Katrin Pors of Denmark’s Snowglobe and Jussi Rantamaki of Finland’s Aamu Film Company are among the 12 producers selected for Ace Leadership Special, the business workshop hosted by the Ace Producers network.
The 2024 edition will take place in Bergen in the Netherlands in June and Mallorca in Spain in September, with online elements over the summer.
Scroll down for the full Ace Leadership 2024 selection
Danish producer Pors produced Hlynur Palmason’s Cannes 2022 title Godland, which became Iceland’s entry for the best international feature award at the 2024 Oscars. Her other credits include Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara, Dagur Kari...
The 2024 edition will take place in Bergen in the Netherlands in June and Mallorca in Spain in September, with online elements over the summer.
Scroll down for the full Ace Leadership 2024 selection
Danish producer Pors produced Hlynur Palmason’s Cannes 2022 title Godland, which became Iceland’s entry for the best international feature award at the 2024 Oscars. Her other credits include Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara, Dagur Kari...
- 4/2/2024
- ScreenDaily
The European Film Academy has unveiled its new board which has been voted in under updated guidelines aimed at ensuring a more balanced geographical representation of its members.
Three incumbent board members have been re-elected for a fresh two-year term running from 2024-25. Mike Downey (Ireland/UK) will continue as chair of the board with Joanna Szymańska (Poland) joining Ada Solomon (Romania) as Deputy Chair.
Another eight new members have been voted in for the next two years, while a further six incumbent members will continue their mandate until the end of 2024.
The new structure has increased board representation of members in countries in Northeastern and Southeastern Europe such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia.
A new seat representing members from transnational populations is dedicated to Sámi filmmakers from 2024-2025, followed by Romani filmmakers for 2026-2027.
Anne-Lajla Utsi (Sápmi/Norway), who is head...
Three incumbent board members have been re-elected for a fresh two-year term running from 2024-25. Mike Downey (Ireland/UK) will continue as chair of the board with Joanna Szymańska (Poland) joining Ada Solomon (Romania) as Deputy Chair.
Another eight new members have been voted in for the next two years, while a further six incumbent members will continue their mandate until the end of 2024.
The new structure has increased board representation of members in countries in Northeastern and Southeastern Europe such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia.
A new seat representing members from transnational populations is dedicated to Sámi filmmakers from 2024-2025, followed by Romani filmmakers for 2026-2027.
Anne-Lajla Utsi (Sápmi/Norway), who is head...
- 1/10/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Board has greater representation of filmmakers from North- and Southeastern Europe.
Eight people have been voted onto the board of the European Film Academy following a restructure to improve representation from across Europe.
They include Giorgos Karnavas, co-founder of Athens- based production company and sales firm Heretic; Tine Klint, founder of Copenhagen sales company LevelK; and Hanka Kastelicová, HBO Max’s VP documentaries for Emea, from the Czech Republic.
Also joining the board are Lithuanian producer Marija Razgutė, whose most recent film Slow world premiered at Karlovy Vary this year; Turkish producer and festival director Başak Emre; Spain’s Paz Lázaro,...
Eight people have been voted onto the board of the European Film Academy following a restructure to improve representation from across Europe.
They include Giorgos Karnavas, co-founder of Athens- based production company and sales firm Heretic; Tine Klint, founder of Copenhagen sales company LevelK; and Hanka Kastelicová, HBO Max’s VP documentaries for Emea, from the Czech Republic.
Also joining the board are Lithuanian producer Marija Razgutė, whose most recent film Slow world premiered at Karlovy Vary this year; Turkish producer and festival director Başak Emre; Spain’s Paz Lázaro,...
- 1/10/2024
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Documentaries about the impact of war claimed two of the top prizes as the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam handed out awards Thursday night.
1489, directed by Armenian filmmaker Shoghakat Vardanyan, won Best Film in International Competition. The film revolves around the disappearance of the director’s 21-year-old brother, Soghomon Vardanyan, who went missing in the early days of the renewed fighting in 2020 between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area Armenians refer to as Artsakh.
