Malta Opens Film Funding Call for Local Producers
VALLETTA. The Maltese Film Commission and the island’s Ministry of Tourism have opened a call for applications for the Screen Malta film fund scheme, offering development, production and distribution grants to local producers. Screen Malta has a yearly budget of 600,000 EUR. This is the second year the scheme has been run in the current format, having replaced the Malta Film Fund in mid-2020.
While the scheme is intended to cater to local producers wishing to make a film which promotes Maltese culture, Screen Malta will also support Maltese producers for their involvement in international coproductions, whether as majority or minority partners, as long as an application is submitted by the Maltese producer and a coproduction agreement is in place.
Finnish Production Starring Teresa Palmer Shoots in Estonia
ESTONIA: Finnish director Taneli Mustonen is currently filming his first English-language horror film
The Twin in southern Estonia. This Finnish production starring Australian actress Teresa Palmer and Scottish Steven Cree is serviced by Estonian Baron Noir and supported by Film Estonia Cash Rebate.
The Twin follows a family trying to overcome the death of one of their twins in the Scandinavian countryside only to realise a horrible truth.
The script is written by Taneli Mustonen and Aleksi Hyvärinen of Finnish Don Films, who is also the producer of the film. Mika Pajunen of Baron Noir is servicing from the Estonian side.
SOFIA: Bulgaria’s major annual film festival Cinemania, which was postponed several times because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is finally taking place 8 – 22 April 2021 in cinemas at 30% of their capacity.
Produced and organised for 34 years by the Sofia National Palace of Culture and regularly greeted by a large audience as the country’s main November film event, Cinemania returns five months later with 34 new international hits and several retrospectives.
All the screenings will take place physically at the National Palace of Culture Hall1 (which has 3,380 seats) and the Lumiere hall (with 370 seats), as well as at the House of Cinema, the Odeon Cinema, the Vlaykova Cinema, the Euro Cinema, and the G-8 Cinema.
Toldi by Marcell Jankovics
BUDAPEST: Two animated films received production grants from the National Film Institute – Hungary. Director Marcell Jankovics is making a film version of his
Toldi series based on János Arany’s popular epic poem.
Tony, Shelly and the Spirit directed by Filip Pošivač is a stop motion animation set in Christmas time and made for families.
Toldi, produced by Kecskemétfilm, has been granted 680,000 EUR / 245 m HUF. It started as a 12-part series funded by MTVA (Media Services and Support Trust Fund) with 2.6 m EUR / 1 billion HUF, which was completed in January 2021. It depicts the heroic adventures of the valiant and extremely strong Miklós Toldi in the Middle Ages. Additional scenes are being made and they are compiling a feature film from the series. The
Film New Europe continues to invite leaders of innovative AV projects to share their projects directly with its readers. FNE is now focusing on projects which received support from the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme in 2021. Today, our guest is Muriel Joly, who is in charge of business development within the global VoD aggregator Under The Milky Way (UMW). She is writing about Europe Digital Talents, a project coordinated by Under the Milky Way, aiming at fostering films from emerging European talents in an all-digital production and distribution environment.
About UMW
Under The Milky Way is a film distributor that operates a global digital distribution network. The company works with all “global” platforms (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, Sony), as well as with key local platforms in the largest territories (Comcast, Sky, Canal+, NetNow, Orange, Filmin, etc.) As of today, more than 6,000 films are in distribution on behalf of 500+ rights holders in more than 15