The International Cinematographers Film Festival "Manaki Brothers" - Bitola will present itself at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, which takes place from 13 to 24 May. The entire project is being realized in collaboration with the Film Agency of the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonian Cinematheque. The motto under which we will present ourselves is a "Lens thru time".
The festival will be presented within the South-East European Pavilion. In the year when the world, and especially Cannes, celebrate 120 years since the first screening of the Lumière Brothers, Macedonia and the Balkans also have what to be proud of - the 110 anniversary since the work of the first photographers and cinematographers at the Balkans. At today's press-conference, the Festival Director, Dimitar Nikolov, explained what the purpose of our presentation at Cannes is. Promotional materials of various kinds (cards, brochures, fliers, DVDs with the Manaki Brothers' films...) will be presented to prominent persons from the film industry, sales agents, distributors.
- The promotion in Cannes is very important from several aspect. During the festival days, Cannes is the center of the film world and that's why thought we could take advantage of it to promote our own festival. We would like to draw as much attention as possible to our festival. Moreover, we would like to provide the festival with as much support as possible from European film funds. We have prepared interesting promotional materials, and it would be even more important for us to meet the representatives of the film industry. Those are our potential guests for the 36th festival edition. The 110 years jubilee of the Manaki Brothers is a strong ace up our sleeve - Nikolov said. The original idea for a presentation at Cannes came from the Art Director of the "Manaki Brothers", Blagoja Kunovski.
- When the web-site of the 68th Cannes Film Festival announced that the 120 year anniversary since the first film footage and the birth of film by French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière are being celebrated, I sat down and wrote the draft-project for Cannes, bearing in mind the great and inevitable occasion - 110 years since the creation of the Manaki Brothers. Therefore, the focus will be on the festival with its past 35 editions and the photographic and cinematographic opus of the Manaki Brothers; at the same time, this is also an excellent occasion to promote Macedonian cinematography, in collaboration with the Film Agency, the Film Professionals' Association and the Macedonian Cinematheque - Kunovski said.
Within this unique presentation in Cannes, we have also prepared a special surprise for the most distinguished guests, the representatives of festivals and film institutions. For them all, our friends from the Tikvesh Winery have provided an authentic gift from Macedonia - the superb red wine "Barovo" ranked with the highest ratings by world-renowned wine critics from the caliber of Robert Parker, with a wine label designed especially for this occasion.
The promotional materials will also feature a brochure for promotion of Bitola and the "Bitola Filmland" project. For this goal we got the support of the Mayor of Bitola, Vladimir Taleski, as well as the Director of the Center of Culture, Borche Dimitrovski.