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PRESS RELEASE

2 nd Press release

15th ANNUAL DAYS OF EUROPEAN FILM

Prague 17 – 29 April 08 / Brno 25 – 30 April 08 / Olomouc 28 April – 2 May 08

The 15th ANNUAL DAYS OF EUROPEAN FILM is set to kick off in Prague on 17 April 2008 at Světozor Cinema with the German film The Wave (Die Welle, dir. Dennis Gansel, 2008, distributor: SPI International).

After that, Prague audiences will have the opportunity to see some 38 feature and 14 short pure European films at Aero and Světozor theatres until 29 April 2008, when the Prague segment of the festival will close at Světozor with the Irish movie The Tiger's Tale (dir. John Boorman, 2006).

As in years past, the festival will then head to Brno, with screenings in Kinosál B. Bakaly from 25 – 30 April 2008. And this year, for the first time ever, DEF will open to film fans in Olomouc with screenings from 28 April – 2 May 2008. The DEF “Regional Echoes” – featuring a selection of films from the DEF program – will take place in Boskovice and Uherské Hradiště.

All films will be screened in their original languages (most with English subtitles) and will be translated into Czech simultaneously through headphones.

For English-language enthusiasts, we have prepared the ever popular all-night four-film projection extravaganza – the “European Film Marathon” – the only movies in the program that will not be translated into Czech. This year’s marathon will be held twice, on 19 April in Světozor theatre and on 25 April in Aero theatre.

On 23 April at Prague’s Světozor theatre, a seminar for cinema operators and distributors, focusing on “How to obtain financial support from the EU for operating cinemas” and “Digital cinemas and digital co-distribution,” will take place in conjunction with the festival. The seminar will be moderated Ivo Andrle, the director of Aero Cinema, and participants will include Alexander Syllaba, who will present Austria’s Paradiso Cinema, which won a prestigious Europa Cinemas Award in 2007, and Alexander Stolz, executive director of the UK Film Council’s digital distribution and cinema section, who will present Great Britain’s Digital Screen Network cinema digitization project.

This year’s festival brings a number of changes and new events. Besides the change of dates from January to April, we have expanded the festival to the city of Olomouc, which had to date been one of the “regional echo cities”.  Furthermore, we will introduce the festival’s new trailer, crafted by the Mods directorial duo and the production company Bistro Films, and last but not least, we’ll offer a bilingual catalogue.

All additional information about the festival, the full program, catalogues, a list of guests, and the accreditation form will be available at the main press conference, which is scheduled for Thursday, 3 April in Prague’s Černín Palace.

The festival takes place under the auspices of Czech Culture Minister Václav Jehlička, the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic, the Mayor of Prague, Pavel Bém, the Mayor of Brno, Roman Onderka, and the Mayor of Olomouc, Martin Novotný.

The festival is organized by embassies and cultural institutes of current and future member states of the European Union and the City of Prague with support from the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic the Czech Ministry of Culture, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Brno Cultural Center,  PasticheFilmz and Eurimages.

The festival’s general partner is FILM+ and its media partners are Óčko TV, Express Radio, Metropolis and Time In magazines and TV Star.

The DEF program is aimed at all audiences and is not genre or thematically oriented – the only criteria is variety and quality. The program offers family movies, art-house titles, and films from well known directors as well as directorial debuts, not to mention a selection of short films by students at Prague’s FAMU and the Film School in Písek. Additionally, this year’s program will include a selection of films from European film schools chosen in cooperation with the organizers of Fresh Film Fest.

On behalf of the festival team,

Anna Bartošková
DEF PR Service

CONTACT:
Days of European Film
Národní třída 28, 110 00, Prague 1
tel: +420 603 844 811, +420 604 607 477
fax: +420 221 105 303
info@eurofilmfest.cz
press@eurofilmfest.cz
www.eurofilmfest.cz