The award comes with a €15,000 cash prize. The jury members of the International Competition were Emilie Bujès, Francesco Giai Via, Tabitha Jackson, Ada Solomon, and Xiaoshuai Wang.
‘1489’
Jurors called 1489, “A film that acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence. Cinema as a tool of survival—to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see.
1489, directed by Armenian filmmaker Shoghakat Vardanyan, won Best Film in International Competition. The film revolves around the disappearance of the director’s 21-year-old brother, Soghomon Vardanyan, who went missing in the early days of the renewed fighting in 2020 between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area Armenians refer to as Artsakh.
The award comes with a €15,000 cash prize. The jury members of the International Competition were Emilie Bujès, Francesco Giai Via, Tabitha Jackson, Ada Solomon, and Xiaoshuai Wang.
‘1489’
Jurors called 1489, “A film that acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence. Cinema as a tool of survival—to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see.
- 11/17/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Shoghakat Vardanyan’s “1489,” which follows the director’s family after her brother goes missing while serving in the Armenian army, won documentary festival IDFA’s best film prize Thursday.
The jury of the International Competition section said the film “acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence.”
The jury added that it was “cinema as a tool of survival — to allow us all to look at the things we would rather not see, and ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love.”
The best directing award went to Mohamed Jabaly for “Life Is Beautiful,” in which the Palestinian filmmaker documents his life in 2014 when he was visiting Norway and was prevented from returning home to Gaza because the border was closed.
“Life Is Beautiful”
The jury members said the film was “a...
The jury of the International Competition section said the film “acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence.”
The jury added that it was “cinema as a tool of survival — to allow us all to look at the things we would rather not see, and ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love.”
The best directing award went to Mohamed Jabaly for “Life Is Beautiful,” in which the Palestinian filmmaker documents his life in 2014 when he was visiting Norway and was prevented from returning home to Gaza because the border was closed.
“Life Is Beautiful”
The jury members said the film was “a...
- 11/16/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Maria Hatzakou and Alexandra Matheou’s “Stringa,” a female-led folk-horror set in remote rural Greece, won the top prize at Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Crossroads Co-Production Forum, which wrapped with an award ceremony Wednesday.
The Greek project took home the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, giving full post-production image and sound support to a film that’s in development. This will be a debut feature for Matheou and Hatzakou, who also produces the film under her label Merricat. She was the one to receive the prize from the jury, which called the project “very solid and persuasive” in the ways in which it “addresses freedom of choice in a patriarchal society.”
The directors, who also co-wrote the script, describe it as “a film about the female experience,” a subversive horror that “touches on post-generational trauma and the sly ways by which the patriarchy still manages to impose itself on our lives and choices.
The Greek project took home the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, giving full post-production image and sound support to a film that’s in development. This will be a debut feature for Matheou and Hatzakou, who also produces the film under her label Merricat. She was the one to receive the prize from the jury, which called the project “very solid and persuasive” in the ways in which it “addresses freedom of choice in a patriarchal society.”
The directors, who also co-wrote the script, describe it as “a film about the female experience,” a subversive horror that “touches on post-generational trauma and the sly ways by which the patriarchy still manages to impose itself on our lives and choices.
- 11/9/2023
- by Savina Petkova
- Variety Film + TV
When Roma actress-turned-director Alina Șerban reflects on her life, rising from an impoverished background in Bucharest to become an acclaimed and groundbreaking force on stage and screen, she describes it as “an urban Cinderella story.” A review from one of her first stage shows, she says, sums it up best: “Roma actress beats the odds.”
As a multi-faceted artist, Șerban has dedicated her life and career to reframing the narrative about her marginalized community. Now she’s developing her feature-length directorial debut, “I Matter,” a deeply personal story about a young Roma woman studying to be an actor who, faced with the threat of being kicked out of her orphanage, must suddenly confront the reality of making it through life on her own.
“I Matter” is among the projects being pitched this week at the Crossroads Co-Production Forum, which takes places Nov. 5 – 9 during the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Written and directed by Șerban,...
