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For the last 15 years, the Seville European Film Festival has built step by step to become now one of the three or four most important film industry events in Spain.

Growth has been driven by the ecosystem of Andalusia at large, currently one of Spain’s most dynamic regions for film and TV, and that of Seville’s industry events as well.

2021, the first Seff edition with a near full post-pandemic onsite industry attendance, is no exception.

Three years ago, the festival launched European Co-Productions, a bilateral project-based meet with a natural production partner county for Spain. This year Germany weighs in as the guest country.

In 2021, Seville has added the first edition of Merci, its Independent Film Market, a mini–Spanish ShowEast-style convention running Nov. 10-12 which will see 25 movies from 13 independent distributors in Spain, grouped in its Assn. of Independent Film Distributors (Adicine), pitched to exhibitors and small screen buyers.

Lithuanian writer-director Eglė Vertelytė’s Tasty was named the winner of Screen International’s best pitch award.

The 2020 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has named the winners of its Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event awards.

The industry showcase was held online this year, with the winners announced yesterday (November 26) following a week of online presentations and networking with around 850 delegates.

Lithuanian writer-director Eglė Vertelytė’s second feature film Tasty was named the winner of Screen International’s best pitch award, which guarantees coverage on Screen throughout the project’s lifecycle, at the Baltic Event Co-Production Market.

The €700,000 comedy focuses on two...

Channel 4 Orders Follow-Up To Influential Princess Diana Film

Channel 4 has commissioned Blink Films to make a follow-up to its explosive documentary on Princess Diana’s infamous Panorama interview with the BBC in 1995. The revelations in Blink’s first film, Diana: The Truth Behind The Interview, have sparked an independent inquiry at the BBC to get to the bottom of whether Diana was coerced into the Panorama conversation by reporter Martin Bashir through forged documents and misinformation. The Diana Interview: The Truth Behind The Scandal will examine the fallout and provide further revelations from Freedom of Information requests and royal insiders. The executive producer is Dan Chambers, the producer is Lesley Davies and the director is Andy Webb. It was commissioned for Channel 4 by Shaminder Nahal.

Black Nights Industry Winners

Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has named the winners of its Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event program. The Midpoint...

Zeynep Dadak has won the Eurimages Co-production Development Award, while the Post Production Award was split between Kalev and Nuucha. This year, the 19th edition of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event ran entirely online, and 57 projects were presented in its various sections. The industry section of the Black Nights Film Festival wrapped on Thursday 26 November with its awards ceremony. The biggest prize, the Eurimages Co-production Development Award, valued at €20,000, for the best project among the line-up of 20 that participated in the Baltic Event Co-Production Market, was bestowed upon Electric Sleep, the sophomore feature by Turkish filmmaker Zeynep Dadak, a sci-fi film about a potential future produced by Titus Kreyenberg (unafilm). The jury – comprising Renata Santoro, head of programming for Venice’s Giornate degli Autori; Finnish producer Kaarle Aho (Making Movies); and scriptwriter Elena Kotova, the Eurimages representative in the Czech Republic – made the decision unanimously, as...

Six prizes awarded this year at CineMart closing night.

Argentinian director Natalia Garagiola’s Infanta, produced by Rei Cine, won the Eurimages Co-production Development Award, worth €20,000, at the Iffr Pro award ceremony at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 29, the closing night of co-production market CineMart (January 29).

The award Eurimages award is open to CineMart or BoostNL projects that are or will be a European co-production. Infanta is Garagiola’s second feature after 2017’s Hunting Season. The jury said: “[This] project promises to be an intense drama, with a starting point in real historical events.”

The Filmmore Post-production Award, presented...

Selection includes the upcoming drama from Berlinale award-winner Radu Jude.

CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), has revealed the 17 feature projects to be showcased at next year’s edition.

Scroll down for full list

Held January 26-29 during the festival (which runs January 22 – February 2), CineMart invites filmmakers to pitch their projects to a host of international film professionals in tailored one-to-one meetings, as well as presentations that are open to all CineMart guests.

Notable directors in the selection include Romania’s Radu Jude, who won a Berlinale Silver Bear in 2015 with Aferim! and picked up...

Ten projects from South-East Europe, Middle East and North Africa comprise Sarajevo’s Work in Progress section.

Sarajevo Film Festival’s (Aug 12-20) Works in Progress strand is set to present the line-up of projects, which will compete for three awards during the festival’s Industry Days on Aug 17-18.

