The Lithuanian Film Centre (LFC) has announced its second round of funding pre-approvals for 2019, through which it will support 36 projects at various stages of production and development with a total amount of almost €1.3 million. €940,000 have been earmarked for the production of five feature films – one fiction and four documentaries – seven shorts, two artistic TV documentaries and six international co-productions with a Lithuanian minority producer. The rest of the grant was split among 11 projects in development – three features, five documentaries and three animated films – and five projects at the scriptwriting stage.

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The sole Lithuanian fiction film picked was Emilis Vėlyvis’ upcoming feature  The Generation of Evil [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], which comes on the heels of his crime-thriller box-office hits Redirected [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] and the Zero saga, while his latest outing was the Russian-produced Night Guards. Budgeted at over €500,000, the film received €30,000 in support and is being produced by Kino Kultas.

The LFC is supporting the six minority co-production projects with over €500,000. Among them are Corpore Sano by French-based Lithuanian director Alanté Kavaïté, who is returning after her hit sophomore movie, The Summer of Sangaile [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alanté Kavaïté
scheda film] (Artbox, Les Films d’Antoine); the sophomore feature by Estonian director Margus Paju (The Secret Society of Souptown [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]), 0-2 (In Script, Heretic); and In the Mirror [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Laila Pakalniņa
scheda film] by award-winning Latvian filmmaker Laila Pakalniņa (see the news), whose latest effort, Spoon [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Laila Pakalnina
scheda film], premiered at the recent Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Just A Moment, Hargla Company).

The rest of the selection includes the latest documentary project by Sergei Loznitsa, State Funeral [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which depicts the horrifying events that followed Joseph Stalin’s death and is based on found footage (Uljana Kim ir ko); the animated documentary Aurora’s Sunrise [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Inna Sahakyan
scheda film] by Armenian filmmaker Inna Sahakyan, which tells the story of Aurora Mardiganian, one of the biggest celebrities of the silent-film era and a survivor of the 1915-1918 Armenian Genocide (Artbox laisvalaikio klubo); and Chronos, a hyper-realistic virtual-reality installation experience by Swiss director Rafael Bolliger (360 laipsnių filmai).

Furthermore, four feature-length documentaries will be supported with a total grant of over €180,000. The selection includes Hunting by journalist Aistė Stonytė (producer: Ultra Nominum), Sutkography by writer-journalist-director Vytautas V Landsbergis (Studija A Propos), Modern Apartment, staged by Just A Moment, and Waiting for the Miracle, produced by Aloyzo Jančoro videoantologija.

Almost €200,000 were handed out to seven short films, of which two are fictions, three are documentaries, one is animated and one is an interactive experience. It’s also worth noting that, if we include the support for development and the previous slate of funding, this year, more than €117,500 have been allocated to animation projects, and this, coupled with the LFC’s recent presence at Annecy (see the news), proves that it is one of its key focus areas.

Finally, taking into account both of the 2019 slates of funding (see the news), this year, the LFC is backing a total of 81 projects at the development or production stage with an amount of over €4.1 million.