As a multi-faceted artist, Șerban has dedicated her life and career to reframing the narrative about her marginalized community. Now she’s developing her feature-length directorial debut, “I Matter,” a deeply personal story about a young Roma woman studying to be an actor who, faced with the threat of being kicked out of her orphanage, must suddenly confront the reality of making it through life on her own.
“I Matter” is among the projects being pitched this week at the Crossroads Co-Production Forum, which takes places Nov. 5 – 9 during the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Written and directed by Șerban,...
- 11/5/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Arthouse streaming platform Mubi has pounced on Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World, the new satire from Romanian director Radu Jude (Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn), picking up the film for multiple territories, including North America.
The film, a feminist satire that looks at two women fighting the patriarchy in Romania, in the past and present, Do Not Expect Too Much premiered in Locarno and is screening at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. Romania has picked it to be its official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category.
Mubi has scored rights for the film in the U.S., Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Turkey and Latin America in a deal with sales company Heretic. Heretic has also secured sales across Europe with multiple indie buyers, including with Filmin in Spain, I Wonder Pictures in Italy, Njutafilms for the Nordic territories,...
The film, a feminist satire that looks at two women fighting the patriarchy in Romania, in the past and present, Do Not Expect Too Much premiered in Locarno and is screening at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. Romania has picked it to be its official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category.
Mubi has scored rights for the film in the U.S., Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Turkey and Latin America in a deal with sales company Heretic. Heretic has also secured sales across Europe with multiple indie buyers, including with Filmin in Spain, I Wonder Pictures in Italy, Njutafilms for the Nordic territories,...
- 9/8/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, which has just been submitted as Romania’s official entry into the Best International Feature Film Oscar race, has been picked up by Mubi for multiple key territories.
Related: Best International Feature Film Oscar Winners: Photo Gallery
The streamer has taken all rights for U.S. and streaming rights for Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Turkey and Latin America in advance of its North American premiere at Toronto on September 9.
Sales company Heretic has also cinched distribution deals in a flurry of territories: I Wonder Pictures (Italy); Filmin (Spain); Njutafilms; Films4U (Portugal); Aurora (Poland); Filmgarten (Austria); European Film Forum Scanorama (Lithuania); and Cinobo (Greece). Warner Bros. Discovery has picked up Eastern and Central European rights and will be shown on HBO, HBO Max and Cinemax in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic,...
Related: Best International Feature Film Oscar Winners: Photo Gallery
The streamer has taken all rights for U.S. and streaming rights for Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Turkey and Latin America in advance of its North American premiere at Toronto on September 9.
Sales company Heretic has also cinched distribution deals in a flurry of territories: I Wonder Pictures (Italy); Filmin (Spain); Njutafilms; Films4U (Portugal); Aurora (Poland); Filmgarten (Austria); European Film Forum Scanorama (Lithuania); and Cinobo (Greece). Warner Bros. Discovery has picked up Eastern and Central European rights and will be shown on HBO, HBO Max and Cinemax in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic,...
- 9/8/2023
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
Sovereign has acquired the U.K. and Ireland rights to Radu Jude’s latest feature, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” which won the special jury prize at Locarno Film Festival.
Written and directed by Jude, the comedy stars Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Dorina Lazăr, László Miske, Katia Pascariu and Sofia Nicolaescu, with cameos from Nina Hoss and Uwe Boll. According to its official synopsis, the film follows an overworked production assistant who is instructed to “film a workplace safety video commissioned by a multinational company. But an interviewee makes a statement which forces him to reinvent his story to suit the company’s narrative.”
“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” recently premiered at Locarno, where it was nominated for the Golden Leopard Award for best film and won the festival’s special jury prize. The film was well-received by critics at the fest,...
Written and directed by Jude, the comedy stars Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Dorina Lazăr, László Miske, Katia Pascariu and Sofia Nicolaescu, with cameos from Nina Hoss and Uwe Boll. According to its official synopsis, the film follows an overworked production assistant who is instructed to “film a workplace safety video commissioned by a multinational company. But an interviewee makes a statement which forces him to reinvent his story to suit the company’s narrative.”
