News

Ten projects have been selected for the second edition of Seriesmakers, Series Mania’s development lab for feature film directors sidestepping into series production.

The lab is run in collaboration with Beta, and this year features projects helmed by directors including Kaouther Ben Hania, who directed the Oscar-nominated doc Four Daughters, and Kevin Macdonald, best known for The Mauritanian.

Ben Hania’s project is titled Freedom Academy and is produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha. The synopsis reads: In the competitive world of television, a cunning producer and his optimistic wife battle for control of a daring reality TV show set in a high-security prison, hoping to capture the intense competition among incarcerated radicals all while the jury grapples with their divergent opinions on prisoners’ rehabilitation.

Macdonald’s series is titled George Blake and is produced by Femke Wolting. Synopsis reads: What makes a person turn against everything they ever stood for?...

Seriesmakers, a joint initiative of Series Mania, Europe’s biggest TV festival, and European film-tv powerhouse Beta Group, has revealed the 10 top-notch project lineup of the second edition of its novel and high-powered mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut.

This year’s Seriesmakers features in development drama series from Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald (“George Blake”), behind “The Last King Of Scotland,” and from Finnish director Mikko Myllylahti, who burst onto the scene co-writing with Juho Kuosmanen the latter’s “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Makki,” a 2016 Cannes Un Certain Regard winner.

Also in the mix is the highly courted Kaouther Ben Hania, a double Oscar nominee for the “compelling, ambitious hybrid” “Four Daughters,” said Variety, in the doc category and the “The Man Who Sold His Skin” (2020), Tunisia’s entry in international feature.

In all, however, nine of the ten directors winning berths this...

The independent juries of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival early Saturday unveiled their picks of the best movies at the 2024 Berlinale.

Matthias Glasner’s German family epic Sterben (Dying), and the Iranian feature My Favourite Cake from directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, both of which are considered frontrunners for the top prize at the official festival ceremony on Saturday night, received multiple awards for the indie juries, as did Dag Johan Haugerud’s Norwegian drama Sex, a critical favorite from this year’s Panorama sidebar.

Sterben, which follows a classical conductor (played by Lars Eidinger) and his very dysfunctional family, won the best film honor from the guild of German arthouse cinemas and the top prize awarded by the jury of Berliner Morgenpost readers representing the Berlin newspaper.

My Favourite Cake, a quiet drama about a 70-year-old widow who takes a chance on new love, won the Fipresci...

Ukrainian drama project Screaming Girl 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 Kyiv-based producers Forefilms.

Director Antonio Lukich is known for comedy-drama Luxembourg, Luxembourg, which screened in the Horizons strand of the Venice Film Festival in 2022. His debut was My Thoughts Are Silent, which won a special jury prize at Karlovy Vary in 2019.

Screaming Girl centres on a girl who, after the invasion of Ukraine, finds herself in Ireland and pursues her dream of becoming an actress. However, she begins to experience strange and fantastical events that disrupt her life,...

The Berlinale has revealed the lineup of its Co-Production Market and we’ve got some projects we’ll be keeping a close eye on. At the top of our interest list, we find Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro, Stonewalling tandem Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka and Andreas Fontana who gave us Azor will benefit from the special Rotterdam-Berlinale Express backing for his next project: The Diplomats. 34 film projects from 27 countries will be pitching. Here they are:

Official Selection:

“Antonivka” (director: Kateryna Gornostai), Moon Man, Ukraine & Just a Moment, Lithuania

“Burnings” (director: Jerry Carlsson), Verket Produktion, Sweden

“Divorce During the War” (director: Andrius Blaževičius), M-Films, Lithuania

“Folk Play” (director: Mirjana Karanović), This and That Productions, Serbia

“Fragments of This Beauty” (director: Burak Çevik), Vayka Film, Turkey & Fol Films, Turkey

“The Girl With the Leica” (director: Alina Marazzi), Vivo Film, Italy

“Ich bin Marika” (director: Hajni Kis), Proton Cinema, Hungary

“Idda’s Breath” (director: Irene Dionisio), Kino Produzioni,...

