Latvian film industry continued to grow steadily in 2016. State funding for film industry reached 6.7 m EUR in 2016, indicating nearly 1 m EUR growth from 2015, one of the reasons being a special film production programme set for Latvia’s centennial in 2018.

RIGA: Writer/director Michael Idov is developing Humorist, a feature film about the Soviet stand-up comedian Boris Arkadiev. The film is a Latvian/Russian/British coproduction set for shooting in 2017.

RIGA: Mellow Mud by Renārs Vimba was awarded best fiction film at the National Film Festival Lielais Kristaps. The film was also awarded for best script and best actress.

RIGA: The most significant and oldest event in Latvian film industry, National Film Festival Lielais Kristaps, will take place from 6 to 12 October 2016. Awards in 23 categories will be announced. Three to five nominations in each category have been chosen from among more than 70 films submitted.

RIGA: Twenty five documentary producers pitched their projects at the 20th Baltic Sea Documentary Film Forum (Baltic Sea Docs), which took place from 7 to 11 September 2016. The annual film event is a platform for Baltic and international documentary producers and distributors.

RIGA: Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s new project A Gentle Creature is currently shooting in and around the second biggest Latvian city, Daugavpils. This is his second feature film shooting in southern Latvia after In the Fog (2012).

RIGA: The National Film Centre of Latvia has awarded 245,000 EUR to Juris Poskus’ new feature fiction film 24 Hr Sunshine / Saule spīd 24 stundas, an international coproduction between Latvia’s FA Filma and Norway’s Sweet Films.

RIGA: Documentary projects applications for the 20th Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries, the annual co-financing forum for documentary projects, are due by 7 June. The forum is organised by the National Film Centre of Latvia in collaboration with the European Documentary Network.

RIGA: The National Film Centre of Latvia confirmed 1,610,000 EUR for eleven projects in the first round of the Latvia’s Centennial grants session in 2016.

RIGA: Latvian producer Roberts Vinovskis, a 2016 European Film Promotion Producer on the Move, has been in the film production business since the early 2000’s but is best known for his recent work, developing his career around an ongoing cooperation with a few directors.