“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” recently premiered at Locarno, where it was nominated for the Golden Leopard Award for best film and won the festival’s special jury prize. The film was well-received by critics at the fest,...
- 8/16/2023
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
The jury for the Docu Talents From the East Award, presented Sunday as part of CineLink Industry Days at the Sarajevo Film Festival, split the award between two projects: “A Picture to Remember” by Ukrainian director Olga Chernykh and producer Regina Maryanovska-Davidzon, and the Czech-Slovak co-production “Chronicle” by Martin Kollar. The award comes with a cash prize of $5,000.
Eight documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe, planned for theatrical release during the next 12 months, were presented in the program, which is curated by the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival.
The DAFilms.com Distribution Award went to “An Almost Perfect Family” by Romanian director Tudor Platon, produced by Carla Fotea and Ada Solomon. The award includes an international VOD release on DAFilms.com for two years.
The jury said: “The personal and intimate ‘A Picture to Remember’ presents a unique vision of life during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Through the...
Eight documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe, planned for theatrical release during the next 12 months, were presented in the program, which is curated by the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival.
The DAFilms.com Distribution Award went to “An Almost Perfect Family” by Romanian director Tudor Platon, produced by Carla Fotea and Ada Solomon. The award includes an international VOD release on DAFilms.com for two years.
The jury said: “The personal and intimate ‘A Picture to Remember’ presents a unique vision of life during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Through the...
- 8/14/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The lineup for Docu Talents From the East – a showcase of standout documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe that are in post-production – has been unveiled.
Eight documentary projects will be presented on Aug. 13 at Sarajevo Film Festival. The event is part of CineLink Industry Day, the festival’s program for film and TV professionals.
The most promising project will receive the Docu Talent Award in cooperation with Current Time TV. The award is accompanied by a cash prize of $5,000. The DAFilms.com Distribution Award will cover services worth €3,000, including an international VOD release on DAFilms.com for two years. The awards ceremony will take place on Aug. 13 at Sarajevo Producers’ Hub.
Marek Hovorka, director of the Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival, which organizes and curates Docu Talents, said: “The protagonists of the presented films are exploring their family roots and cultural background, striving for a fairer and more open world,...
Eight documentary projects will be presented on Aug. 13 at Sarajevo Film Festival. The event is part of CineLink Industry Day, the festival’s program for film and TV professionals.
The most promising project will receive the Docu Talent Award in cooperation with Current Time TV. The award is accompanied by a cash prize of $5,000. The DAFilms.com Distribution Award will cover services worth €3,000, including an international VOD release on DAFilms.com for two years. The awards ceremony will take place on Aug. 13 at Sarajevo Producers’ Hub.
Marek Hovorka, director of the Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival, which organizes and curates Docu Talents, said: “The protagonists of the presented films are exploring their family roots and cultural background, striving for a fairer and more open world,...
- 8/7/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin Golden Bear winner Radu Jude, whose latest feature, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” premieres Aug. 4 in competition at the Locarno Film Festival, is in post-production on his next film, Variety can reveal.
“Eight Postcards From Utopia” is a found-footage documentary assembled from advertisements made during the post-socialist period in Romania. Co-directed by Jude and the philosopher Christian Ferencz-Flatz, and edited by long-time collaborator Catalin Cristutiu, the film turns the fictional and often ludicrous medium of advertising clips into a lens on the desires, beliefs, hopes and fears of a country making the turbulent transition to democratic capitalism.
The documentary, which will be completed by the end of the year, is a continuation of a “preoccupation of mine about how images are constructed in the world,” Jude told Variety. “The use of images, the way they are made, the way they are used.”
The...
“Eight Postcards From Utopia” is a found-footage documentary assembled from advertisements made during the post-socialist period in Romania. Co-directed by Jude and the philosopher Christian Ferencz-Flatz, and edited by long-time collaborator Catalin Cristutiu, the film turns the fictional and often ludicrous medium of advertising clips into a lens on the desires, beliefs, hopes and fears of a country making the turbulent transition to democratic capitalism.
