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NEW TERRITORIES EYE CREATIVE EUROPE
Screen International
July 18, 2013 Thursday
Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia could be among six potential new members
of the European Union's (EU) forthcoming Creative Europe programme,
which is expected to begin operations from January 2014.
Speaking at a discussion about cooperation between East and West at
this week's Odessa International Film Festival's Industry Programme,
the European Commission's Irina Orssich explained that accession
candidates countries or countries bordering the EU - such as Ukraine,
Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - could negotiate
to have full participation or sign bilateral agreements for specific
actions.
Key prerequisites for full participation in Creative Europe would
be for any of these countries to have the World Trade Organisation's
¨most-favoured-nation¨ exemption of the audiovisual sector and respect
of certain conditions laid down in the EU's Audiovisual Media Services
(AVMS) directive.
Alternatively, a national government could decide to conclude a
bilateral agreement with the European Commission on specific actions
in the future framework programme.
¨Tbilisi Declaration¨ on Creative Europe
The panel discussion in Odessa, which was also attended by Katriel
Schory, Executive Director of the Israel Film Fund, and former UK film
funding executive Tanya Seghatchian, followed in the wake of the first
Eastern Partnership Ministerial Conference on Culture, which was held
in Tbilisi and had brought ministerial delegations from the region
together with Culture and Media Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.
In a subsequent so-called ¨Tbilisi Declaration¨, representatives from
the six countries welcomed ¨ the possibility for Eastern Partners to
fully participate in the Culture and MEDIA strands of the [Creative
Europe] programme, on a equal footing with EU Member States and
candidate and potential candidate countries, provided a number of
technical conditionalities are fulfilled.¨
Consequently, they called on the EU ¨to facilitate and, if necessary,
to co-finance the participation of the Eastern Partnership countries
in the Creative Europe programme.¨
Directors Across Borders
The EU has been supporting this region with (EURO)9m through the
Eastern Partnership Culture Programme since 2011.
One of its most recent backed activitieswas the Directors Across
Borders Regional Co-Production Forum held last week during the Golden
Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan from July 9-11.
12 feature film projects were selected for presentation to visiting
international industry figures and included two titles which have
been picked for Locarno's South Caucasus focus at the Open Doors
co-production lab next month - Levon Minasian's The Second Journey
(Armenia/France) and Nora Martirosyan's Territoria (Armenia/Italy) -
as well as Moldovan film-maker Dumitru Marian's All Roads To Lead Rome,
Kai by Ukraine's Oleg Sentsov, and Mariam Khatchvani's Dede (Georgia).
An expert jury including Hong Kong International Film Festival
programme consultant Raymond Phathanavirangoon, Sofia Meetings manager
Mira Staleva, and German producer Simon Amberger awarded three
development grants to Dede by Georgian director Maria Khatchvani
and Vladimer Katchavara, Blood Money by Turkey's Kivanc Sezer and
producer Soner Alper, and A Song For Nola by Armenian film-makers
Emil Mkrttchian, Hasmik Hovhannisyan and Arevik Avanesyan.
Bosnia & Herzegovina becomes MEDIA's 33rd member
Against the background of discussion on the Eastern Partnership
countries joining Creative Europe some time in the future, it was
announced that Bosnia & Herzegovina had at last signed the ¨Memorandum
of Understanding¨ on July 10, making it the 33rd member country of
the EU's MEDIA Programme.
Membership of MEDIA is seen as one further stage in Bosnia's
¨pre-accession strategy¨ to becoming a full member of the European
Union which saw its latest addition - Croatia - join the European
family on July 1.
Creative Europe programme one step nearer
Meanwhile, finalisation of the nuts-and-bolts for Creative Europe
came one step nearer yesterday (July 17) at a meeting in Brussels of
the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER I).
The Member States' ambassadors to the EU agreed on the compromise
text of the Regulation establishing the framework programme, with a
view to allowing the Lithuanian Presidency of the European Council
to now go forward with the last stage of negotiations on the file
with the European Parliament.
COREPER I's chairman Arunas Vinciunas pointed out that most of the
file had been dealt with under the Irish Presidency in the past six
months, but Lithuania had since been able to conclude discussion
on such outstanding issues as the co-financing rates and budgetary
allocations for Creative Europe.
The overall budget for the seven-year programme from 2014-2020 -which
will bring three currently self-standing programmes CULTURE, MEDIA and
MEDIA MUNDUS under a single umbrella - is now set at (EURO) 1.462 bn.
Lithuania's Minister of Culture Sarunas Birutis had already informed
the European Parliament's Culture and Education Committee last week
that the negotiations with the Parliament had been ¨carried out in a
highly constructive working atmosphere and I think the achievements
achieved will satisfy the expectations of both the Parliament and
the Council, and most importantly, the expectations of the culture
and audiovisual sectors.¨
Outlining the Lithuanian Presidency's priorities for the next six
months, Birutis suggested that his country was ¨ also ready to
initiate discussions concerning the challenges of distribution of
digital content in examining the issue of the distribution of European
film in the digital era. One of the key issues to be addressed is
the digitisation of films and cinemas and the online distribution
of films.¨
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Screen International
July 18, 2013 Thursday
Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia could be among six potential new members
of the European Union's (EU) forthcoming Creative Europe programme,
which is expected to begin operations from January 2014.