The Berlin Film Festival, which runs Feb. 15-25, has revealed the lineup of its Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Producers of 34 film projects from 27 countries will be pitching to potential financing and co-production partners at the 21st Berlinale Co-Production Market, which runs Feb. 17-21. Seventeen projects are directed by women. There were 318 submissions, a slight increase from last year.

Eighteen of the projects are already partly financed with budgets ranging between Euros 600,000 and Euros 5 million ($5.47 million). Among the directors whose new works are likely to spark interest are Ukrainian filmmakers Kateryna Gornostai, who won a Crystal Bear for “Stop-Zemlia” in 2021, and Antonio Lukich, the director of “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” which played in Venice in 2022, Italy’s Andrea Pallaoro, Serbian director and actor Mirjana Karanović, and the Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.

The Berlinale Directors section features three brand-new projects by directors who have had films at the Berlinale in the past: “Alma” from Sally Potter,...

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the 34 projects, hailing from 27 countries and selected from 318 submissions, that will be showcased at its Berlinale Co-Production Market, running from February 17 to 21. (scroll down for full list)

The 18 projects in the official selection include upcoming works from Ukrainian directors Kateryna Gornostai (Stop-Zemila) and Antonio Lukich as well as Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro (Monica), Turkey’s Burak Çevik (Hesitation Wound), Serb director and actor Mirjana Karanović (A Good Wife) and Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka (Stonewalling).

The Official Selection projects are already partly financed and have budgets between 600,000 and five million euros.

The Berlinale Directors section showcasing new projects from festival habitués in the early funding stages includes Sally Potter’s upcoming production Alma about a family on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist.

Two projects by Andreas Fontana and Fradique have also been selected as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express initiative,...

M-Appeal has acquired sales rights to uplifting family film “Jippie No More!,” which will world premiere as the opening film at Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam in October. The film will be distributed in Benelux by Cinéart.

The film, from Dutch director Margien Rogaar and writer Fiona van Heemstra, follows the story of Jaap Peter, also known as “Jippie” (played by Wesley van Klink), a lively 16-year-old boy, as he eagerly prepares for his older sister’s wedding at their beloved grandfather’s country house. As the whole family rallies together to create the perfect celebration, Jaap Peter falls in love for the first time. But when the girl of his dreams is smitten with his younger sister Joe instead, Jaap Peter is disheartened and loses interest in the wedding, until he realizes that his presence and the unbreakable bond of his family are vital in making the party a success.

Israel’s Sam Spiegel International Film Lab has appointed a new director and unveiled the projects selected for its 11th edition, running from now until the early summer.

Film industry veteran Mor Eldar has taken up the role of the lab’s director with immediate effect, replacing producer Aurit Zamir who arrived in 2020.

Eldar’s 20-year career includes launching and directing the Holon Cinematheque as well as holding the roles of VP of programming and commissioning editor of films at Yes Satellite TV and heading theatrical marketing and distribution at leading Israeli distributor Lev Cinemas.

A dozen projects will take part in the new Lab cycle, split 50:50 between Israeli and international projects.

International projects span French-Italian director Amelia Nanni’s At The Edge Of The World, about a young girl sent to spend the summer with her Italian grandparents in a small village inhabited only by elderly residents; Greek...

Hajni Kis’ first feature “Wild Roots” (“Külön falka”) was named best feature film at the Hungarian Film Awards. Kis also won best first feature director and best screenplay with Fanni Szántó. Women were awarded in 12 categories at the awards, perhaps heralding the beginning of a new era in Hungarian filmmaking, Film New Europe reports.

“Wild Roots,” which world premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary last year, follows ex-con Tibor, who works as a bouncer in a night club. His wild child daughter, Niki, tracks him down after years apart, despite being forbidden to do so, and the reunion prompts Tibor to face his past and the responsibilities of being a father.

The most prizes, a total of five, were swept up by “The Story of My Wife” (“A feleségem története”), including best director for Ildikó Enyedi, who was Oscar nominated for “On Body and Soul.” “The Story of My Wife,...

Hajni Kis took gongs for best feature film, best screenplay and best first feature director at the Hungarian Motion Picture Festival.

