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Plzen winnners also announced.

Rainer Sarnet’s dark folklore fairytale November received the €10,000 Golden Lily award for best film at goEast’s closing ceremony in Wiesbaden, Germany on Tuesday (24 April).

The International Jury headed by Golden Bear winner Ildikó Enyedi praised the Estonian filmmaker’s third feature ”for the powerful vision, the true poetry, the free humour” as well as “the courage of the producer [Katrin Kissa] to fight for this vision.”

Produced by Homeless Bob Production, November is handled internationally by the UK-based sales company One Eyed Films.

Meanwhile, the City of Wiesbaden’s Best Director Award went to...

In other Cottbus news, F&Me boards The Disciple and Macedonia backs Sugar Kid.

Projects from Ukraine and Georgia were the award-winners at this year’s edition of the East-West co-production market connecting cottbus (November 5-6).

Ukrainian filmmaker Max Ksjonda’s feature debut Tank received the CoCo Best Pitch Award sponsored by Eurotape Medien Service to the tune of €1,500 plus a free accreditation to the Producers Network at next year’s Cannes Film Festival, while a jury of Film Repubic’s Xavier-Henry Rashid, Sarajevo Film Festival’s Elma Tataragic and The Post Republic’s Jan-Philip Lange chose Rusudan Chkonia’s [pictured] black comedy Venice for the CoCo Post Pitch Award offering a colour correction and Dcp worth €25,000.

Tank, which will be produced by Max Serdiuk’s Kiev-based production outfit Noosphere Films, already has in-kind investment of equipment by Ukraine’s TechnoRent and private equity investment from Cyprus-based Pride Capital.

The project was previously pitched at the Odessa Film Festival...

In other Cottbus news, F&Me boards The Disciple and Macedonia backs Sugar Kid.

Projects from Ukraine and Georgia were the award-winners at this year’s edition of the East-West co-production market connecting cottbus (November 5-6).

Ukrainian filmmaker Max Ksjonda’s feature debut Tank received the CoCo Best Pitch Award sponsored by Eurotape Medien Service to the tune of €1,500 plus a free accreditation to the Producers Network at next year’s Cannes Film Festival, while a jury of Film Repubic’s Xavier-Henry Rashid, Sarajevo Film Festival’s Elma Tataragic and The Post Republic’s Jan-Philip Lange chose Rusudan Chkonia’s [pictured] black comedy Venice for the CoCo Post Pitch Award offering a colour correction and Dcp worth €25,000.

Tank, which will be produced by Max Serdiuk’s Kiev-based production outfit Noosphere Films, already has in-kind investment of equipment by Ukraine’s TechnoRent and private equity investment from Cyprus-based Pride Capital.

The project was previously pitched at the Odessa Film Festival...

Festival favourite Mustang took the festival’s art cinema prize, while documentary Nice People won the audience award.

Festival favourite Mustang and the documentary feature Nice People were among the prize-winners at this year’s Filmfest Hamburg (October 1-10) which came to a close at the weekend with an awards ceremony before the German premiere of the Iranian film Paradise.

Turkish director Denize Gamze Ergüven’s debut Mustang – which premiered in Cannes this year - won the Cicae Art Cinema Award, including prize-money of $5,700 (€5,000) towards the promotion of the film’s German theatrical release next spring by Michael Kölmel’s Leipzig-based Weltkino Filmverleih.

Neue Mediopolis Filmproduktion’s Alexander Ris and Jörg Rothe, the producer of Romanian director Radu Muntean’s One Floor Below, received the $28,400 (€25,000) Hamburg Producer Prize for European Cinema Co-Productions, while Romanian partner - Multimedia East - was awarded $17,000 (€15,000) worth of cinema grading by the Hamburg-based postproduction house.

After accepting...

New projects by Karabey, Aydogan, Sakaoglu among award winners at Istanbul Meetings

New film projects by Hüseyin Karabey, Zekeriya Aydoğan, and Sinem Sakaoğlu were among the award winners at the 10th edition of Meetings on the Bridge (April 15-16) during the Istanbul Film Festival.

Four awards were given to projects presented as part of this year’s Film Project Development Workshop and were decided by an international jury comprising of such leading industry figures as Meinolf Zurhorst (Zdf), Sergio Garcia De Leaniz (Eurimages), Gabrielle Dumon (Le Bureau Films), Giovanni Robbiano (Mediterranean Film Institute/Mfi) and Khalil Benkirane (Doha Film Institute).

The $ 10,000 Meetings On The Bridge Award went to German-born director Tarik Aktaş’ Dead Horse Nebula - about a sequence of incidents taking place around a small village -, while the € 10,000 Cnc Award was given to The Death of Father and Son by Zekeriya Aydoğan, a period drama set in the Kurdish society.

