25. 5. 2023

The Zlín Festival as a Meeting Place for Film Professionals

Many film experts regularly gather in Zlín during the festival and this year, again, a rich professional program has been prepared for them. Under the name Zlín Industry Days 2023, it is offering interesting conferences, presentations, and opportunities for informal meetings and exchanges of views and experience. The professional program will run from Friday to Sunday and is focused on the development of audiovisual content for children and young people.

The series of events for film professionals, as usual, starts on Friday, June 2, with the FILMTALENT Pitching Forum, the final presentation of film projects by students and young aspiring filmmakers which are in progress and that are applying for financial support from the FILMTALENT ZLÍN Foundation. This year, nine of the most interesting projects by aspiring filmmakers will be presented in front of a professional jury.

Saturday will offer, among other things, a presentation of six contemporary books for children and young people which could provide inspiration for future films. The books will be presented by their authors and the program is accompanied by journalist and literary and film critic Pavel Mandys, co-founder and co-organizer of the annual Magnesia Litera Book Awards.

The glorious film history of the city of Zlín will be presented as part of the presentation block Zlín, Cith of Film, which will map the current filming opportunities in the Zlín region, including historical context.

Saturday's special debate is focused on current European productions for teenage audiences, i.e. Young Adult Productions, will also be intended for film professionals.

"Participants of the discussion among TV and series producers will look for answers to the question of what topics are trending in the Gen Z generation and how to reach young viewers in the age of TikTok and streaming wars,"

said the artistic director of the festival Markéta Pášmová and pointed out another point of the professional program, which is the eighth year of the international conference Cutting School for Cinema, which will focus on the question of the need for a film education textbook and various authorial and methodological approaches and uses. The conference will also include a presentation of the Filmouka guide, which is currently being prepared by the Association for Film and Audiovisual Education and which is the first of its kind in our country.

The complete program can be found here.