Ten projects in post-production - from Southeast Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caucasus region - will be screened to about 40 industry decision-makers who are active on the supply end of the chain: funders, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters and festival programmers.

Prizes will include the traditional post-production in-kind awards from Slovenia’s Restart (€20,000) and Berlin-based The Post Republic (€50,000), as well as a newly established €30,000 cash prize from Turkish broadcaster Trt.

The jury is comprised of Jan Naszewski of New Europe Film Sales, Giona A. Nazzaro from the Venice Film Festival Critics’ Week, Michael Reuter of The Post Republic and a representative from the Trt.[p...

AFI Fest top brass have announced the remaining films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight and Cinema’s Legacy sections.

Among the 29 World Cinema selections are Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan (Russia), Yann Demange’s Belfast-set Troubles thriller ‘71 (UK), Mia Hansen-Løve’s Eden (France); and Diao Yinan’s Berlin grand jury prize-winner Black Coal, Thin Ice (China-Hong Kong).

The four Midnight entries are: Fabrice Du Welz’s Alleluia (France-Belgium), David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows (Us); Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s What We Do In The Shadows (New Zealand); and A Hard Day (South Korea) by Kim Soeng-hun.

The four Breakthrough films are: Zeynep Dadak and Merve Kayan’s The Blue Wave (Turkey-Germany-Netherlands-Greece); Fish & Cat (Iran) by Shahram Mokri; Abd Al Malik’s May Allah Bless France! (France): and The Midnight Swim (Us) by Sarah Adina Smith.

The quartet of Cinema’s Legacy selections are: Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso (Italy); John Cassavetes’ [link...

Top brass at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (Sfiff) have announced the films in competition for the New Directors Prize and the Golden Gate Award contenders in the documentary category.

The festival will award close to $40,000 in total cash prizes this year.

The New Directors Prize of $10,000 will go to a narrative first feature that exhibits “a unique artistic sensibility and deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible.”

The Gga documentary winner will receive $10,000 and the Gga Bay Area documentary feature winner will receive $5,000.

The Sfiff is scheduled to run from April 24-May 8.

The 2014 New Directors Prize (Narrative Feature) Competition entries are:

The Amazing Catfish (pictured, Mexico), dir Claudia Sainte-Luce

The Blue Wave (Turkey-Germany-Netherlands-Greece), dir Zeynep Dadak and Merve Kayan

Difret (Ethiopia), dir Zeresenay Berhane Mehari

The Dune (France-Israel), dir Yossi Aviram

History Of Fear (Argentina-France-Germany-Uruguay-Qatar), dir Benjamin Naishtat

Manos Sucias (Us-Colombia), dir Josef Wladyka

Of Horses And Men (Iceland-Germany), dir Benedikt Erlingsson...

Berlinale adds 17 features to the Generation programme, aimed at children and youths, including the European premiere of a feature co-directed by Flight of the Conchords Jemaine Clement.

A total of 60 short and full-length films from 35 countries have been selected for the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions at the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16). They include five long and nine short animated films.

Section head Maryanne Redpath said: “This diversity transcends all limits, in content, imagery, narrative structure and rhythm. Each of these animated gems creates its own universe and is a fantastic cinematic adventure, not just for children.”

The selection includes What We Do in the Shadows, a mockumentary that follows the struggles of a group of New Zealand–based vampires to understand modern society and adapt to the ever-changing world around them. The ensemble includes Flights of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, who co-directs alongside Taika Waititi.

This year, Generation will be...

The 39th annual Festival du Nouveau Cinema is set to run in Montreal on Oct 13-24. But, within the overall, massive festival is the Fnc Lab, the avant-garde and experimental section that will be having screenings and live film performances every night on Oct. 14-22.

This year, the Fnc Lab is showcasing two retrospectives; plus, a short film program of strictly 16mm films, films from the Korean Jeonju Digital Project, four feature-length projects and several special one-of-a-kind performances.

The retrospectives are of two key American women experimental filmmakers. First, in conjunction with the Double Negative Collective, the fest presents a career overview of Chick Strand, the eminent ethnographic filmmaker who sadly passed away last year at the age of 77.

Then, there’s also a retrospective of playful avant-garde filmmaker Marie Losier, who is well known for her collaborations with and film portraits of key underground figures like George Kuchar, Tony Conrad and Genesis P-Orridge.