Hajni Kis’ feature debut Wild Roots was awarded best feature film, best screenplay and best first feature director at the Hungarian Motion Picture Awards on the closing night of the Hungarian Motion Picture Festival (Hmpf, June 9 - 12) at the Veszprém Petőfi Theatre.

Wild Roots, co-written by Kis and Fanni Szántó, centres on an aggressive ex-con whose troubled 12-year-old daughter seeks him out following his release from prison.

The Hungarian director won the Works In Progress award at Karlovy Vary...

Click here to read the full article.

Wild Roots, the debut feature from Hungarian director Hajni Kis, has won Hungary’s top cinema honor, the Hungarian Motion Picture Award for best film.

The low-key family drama featuring nonprofessional actors, which follows a 12-year-old girl (Zorka Horváth) who seeks out her father, a violent ex-con (played by former martial-arts champion Gusztáv Dietz), also won the best screenplay and the best first feature awards at the ceremony held Sunday night at the Veszprém Petofi Theatre in western Hungary.

Wild Roots premiered at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival last year and also screened at the Tallinn and Santa Barbara festivals.

Veteran Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi won best director honors for The Story of My Wife, a literary adaptation starring Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel and Dutch newcomer Gijs Naber. The film, which premiered in Cannes competition last year, took home four other Hungarian Motion Picture honors in technical categories,...

On the outskirts of Budapest, a big-budget period drama is recreating the fateful day that sparked the Hungarian war of independence in 1848. Construction is underway at the state-owned Mafilm studio complex on a massive set that will stand in for the Hungarian capital in the 19th century. With 100-plus shooting days planned through September, director Balázs Lóth describes “Now or Never!” as “the most ambitious Hungarian film ever made.”

That ambition is being matched by Hungary’s National Film Institute, which awarded “Now or Never!” a 12.5 million production grant — the largest amount given to a feature film since the fall of communism in 1989.

It’s the second big swing on a splashy historical drama taken by the Nfi in the past year, after it awarded 29 million to “Rise of the Raven,” an epic drama series produced by Robert Lantos’ Serendipity Point Films (“Crimes of the Future”) and Beta Film (“Gomorrah...

When producer Robert Lantos began developing the big-budget historical drama series “Rise of the Raven,” adapting Hungarian author Bán Mór’s series of bestselling novels presented obvious challenges. “It’s an 11-volume novel, each volume being 500-600 pages long,” says Lantos. It took several writers and the better part of a decade to find a way forward, something the producer describes as “finding a creative solution to a jigsaw puzzle.”

With a budget that Lantos describes as “competitive with English-language productions of that scope and that size,” financing the series was the second challenge, with the producer determined to secure the majority of the show’s financing from the host country. “It’s ambitious. It’s certainly by far the biggest thing done in that part of the world, not just in Hungary,” he says. The last puzzle piece finally fell into place when Hungary’s National Film Institute (Nfi...

The official selection of the 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has been revealed, featuring 32 premieres. Scroll down for the full list of titles.

The fest will open with Zatopek, David Ondříček’s feature about four-time Olympic gold medalist, the runner Emil Zátopek, who is widely regarded as the most popular athlete in Czech Republic’s history. The film will premiere on August 20, 2021 in the Hotel Thermal Grand Hall at the opening night gala. Also screening is Boiling Point, the drama about a restaurant chef starring Stephen Graham.

A retrospective will take place dedicated to the work of The Film Foundation, Martin Scorsese’s non-profit organization established in 1990 dedicated to protecting and preserving motion picture history, restoring to date more than 900 classic works of cinema. A total of 10 films will be screened at the fest.

In addition to today’s program announcement, a selection of non-competitive strands, featuring notable...

The 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which was canceled last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, will return in late August with a lineup of 32 new feature films plus an extensive tribute to Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, Kviff organizers announced on Tuesday.

The two main sections of the festival, the Crystal Globe Competition and the East of the West Competition, will for the first time include documentary films, which in the past had been excluded from competition or kept in their own sections.

The Film Foundation tribute will include screenings of 10 films restored by the organization Scorsese founded in 1990. They will include Michael Curtiz’s 1950 Hemingway adaptation “The Breaking Point,” the 1934 Mexican horror classic “The Phantom of the Convent,” Timité Bassori’s Ivory Coast drama “The Woman With the Knife,” Robert Downey Sr.’s 1969 satire “Putney Swope,” George Cukor’s 1932 film “What Price Hollywood?” and John Cassavetes’ indie...