The documentary, which will be completed by the end of the year, is a continuation of a “preoccupation of mine about how images are constructed in the world,” Jude told Variety. “The use of images, the way they are made, the way they are used.”
The...
- 8/3/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The festival closed on July 1.
Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s experimental mix of documentary and fiction Four Daughters won the main €50,000 Arri award for best international film in the CineMasters competition at Filmfest München on July 1.
The film’s German co-producer Thanassis Karathanos of Berlin-based Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion quipped he had written so many cheques to Arri in the past and it was nice to be having one now coming in the other direction, when accepting the award at the festival’s closing ceremony,
Four Daughters is the second collaboration between Karathanos and Martin Hampel’s Twenty Twenty...
Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s experimental mix of documentary and fiction Four Daughters won the main €50,000 Arri award for best international film in the CineMasters competition at Filmfest München on July 1.
The film’s German co-producer Thanassis Karathanos of Berlin-based Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion quipped he had written so many cheques to Arri in the past and it was nice to be having one now coming in the other direction, when accepting the award at the festival’s closing ceremony,
Four Daughters is the second collaboration between Karathanos and Martin Hampel’s Twenty Twenty...
- 7/3/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Amid turbulent times for global streaming services who continue to course correct after years of pursuing subscriber growth at all costs, TV writers and producers in Eastern Europe are pondering the next step for a region still searching for its first international breakout hit.
“The biggest challenge is the great Netflix correction — the recalibration, the reassessment of dollars,” Ioanina Pavel, who served as creative producer on the HBO Max original series “Spy/Master,” said Friday at the Transilvania Film Festival. “It’s not a bad thing, but it is a challenge. There’s been a glut. The Golden Age of TV is now coming to a close. It’s not a bad thing; it just means a reallocation of money.”
“Spy/Master,” a six-part drama series set during the Cold War that dropped its final episode last week, is one of the last productions from Central and Eastern Europe for Max, after...
“The biggest challenge is the great Netflix correction — the recalibration, the reassessment of dollars,” Ioanina Pavel, who served as creative producer on the HBO Max original series “Spy/Master,” said Friday at the Transilvania Film Festival. “It’s not a bad thing, but it is a challenge. There’s been a glut. The Golden Age of TV is now coming to a close. It’s not a bad thing; it just means a reallocation of money.”
“Spy/Master,” a six-part drama series set during the Cold War that dropped its final episode last week, is one of the last productions from Central and Eastern Europe for Max, after...
- 6/17/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Second edition of the scheme will take place in Veneto in June and Amsterdam in September.
Lava Films’ Mariusz Wlodarski from Poland and Topkapi Films’ Frans van Gestel from the Netherlands are among 12 producers selected for the second edition of Ace Leadership Special, a business workshop hosted by the Ace Producers network.
The 2023 edition will take place in Italy in June and in the Netherlands in September, with online elements over the summer.
Scroll down for the 2023 selection
Ace Leadership Special aims to help producers sustain solid business foundations, improve performance and prospects for their companies and develop their personal leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Lava Films’ Mariusz Wlodarski from Poland and Topkapi Films’ Frans van Gestel from the Netherlands are among 12 producers selected for the second edition of Ace Leadership Special, a business workshop hosted by the Ace Producers network.
The 2023 edition will take place in Italy in June and in the Netherlands in September, with online elements over the summer.
Scroll down for the 2023 selection
Ace Leadership Special aims to help producers sustain solid business foundations, improve performance and prospects for their companies and develop their personal leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
- 4/12/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin Festival’s ever larger three-day Berlinale Series Market kicks off today, Feb. 20. Below just a small selection of the series screening at the Market or in Berlinale Series, the festival strand. The selection could have been much larger.
About Antoine
Berlinale Series Market Selects
Canada
Creator: Cathleen Rouleau
Production company: ComediHa!
Broadcaster: Club illico, Tva (Quebecor)
An insight into the life of a family with all the quirks, highs and lows it entails, tackling a rarely explored theme in fiction: Life with a multi-handicapped child.
Rouleau: “I didn’t want to write a gut-wrenching story. A good show is wrapped in truth. It doesn’t matter if the hero spits fire from his mouth, as long as he is true to himself.”
