Hungarian, Romanian and Croatian Films Win Prizes in Berlin
Congratulations to Eastern European women filmmakers on their great success at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, Berlinale. Golden Bear for best film went to Hungarian feature On Body and Soul directed by Ildiko Enyedi, a filmmaker returning to form after 18-year long hiatus. All winners from Eastern Europe are women, another first. Here’s the list:
HungarianOn Body and Soul won the top prize, GOLDEN BEAR. Directed by Ildiko Enyedi.
Polish director Agnieszka Holland was awarded the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for Pokot (Spoor).
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution went to Romanian sound designer Dana Bunescu, who worked on Ana, Mon Amour (directed by Calin Peter Netzer)
Croatian filmmaker Eva Cvijanovic won GENERATION KPLUS Special Mention for her short stop-motion film, Hedgehog’s Home.
Another Croatian filmmaker, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic, whose Eye for an Eye was featured last year at SEEfest 2016, won GENERATION 14PLUS Special Mention for her new short, U Plavetnilo (Into the Blue).
More on the 2017 Berlinale
Prizes of the International Jury
Awards in the Generation Section
Have you attended Berlinale? Let us know what your favorite films were on our Facebook page!
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WHAT’S AN OFFICIAL OSCAR PARTY? FLY TO NEW YORK AND LONDON TO FIND OUT!
Two Academy-hosted Oscar-viewing parties will be held in New York and London for Academy members and invited film industry guests on Oscar Sunday, February 26. The awards show live broadcast begins at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT/00 GMT.
Oscar Night London, supported by Rolex, will take place at Soho’s Ham Yard Hotel and feature a midnight feast, complete with espresso martinis. In New York the party is taking place at the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Executive Chef Jim Botsacos is preparing an ‘inspired menu’.
Viewers in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide are expected to watch the show.
More on the Oscars
THE OSCARS: HOLLYWOOD STREET CLOSURES
Oscars Governors Ball Menu 2017
Are you planning to watch the Academy Awards on Sunday? Let us know on our Facebook page!
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TWO PROJECT AWARDS IN BERLIN TO DERYA DURMAZ, AND VLADIMIR PERISIC
SEEfest Staff Writer | February 13, 2017, 10:35 AM
News flash from Berlin 2/13/2017: The project by Derya Durmaz, Bus to Amerika, which got its start at SEEfest Project Accelerator in 2016, just won the “VFF Talent Highlight Award” at the Berlin Film Festival! We congratulate Derya on this success, and share with her this great joy.
Vladimir Perisic, LOST COUNTRY
Serbian director Vladimir Perišić won the prestigious ARTE International Prize for is project Lost Country. ARTE Prize is given for an “artistically outstanding project” from the Berlinale Co-Production Market. Big congrats to Vladimir!
SEEfest will continue to support new projects, especially first films, and nurture talent. If you have a story to tell and a new project you are working on, submissions for 2017 Project Accelerator are open till March 26, midnight Pacific Standard Time. Go to review Guidelines, and to submit, go to https://filmfreeway.com/submissions .
Berlinale press release can be viewed here.
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A LOOK AT…INTERNATIONAL FILMS AT U.S. SPECIALTY BOX OFFICE
SEEfest Staff Writer | February 12, 2017, 12:13 PM
Hindi-language comedy/satire Jolly Llb 2 was leading at the specialty box office this week with $800,000, ahead of Oscar-nominated shorts compilation which took second place with $660,000. Iranian drama The Salesman, frontrunner among the five nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film, grossed $725,000.
The box office numbers are well below mainstream films, but for non-English language movies these are excellent results. Specialty (arthouse) audience is very much alive and proves that there is a market in the U.S. for international cinema and American independents.
Among English-language independents Oscar-nominated Moonlight grossed $20 million, while A United Kingdom, about a real-life romance between Prince of Bechuanaland and an English woman grossed $70,000. To put everything in perspectiv
e, Danish film Land of Mine, WWII drama nominated for Best Foreign Language Oscar and distributed in the U.S. by Sony Classics, grossed $23,510.
