Let' s hear this fantastic story from the words of its very own founder our friend Mario Dorminsky pictured here with Bruno Chatelin and Beatriz Pacheco Pereira

"The festival was born in 1980 at a table of a small coffee shop in the center of Oporto, heritage world town by UNESCO, in a conversation between the three founders, film critics Mário Dorminsky and Beatriz Pacheco Pereira and the painter José Manuel Pereira. It immediately presented in the first edition (1981) the structure of a festival although still non-competitive, which has happened in the following edition.

The name Fantasporto had its origin in the reference used in the first letters- Fantas, because the festival started with a fantasy competition, and Porto, the name of the city.

From the start, and due to the quality of its programming, the festival had access to the best productions from all over the world. In 1981, in its first edition, the festival screened the first Chinese animation feature, for example, and later on it discovered for Europe New Zealand and South Korean films.

It started with fantasy films, a hit in the eighties, when names such as Spielberg, George Lucas or Ridley Scott were new to the film business. Fantasy films have been a must all through the history of the cinema.

From Méliès to our own Manoel de Oliveira, from Murnau to Spielberg, all great classics of the imaginary have been screened in Fantasporto.

The festival grew to become a general film event with the introduction of the Directors Week in 1991 and the Orient Express (for Asian Films).

Fantasporto has been the beacon for many film festivals in the world and has received the acknowledgement of such publications as Variety and the International Film Guide.

Fantasporto was the first festival to cross the arts and sciences with the film world since its first edition in 1981.Concerts, art exhibitions, workshops, book presentations, theatre plays and street performances, all have been welcomed in festival. The Special Programme, existing as a parallel event within the film festival since 2009, has established this sector as a must for festival goers, with Architecture, Robotics, Holograms or the Fine Arts, science fiction and Literature as the highlights of the latest editions.

This Special Programme of crossing Cinema with sidebar Arts And Sciences  is still unique in the context of film festivals in the world as it brings professionals from the arts and sciences into a film event.

Fantasporto is a regular visit of the Cannes Film Markets with a stand in the premises, enlarging thus the international influence of the event, as it can clearly be seen in the use of the name and logo of Fantasporto in the official poster and site of the selected films. The coverage by the media is unprecedented in Portugal with numerous international references.

Fantasporto has a unique media coverage in Portugal, due to the presence of the many professionals, most of them repeating the visit. News agencies, newspapers and tv channels cover the festival on a daily basis, with many live reports. A professional meeting place for all.

The festival has screened first-hand the first films of the greatest film creators of all times, one of the top merits of the event. David Cronenberg, André Tarkovsky, Brian de Palma, John Carpenter, Alain Resnais, David Lynch, Andrezj Zulawski, Bigas Luna, Ridley Scott, Luc Besson, Peter Greenaway, Jean-Jacques Beinex, James Cameron, Neil Jordan, Joel and Ethan Coen ou Lars von Trier showed their first films in the first 5 years of Fantasporto. Also Pedro Almodóvar, Sam Raimi, Leos Carax, Vincent Ward, Peter Jackson, Hal Hartley, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, Anthony Minghella, Peter Weir, Quentin T

Marge Liiske presents the awards ceremony in Tallinn during PÖFF | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2024.

Marge serves as the Head of Industry at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

After an exciting week of networking, presentations, panel discussions, and meetings, Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event celebrated the most outstanding projects with the award ceremony. 17 awards were handed out to film projects at various stages of scriptwriting, development, or post-production, with an additional two awards recognizing promising producers.

For the first time, the guests have had the opportunity to vote for their favourite projects in each category. The winners of the public favourite award were awarded with 2.000€ worth of Yamdu subscription credit for any annual Yamdu plan or Yamdu add-on (valid thru 31.12.2025).

The European Genre Forum was given to the most promising project receiving a 25,000 euro award by ATM Virtual, consisting of one day rental of an LED stage, preceded by one day of pre-lighting for the production of a selected film.