Aydoğan’s latest...

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov’s detention in Russia’s Lefortovo prison has been extended once again - this time until May 11 after a decision by the regional court judge Elena Kaneva.

This latest extension will mean that Sentsov has been held in custody for a year since being arrested by the Russian Fsb secret service in the Crimean peninsula in May 2014.

Speaking at the hearing in the courtroom Sentsov said defiantly that he could not agree with the decision to extend his custody since there hadn’t been any evidence presented of his alleged participation in or organisation of terrorist activities in Crimea last year.

After making reference to the testimonies obtained from fellow defendants Gennady Afanasyev and Oleksiy Chyrny , which the Russian Fsb security authorities claim to incriminate him as a supporter of such activities, he added: ¨I am confident that the brave investigators will prove everything because the Federal Service of Chaos in your country...

The Lesson by co-directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov was the big winner at this year’s Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria.

The duo’s feature debut became the second Bulgarian feature in Siff’s 19-year history to receive the international jury’s Grand Prix after Dragomir Sholev’s Shelter in 2011.

The Lesson also picked up the Audience Award, the Fipresci International Critics’ Prize and the award for the Best Bulgarian Feature Film.

Accepting the award, Valchanov pointed to the importance of the Sofia Meetings where The Lesson had originally been pitched and said that this event should be ¨an example¨ to the Bulgarian state to develop a long-term and sustainable film policy for the future.

The sentiment was echoed by international jury president Stephan Komanderev (The Judgement) when he presented the ¨Sofia City Of Film¨ Grand Prix to the young directors.

The Lesson, which is handled internationally by Wide Management, premiered last year...

Maysoon Pachachi’s Nothing Doing In Baghdad is set to start shooting in February after securing three European co-producers and funding from Visions Sud Est and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (Afac).

Talal Al-Muhanna’s Linked Productions (Kuwait) and Pachachi’s Oxymoron Films (UK) will be joined by Patrice Nezan’s Les Contes Modernes (France), Alexander Ris’ Neue Mediopolis (Germany) and Juan Pablo Libossar’s Fasad (Sweden).

In addition to the Afac and Visions Sud Est funding, the project scooped the first $100,000 Iwc Filmmaker Award at Dubai International Film Festival in 2012 and also previously received support from Europe’s Media Mundus and Abu Dhabi’s Sanad. The three co-producers are also applying for funds.

Set in Baghdad in the last week of 2006 – when Saddam Hussein was executed – the film follows the intersecting lives of several characters of different religions living in the same neighbourhood, including a female novelist suffering from writer’s block.

“This was a time...

Exclusive: German production company Neue Mediopolis Filmproduktion has boarded Aamir Bashir’s Winter as co-producer.

Produced by India’s Jar Pictures, Winter was selected for this year’s edition of Nfdc Screenwriters’ Lab. The second film in a trilogy, following Bashir’s Autumn (Harud), it tells the story of a Kashmiri village shawl weaver whose husband has abandoned her to join the militants.

Neue Mediopolis’ Alexander Ris said he was attracted to the project by the universal themes in the story. “After reading the script, it was clear that I should board the project. It’s a strong script and Aamir is willing to make it even stronger. I’m always looking for universal stories in a local setting with local people,” said Ris.

The project will be the first Indian co-production for Neue Mediopolis, which recently co-produced Huseyin Karabey’s Come To My Voice (2014), with Turkish and French partners, and produced...

Russia big winner at FilmFestival Cottbus for second consecutive year.

Russia was the big winner for the second year in a row at the FilmFestival Cottbus with Ivan I. Tverdovsky’s Corrections Class picking up four awards at the weekend.

The feature debut received the International Jury’s main prize ¨for its unsentimental and unpretentious presentation of a powerful social theme presented through the prism of an excellent ensemble performance¨, thereby qualifying for the Connecting Cottbus Special Pitch Award, which will allow Tverdovsky and his producers to pitch a new project at the East-West co-production market in a year’s time.

Tverdovsky’s Russian-German co-production, which won the Best Debut prize at Kinotavr in Sochi and the East of the West Award in Karlovy Vary, also picked up the prizes from the Fipresci and Interfilm juries in Cottbus.

Last year, the main prize at Cottbus went to Russian director Alexander Veledinsky’s The Geographer Drank His Globe...

A still from Liar’s Dice

Liar’s Dice, directed by Geethu Mohandas, took home the Special Jury award at the 18th Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria recently.

The Grand Prix in the International Competition went to Georgian film Blind Dates by Levan Koguashvili.