Finally, if you’re looking at the big picture, La la Land which tops all other movies with 14 Oscar nominations, grossed $126 million domestically which puts it in the 23rd place in 2016. The top-grossing film of 2016? Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with over $527 million domestically (over $1 billion worldwide). They don’t call it show biz for nothing…
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THE OSCARS: HOLLYWOOD STREET CLOSURES
The Academy released this week the plans for street closures leading to the Oscars® on Sunday, February 26 at the Dolby Theater. First to close on February 5 (21 days prior to the Oscar show) was Orchid Alley. Subsequent closures will gradually encircle the Hollywood & Highland Center to accommodate the construction of press risers, fan bleachers and pre-show stages along the Oscars red carpet on Hollywood Boulevard. Read more about maps, closures, and metro train schedule.
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SEEfest Project Accelerator Alumna selected for First Films First at the Berlin Film Festival
Vera Mijojlic | February 10, 2017, 7:00 PM
At the 2016 SEEfest Accelerator, young Turkish filmmaker Derya Durmaz presented her project for a feature film entitled The Bus to Amerika. This February her project is among only 8 selected for the 2017 First Films First at the Berlin Film Festival. The program was conceived by the Goethe-Institut as a Young Directors´ Academy, aimed at supporting young Southeast European film directors to develop their first feature-length fiction film. We are so happy for Derya and congratulate her on this success!
“After taking the great 1st step at SEEfest, thanks to the great program you put together The Bus to Amerika went on to be selected for a number of international co-production markets and programs,” says Derya. “The project also received development grant from the German Turkish Co-production Development Fund. Now it is selected for the Berlinale Talent Project Market, and is one of 3 projects nominated for the VFF Talent Highlight Award (German copyright agency for film and TV producers)! I would like to take this opportunity to thank you again for providing me with a good start.”
And we hope to see you again at SEEfest, and to show your film!
Submissions for the 2017 Accelerator Program for Film Projects in Development are open until March 26. To request detailed guidelines for the Accelerator program, email us at [email protected].
Oscars Governors Ball Menu 2017
If you’re wondering where the stars go after the show…they go to the Governors Ball held at the Ray Dolby Ballroom, on the top level of the Hollywood & Highland Center.
Per Academy’s press office, there the glitterati are treated to an Oscar-worthy menu by Wolfgang Puck catering that includes new items such s Moroccan spiced Wagyu short rib topped with a parmesan funnel cake; taro root tacos with shrimp, mango, avocado and chipotle aioli; gnocchetti with braised mushrooms and cashew cream; lobster corn dogs; made-to-order sushi, custom poke bowls and an array of shellfish; plus a selection of Puck’s signature dishes such as smoked salmon Oscars, chicken pot pie with shaved black truffles, and baked macaroni and cheese. The evening ends with the pièce de résistance: Puck’s 24-karat-gold chocolate Oscars.
Staff of 900 is hired for the event.
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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About How the Academy’s Foreign Language Award Works
Legendary cinematographer John Bailey (American Gigolo, Ordinary People, Groundhog Day, As Good as it Gets, Mishima: Life in Four Chapters) who has twice honored us at SEEfest to serve on our jury for Best Cinematography,
gives a detailed account 
about the selection process for the foreign language Oscar® candidates.
In his popular John’s Bailiwick blog on the ASC site he writes about the stages in the selection process, followed by a list of some of the movies from previous years including, we’re happy to say, one from our own SEE director, Oscar®-winner Danis Tanovic (Bosnia Herzegovina) whose An Episode in the Life of an Iron icker was shortlisted a couple of years ago. Tanovic previously won the Oscar® in 2002 for No Man’s Land.
Read more here.
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SEE Region Actress to Produce and Star in New CBS Show
SEEfest Staff Writer | December 8, 2016, 7:15 PM
Congrats to Serbian-born actress Bojana Novakovic for landing a major TV role on an as-yet untitled comedy TV show on CBS.
Bojana Novakovic moved from Belgrade to Australia at the age of 7. She graduated from NIDA with a BA in Dramatic Arts in 2002 and has been creating a name for herself as an actress ever since. Her most recent accomplishment is an executive producer and starring performance role on a new, untitled CBS show. SEEfest is proud to see an actress from the SEE region doing so successfully!
