The 58^th annual BFI LONDON Film Festival, which will take place from October 8^th to 19^th, will present Fair Play in its Journey section and Corn Island in the Dare section. Petr Václav's The Way Out, which represented the Czech Republic earlier this year at Cannes, will appear in the Debate section, which presents films dealing with today's most turbulent themes. The Way Out, Czech-French production, tells a modern story of a young Romani couple, whose effort to live with dignity runs up against the "Romani social trap".

There will be some events for film professionals as part of the festival, including the prestigious market for independent producers of project with a budget over 1 million EUR - the Production Finance Market. Over the course of two days the event organisers will arrange, for the representatives of the selected projects, personal meetings from the ranks of the more than one hundred film producers, investors and distributors that converge on London in search of interesting projects. Last year alone saw 800 personal meetings for a total volume of 225 million euros. Two projects were chosen for this event: The Painted Bird, produced by Václav Marhoul, and Learning to Play from the K Film plus production company.

With regard to his participation at the market Václav Marhoul added: "Of course in addition to the fact that you have the opportunity to get a truly high-quality co-production partner, it is a great chance to notify eminent sales agents and prestigious distributors about your new project in advance at an international market while gauging its potential. And one thing that you really can't put a price on is the fact that you get to meet these people in person. Normally you would probably never get the chance. Personal contacts are the biggest plus."  

The Warsaw International Film Festival is taking place from October 10^th to 19^th and has selected Gottland, an anthology film based on the bestseller of the same name by Polish author Mariusz Szczygiel and directed by a number of students from Prague's FAMU film academy, for its competition. The film looks at the history of Bohemia and Central Europe, marked by the great ideologies of the 20^th century through selected heroes and antiheroes of their time. Other films will appear out of competition, including the just premiered film Angels from director Alice Nellis and Tomáš Vorel's Prague Cans. The short films being presented are Jakub Kouřil's The Little Cousteau and Kateřina Karhánková's New Species, both already successful abroad.

More information in our press release.