The Macedonian Ministry of Culture and the Macedonian Film Agency within the implementation of the Creative Europe programmes (Culture and MEDIA) organized a two-day event, in cooperation with the Slovenian Creative Europe Desk and the European programs organization Euclid from UK.
The event was held on October 13, 2016 at Porta Macedonia and on 14 October 2016 at the Center for Design and Innovation "Public room" in Skopje.
During the two days there was a presentation of the Creative Europe programs (Culture and MEDIA) and Slovenian and British experiences. Special workshops on Culture and MEDIA programs were also organized, so that the interested operators in the cultural and audiovisual sector are able to get specific information and guidance on projects that they prepare for the upcoming calls for application.
The event was opened by the Macedonian Minister of Culture, Elizabeta Kanceska Milevska and Director of the Macedonian Film Agency, Mimi Gjorgoska Ilievska.
The Minister of culture stated that the Macedonian publishing sector was one of the most successful in its use of funds from the EU program "Culture 2007-2013" and the trend continues with the Creative Europe "Culture" sub-program. It locates Macedonia among the six leading countries, along with Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia and Italy. She also added that the number of projects supported by the new program "Creative Europe" shows excellent results. Our national institutions, NGOs and publishing houses over the past two years participated in 26 projects of the 'Creative Europe' subprogram 'Culture' , supported by more than one million euros: eight cultural cooperation projects, 14 literary translation projects, participation in a project for European platforms, while three Macedonian organizations are actively involved in the category of professional European networks. The interest to participate in this program is really remarkable, coming from our national institutions such as Struga Poetry Evenings, Museum of Bitola and non-governmental organizations from the cultural sector, the Skopje Jazz Festival, the Center for Innovation and Design "Public Room" by Skopje, the Macedonian Music youth and other Macedonian operators.
She also expressed that she is pleased with the support of projects in the "Creative Europe" MEDIA sub-program. Even though the Republic of Macedonia approached in the programme last July, and the office within the Film Agency operates for only six months, ie from April 2016, it has supported projects in three categories: Development projects (Skopje Film Studio with "Sugar Kid") and festivals ( "Makedox" and ICFF "Brothers") with a total grant of 123,000 euros.
The Macedonian Film Agency Director, Mimi Gjorgoska-Ilievska expressed her satisfaction because the Agency is a partner of the Ministry of Culture in implementing the sub-program "MEDIA" and informed on the undertaken, as well as upcoming activities. She also emphasized the already organized info days, presentations and master-classes for "MEDIA" within the Skopje Film Festival, ICFF "Brothers" and "Makedox", the participation in the MEDIA activities of Cannes and Sarajevo Film Festival, participation in online campaign that celebrates the 25th anniversary of the "MEDIA", where in July, Macedonia was a country in focus, and announced the activities that follow such as a master class in collaboration with Midpoint, which will take place within the festival "Cinedays" and the participations in the annual meeting of Creative Europe in Brussels and regional "MEDIA" conference of the Zagreb film Festival. In addition the office of "MEDIA" maintains consultative sessions with Macedonian filmmakers and producers and is in communication with the other offices of the sub-program "MEDIA".
On this occasion Gjorgoska-Ilievska informed about the results in the film sector from 2008 to 2015, during which the Film Agency of supported 225 film projects and noted that in 2016, 24 new films are expected to be completed, including five feature films with majority Macedonian support, four with Macedonian minority support (ie international co-productions), four documentaries and eleven short films. She stressed that the accession to the sub-program "MEDIA" despite the continuous support of the Film Agency opens new opportunities for Macedonian filmmakers in realization of their projects and added that the office of "Media", which for half a year operates within the premieses of the Agency, headed by Vladimir Stojcevski is at thedisposal for all information and technical support on upcoming calls for application.
