The latest Eastern European films at CentEast Market Warsaw

The fourth edition of CentEast Market Warsaw will begin on 19 November in the Kinoteka film theatre. The event is organised by Warsaw Film Foundation in conjunction with the 24th Warsaw International Film Festival.

Thirty East European films, including some still in production, will be shown in four halls at Kinoteka. CentEast Market Warsaw is a forum for meetings of filmmakers and cinema lovers from Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

Along with the November presentations, since 2004 there has also been a summer edition of Warsaw Displays devoted to selections from important film festivals. Representatives of European TV stations, distributors, producers and festival programme directors will view recently finished films as well as interesting projects still in production.

This year, the CentEast organisers increased the number of screenings of films still in production and decreased the number of countries represented. The market has become an important meeting place for cinematography representatives from this part of Europe.

CentEast’s mission is to support the distribution of Eastern European films. It was instrumental in focusing world attention on Tricks (Sztuczki) by Andrzej Jakimowski. Within the CentEast framework, a panel discussion will take place on the successful film, which has been sold to 27 countries. Agent Maren Kroymann (m-appeal), director Andrzej Jakimowski, Dutch distributor Rene Wolf (Filmmuseum Amsterdam) and Stefan Laudyn (Warsaw Film Foundation) will share their experiences concerning promotion, selling and presenting films on foreign markets.

During the CentEast Market Warsaw, films will be presented in three sections. The first one includes recent films that have appeared on the international festival stage since June 2008 (including 33 Scenes from Life (33 sceny z życia) by Małgorzata Szumowska, Captive (Plennyy) by Alexei Uchitel and Music (Muzika) by Juraj Nvota.

This section is also for films set for international debut, including Pożegnanie z Hemingwayem by Svetosłav Ovtcharov and Polish films Little Moscow (Mała Moskwa) by Waldemar Krzystek, 8 w poziomie by Grzegorz Lipiec, and The Offsiders (Boisko bezdomnych) by Kasia Adamik.

The second section will include five feature films and one documentary film, all in post-production, including a film by Feliks Falk and a debut by Peter Strickland. A presentation of the third section will take place on 18 November.

There will also be screenings of Polish short films that garnered awards at Polish festivals or will take part in this year’s Warsaw Film Festival.

Further information may be found at: www.centeast.org

Translated by Monika Miziniak | Edited by Patricia Koza