The International Jury, headed by Ukrainian filmmaker Alexander Rodnyansky, comprised of French producer Cedomir Kolar, German producer Alexander Ris, Turkish director Lusin Dink and Bulgarian actress Silvia Petkova.

Liar’s Dice received its world premiere at Mumbai Film Festival last year and went on to screen at Sundance Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film is also scheduled to screen at the International Film Festival Prague.

Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Geetanjali Thapa, the film follows a young woman in Himachal Pradesh who embarks on a journey with her daughter to find her missing husband. Along this journey, they find a free-spirited army deserter...

New films by Mira Fornay, Radu Jude and Stephan Komandarev are among the projects to be pitched at this year’s Sofia Meetings (March 13-16).

The Plus Minus One line-up of eight projects includes the third feature from Slovakian filmmaker Mira Fornay. Cook, F—k, Kill (Frogs With No-Tongues) is an absurdist drama about domestic violence.

It follows her 2009 feature debut Little Foxes and 2013’s My Dog Killer, which won a Tiger Award at last year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam and was Slovakia’s submission for for the Best Foreign-Language Oscar.

Romanian Radu Jude’s Scarred Hearts, inspired by author Max Blecher’s eponymous novel and other writings, will be produced by his regular collaborator Ada Solomon of HiFilm Productions.

Greek director Rinio Dragassaki’s coming of age film Cosmic Candy is also in the line-up. Her short, Schoolyard, screened in the Generation 14plus at this year’s Berlinale.

In addition...

Exclusive: Camino Filmverleih, distributor of Berlinale Competition titles Stations of the Cross and Jack, is to make a foray into production this year.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, Camino head of distribution, acquisitions and sales Kamran Sardar Khan revealed that sci-fi drama Der Polder and the comedy Metal Train will be co-produced via Camino’s parent company Niama Film.

The Stuttgart-based distributor will be a minority partner on Samuel Schwarz’s Der Polder will be produced by Switzerland’s Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion, Kam(m)acher GmbH, and Niama Film with backing from broadcasters Swr and Srf and Bundesamt für Kultur (Bak) and Zürcher Filmstiftung.

Campaigns with an augmented reality game and a MP3 audiowalk based on the film’s storyline have already been running in various Swiss towns to generate interest in the project.

Principal photography is set to begin in Zurich this March, with theatrical release planned for spring 2015 by Camino Filmverleih in Germany and Stammfilm in Switzerland...

I had planned to see Circles (Serbia, directed by Srdan Golubovic) because my visits over the past 2 years to Romania, Poland, Lithuania and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo) have increased my interest in Central and Eastern Europe where the people are looking up (vs. in Western Europe where they are looking down). Now it has been submitted for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and so I reprint my interview here which I did during Sundance earlier this year.

Sarajevo itself is especially remarkable as the only place in Europe where there has been a war since I was born. From 1991 to 1999 Serbia was involved in the Yugoslav Wars - the war in Slovenia, the war in Croatia, the war in Bosnia and the war in Kosovo. During this period, Slobodan Milošević was the authoritarian leader of Serbia, which was in turn part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This was was a war between people who spoke a common language but were split along religious lines, the Serbs being Eastern Orthodox and the Bosnians, Kosovians and Croations being Muslim.

The country known as Yugoslavia had been unified from 1918 to 1991-- first under a king as The Kingdom of Yugoslavia until 1941 and then as the Social Republic of Yugoslavia. Even as the Social Republic of Yugoslavia, it was a country more liberal then the other communist countries. It was a socialist republic open to west; its people could travel, the people had good jobs, it was more an example of socialism than of communism. Its geographical location was also at a true crossroad between east and west, formerly Ottomon and Muslim and at the same time very Eastern Orthodox and Catholic.

When the Ussr collapsed, Sarajevo, situated in the break-off nation Bosnia and Herzogovina was surrounded by Christian Serbs who bombarded the cities of the nation which they saw more as Muslim than as Christian in order to annex the land.

My dear Berlin friend, Geno Lechner from Berlin asked me to see it because she is in it. She plays the German wife of the protagonist. And my good friend Mickey Cottrell, of Inclusive PR is the publicist for Circles from the time it was in Sundance 2013's World Dramatic Competition and has also asked me to revise and repost what I wrote in Sundance.

So here it is:

Circles ripples out as a stone dropped in a placid lake, concentrically creating moral complexities for a group of people as their story strands emerge from one fateful moment.

Marco, a Serbian soldier on leave from the Serbo-Croatian War in 1993, returns to his Bosnian hometown. When three fellow soldiers accost Haris, a Muslim kiosk vendor, Marco intervenes, and it costs him his life.