Winner: The Dark Architect
Director and writer: Risto Tuominen
Producer: Ilkka Matila
Production company: MRP Matila Röhr Productions OY (Finland)
Co-production company: Taska Film (Estonia)

The winner was selected by ATM Virtual representatives, who also decided to give out a special mention award, who receives an option for one day of testing in Virtual Production (stage and service of VP).

Special mention award winner: Vrykolax
Director: Achilleas Gatsopoulos
Writter: Geoff Dupuy-Holder
Producers: Minos Nikolakakis, Vassilis Economou
Production company: APSHALT (Greece)

Public Favourite Award winner: Neighbour
Director and screenwriter: Oskar Lehemaa
Producer: Evelin Penttilä
Production company: Stellar Film (Estonia)

Script Pool Award was given to the most promising project receiving an exclusive opportunity to attend The Write Retreat in Mallorca, presented by Law Firm TGS Baltic.

Winner: Kingpins
Director and writer: Kristians Riekstins
Producer: Alise Rogule
Production company: Mima Films (Latvia)

Jury comment: “We are delighted to attribute the Script Pool Award to Latvian director/-producer duo Kristians Riekstins and Alise Rogule for KINGPINS, recognising an ambitious young team, who are bringing a promising genre project to the market. We are confident the Mallorca Writers Retreat will help them take the script to the next level, to reach its full market potential at home and abroad.“

The winning project was selected by the jury, including Moritz Peters, Director Marketing & Acquisitions at Plaion Pictures GMBH, Fabien Westerhoff, CEO and Partner at Film Constellation and Margrit Stärk, Director Acquisitions & Coproductions Feature Films ZDF.

The Public Favourite Award winner: Read more

The second lifetime achievement award of this year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) will be given to one of Georgia’s most renowned directors, Lana Gogoberidze.  The 96-year-old legend will be presenting two of her films at this year's festival.

Photo: Lana Gogoberidze

Recently celebrating her 96th birthday, Gogoberidze is known for her films that predominantly depict strong women who fight against fate and dare to defy societal norms to maintain their independence.
Her mother, Nutsa Gogoberidze, was the first female film director in Georgia and one of the first in the Soviet Union. Nutsa's life mirrored the great upheavals of the 20th century: her films were banned immediately after their release, her husband was executed during the Great Terror, and she herself was sent to Siberia for ten years in 1937 as the wife of a "public enemy". After returning from the labor camp, she never spoke of her films, which her daughter discovered only half a century after her death.

Her most recent film, the documentary Mother and Daughter, or Darkness Never Ends, completed just last year, tells the tragic story of Nutsa Gogoberidze. Film will have a special gala screening on November 21 at 6 PM at Apollo Cinema Coca-Cola Plaza. Additionally, PÖFF will honor Gogoberidze’s legacy with a screening of Some Interviews on Personal Matters on November 22 at 6 PM at the same venue. The film explores the lives of Georgian women of her time, free from Soviet stereotypes. It has been called one of the first truly feminist films in the Soviet Union. Both screenings will be introduced by Lana Gogoberidze herself.

“I probably started making films about women because of my mother, who has always been in my thoughts,” Gogoberidze has reflected.

According to PÖFF director Tiina Lokk, Lana Gogoberidze is a unique figure, focusing her artistic work on women’s stories even during times when it was difficult for female directors to establish themselves.

Lana Gogoberidze has made over ten feature films. Her notable works include I See the Sun (1965), When Almonds Blossomed (1972), A Day Is Longer Than Night (1984), Full Circle (1986), and Waltz on the Pechora (1992). Her films have been showcased at major festivals such as Venice, Cannes, and Berlin, and she has received numerous awards.

In 1988, she was elected president of the International Association of Women Directors. She has also served as a member of the Georgian Parliament and as Georgia’s ambassador to France. Throughout her career, Gogoberidze has advocated for the independence of Georgian cinema, a free society, and democratic values.

