FNE Focus on Austrian CEE Coproduction Launches New Network

14-10-2015

FNE Focus on Austrian CEE Coproduction Launches New Network

By Anna Franklin

VIENNA: Participants at the Film New Europe Association’s Focus on Austrian CEE Coproduction will launch a new network of Austrian and Central and Eastern European film funds and producers to build on the success of the event hosted at the Austrian Film Institute on 9 October in Vienna.

The event organised by the Film New Europe Association under the title Things Have Changed attracted more than 50 producers and representatives of funding bodies from Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland. A standing room only crowd packed the conference room of the Austrian Film Institute as a new generation of producers both in Austria and from neighbouring countries agreed that it was time to take a fresh look at ways to cooperate on coproductions and share ideas. It was evident from the turn-out that there is a huge interest among producers in the region in cooperation between Austria and its neighbours.

Registered participants will join an online network platform hosted by FNE to keep in touch and move forward with potential projects. A follow-up meeting in Bratislava hosted by the Slovak Producers Association has already been proposed by the association’s helmer Slovak producer Marian Urban. Slovak producers plan to invite the head of the Austrian Film Institute and along with Austrian producers to Bratislava for a follow-up meeting.

Producers came from Prague, Bratislava, Budapest and Ljubljana as well as Vienna to discuss the advantages of regional cooperation and diagnose the things that needed to change in order to kick-start coproduction which has ground to a near stand-still over the past 10 years.

Presentations were made by Iris Zappe-Heller, Deputy Director Responsible for Funding at the Austrian Film Institute, Anton Škreko, General Director of the Media, Audiovisual and Copyright Department of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Robert Balinski from the Polish Film Institute and Nerina Kocjančič of the Slovenian Film Fund.

Ales Pavlin and Andrej Stritof of Perfo Production presented a case study of The Woods Are Still Green, one of the few Slovenian/Austrian coproductions produced in recent years.

Special guest speakers also included Romanian producer Ada Solomon, Hifilm and Ebba Sinzinger (Austria), Wild Film Art.

FNE’s general director Anna Franklin presented the FNE Association while Bratislava based Matthieu Darras of Torino Film Lab moderated.

The event was co-sponsored by the Austrian CE MEDIA Desk represented by Esther Krause within the frames of the LET’S CEE Film Festival.

This event is part of a series of events organised by FNE Association aimed at increasing audiences and the international visibility of films from the region by sharing successful models for projects that cross borders. The FNE Association is made up of the heads of the leading film institutions across the central and eastern European region. It is the leading networking platform for the film industry in the region and has been effectively promoting and representing film professionals since its inception.