition at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, with actor Kateřina Falbrová receiving a Special Jury Mention.

In an email sent by ČFTA, shared with Variety by one of its members, three films have been selected by the academy’s presidium commission — a seven-member committee — for the second round of voting: documentary “I’m Not Everything I Want to Be,” “Caravan” and “Broken Voices.”

The commission, whose members had to prove...

The festival, unspooling from 30 September-4 October, will serve as a launchpad for several domestic productions having their local theatrical premieres. After Febiofest Bratislava was disrupted and postponed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak (see the news), the pared-down 27th edition is ready to bring the delayed premieres of local and international films to domestic theatre-goers. Given the current circumstances and the growing number of coronavirus cases, the organisers are preparing a safe and secure festival with a reduced programme and accompanying events limited to a clutch of festival venues. The gathering will open with the domestic premiere of the latest dramedy by Petr Zelenka, Droneman, made as a Czech-Slovak-Slovenian co-production. Slovakian filmmaker Mira Fornay will introduce her latest endeavour, the absurdist and surreal drama Cook F**k Kill, as a domestic premiere at the festival. The documentary Everest – The Hard Way by Pavol Barabáš is another domestic film...

Igor Luther worked on the fragmentary essay titled Self-Portrait where he looks back on his own fruitful professional career and turbulent private life. Slovak producer and director Ivan Ostrochovský, who revealed his latest fiction feature Servants at this year's Berlinale, is continuing in his producing efforts. After co-producing the experimental docu-pic Frem and Petr Zelenka’s dramedy Droneman (read the news), one of the projects he is currently working on as a producer is a documentary with the working title Self-Portrait, centred on the most acclaimed Slovak cinematographer, Igor Luther, who passed away at the beginning of June 2020. Luther commands a glowing filmography, having lensed Juraj Jakubisko’s The Years of Christ and Birdies, Orphans and Fools, Alain Robbe-Grillet’s The Man Who Lies and Eden and Afterwards and serving as DoP on films by Michael Haneke, Wolfgang Staudte, Andrzej Wajda, Aleksandar Petrović and a fruitful collaboration with Volker Schlöndorff with whom.

All three winning screenplays in the main category already have producers attached. The Czech Republic’s Film Foundation is an initiative that aims to support preparation for screenwriting in the field of domestic fiction filmmaking. The institution spotlights domestic projects through its annual scriptwriting competition, which is now celebrating 15 years of existence. During this period, the Film Foundation has supported 100 projects by 105 scriptwriters with the total sum of €412,214, while 13 projects have successfully been produced and released. An array of previous winners have recently been finished, including Marek Epstein’s script for the Agnieszka Holland-directed biopic Charlatan, which was unveiled at this year’s Berlinale; Petr Václav’s epic period biopic Il Boemo (see the news); Pavel Göbl’s tragicomedy Silent Companion (see the news), which will be released on 1 October; the period drama Kryštof by Zdeněk Jirásky (see the news); and Petr Zelenka’s dramedy Droneman (see the news), which.

The 40th Grenzland-Filmtage Selb Festival just announced their award winners for their exciting 2017 edition. Feature films, documentaries and short films are at the core of the Grenzland-Filmtage. Highlights of this year's festival included Hear the Silence by Ed Ehrenberg, Lost in Munich by Petr Zelenka, 1000 Mexicans by Philipp Scholz, That Trip We Took with Dad by Anca M. Lazarescu, Red by Branko Tomovic, Die Hände meiner Mutter by Florian Eichinger and Memo by Istvan Tasnadi. The main prize went to '1000 Mexicans' by Philipp Scholz.  The audience award for Best Short went to 'Simply the Worst' by F. Mueller and J. Kuerschner. Werner Schuessler's 'Passion for Planet' picked up best documentary. The Grenzland-Filmtage ("Crossing Boundaries Festival") was established in Selb in 1977. It was an attempt to bring films meeting high critical standards to a relatively remote...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The 40th Grenzland-Filmtage Selb Festival announces an exciting programme for the 2017 edition. Feature films, documentaries and short films are at the core of the Grenzland-Filmtage.  Highlights of this year's festival include Hear the Silence by Ed Ehrenberg, Lost in Munich by Petr Zelenka, 1000 Mexicans by Philipp Sholz, That Trip We Took with Dad by Anca M. Lazarescu, Red by Branko Tomovic, Die Hände meiner Mutter by Florian Eichinger and Memo by Istvan Tasnadi. The Grenzland-Filmtage ("Crossing Boundaries Festival") was established in Selb in 1977. It was an attempt to bring films meeting high critical standards to a relatively remote provincial region. This year's festival runs from April 20-23. You can check out the full programme and more info on their freshly updated website:  http://www.grenzlandfilmtage-selb.de/en/...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Yesterday afternoon, the long list of countries submitting films for contention in Best Foreign Language Feature at the Oscars was revealed. With 85 movies in play, this is a record breaking group. Honestly, from what I could see, only three snubs seemed to be here, which was Belgium not choosing The Unknown Girl, Korea not choosing The Handmaiden, and Romania not choosing Graduation. Aside from those, all of the expected suspects are here for consideration. That gives us the first bit of information in trying to narrow down what will be nominated. My predictions will have to be updated (look for that either at the end of this week or next week), but that will be taken care of. For now, we just know the players. What you’ll see below are more contenders than ever before. Among the higher profile titles are Canada’s It’s Only the End of the World from Xavier Dolan,...

