VENICE: The 70 edition of the Venice International Film Festival has announced its programme lineup and Slovenia has scored two hits in the International Critics Week programme.

VENICE: Alienation a first film by Bulgarian director Milko Lazarov will screen in official selection in the Venice Days section at the 70th Biennale this year.  A first film, it was the only film from Central and Eastern Europe to make the cut among the 12 films selected to screen in the Venice Days.

KARLOVY VARY: FNE TV has teamed up with Europa International the organisation of European sales agencies. Together we will be working to create a two-way dialogue between sales agents and film professionals in CEE/Baltics to find ways to bring films from the region to a wider audience.

KARLOVY VARY:  Central European films triumphed at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (28 June-6 July) www.kviff.com with Hungarian director Janos Szasz long awaited Le Grand Cahier (The Notebook) awarded the Grand Prix and films from Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic  picking up a slew of other top prizes.

KARLOVY VARY: The 10 films of the LUX Prize 2013 Official Selection have been announced at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

MOSCOW: Turkey scored big at the 35 Moscow International Film Festival (20-29 June 2013) (MIFF) with Turkish director Erdem Tepegoz taking home the main prize for his film Particle and Turkish actress Jale Arikan winning a Silver George for her role in the film.

MOSCOW: The 5^th edition of Moscow Business Square had a special emphasis on film projects from central and eastern Europe including a presentation of new coproductions from Poland sponsored by the Polish Film Institute (PISF) and films from the Baltics and Georgia.

BRATISLAVA: Controversial Slovak doc Normalization, titled Kauza Cervanova in Slovak, has scored the biggest domestic box office success of the year for a doc with almost 20,000 EUR at the box office and 5400 admissions after a month on theatrical release. Slovakia has become one of the hottest countries in Europe for production of docs that score theatrical box office successes and on the international festival circuit.

WARSAW: European filmmakers have won the first round to have film excluded from the EU-US Trade Talks. European trade ministers bowed to filmmakers’ demands for the exclusion but only after French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq threatened to veto any mandate that doesn’t include protection of cultural services including the exclusion of the audiovisual sector. The Romanian and Belgian governments also backed the French position.

MOSCOW: The 35^th Moscow International Film Festival kicks off this Thursday 20 June and runs until 29 June with a competition lineup that includes Polish director Wojciech Smarzowski’s Traffic Department and Georgian director Archil Kavtaradze’s Disorder. A total of 16 films from 13 countries will compete for the festival’s main prize the St George.