17. 4. 2024

Zlín Industry Days: A Tribute to the Greats and Trends in Young Adult Production

Interesting conferences, presentations and opportunities for informal meetings, and exchange of experiences. All of this will be offered by the professional program of the 64th Zlín Film Festival ZLÍN INDUSTRY DAYS, which will run from Friday to Sunday and is mainly focused on the development of audiovisual content for children and young people.

The series of events for film professionals will traditionally be launched on Friday, May 31 with the FILMTALENT Pitching Forum, the final presentation of the progressing film projects of students and young emerging filmmakers who are applying for financial support from the FILMTALENT ZLÍN Foundation Fund. This morning presentation will be smoothly followed by a Masterclass led by Mária Môťovská in the afternoon, who will introduce the participants not only to her own experience in the development of films and series, but also how to find suitable partners for their project.

Saturday will offer, among other things, a presentation of six contemporary books for children and young people that could inspire film adaptations. The books will be presented by their authors and the program will be guided by journalist, literary and film critic Pavel Mandys, co-founder and co-organizer of the annual Magnesia Litera book awards.

For film professionals, there will also be a special debate on Saturday focused on contemporary young adult productions.

"The participants of the afternoon program will look for answers to problems such as the challenge of creating animated titles for teenage audiences in the digital age, but it will also offer a discussion on domestic productions in recent years, which have provided successful projects for teenage audiences that are a response by domestic filmmakers to foreign productions,"

invited the artistic director of the festival Markéta Pášmová. She also drew attention to Sunday's professional program, which is the ninth edition of the international conference Cinema for Schools, which will focus on the issue of working with short films – not only in education. A number of Czech and foreign organizations will present their activities.

The last day of the professional program will culminate in an exceptional meeting with two founders of prestigious and respected film events in Europe.

"Dimitri Spyrou, from Greece, and Jerzy Moszkowicz, from Poland, who have dedicated a significant part of their lives to building festivals for children and youth, will be honored for their contributions,"

said Markéta Pášmová.