Eighty-five countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 89th Academy Awards. Yemen is a first-time entrant.

The 2016 submissions are:

Albania, “Chromium,” Bujar Alimani, director;

Algeria, “The Well,” Lotfi Bouchouchi, director;

Argentina, “The Distinguished Citizen,” Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat, directors;

Australia, “Tanna,” Bentley Dean, Martin Butler, directors;

Austria, “Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe,” Maria Schrader, director;

Bangladesh, “link=tt5510934 auto]The Unnamed[/link],” Tauquir Ahmed, director;

Belgium, “The Ardennes,” Robin Pront, director;

Bolivia, “Sealed Cargo,” Julia Vargas Weise, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Death in Sarajevo,” Danis Tanovic, director;

Brazil, “Little Secret,” David Schurmann, director;

Bulgaria, “Losers,” Ivaylo Hristov, director;

Cambodia, “Before the Fall,” Ian White, director;

Canada, “It’s Only the End of the World,” Xavier Dolan, director;

Chile, “Neruda,” Pablo Larraín, director;

China, “Xuan Zang,” Huo Jianqi, director;

Colombia, “Alias Maria,” José Luis Rugeles, director;

Costa Rica, “About Us,” Hernán Jiménez, director;

Croatia, “On the Other Side,...

Eighty-five countries have submitted a film for consideration in the 60th anniversary year of the foreign language film category.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Science said on Tuesday that this season also marks the first time Yemen has submitted a film, Khadija Al-Salami’s I Am Nojoom, Age 10 And Divorced.

The 89th Oscars will take place on February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. László Nemes’ Hungarian entry Son Of Saul won the award last February.

Foreign-language Academy Award Submissions

(Country, Title, director)

Albania, Chromium, dir Bujar Alimani;

Algeria, The Well, Lotfi Bouchouchi;

Argentina, The Distinguished Citizen, Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat;

Australia, Tanna, Bentley Dean, Martin Butler;

Austria, Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe, Maria Schrader;

Bangladesh, The Unnamed, Tauquir Ahmed;

Belgium, The Ardennes, Robin Pront;

Bolivia, Sealed Cargo, Julia Vargas Weise;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Death In Sarajevo, Danis Tanovic;

Brazil, Little Secret, David Schurmann.

Bulgaria, Losers, [link...

Retrospective to include films from Danis Tanovic, Cristi Puiu, Mira Fornay and more.

A total of 50 films are to make up the retrospective Eastern Promises: Autobiography of Eastern Europe at the 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 19-27).

The line-up includes movies produced since 2000 in the countries that lived under Soviet influence after the Second World War and include some that were never released theatrically in Spain.

Several directors of films in the retrospective will attend the festival to present their works including Sarunas Bartas (Lithuania), Kristina Buožytė (Lithuania), Marian Crisan (Romania), Mira Fornay (Slovakia), Bohdan Sláma (Czech Republic), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland) and Anna Viduleja (Latvia).

A book will be published to accompany the retrospective with contributions from journalists and critics across Europe.

The titles are:

Kruh In Mleko / Bread And Milk

Jan Cvitkovic (Slovenia) 2001

A modern classic of Slovenian cinema, the tale of a man who went out for bread and milk and lost himself to alcohol...

