Berlinale Chief, Euro Academy Topper Join SOFA
Dieter Kosslick, director of the Berlin Film Festival, and Marion Doering, director of the European Film Academy, will be among the tutors at the first edition of SOFA, a series of film industry workshops that will run Aug. 19-31 in Wroclaw, Poland.
Other tutors include Roberto Olla, exec director of the European co-production fund Eurimages, Renate Rose, director of European Film Promotion, and Katriel Schory, exec director of the Israel Film Fund.
The workshops have been launched by Nikolaj Nikitin, the Berlinale’s delegate in Eastern Europe, with the aim of setting up innovative projects that help stimulate the film biz. Nikitin said projects would be in such areas as festivals, funding, promotion, distribution, exhibition, museum management, archiving, journalism and training.
“We aim to train upcoming film mediators and film enablers, and help them realize innovative projects in their countries of origin,” Nikitin said. “SOFA supports young film professionals who promote film and cinema for the local and international audience – in all possible, creative shapes.”
Participants will be drawn from Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Balkan states, and Germany.
All lectures are free of charge, and SOFA covers accommodation and travel costs.
A Cannes event to promote the program on Friday was attended by Doering, Romanian helmer Cristian Mungiu (above left, with Nikitin) and Wieland Speck, head of the Berlinale Panorama section, among others.
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