The lifetime achievement award will be presented to her during PÖFF’s closing ceremony.

Traditionally, PÖFF grants two lifetime achievement awards each year: one to an international filmmaker and the other to an Estonian filmmaker. This year’s Estonian recipient was director Peeter Simm.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival with Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event and with the two sub-festivals, Just Film and PÖFF Shorts, has grown into one of the bigges

It’s awards season in France as well with today belonging to the Prix Louis Delluc awards. It’s only a two category event, but it nonetheless puts the focus on some of the best titles in French cinema with the majority of the films coming from the various sections of the past Cannes Film Festival.

Academy Award-winning Danish director Thomas Vinterberg will chair the jury of the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival, which takes place from November 29th to December 7th, 2024.

The jury will award the Étoile d'Or to one of the 14 first and second features in the festival’s international competition, which is dedicated to the discovery of filmmakers from around the world.

“It’s a great privilege and an honor to have received the noble invitation from Marrakech International Film Festival to preside over the jury. In this rapidly changing and increasingly divided world, festivals such as Marrakech provide a much-needed window into a wide variety of cultures. Films can describe what cannot be explained. Make us understand the unacceptable. And there is indeed a lot to understand right now,” said Vinterberg when accepting the role as Jury President.

Since his remarkable entry onto the world cinema stage with The Celebration (1998), for which he won the Jury Prize at the Festival de Cannes when he was just 28, Thomas Vinterberg has become one of the most celebrated European filmmakers of our time. The author of a daring body of work that questions and exposes the darker side of human nature, Vinterberg reinvents himself and surprises audiences with each of his films.

Born in 1969, Vinterberg is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker based in Copenhagen. He was nominated for the Oscar for Best Director for Another Round (2020), the first Danish filmmaker ever to receive this honor. He went on to win an Oscar, a BAFTA, a César, and four European Film Awards for the blockbuster drama, which had its premiere in Cannes and later screened at the Toronto and San Sebastián International Film Festivals.

Vinterberg trained at the Danish National Film School. In 1993, his graduation short film, Last Round, won numerous awards and was nominated for a Student Academy Award. He went on to make the short The Boy Who Walked (1995), which won several audience awards, notably at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. He made his feature-length directorial debut with The Biggest Heroes in 1996.

In 1995, Vinterberg and Lars von Trier wrote the Dogme95 Manifesto. In 1998, Vinterberg directed The Celebration, the first film of this movement. The film was awarded the Special Jury Prize in Cannes, the Fassbinder Award at the European Film Awards, and Best Foreign Language Film by both the Los Angeles Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle, as well as numerous other prizes worldwide. In 2008, Vinterberg and von Trier, together with their “Dogme brothers” Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, received the Award for Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema at the European Film Awards.

Vinterberg directed the critically acclaimed English-language films It’s All About Love (2003), starring Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, and Sean Penn, and Dear Wendy (2005), written by Lars von Trier and starring Jamie Bell. He returned to Danish-language films with When a Man Comes Home (2007) and Submarino (2010), the latter of which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was awarded the Nordic Council Film Prize.

In 2012, he directed The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelsen, which was nominated for an Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and went on to win the British Independent Film Award for Best International Independent Film. Mikkelsen won the Best Actor Award in Cannes for

IFFI 2024, 12: Creative Minds of tomorrow, and their five outstanding films

Creative Minds of Tomorrow (CMOT) is a platform designed to showcase the work of absolute beginners with enhanced to support 100 young talents, up from 75 in previous editions

The number of participants in this section are a full 100. Last year, 75 young talents were picked, to co-incide with the 75 years of Independence. Five CMOT Champions are being will be recognised for their exceptional journeys. As the largest fully supported platform of its kind, CMOT promotes interaction, engagement, and learning, among emerging creators and industry veterans. This year’s CMOT program boasts a significant expansion, welcoming 100 young talents across 13 film-making trades. 