Rural Russian film takes top prize at Poland’s New Horizons International Film Festival.

Russian director Alexander Fedorchenko’s Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari received the Grand Prix and a €20,000 ($27,000) cash prize at the 13th New Horizons International Film Festival (July 18-28) in Wroclaw.

The decision by the International jury, headed by Hungary’s Bela Tarr and including Polish film-maker Joanna Kos-Krauze and Berlinale Forum director Christoph Terhechte, was announced ahead of the Polish premiere of Malgorzata Szumowska’s In The Name Of on Saturday evening.

Fedorchenko’s film had its world premiere at last year’s Rome Film Festival.

Review: Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari

In June, it won three awards - best script, best cinematography and the Prize of the Russian Guild of Film Scholars and Film Critics - at the Kinotavr “Open Russian” Film Festival in Sochi.

The $2m production by Fedorchenko’s 29 February Film Company explores the myths of the Russian...

Made In Prague: The New Czech Cinema UK Tour, Nationwide

Slimmed down from the London event in November, four recent Czech films do the rounds of major cities, and cover a lot of ground between them. Petr Zelenka's The Karamazovs collides film, theatre and literature, as a Czech troupe attempts to stage Dostoevsky's novel in a Polish steel factory. Protektor, last year's top domestic award-winner, examines the effects of the Nazi occupation on a Jewish actress and her radio host husband with noirish style. Twosome, a road movie set in Sweden, is a more up-to-date view of Czech relationships, while Helena Treštíková's documentary Katka follows the life of a young junkie over the course of 14 years.

Various venues, Wed to 27 Apr

See: The Brighton Documentary Film Festival

Judging by this selection, British documentary-making is in fine form, even if the country it's looking at isn't. Among the domestic subjects...

A Well Paid Walk by Milos Forman (top); Vaclav Havel in Citizen Havel by Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek (middle); The Karamazovs by Petr Zelenka (bottom) New Czech Films at New York’s BAMcinématek. The series includes works by two-time Academy Award winner Milos Forman and Jan H?ebejk, whose Divided We Fall (2000) was nominated for a best foreign language film Oscar. Václav Marhoul’s war drama Tobruk, which is supposed to show that there’s "a very thin line between heroism and cowardice," sounds particularly intriguing. All films in Czech with English subtitles. Schedule and film information from the BAMcinématek website: A Well Paid Walk (Dob?e Placená Procházku) (2009) 85min Wed, Nov 18 at 6:50*, 9:40pm *Q&A [...]...

A record 67 countries have submitted films for consideration for best foreign-language film for the 81st Academy Awards, Academy president Sid Ganis said Friday. Nominations will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 22, and the awards will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 22.

The complete list of foreign-language submissions follows. For more details on some of the films, visit THR.com/foreignoscars.

Afghanistan, "Opium War," Siddiq Barmak

Albania, "The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider," Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani

Algeria, "Masquerades," Lyes Salem

Argentina, "Lion's Den," Pablo Trapero

Austria, "Revanche," Gotz Spielmann

Azerbaijan, "Fortress," Shamil Nacafzada

Bangladesh, "Aha!," Enamul Karim Nirjhar

Belgium, "Eldorado," Bouli Lanners

Bosnia and Herzegovina, "Snow," Aida Begic

Brazil, "Last Stop 174," Bruno Barreto

Bulgaria, "Zift," Javor Gardev

Canada, "The Necessities of Life," Benoit Pilon

Chile, "Tony Manero," Pablo Larrain

China, "Dream Weavers," Jun Gu

Colombia, "Dog Eat Dog," Carlos Moreno

Croatia, "No One's Son," Arsen Anton Ostojic

Czech Republic, "The Karamazovs," Petr Zelenka

Denmark,...

The 4th CentEast Market Warsaw, organized by the Warsaw Film Foundation October 15-19, 2008, is an event for film professionals involved and/or interested in films from Eastern Europe, held during the Warsaw Film Festival. Producers, sales agents, distributors, TV buyers, festival programmers, and representatives of film funds and institutions meet every year in Warsaw and attend: – screenings of completed films – screenings of works-in-progress – panel discussions – workshops.