Berlin-based sales agency M-Appeal has picked up Hungarian drama “Wild Roots,” which will world premiere at an A-grade film festival later this year, and will have a market screening at the Pre-Cannes Screenings next week.

“Wild Roots,” a drama about a lonely, ex-con bouncer who is reunited with his wild child daughter, won the Works-in-Progress Award at Eastern Promises, Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s industry section. The film is the feature debut of director-writer Hajni Kis, whose “Beautiful Figure” was nominated for the Student Academy Awards in 2016.

The film, written by Fanni Szántó and Kis, centers on 12-year-old Niki, who finds out that her father, Tibor, is in town after being released from prison. She disobeys her grandmother’s fierce objections and meets him in secret. Tibor is forced to confront his role as a father and finally take responsibility. After seven years without contact, the father and daughter get to know each other,...

Up-and-coming young Hungarian director Hajni Kis is readying her feature-length debut, which won an award at the recent Kviff Eastern Promises Industry Days. Slovakian production outfit MPhilms has teamed up with established Hungarian outfit Proton Cinema on Wild Roots, the feature-length debut by a Hungarian director from the young generation, Hajni Kis. Proton Cinema and MPhilms have a history of successful previous collaborations, Power being the most recent one (see the news). Júlia Berkes and Balázs Zachar, of Proton Cinema, presented the project along with director Hajni Kis in the industry strand of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Eastern Promises. The low-budget film is being made as part of the Incubator programme of the Hungarian National Film Fund. Loosely inspired by the director’s life, the story follows ex-con Tibor, who works as a bouncer and whose explosive nature tends to get him into conflicts. Twelve-year-old wild child Niki lives.

“Wild Roots,” a drama about a lonely, ex-con bouncer who is reunited with his wild child daughter, has won the Works in Progress Award at Eastern Promises, Karlovy Vary Film Festival‘s industry section.

In the debut feature from director Hajni Kis, the two outsiders bond, but the father’s vehement nature and a family secret stand between them. The Hungary-Slovak Republic coproduction will receive a cash prize of Euros 10,000.

The jury described the film, produced by Júlia Berkes and Balázs Zachar, as “visually compelling,” and displaying a “distinct directing style and promising talent.” It added the director displays a “skilful ability to engage both professional and nonprofessional actors,” and delivers a “profoundly moving and intriguing story.”

The jury included Gabor Greiner, COO of Films Boutique, Faruk Güven, head of co-productions at Turkish Radio and TV Corporation, and Vanja Kaludjerčić, festival director at Rotterdam Film Festival.

Works in Progress included...

The second edition of the new programme has awarded the upcoming film projects by Ferit Karahan and Hajni Kis. The second edition of First Cut+, the new programme aiming to boost the competitiveness and marketability of feature films which previously participated in the First Cut Lab, has wrapped and announced its award winners. Running online due to the pandemic as part of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s Eastern Promises Industry Days, First Cut+ has attracted more than 150 industry professionals during the online screening of the eight participating films (see the news), which are currently in post-production. The winner of the newly introduced First Cut+ Award (read the news) is Turkish-Romanian co-production Deskmate by Ferit Karahan, who will be receiving extra marketing related consultations by four First Cut+ mentors: Alexis Hamaide (L’Avventura Studio), Michael Arnon and Laurin Dietrich (Wolf Consultants) and Boris Pugnet (Tiramisu). Co-penned by Karahan and Gülistan.

Hajni Kis's Wild Roots has received the Trt Award, while Bassel Ghandour's The Alleys picked up the Post-production Development Award. The Works in Progress segment of Karlovy Vary's Eastern Promises Industry Days section, which took place online earlier this week, has announced its award winners. Two out of the eight projects (find the full list and the composition of the juries in this news story) received prizes, and we profile them below. Works in Progress Trt Award Wild Roots - Hajni Kis (Hungary/Slovakia)The first feature by writer-director Hajni Kis, whose 2016 short Beautiful Figure was nominated for the Student Oscars, is a semi-autobiographical story starring non-professionals. The lead character, Tibor, is an ex-con who works as a bouncer in a club, and is played by Gusztáv Dietz, a former Mma world champion and bodyguard. He has financial difficulties, and because of his vehement nature, he’s always in conflict with.

