SOFA Director Nikolaj Nikitin introduced the participants at the end of the Works in Progress presentation at the Karlovy Vary IFF.

The selection ranges from publications and platforms to film funds and digitalisation. SOFA provides training to enable young film professionals to launch programmes that develop their national and regional film industries.

Two former FNE correspondents are among the 2014 participants: Anna Bielak of Poland who proposed the launch of a cinema magazine in Poland; and Daniel Deak of Hungary who is developing a film festival community platform to advise filmmakers on festivals.

Lithuania is represented by Kestutis Drazdauskas with FRONT, a cinema digitalisation network. The new Cluj city film fund is one of the most exciting new developments with participant Cristian Hordila. Slovakia moves into the digital database field with participant Jakub Viktorin.

Remaining participants include Angeliki Vergou of Greece with a VoD platform; Marija Stojanovic of Serbia with an educational film project; and Jonas Weydermann of Germany with a platform connecting film sellers and cinemas.

Nikitin said that SOFA is already looking forward to receiving proposals for the 2015 and 2016 editions.