The main theme of this year’s CentEast will be international distribution and sales of Eastern European films. The panel discussions will deal with the following subjects:

Oct. 17 – ‘Tricks’, the success story – with the team behind the Polish film, directed by Andrzej Jakimowski, which got numerous international awards and has been released theatrically in several countries;

Oct. 18 – The Sales of Eastern European Films – with the Europe’s leading sales agents;

Last year’s works-in-progress ‘Lejdis’ by Tomasz Konecki and ‘The Karamazov Brothers’ by Petr Zelenka (world premiere at Karlovy Vary 08) already opened theatrically, while ‘Boogie’ by Radu Muntean (world premiere at Cannes 08) will be presented at the Warsaw Film Festival.

Content of the market is by selection aiming for quality over quantity. By Eastern European is meant films from Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland.

Integrated in the CentEast Market Warsaw are the Warsaw Screenings, where professionals can watch selected new Polish films. Apart from the October dates, a summer edition of the Warsaw Screenings (June/July) is aimed at programmers of film festivals held in the autumn. This year , among others, the following films showed and were invited afterwards to the most important events: ‘33 Scenes From Life’ by Małgorzata Szumowska, ‘Four Nights With Anna’ by Jerzy Skolimowski, ‘Mr Kuka’s Advice’ by Dariusz Gajewski, ‘Scratch’ by Michał Rosa.

The full program of CentEast will be announced early October.

Contact: Katarzyna Nowicka, media department of WFF, tel: +48 605 289 794, e-mail: media@wff.pl Dorota Kwint...

• So far, about one third (35 countries to be exact) of the 96 invited to submit their entry for the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Picture category have done so. While tomorrow's list will beef up the finally tally, there are three pictures that first caught everyone's attention at Cannes this year that are destined to make it to the final five. After last year's fiasco (the exclusion of Persepolis and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days), I'm hoping that this year's measures (a new voting system broken into phases) will make sure that voting members don't mess up once again and If I'd had to handicap the race this early on, I'd say The Class, Gomorra and Waltz with Bashir -- all films that are currently being showcased at the 46th Nyff, will each be considered as top tier noms. I'd also love to see Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Three Monkeys in

...

Foreign-language Oscar guide

Moscow -- Petr Zelenka's "The Karamazovs" will be the Czech Republic's submission for the foreign-language Oscar, the Czech Film and Television academy said Monday.

"The Karamazovs" is a cinematic retelling of the novel "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky, based on a Polish theatrical dramatization staged in 2000.

It was one of the Czech Republic's two entries at this year's Karlovy Vary international film festival, where it received the special jury mention and the Fipresci prize.

London -- The European Film Academy unveiled the 44 movies on this year's long list for the upcoming European Film Awards, scheduled for Dec. 6 in Copenhagen.

The 44 titles come from 27 countries across the continent including four from the U.K.

Joe Wright's "Atonement," Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha," Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Steve McQueen's "Hunger" will all hope to make the nominations' list with titles such as Kornel Mundruczo's "Delta" from Hungary and Andrzej Wajda's "Katyn" from Poland vying for a place.

In the 20 countries with the most Efa Members, members have voted one national film directly into the selection list.

To complete the list, a selection committee consisting of Efa board members and invited experts have included 24 other titles.

Over the next few weeks, the 1,800 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the different award categories.

The nominations will then be announced Nov.

Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic -- The modern Danish Western "Terribly Happy" was named best film in the official competition at the 43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which ended Saturday.

The film, directed by Henrik Ruben Genz, took home the Grand Prix Crystal Globe. A special jury prize was given to "The Photograph," a story set in Indonesia directed by Singapore's Nan T. Achnas. Russia's Alexey Uchitel was named best director for his war picture "Captive."

The best film award in the major sidebar East of the West went to Kazakhstan director Sergey Dvortsevoy's "Tulpan," which won the top prize in Un Certain Regard at this year's Festival de Cannes.

Nikita Mikhalkov's "12," a modern Russian version of "12 Angry Men" that was nominated for a best foreign-language Oscar, won the audience award and British director James Marsh's "Man on Wire" was named best feature documentary.

Special jury mentions went to Polish/Czech film "The Karamazovs," directed by Petr Zelenka, and Hungary's "The Investigator," directed by Attila Gigor. Martha Issova and Jiri Madl were named best actress and actor for the Czech film "Night Owls."