Twelve years later, the war is over but the wounds remain open. Marco's father is rebuilding a church when the son of one of Marco's killers appears looking for work. Meanwhile, in Belgrade, Marco's friend Nabobs, a renowned surgeon, debates whether or not to operate on another of Marco's killers. And in Germany, Haris, now married with a family (Geno Lechner and her two daughters) strives to repay his debt to Marco's widow who arrives at his door seeking refuge.

John Nein, Sundance Senior Programmer says, "Srdan Golubovic's third feature employs a multifaceted, yet simple, structure that contemplates revenge, redemption, and reconciliation. Aware of how easily hatred and violence can create life-shattering ripples, he looks at the consequences of moral courage and asks whether a heroic act can generate ripples of another kind."

Circles was financed with funds from Serbia, Germany, France, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its international sales agent is Memento. Circles also screened in the Berlin Film Festival's Forum.

It is very important for the film’s director, Srdan Golubovic, that Circles receive wide distribution. It is based upon the true story of Srdjan Aleksic, a Serbian soldier who saved the life of his neighbor. When Golubovic read the story some years ago, he was against the war but on the sidelines watching, occasionally demonstrating against it, but not a part of it. He chose not to remake the story of the man then but to make it contemporary in order to close the book of his own private feelings about the war.

The man is universal in that he is saving a man, not "an enemy". The escaped man moved into a German world, which at the time looked very much like his own world, sparse, unattractively Soviet in style. However, he found his fortune there and created a life. The actor, Aleksandar Bercek, says that when he met the real Srdjan Aleksic, he said to him, "Now I am walking; it could have been different. I could have been lying down." You will see in a Google search that the memory of Srdjan is very much alive today. The real man's grave is visited yearly by the survivor he saved and by all the former Yugoslavians in the area of Serbia, Bosnia, Herzogovina, Croatia and Slovenia. He has received a posthumous medal of honor and has streets named after him in several cities.

This is one of the rare films which unites everybody; it is about forgiveness and reconciliation. And as such it deserves very wide distribution. And as a work of heroic art, it deserves to be seen by many people. We hope you will visit Memento during Berlin and place your orders. For those of you who are not distributors going to market to acquire films, we hope you will have a chance to see this film in your local theaters or homes.

Srdan Golubovic’s earlier film from 2007, The Trap, garnered great acclaim and was Serbia’s submission for an Academy Award nomination.

When director Srdan Golubovic and producer Jelena Mitrovic and I spoke during Sundance, they spoke of what a great surprise Sundance was to them. They found the people very warm. The audiences were totally open, very curious and emotionally connected. It is very rare for Srdan to find an audience that is not afraid to ask questions and eager to talk about the film. And, unlike at most film festivals, at Sundance, they saw the programmers every day and were always able to speak to them. As there were not too many films in competition — 12 in World Cinema section as opposed to 16 last year — the attention they received from the Sundance personnel and volunteers was very special.

Read the praise received by The Hollywood Reporter

Further information:

Serbian with English subtitles, 2012, 112 minutes, color, Serbia/Germany/France/Croatia/Slovenia, World Dramatic Competiton at Sundance, Forum at the Berlinale

Cast and Credits

Director: Srdan Golubovic

Screenwriters: Srdjan Koljevic, Melina Pota Koljevic

Producers: Jelena Mitrovic, Alexander Ris, Emilie Georges, Boris T. Matic, Danijel Hocevar

Cinematographer: Alexsander Ilic

Production Designer: Goran Joksimovic

Composer: Mario Schneider

Sound Designer: Julij Zornik

Costume Designer: Ljiljana Petrovic

Principal Cast: Aleksandar Bercek, Leon Lucev, Nebojsa Glogovac, Hristina Popovic, Geno Lechner, Nikola Rakocevic, Vuk Kostic...

Fitzgibbon, Sitaru, Vicari, Huddles, Runarsson and van Geffen will be at Les Arcs this December.

Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.

The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.

This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.

“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...

Fitzgibbon, Sitaru, Vicari, Huddles, Runarsson and van Geffen will be at Les Arcs this December.

Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.

The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.

This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.

“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...

Fitzgibbon, Sitaru, Vicari, Huddles, Runarsson and van Geffen will be at Les Arcs this December.

Ireland’s Ian Fitzgibbon, Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Iceland’s Runar Runarsson (pictured), Italy’s Daniele Vicari and America’s John Huddles are among the directors who will be presenting their new projects at the Les Arcs Co-production village this year.

