The 7th East Silver Market brought one of the highest number of films up to this moment – the 2010 market consisted of 308 selected documentary films produced in 2009/2010. The market itself was attended by 534 accredited industry guests, including sales agents, festival and film fund representatives, TV buyers or commissioning editors. The visitors screened a total of 5510 films and 748 screeners were requested during the market.
The main goal of any market is to “seal the deal”. Apart from that, East Silver offers many opportunities for producers to promote and sell their films. Several contracts were signed in 2010:
Journeyman Pictures acquired:
Eye Over Prague | Olga Špátová | Czech Republic |2010| 78 min
17th of August | Alexander Gutman | Russia| 2009 | 53 min
Anne Perry – Interiors | Dana Linkiewicz | Germany | 2009 | 70 min
H.R. Giger Revealed | Davi N. Jahn | Czech Republic | 2009 | 52 min
Arggipo Ressurected | Dan Krameš | Czech Republic | 2009 | 67 min
Taskovski Films acquired:
Concrete Pharaos | Jordan Todorov | Bulgaria | 2010 | 47 min
Paradise Hotel | Sophia Tzavella| Bulgaria | 2010 | 54 min
Cat & Docs acquired:
All That Glitters | Tomáš Kudrna | Czech Republic | 2010 | 52/90 min
Something about Georgia | Nino Kirtadzé | France | 2010 | 58/99 min
Outcome acquired:
Matchmaking Mayor | Erika Hníková | Czech Republic, Slovakia | 2010 | 72 min
Heaven Hell | David Čálek | Czech Republic | 2010 | 84 min
As a brief overview, here are the results from previous years:
First Hand Films (Corridor #8, War Games and the Man who Stopped Them; All Boys), JMT Film Distribution (Vorga; Them, us and Skitskoj), Vitagraph (Peace with Seals), Autlook Filmsales (The Town of Badante Women, Disco&Atomic War, Nazis & Blondes), Wide Management (The Belgrade Phantom), Deckert Distribution (Themerson&Themerson, Osadne, Rabbit ala Berlin)
East Silver Streaming 2010
East Silver would like to adequately react to the trends of the market and after the IDFA’s Docs for Sale or HotDocs’ DocShop introduces new online platform, East Silver Streaming. The online version of the East Silver Market offers 542 films from the last two editions of the market to registered industry professionals. More than 128 professionals have received access to streaming platform. Not only sales agents or TV buyers, but also festival representatives take advantage of the system - especially, for the East Silver Caravan, the number of festival releases increased thanks to the quick "click'n'stream" system.
Industry professionals (sales agents, TV buyers, commissioning editors, festival representatives), can receive access to the streaming system by contacting us at: office@eastsilver.net.
East Silver Caravan 2010
The important support tool for exceptional documentaries from the market, East Silver Caravan, saw several significant achievements last year. In total 109 films were submitted to 39 various international film festivals as part of the East Silver Caravan. The overall results are: 55 films festival releases, 11 in competition sections, 2 awarded films:
Katka | Helena Třeštíková | Czech Republic | 2010 – two awards at RIDM Montreal, Canada - DocTape Award and Editing Award (for editor Jakub Hejna).
Related article: Katka Awarded at RIDM Montreal.
All That Glitters | Tomáš Kudrna | Czech Republic | 2010 - two awards at DOK Leipzig - MDR Film Prize for Best Eastern European Film and Healthy Workplaces Film Award.
Related article: All That Glitters Won Two Awards in Leipzig
The most successful films of East Silver Caravan were:
Arsy-Versy | Miro Remo | Slovakia | 2009: 8 festival releases
Osadné | Marko Škop | Slovakia | 2009: 5 festival releases
East Silver TV Focus 2010
East Silver TV Focus represented a selection of documentary films from the market which aim for international TV release. Based on their topics or overall TV potential, 20 films were offered for consideration to 48 buyers from 44 TV stations. East Silver was approached by two TV networks - the first was the Dutch HUMAN, which acquired Chemo by Polish director Pawel Lozinski. It is another success for this film within East Silver TV Focus since its broadcast on UR - Sweedish Educational Channel. The second one was Poland's TVP Kultura, which expressed interest in Keep the Rhythm! by Czech director Olga Sommerová.
East Silver also offered chance for producers to attend two documentary film markets - Docs for Sale in Amsterdam and DISCOP EAST in Budapest – and represent their films in person.
Ten projects introduced at IDFA's Docs for Sale: Shadows of the Past, Czech Peace, All for the Good of the World and Nosovice, The Man who Changed Shanghai, Katka, Manual on How to Create a Terrorist, The Long Road..., Heaven Hell, Matchmaking Mayor, Theatre Svoboda. Six Czech projects introduced at DISCOP: 25 from the 1960s or the Czechoslovak New Wave, CERN or The Factory for the Absolute, Czech Peace, Welcome to North Korea!, Miloš Forman: What Doesn’t Kill You … and Eye over Prague.
Silver Eye Award 2010
For the second time, the Silver Eye Awards were handed out to best documentary films of the East Silver Market. To honour outstanding films, but also to attract the attention of industry professionals, the Silver Eye Awards support the distribution of East European documentary films in festival and TV relase. In three main categories, the financial prize was awarded to three films (another three received Special Mention). Poland with strong documentary tradition based in quality storytelling and humanist approach towards selected topics dominated the awards.
Winner in the short category:
- That's Life | Takie życie | Daniel Zielinski | Poland | 2010
Special Mention:
- The Work of the Machines | Praca maszyn | Michal Madracki, Giles Lepore, Maciej Madracki | Poland, Switzerland | 2009
- Plain Landscape with a Cradle | Krajobraz nizinny z Kolyska | Arkadiusz Biedrzycki | Poland | 2010
Winner in the mid-length category:
- Family Instinct | Ģimenes lietas | Andris Gauja | Latvia | 2010
Special Mention:
- Michael Berger - A Hysteria | Michael Berger - Eine Hysterie | Thomas Fuerhapter | Austria | 2010
Winner in the feature category:
- At the Edge of Russia | Koniec Rosji | Michal Marczak | Poland | 2010
East Silver Industry programme 2010
Apart from the market East Silver organized series of industry events offering networking possibilities and consultations with invited VIP professionals. In addition to the well-established „one-on-one“ meetings, East Silver again hosted a series of informal co-production breakfasts focused on the overall situation in specific countries (Austria, Poland and Slovakia). The newly introduced Industry screenings presented 13 new projects, Talks of the Day brought case studies focused on distribution and overall situation of Slovak documentary film.
East Silver Tours brought a series of lectures and presentations held by invited representatives of important documentary funds (Sundance Documentary Fund, Cinereach, AVEK, Jan Vrijman Fund, Documentary Educational Resources, Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation), or selected world sales companies (New Europe Film Sales, Ventes – CBA, First Hand Films).
Apart from that, East Silver offered three master classes with respected documentary filmmakers, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Michael Glawogger and Pawel Lozinski as part of the thematical National Days. All of them were open to public.
East Silver Co-production Days were organized thanks to Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Austrian Cultural Forum in Prague and Polish Film Institute. East Silver is supported by Media Promotion, Visegrad Fund, Ministry of Culture Czech Republic and State Fund for Support and Development of Czech Cinema.