Agent
Berlinale Series
Denmark
Creator, director: Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Production company: Zentropa Productions2
Broadcaster: TV2
Johan’s job is to solve his clients’ problems. Chronically overstretched,...
About Antoine
Berlinale Series Market Selects
Canada
Creator: Cathleen Rouleau
Production company: ComediHa!
Broadcaster: Club illico, Tva (Quebecor)
An insight into the life of a family with all the quirks, highs and lows it entails, tackling a rarely explored theme in fiction: Life with a multi-handicapped child.
Rouleau: “I didn’t want to write a gut-wrenching story. A good show is wrapped in truth. It doesn’t matter if the hero spits fire from his mouth, as long as he is true to himself.”
Agent
Berlinale Series
Denmark
Creator, director: Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Production company: Zentropa Productions2
Broadcaster: TV2
Johan’s job is to solve his clients’ problems. Chronically overstretched,...
- 2/20/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Berlinale Series, established in 2015, keeps offering new shows proper cinema treatment. But it’s not just about that “dark room and the level of concentration you hardly get when you sit on a sofa,” explains head of the event Julia Fidel, noting a surge in stories with a “reasonable” budget.
“We want to screen very different episodic narrative styles from any country in the world. There is this expectation of showcasing ‘blockbuster’ series, which we also include, but the real benefit of [having] a series section at a major festival are the discoveries.”
Such as Market Selects’ Israeli offering “Traitor.” “If the story is outstanding and the characters relatable, the language doesn’t matter,” state showrunners Ron Leshem and Amit Cohen.
“Good shows have to be meaningful,” states Cristina Iliescu, creator- director of Co-Pro Series title “Export Only,” the first foray into series by “Bad Luck Banging” producer Ada Solomon.
“We want to screen very different episodic narrative styles from any country in the world. There is this expectation of showcasing ‘blockbuster’ series, which we also include, but the real benefit of [having] a series section at a major festival are the discoveries.”
Such as Market Selects’ Israeli offering “Traitor.” “If the story is outstanding and the characters relatable, the language doesn’t matter,” state showrunners Ron Leshem and Amit Cohen.
“Good shows have to be meaningful,” states Cristina Iliescu, creator- director of Co-Pro Series title “Export Only,” the first foray into series by “Bad Luck Banging” producer Ada Solomon.
- 2/20/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Danger Zone
Director: Vita Maria Drygas
Producer: Vita Żelakeviciute
Production companies: Drygas Film Production
Sales: Dogwoof
Documentary is a journey to places devastated by military conflicts, seen through the eyes of thrill-seeking tourists.
Delegation
(Generation 14plus)
Director: Asaf Saban
Cast: Yoav Bavly, Neomi Harari, Leib Lev Levin, Ezra Dagan, Alma Dishy
Producers: Agnieszka Dziedzic, Yoav Roeh, Aurit Zamir, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad
Production companies: Koi Studio, Gum Films, In Good Co.
Sales: New Europe Film Sales
Three Israeli friends visit Holocaust sites in Poland before their stints in the army, and deal with love, friendship and politics.
Disco Boy
(Competition)
Director: Giacomo Abbruzzese
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Morr Ndiaye, Laëtitia Ky, Leon Lučev
Producers: Lionel Massol, Pauline Seigland
Production companies: Films Grand Huit, Dugong Films, Panache Productions, La Compagnie Cinématographique, Donten & Lacroix, Division
Sales: Charades
Aleksei reaches Paris to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, which allows any foreigner, even undocumented, to be granted a French passport.
Director: Vita Maria Drygas
Producer: Vita Żelakeviciute
Production companies: Drygas Film Production
Sales: Dogwoof
Documentary is a journey to places devastated by military conflicts, seen through the eyes of thrill-seeking tourists.
Delegation
(Generation 14plus)
Director: Asaf Saban
Cast: Yoav Bavly, Neomi Harari, Leib Lev Levin, Ezra Dagan, Alma Dishy
Producers: Agnieszka Dziedzic, Yoav Roeh, Aurit Zamir, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad
Production companies: Koi Studio, Gum Films, In Good Co.