Click here to read a full article about the new show.
Mandatory Credit: Photo by MediaPunch/REX/Shutterstock (5706210o)
Bojana Novakovic
2nd Annual Art for Animals Fundraiser Evening For Eastwood Ranch Foundation, Los Angeles, America – 04 Jun 2016
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SEEfest Hosting 2 Films at AFI Fest 2016
Vera Mijojlic | November 3, 2016, 12:28 PM
This year, SEEfest will be hosting two South East European films at the 2016 AFI Fest, Graduation and Death in Sarajevo. Both are fantastic films by phenomenally prominent South East European directors, and the SEEfest family could not be more proud to be associated with them at AFI this year.
The AFI Festival 2016 will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood from November 10th-17th, and tickets are free on a first come first served basis.
GRADUATION (BACALAUREAT)
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Screenwriter: Cristian Mungiu
Producer: Cristian Mungiu
Executive Producer: Tudor Reu
Director of Photography: Tudor Vladimir Panduru
Editor: Mircea Olteanu
Production Designer: Simona Pădurețu
Cast: Adrian Titieni, Maria Drăguș, Lia Bugnar, Mălina Manovici, Vlad Ivanov, Gelu Colceag, Rareș Andrici, Petre Ciubotaru
Romania, 2016
128 min.
Feature
World Cinema Section
When a doctor’s bright young daughter is assaulted the day before her final exams, he will do anything to make sure her scholarship to Cambridge isn’t jeopardized.
Romeo, a middle-aged doctor living in the Romanian city of Cluj, is faced with a brutal moral dilemma. His bright young daughter, Eliza, is on the cusp of receiving a scholarship to Cambridge — she just needs to ace her final exam to secure her placement at the prestigious British university. When Eliza is assaulted the day before her exam, suddenly the likelihood of her passing the test with flying colors grows dim. Desperate to see his daughter leave the corrupt and dysfunctional Cluj and start a life of opportunity in the UK, Romeo begins the precarious dance of pulling strings around town with various higher-ups to make sure Eliza receives the marks she needs. Romanian master and AFI FEST alum Cristian Mungiu again crafts a deft, slow-burn social thriller that exposes the diseased nature of the system and how it infects everyone operating within it. With Mungiu’s signature long takes, and a finely modulated performance by Adrien Titieni as Romeo, GRADUATION is a film not only about corruption but also the grey areas of parenting and family striving. — Beth Hanna
DEATH IN SARAJEVO (SMRT U SARAJEVU)
Director: Danis Tanović
Screenwriter: Danis Tanović
Producer: Francois Margolin, Amra Bakšić Čamo
Director of Photography: Erol Zubčević
Editor: Redžinald Šimek
Production Designer: Mirna Ler
Music: Mirza Tahirović
Cast: Jaques Weber, Snežana Vidović, Izudin Bajrovic, Vedrana Seksan, Muhamed Hadžović, Faketa Salihbegović-Avdagić, Edin Avdagić, Aleksandar Seksan
France l Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2016
85 min.
Feature
World Cinema Section
Director Danis Tanović turns the luxurious Hotel Europa in the heart of Sarajevo into an ideological battleground in this Silver Bear winner out of the Berlinale.
In 1914, a Serbian man named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, kicking off the chain of events that led to World War I. One hundred years later, during a centennial commemoration of those events, Academy Award®-winning director Danis Tanović turns the luxurious Hotel Europa in the heart of Sarajevo into an ideological battleground. As visiting luminaries arrive for the ceremony, a looming hotel-worker strike pits a furious staff against management’s underhanded cronies, while elsewhere, arguments about the region’s turbulent history of violent conflict — beginning with Princip’s fateful act — threaten to reach a dangerous boiling point. Tanović’s sublimely fluid camera glides through every corner of the expansive hotel, breathlessly capturing the escalating tensions with virtuosic panache. The film, a potent reminder that our unstable present has deep roots in the past, won the Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. — Mike Dougherty
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