From humble beginnings to global acclaim, CMOT alumni have scripted stories of success that resonate beyond borders. Be it contributing to humungous dollars Hollywood blockbusters, like Dune, Nimona and Meg 2, or winning accolades at Cannes, Toronto, Berlinale and the International Emmy Awards. These visionaries have left an indelible mark on the creative landscape, solidifying their presence on the global stage.

This year, IFFI pays tribute to five outstanding CMOT Champions whose journeys exemplify determination, creativity, and excellence. And they are:

Chidananda S. Naik – Awarded at Cannes.

Subarna Das – Projects premiered at TIFF, SXSW, and Berlinale.

Akshita Vohra – Acclaimed for award-winning projects.

Akhil Damodar Lotlikar – Selected in multiple international film festivals.

Krishna Dusane – Part of international successes.

These trailblazers will mentor five CMOT teams during the short filmmaking challenge at IFFI, sharing insights from their inspirational journeys.

A Platform for Emerging Creatives

Since its inception, this groundbreaking initiative has attracted 225 young creative talents from every corner of India, including the Northeast Indian States and Jammu & Kashmir. As the largest fully-supported platform of its kind globally, it stands as a testament to India's commitment to nurturing the next generation of cinematic storytellers.

Selecting the 100 Creative Minds

This year, CMOT received an overwhelming response with around 1,070 entries across 13 different film crafts from all corners of India, including states like Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Union Territories such as Pondicherry, Lakshadweep, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The highest number of entries came from the Direction category, followed by Hair & Make-Up and Cinematography.

The selection process involved a two-step evaluation:

Selection Jury: Award-winning film industry professionals reviewed all entries, including short films, show reels, portfolios, and music files, narrowing down the pool to just over 300 top entries across categories.

Grand Jury: Featuring film industry stalwarts and veterans, the Grand Jury meticulously evaluated the shortlisted applications to select the final 100 participants across all filmmaking trades.

Expanded Filmmaking Trades

Breaking new ground, CMOT 2024 broadens its horizons with a focus on 13 dynamic filmmaking trades, including the newly introduced Voice Over/Dubbing category and a standalone Hair & Makeup section. The program now encompasses:

Direction

Acting

Cinematography

Editing & Subtitling

Scriptwriting

Play

 Sports is the motto and main theme of the 11th Duhok International Film Festival

The 11th edition of Duhok International Film Festival will be held in the city of Duhok, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, with the theme of sports, focusing on Indian cinema and with the films of directors from different countries of the world.

According to the report of Mansour Jahani, an independent and international cinema journalist, Presided by Amir Ali Mohammed Tahir and artistic management by the Kurdish director, Shawkat Amin Korki, the 11th round of Duhok International Film Festival is set to be held on 9-16 December, 2024, at Duhok University's congregation hall and the Duhok Mall Cineplex in Duhok, Kurdistan Region. Heralding the motto of Sports, this edition of Duhok will showcase 107 films by directors of different geographical backgrounds, in a variety of formats such as feature films, shorts, and documentaries in the two categories of competition and out-of-competition.

Promotion and development of cinema and progress of Duhok Film Festival
The first press conference of the 11th Duhok international film festival was held in the Panorama Azadi hall in the city of Duhok, with the presence of directors of various departments of this cinema event and mass media journalists, and Massoud Arif, the official spokesperson of this festival, stated in a press conference, every year, at the same time as the Duhok international film festival, two things, including; The promotion and development of cinema and the development of the festival and culture of Duhok, as well as the development of art in general and cinema in particular, are very important for us. We believe that when we are setting up the first news conference of the new period of the festival; We celebrate it with great excitement. Because our colleagues in different parts of the festival were working for many months to bring the festival to this stage.