Actors Robert De Niro, Danny Glover, Christopher Lee and Armin Mueller-Stahl were among those who received awards for outstanding contributions to world cinema. Czech director Ivan Passer, who was chairman of the jury for the official competition, was similarly honored.

Moscow -- The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) will launch its 43rd edition in the Czech spa town on July 4.

Over the years, the festival has earned a reputation as the largest film event in Central and Eastern Europe, which it will reinforce this year with films from the region’s best-known directors accounting for a large part of the official selection.

Many of the directors whose movies are among the 14 competing for the Crystal Globe have already won prizes at Karlovy Vary or elsewhere. Croatia’s Zrinko Ogresta, the director of “Behind the Glass,” won Kviff’s special jury prize five years ago with “Here,” while Russia’s Alexei Uchitel, who is presenting his most recent film, “Captive,” was the winner of 2005’s Moscow International Film Festival with “Dreaming of Space.”

Petr Zelenka, one of the most renowned young Czech directors and winner of the 2002 Crystal Globe with his “Year of the Devil”, is also participating with his new feature, “The Karamazovs.”

Robert De Niro is due to collect the Crystal Globe for outstanding contribution to world cinema at the opening ceremony, and “What Just Happened,” in which he stars will be the opening night movie.

MOSCOW -- The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival took the wraps off its 43rd edition Monday, unveiling a competition lineup true to its Central and Eastern European roots.

While this year's festival, set for July 4-12, will feature an array of international titles, organizers still managed to preserve the event's focus on its home region.

The Czech Republic has a pair of films in the official competition. Considered one of the up-and-coming voices of Czech cinema, Petr Zelenka brings "Karamazoi", a cinematic retelling of Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" based on Evald Schorm's theatrical production.

Also featured in competition is Czech helmer Michaela Pavlatova's contemporary Prague love story "Night Owls".

Other Eastern European titles among the official selection include Croatia's Zrinko Ogresta's psychological drama "Iza stakla" (Behind the Glass) and "Plennyj" (Captive) by Russian director Alexey Uchitel, a struggle-for-survival story set during a recent war in the Caucasus.

"The Guitar", the directorial debut of Amy Redford, daughter of Robert, is the sole U.S. entry in competition.

MOSCOW -- The 27th edition of the Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) gets under way Friday featuring a slate of 17 competition movies reflecting Russia's European and Asian heritage. Regional entries that include Russian director Alexei Uchitel's Kosmos Kak Predchuvstviye (Dreaming of Space) and Uzbek director Yusup Razykov's Erkak (The Shepherd) will compete alongside European, Asian and North American films such as Italy/Germany entry La Vita Che Vorrei (The Life I Want), directed by Guiseppe Piccioni. Petr Zelenka's Pribeny Obycejneho Silenstvi (Wrong Side Up), a Czech Repbulic/Germany/Slovakia co-production and Arie Posin's U.S. entry Chumscrabber will also unspool in competition.

MOSCOW -- Organizers of the Cottbus festival, the world's leading festival of Eastern European film, said Thursday that the new wave of Czech films produced since the collapse of communism will be celebrated at this year's event. The Cottbus festival's 14th edition, to take place Nov. 2-6 at the town near Berlin, Germany, will feature a special focus called New Czech Cinema: The Velvet Generation, which will be a retrospective of films made in the Czech Republic since 1989. The new generation of Czech filmmakers -- which includes Oscar winner Jan Sverak (who selected and will present the retrospective), Petr Zelenka, Sasha Gedeon, Jan Hrebejk and David Ondricek -- were "particularly significant" to the transition of the film industry in Europe's postcommunist countries, festival director Roland Rust said.

MOSCOW -- The world's only festival devoted exclusively to eastern European film, Germany's Cottbus Film Festival, will spotlight Czech movie in its next edition in early November, organizers said Thursday. The special focus on Czech cinema, organized in cooperation with the Czech Film Center -- an independent office funded by the national audiovisual producers association and Prague city council -- will showcase productions made since the fall of communism in 1989. "After the 'Velvet Revolution, ' the Czech Republic was the country in eastern Europe with the most emphatic new beginning for the film world as a new generation of directors took over," the festival said in a statement. Directors from what many critics call the "new" New Wave of Czech film, including earlier Cottbus discoveries such as Jan Sverak (director of Oscar winning Kolya), Sasa Gedeon (Return of the Idiot) and Petr Zelenka (Year of the Devil), will be featured.