Speaking at a discussion about cooperation between East and West at
this week's Odessa International Film Festival's Industry Programme,
the European Commission's Irina Orssich explained that accession
candidates countries or countries bordering the EU - such as Ukraine,
Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - could negotiate
to have full participation or sign bilateral agreements for specific
actions.
Key prerequisites for full participation in Creative Europe would
be for any of these countries to have the World Trade Organisation's
¨most-favoured-nation¨ exemption of the audiovisual sector and respect
of certain conditions laid down in the EU's Audiovisual Media Services
(AVMS) directive.
Alternatively, a national government could decide to conclude a
bilateral agreement with the European Commission on specific actions
in the future framework programme.
¨Tbilisi Declaration¨ on Creative Europe
The panel discussion in Odessa, which was also attended by Katriel
Schory, Executive Director of the Israel Film Fund, and former UK film
funding executive Tanya Seghatchian, followed in the wake of the first
Eastern Partnership Ministerial Conference on Culture, which was held
in Tbilisi and had brought ministerial delegations from the region
together with Culture and Media Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.
In a subsequent so-called ¨Tbilisi Declaration¨, representatives from
the six countries welcomed ¨ the possibility for Eastern Partners to
fully participate in the Culture and MEDIA strands of the [Creative
Europe] programme, on a equal footing with EU Member States and
candidate and potential candidate countries, provided a number of
technical conditionalities are fulfilled.¨
Consequently, they called on the EU ¨to facilitate and, if necessary,
to co-finance the participation of the Eastern Partnership countries
in the Creative Europe programme.¨
Directors Across Borders
The EU has been supporting this region with (EURO)9m through the
Eastern Partnership Culture Programme since 2011.
One of its most recent backed activitieswas the Directors Across
Borders Regional Co-Production Forum held last week during the Golden
Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan from July 9-11.
12 feature film projects were selected for presentation to visiting
international industry figures and included two titles which have
been picked for Locarno's South Caucasus focus at the Open Doors
co-production lab next month - Levon Minasian's The Second Journey
(Armenia/France) and Nora Martirosyan's Territoria (Armenia/Italy) -
as well as Moldovan film-maker Dumitru Marian's All Roads To Lead Rome,
Kai by Ukraine's Oleg Sentsov, and Mariam Khatchvani's Dede (Georgia).
An expert jury including Hong Kong International Film Festival
programme consultant Raymond Phathanavirangoon, Sofia Meetings manager
Mira Staleva, and German producer Simon Amberger awarded three
development grants to Dede by Georgian director Maria Khatchvani
and Vladimer Katchavara, Blood Money by Turkey's Kivanc Sezer and
producer Soner Alper, and A Song For Nola by Armenian film-makers
Emil Mkrttchian, Hasmik Hovhannisyan and Arevik Avanesyan.
Bosnia & Herzegovina becomes MEDIA's 33rd member
Against the background of discussion on the Eastern Partnership
countries joining Creative Europe some time in the future, it was
announced that Bosnia & Herzegovina had at last signed the ¨Memorandum
of Understanding¨ on July 10, making it the 33rd member country of
the EU's MEDIA Programme.
Membership of MEDIA is seen as one further stage in Bosnia's
¨pre-accession strategy¨ to becoming a full member of the European
Union which saw its latest addition - Croatia - join the European
family on July 1.
Creative Europe programme one step nearer
Meanwhile, finalisation of the nuts-and-bolts for Creative Europe
came one step nearer yesterday (July 17) at a meeting in Brussels of
the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER I).
The Member States' ambassadors to the EU agreed on the compromise
text of the Regulation establishing the framework programme, with a
view to allowing the Lithuanian Presidency of the European Council
to now go forward with the last stage of negotiations on the file
with the European Parliament.
COREPER I's chairman Arunas Vinciunas pointed out that most of the
file had been dealt with under the Irish Presidency in the past six
months, but Lithuania had since been able to conclude discussion
on such outstanding issues as the co-financing rates and budgetary
allocations for Creative Europe.
The overall budget for the seven-year programme from 2014-2020 -which
will bring three currently self-standing programmes CULTURE, MEDIA and
MEDIA MUNDUS under a single umbrella - is now set at (EURO) 1.462 bn.
Lithuania's Minister of Culture Sarunas Birutis had already informed
the European Parliament's Culture and Education Committee last week
that the negotiations with the Parliament had been ¨carried out in a
highly constructive working atmosphere and I think the achievements
achieved will satisfy the expectations of both the Parliament and
the Council, and most importantly, the expectations of the culture
and audiovisual sectors.¨
Outlining the Lithuanian Presidency's priorities for the next six
months, Birutis suggested that his country was ¨ also ready to
initiate discussions concerning the challenges of distribution of
digital content in examining the issue of the distribution of European
film in the digital era. One of the key issues to be addressed is
the digitisation of films and cinemas and the online distribution
of films.¨
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress