An initiative of the EU MEDIA Programme with the support of the Italian Government Since 1992 MEDIA Salles has been promoting the European cinema and its circulation at theatrical level
FOCUS ON EUROPE - Kidflix Special - Speciale ragazzi

 

 

 

 

PRESS RELEASE



To communicate with MEDIA Salles, please use the following e-mail address only: infocinema@mediasalles.it

Milan, 1 June 2004

Thursday 3 June will see the first day of a new "Focus on Europe - Kidflix Special", the event that MEDIA Salles devotes each year to European exhibitors committed to programming for children and schools. Following the festivals of Castellinaria (Switzerland) and Giffoni (Italy), the initiative will be hosted this year by the 44th International Children's Film Festival of Zlín, in the Czech Republic.

Zlín: from shoes to films
Zlín, also known as Gottwaldov, the name it was given during the Communist regime, and which it retained from the '50s to the '90s, became an important centre of industry at the beginning of the Nineteen Hundreds, thanks to Tomas Bata, who founded the homonymous shoe-making industry there, also building houses, hospitals, schools, a public transport system and a Studio of Animation, directed by Hermina Trilova, where advertising was made. Here Karel Zeman worked and, together with Trilova, made the Zlín studios famous: in '45 Zeman made his first short film, A Christmas Dream, which won an award at Cannes. Since then, a large number of short and full-length films of great importance, also from an experimental point of view, have been produced in these studios, which participants in the MEDIA Salles Focus event will be visiting in the next few days. The International Festival that will host them, held for the first time 44 years ago, also boasts one of the longest-standing traditions in the field. Last year's Festival, which presented 232 films from 34 different nations, drew over 40,000 spectators.

Focus on Europe - Kidflix Special
As well as attending several pre-screenings of European films - some alongside the Festival's young audiences - and visiting the studios, the exhibitors taking part in Focus will have the opportunity of sharing their most significant experiences in the promotion of cinemas and the organisation of ancillary events. In Prague they will visit three cinemas of particular importance in terms of technological innovations or programming: Lucerna Kino, Svetozor Kino and Slovanský Dum, a city multiplex belonging to the Palace Cinemas chain, with the only digital screen in the Czech Republic.

The two customary sections of the "Euro Kids" award, the first for theatres that have carried out the best programming, ancillary events and promotion of European films on behalf of young people, and the second for a European children's film with high potential for international circulation, will be presented this year at the closing ceremony of the Zlín Festival, which will be broadcast live on national television.

For further information:
MEDIA Salles
Via Soperga, 2
20127 Milano
Tel.: +39.02.66984405 - Fax: +39.02.6691574
E-mail: infocinema@mediasalles.it

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