The CEO of the distribution company Film Europe has created the first French Film Week in Bratislava, to be held March 6-12, 2014.
Slovak distributors who acquire film rights for their country from foreign film export companies are few and far between. Indeed, despite the splitting of Czechoslovakia into the Czech and Slovak Republics twenty-two years ago, film rights for Slovakia are generally acquired by Czech distributors, with the Slovak territory still included in acquisition contracts. Film Europe, based in Slovakia, is an exception to this rule, acquiring distribution rights for both countries. Its CEO Ivan Hronec has, over the past five years, built up a media company specializing in film distribution as well as managing the Slovak thematic television networks Kino CS, Doku CS, and Muzika CS. This innovative combination of activities will soon be enlarged to include the Film Europe Channel, a pay-TV network that will initially be available in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and later throughout Europe.
To promote the films he has acquired, Ivan Hronec has created a new event, the French Film Week in Bratislava, with support from the French Embassy in Slovakia, the French Institute, and UniFrance Films, with its first edition to be held March 6 through 12, 2014. The festival lineup is composed of 29 films, including six premieres. The event will open at the Cinema City at the Eurovea complex with a screening of Tour de Force, in the presence of the film's director Laurent Tuel. The remaining screenings will take place at the Pisztory Palace. Following its presentation in Bratislava, the festival will travel to a dozen cities across Slovakia.