Film festival rescued by lottery and football funds

RIGA - The 11th Balticum Film & TV Festival was rescued from demise at the last minute by a special grant of 350,000 Danish krones ($50,000) allocated by the Danish Ministry of Culture on Feb. 3 from the State Lottery and Football Pool Funds.

The date of the festival, June 3-9, was set, but the organizers, The Baltic Media Center and The Danish Film Institute had problems collecting the 1.6 million DKK needed for the event. The DFI can cover 440,000 Danish krones, and the rest will be covered by BMC and sponsors.

Organizers can now plan a program matching those of previous years including the Balticum Competition for documentaries from all nine Baltic Sea countries, meeting talented young directors through the European Film School Competition, seminars with outstanding European professionals and showing feature films and children's films.

Film professionals from all over Europe will gather for the week-long film outing on the Danish Island of Bornholm at the village of Gughjem. The festival was initiated in 1990 to help develop film making in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Deadline for submitting films for consideration in the Balticum competition is March 1.