IN THE PALACE Film Festival is the first and only festival of its kind in Bulgaria. Located in the quaint and romantic town of Balchik, the festival was first established in 2003.  The title of the festival originated from its venue, an architechural park, called "The Palace." "The Palace" was summer residence of the British princess and Romanian Queen, Marie of Edinburgh and constructed especially for her upon request. Initially beginning as a forum predominantly fo...

ÉCU – The European Independent Film Festival is delighted to announce the Official Selection. ÉCU 2012 will showcase 100 films from 33 countries on the 30th and 31st of March and 1st of April in Paris, France. European Dramatic Feature (5) Iron Doors 3D - Germany On the Inside -  Germany Labirent - Turkey Women and Children -  United Kingdom Everywhere and Nowhere -  United Kingdom European Dramatic Short (25)  Useful - Belgium ...

Le Ballon Rouge, Albert Lamorisse, 1956 by Josie Ainscough Le Ballon Rouge is a short, beautifully made film shot in colour, which tells the story of a little boy who finds a bright red balloon tied to a lamppost. He unties it, and finds out that it has a mind of its own. The balloon follows him around, bobbling along behind him, on the bus to school, even getting him into trouble with his head teacher. A group of bullies, jealous of the boy and his friendly balloon, chase them thr...

      The Virtual Bridge’s mission is helping young independent filmmakers & producers to connect with the European film industry by organising FilmPitch Webinar Services and provide Training & Education Programs using online meeting technology -removing geographical boundaries.Our focus is to build a (virtual) bridge between filmmakers in developing countries and the European film industry.The programs of the foundation are developed with the aim to scout...

The federal network of city portals CITYCELEBRITY (www.citycelebrity.ru) is the largest independent crowdsourcing creative platform in Russia. They gather young talents from the whole of the country, making projects and contests in which thousands of people can take part and collaborate with festivals, culture centers, universities, international representatives and embassies, galleries, museums, creative and business communities.By registering at CITYCELEBRITY, you are going to to get new exper...

Compete, be judged, screen, be seen, promote, network, travel, participate, join, discover. 1. Compete: If you get into ÉCU 2012’s Official Selection you will be in competition with some of the best independent filmmakers in the world at Europe’s premier independent film festival. 2. Screen your film to large international audiences if your film is selected to be in the elite group of less than 100 films in the Official Selection. 3. Get judged by a panel of experts ...

1. Your film is about insects in a post-apocalyptic world – where does your inspiration come from? My inspiration usually starts from character or history, something visually striking or profound, and I build a story from there, but in the case of ‘Invertebrate’, it was a flash of inspiration under pressure… I was in a pitch meeting with the local branch of the now defunct UK Film council (Northern Film & Media- thankfully NFM are still here) where I had been as...

"A Life of Death" (2003/USA/8 mins) will play in DOCartoon in Pietrasanta, Italy from September 24-30, 2011. Other titles selected for this prestigious festival are Chris Landreth's Oscar-winning "Ryan", "Yellow Sticky Notes" by 2009 Clermont-Ferrand winner Jeff Chiba Stearns, and the multiple award-winner "Giallo Milano" by Sergio Basso. For more information on the festival, please download this program: http://issuu.com/claudianeri65/docs/docartoo...

It is hot, hot, hot in Paris this month! As Parisians begin to shuffle their way back from their summer vacations, the empty streets of Paris are beginning to clutter up once again. With the month of August swiftly coming to a close, it heralds the bittersweet end of summer and the start of busy spring days ahead. After a nice relaxing summer it’s time for the ÉCU team to get back to work! Although the summer has been a bit more laid back than usual, submissions are still rolling ...

ÉCU is excited to host our first post-2011 festival screening, where we will be featuring two “Europe’s Best Independent” awarded films at Café COUTUME, located in central Paris. This showing will be one of many special screenings ÉCU will be hosting in Paris in the next few months. Make sure you sign up with our ÉCU Members Club to get premier access to all of our screenings! To obtain your passes now, click here: ...

Now that the Cannes Film Festival has come to the end of its 12 day run, we can say that 2011 was full of change and excitement! Lots of fun, but definitely lots of work and preparation as well! The Closing Ceremony dished out all the glamour that we have come to expect from the Cannes Film festival, and DeNiro was more than willing to play the part as this year’s Jury President, distributing the coveted trophies to the winning directors and stars of the evening. Despit...

Experiences could simply mean everything that, by luck or misfortune, happens to us. Good, bad, bittersweet or equivocal memories. But experiences are not always just handed to us. They are born out of our desire to try things out, to make things work. Experience = experiment. This year, we invite you to partake in our own documentary experiment: through the first edition of FranceDoc Festival, we want to share with you some 40 singular moments that have either moved, shocked, or tickl...