Wild Roots has received the Works in Progress Trt Award, while creative documentary Atlantide snagged the Eurimages Lab Project Award. Taking place entirely online this year, with 41 projects at different stages of production participating in five platforms, the Eastern Promises Industry Days of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff), which ran from 6-8 July, has announced its winners. A total of 16 projects, eight participating in the Works in Progress section and the remaining eight coming from the First Cut+ session, were presented and were eligible for the newly introduced Works in Progress Trt Award. The jury, which included Films Boutique COO Gabor Greiner, festival director of International Film Festival Rotterdam Vanja Kaludjerčić and head of co-productions at the Turkish Radio and TV Corporation (Trt) Faruk Güven, selected the Hungarian-Slovak co-production Wild Roots by first-time director Hajni Kis as the recipient of the prize, valued at €10,000. Co-written...

Father-daughter drama ‘Wild Roots’ won the top prize at the Eastern Promises industry showcase.

Wild Roots, the feature debut of Hungarian director Hajni Kis, has won the Works In Progress award at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s industry showcase, Eastern Promises.

A cash prize of €10,000 was awarded to the Hungary-Slovak Republic co-production by Turkey’s Trt.

Wild Roots, which is in post-production, centres on an aggressive ex-con whose troubled 12-year-old daughter seeks him out following his release from prison. The cast includes Gusztáv Dietz, Zorka Horváth and Éva Füsti Molnár.

Co-written by Kis and Fanni Szántó, the producers are...

Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the leading cinema event in Central and Eastern Europe, has unveiled the projects that will be showcased during the online edition of its industry program, Eastern Promises.

Eastern Promises will feature a total of 41 film projects, which will be presented as part of its various sections – Works in Progress, First Cut+ Works in Progress, Docs in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch, and Eurimages Lab Project Award. The presentations of projects to industry professionals will take place July 6-8, and the most promising projects will receive awards of the total value of Euros 165,000.

In order to attend the online program, film industry professionals must be registered (click here) by June 22 at the latest.

Works in Progress

The Works in Progress sessions will be presented online on July 6 at 14:00-17:00 Cet and July 7 at 14:00-17:00 Cet.

The Trt prize of 10,000 Eur will be...

Industry showcase to run virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has unveiled the projects that will be showcased during its Eastern Promises industry strand, which is taking place online for the first time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some 41 film projects will be presented across industry strands: Works in Progress; First Cut+ Works in Progress; Docs in Progress; Works in Development - Feature Launch; and Eurimages Lab Project Award.

Projects will be presented to industry across three days, from July 8, with the most promising titles receiving awards worth a total of €165,000.

Kviff announced in...

24th edition of European festival comes to a close.

Milko Lazarov’s Aga has won this year’s Heart of Sarajevo prize for best feature film.

The 24th edition of the South-eastern European festival came to a close on Thursday night (Aug 16) and its awards ceremony also saw Ioana Uricaru’s Lemonade scoop the Heart of Sarajevo for best director. Both awards come with a €10,000 prize.

One Day’s Zsófia Szamosi and The Load’s Leon Lučev took the top prizes for best actress and actor respectively.

The Feature Competition jury was presided over by filmmaker Asghar Farhadi and also featured Judita Franković Brdar,...

The low-budget initiative’s previous titles include Zsófia Szilágyi’s ‘One Day’, in Critics’ Week at Cannes.

The Hungarian National Film Fund’s low-budget Incubator Program, aimed at enabling young first-time directors to make their first films, has greenlit several new features.

They include Grosan Cristina and Nóra Rainer-Micsinyei comedy drama Things Worth Weeping For, Hajni Kis’ relationship drama A Pack Of Our Town, Nándor Lőrincz and Bálint Nagy’s drama The Last Bus, Márton Szirmai’s animation Where Did I Ruin It? and Judit Oláh’s drama The Camp.

Through Incubator, similar in ethos to the UK’s iFeatures initiative,...