The event, which runs Dec 14-17 within France’s alpine, Sundance-style Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 14-21), unveiled the production line-up on Thursday as well as the productions that will be presented in the Works in Progress section on Dec 15.

This year’s co-pro selection mixes upcoming productions from established independent filmmakers with a slew of projects from feted shorts directors who are embarking on their first features.

“We pretty proud of this year’s line-up. There’s a lot of projects I would be seriously looking at if I were going to Les Arcs in a professional capacity rather...

Films from Russia, Kosovo and Serbia were the main winners at this year’s FilmFestival Cottbus and its parallel East-West co-production market Connecting Cottbus.

Russian director Aleksandr Veledinsky’s The Geographer Drank His Globe Away has continued its successful international festival career by picking up the Main Prize at Germany’s Cottbus festival with a cash award of €20,000.

The International Competition Jury praised Veledinsky’s “exquisite mastery of his craft and great playfulness” in its motivation.

Handled internationally by Moscow-based Ant!pode Sales & Distribution, The Geographer Drank His Globe Away was released theatrically on almost 500 screens in Russia last Thursday (Nov 7) as well as in the Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Forthcoming festival invitations include the Black Nights Festival in Tallinn and festivals in Tromsø and Göteborg.

Winning the festival’s Main Prize also gives Veledinsky and his producers the opportunity to return to Cottbus next year as part of Connecting Cottbus’ Special Pitch Award for them to...

Palm Springs International Film Festival

PALM SPRINGS -- The Trap, Serbia's entry for the 2007 foreign-language film Oscar, was one of the best films screened at this year's Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The story bears some uncanny similarities to Woody Allen's new film, "Cassandra's Dream." In both movies, financially desperate men are lured into killing a total stranger. While Allen's movie has hot actors Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell and Tom Wilkinson in the cast, it turns out to be a torpid and tedious affair. By contrast, Trap is a crackerjack thriller with tension that never abates.

One difference between the two movies is that Mladen (Nebojsa Glogovac), the tormented hero of Trap, has a pressing reason to commit unspeakable acts, while the two brothers in Dream are merely hoping to fatten their bank accounts.

Mladen's life seems uneventful enough until he and his wife learn that their young son has a heart condition that will kill him unless he has an expensive operation that their insurance will not cover. Mladen's wife places an ad in the newspaper pleading for help, and a mysterious man answers and offers to pay for the operation if Mladen will assassinate a wealthy kingpin.

Initially revolted by the idea, Mladen begins to consider the option as his son's condition worsens. His benefactor assures him that the man to be murdered is a reprehensible character with many enemies, and Mladen accepts the rationale. But nothing is quite what it seems, and some neat surprise twists keep ratcheting up the suspense, as the film races toward a grim but apt conclusion.

This kind of story is not novel, and at moments the melodrama does get a bit overheated. But the picture is beautifully executed by director Srdjan Golubovic and a first-rate cast. Golubovic composes eloquent, subjective shots that encourage us to share the protagonist's mounting desperation. Similarly, the script and direction both contain many sharp touches. For example, during the scene where Mladen and his wife request a loan from a bank officer, the banker smilingly rejects their plea; when a furious Mladen asks why he is smiling, the loan officer tells him that his bosses require a smiling countenance in any interaction with customers.

The film's portrayal of contemporary Belgrade, a shimmering metropolis with a sense of danger lurking just beneath the surface, is acute. Glogovac conveys a palpable sense of anguish as the screws tighten around Mladen. As his wife, Natasa Ninkovic is deeply moving, and the engaging Marko Djurovic as their son helps to heighten the urgency of Mladen's dilemma.

Even at a time when foreign films face rough sledding in the U.S., this movie has enough suspense to guarantee rapt audiences. Mladen's moral disintegration makes for a thoroughly involving cinematic experience.

THE TRAP

Film House Bas Celik, Midiopolis Film GmbH, UJ Budapest Filmstudio

Credits:

Director: Srdjan Golubovic

Screenwriters: Srdan Koljevic, Melina Pota Koljevic

Based on the novel by: Nenad Teofilovic

Producers: Jelena Mitrovic, Natasa Ninkovic, Alexander Ris, Jorg Rothe, Laszlo Kantor

Executive producer: Igor Kecman

Director of photography: Aleksandar Ilic

Production designer: Goran Joksimovic

Music: Mario Schneider

Costume designer: Ljiljana Petrovic

Editors: Marko Glusac, Dejan Urosevic

Cast:

Mladen: Nebojsa Glogovac

Marija: Natasa Ninkovic

Jelena: Anica Dobra

Kosta Antic: Miki Manojlovic

Nemanja: Marko Djurovic

Running time -- 106 minutes

No MPAA rating...