Received 750 movies in World Cinema and Kurdish Cinema
He added: We announced that from June 15 to September 1, 2024, we will accept films to participate in the 11th edition of the Duhok International Film Festival, through the film portal. Fortunately, this year, 750 foreign and Kurdish films from the directors of the countries different parts of the world, was sent to the festival secretariat After the evaluation by the selection board of the festival, consisting of experienced artists, finally 107 films made it to the competition, of which 61 foreign films including; 9 feature films, 7 documentaries and 11 short films in the competition of World Cinema and 34 films in the out-of-competition of World Cinema from 31 countries, as well as 46 Kurdish films including; 7 feature films, 8 documentaries and 12 short films will be screened in the competition of Kurdish Cinema and 19 films in the out-of-competition of Kurdish Cinema.

We are happy to hold the festival at this specific time every year
By Amir Ali Mohammed Tahir, the president of Duhok International Film Festival, stated in a press conference, each cycle of the Duhok film festival is the result of a year's effort, diligence and perseverance of my colleagues who are working in different departments. All these sympathies have made us able to add this year to the previous periods of the festival. We are truly blessed to have colleagues who are cheerful, professional, friendly and non-stop; They try to hold the festival at this specific time every year. I hope that we can continue this process and hold the Dahuk film festival well and professionally every year; This also requires the presence of knowledgeable, skilled and caring colleagues behind the scenes of this cinematic

The Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF)  has always treated the Ukrainian country with great respect and sympathy. Our festival team has always been together with Ukrainian people who are currently fighting for their independence.Three years in a row we've organised charity auctions for Ukraine at the HÕFF festival. We’ve stopped screening Russian and Belarusian state-funded films already in 2022. We were the first to showcase Ukrainian film projects that had been put on hold due to the war at the world's largest film festival, Cannes, to pave the way for them to go international. 

Ukrainian films have been an important part of our festival programme. PÖFF 2024 isn’t an exception. Our programme includes eight Ukrainian-produced or co-produced films, as well as films on the theme of Ukraine. 
 
One of these is Deaf Lovers, which has already had some serious backlash, not only among Ukrainians but also among Russians - without anyone having seen it yet. 
 
We confirm that the film is not funded by the Russian Federation. Even more, its author, Boris Guts, left Russia after the outbreak of full-scale war, and has been living as a refugee in different European countries, currently in Serbia. He has repeatedly spoken out against the Russian war against Ukraine, and against the Putin regime. 
 
Guts's previous film, Minsk, based on the tragic events that took place in Belarus after the 2020 presidential elections, was shot in Estonia. It was supported  by the Estonian Film Institute and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia. Minsk is banned in Belarus and Russia, and was screened at nearly 20 international film festivals in 2022, including PÖFF. Boris Guts' newest film Deaf Lovers is a 100% independent film made with his own money and with a minimal budget. The film was shot in Istanbul with an international crew. Estonian authors have also contributed to the film, and it is co-produced by Estonian studio Max-Grip.
 
PÖFF has always supported independent voices, and kept the door open to all filmmakers whose films represent democratic values. This year's edition features Israeli and Palestinian films side by side. PÖFF has also always shown films by oppositional Russian and Belarusian filmmakers who live in exile and represent different values from the official doctrine of their home countries. The same applies to Georgian opposition filmmakers fighting against the creeping censorship in their country. 
 
We have removed Deaf Lovers from our Standing with Ukraine programme - in the heat of the moment, it is the only right thing to do. The film will be screening at the Official Selection Competition as planned. We continue to believe that this is an artistically powerful anti-war work that reaches into figurative language. The film tells the story of a Ukrainian girl and a Russian boy who happen to meet in Istanbul. At first there is sympathy between them, but the war in Ukraine brings conflict into their lives, culminating in violence against the girl. The girl refuses to accept violence -- she is independent and leaves the boy. The film concludes that love between a Ukrainian girl and a Russian boy has become impossible in a war situation. As the girl says at the end of the film - “Maybe only after 100 years”. One can see here the metaphor of Ukraine leaving the violent Russian Empire. 

Last but not least, the film also provides valuable polemical material on other very topical issues: who is the Russian director in exile, what is his identity, and how the film can be used for propaganda purposes.

We invite you to the c