Sales: New Europe Film Sales
Three Israeli friends visit Holocaust sites in Poland before their stints in the army, and deal with love, friendship and politics.
Disco Boy
(Competition)
Director: Giacomo Abbruzzese
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Morr Ndiaye, Laëtitia Ky, Leon Lučev
Producers: Lionel Massol, Pauline Seigland
Production companies: Films Grand Huit, Dugong Films, Panache Productions, La Compagnie Cinématographique, Donten & Lacroix, Division
Sales: Charades
Aleksei reaches Paris to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, which allows any foreigner, even undocumented, to be granted a French passport.
- 2/19/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Athens-based Heretic has acquired worlds sales rights for “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” the latest film from Berlinale Golden Bear winner Radu Jude (“Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn”), who is serving on the international jury at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
Divided into two parts, Jadu’s latest follows an overworked and underpaid production assistant who must drive around the city of Bucharest to film the casting for a workplace safety video commissioned by a multinational company. In the film’s second half, one of her interviewees makes a statement that ignites a scandal, forcing him to re-invent his story to suit the company’s narrative.
Borrowing from a phrase by Polish aphorist and poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” is “part comedy, part road movie, part montage,” looking at different aspects of work,...
Divided into two parts, Jadu’s latest follows an overworked and underpaid production assistant who must drive around the city of Bucharest to film the casting for a workplace safety video commissioned by a multinational company. In the film’s second half, one of her interviewees makes a statement that ignites a scandal, forcing him to re-invent his story to suit the company’s narrative.
Borrowing from a phrase by Polish aphorist and poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” is “part comedy, part road movie, part montage,” looking at different aspects of work,...
- 2/17/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Italy-based sales agent Lights On has acquired world rights for “Mammalia” by Romanian director Sebastian Mihăilescu, ahead of its world premiere in the Berlinale Forum strand. It has debuted the film’s trailer (below).
In “Mammalia,” 39-year-old Camil (István Téglás) embarks on a dreamlike trip where the banal and the surreal merge. Struggling to come to terms with losing control – of his work, his social status, his relationship – Camil sets off on a search that leads him to question the basis of his identity as a man. He pursues his girlfriend (Mălina Manovici) into an increasingly bizarre and disturbing world of community and ritual before being confronted by a tragi-comic role-reversal that leads us to question everything.
Mihăilescu comments: “The film satirizes the way that classic binary gender roles are often rigidly defined in society, and it highlights the performative nature of gender identity, emphasizing the ways in which, by assuming our gendered role,...
In “Mammalia,” 39-year-old Camil (István Téglás) embarks on a dreamlike trip where the banal and the surreal merge. Struggling to come to terms with losing control – of his work, his social status, his relationship – Camil sets off on a search that leads him to question the basis of his identity as a man. He pursues his girlfriend (Mălina Manovici) into an increasingly bizarre and disturbing world of community and ritual before being confronted by a tragi-comic role-reversal that leads us to question everything.
Mihăilescu comments: “The film satirizes the way that classic binary gender roles are often rigidly defined in society, and it highlights the performative nature of gender identity, emphasizing the ways in which, by assuming our gendered role,...
- 1/26/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Mammalia
Production on Sebastian Mihăilescu‘s debut film (it was known as Double Happiness then) in October of 2021 and it received an invite to Berlinale’s Forum section. The Romanian filmmaker’s Mammalia is described as a surreal drama exploring contemporary masculinity via a man who wakes to discover his penis has disappeared during the night. Bucharest is the film’s backdrop. Microfilm’s Diana Păroiu and Ada Solomon produced the film. The cast includes István Téglás, Mălina Manovici, Denisa Nicolae, Steliana Bălăcianu, Rolando Matsangos, Mirela Crețan, Andreea Gheorghe, Mircea Bujoreanu, Marian Pîrvu, Dan Zarug Mihai, and Elena Chingălată.
Gist: This follows a 39-year-old man who embarks on a dreamlike journey where the mundane and the fantastic intertwine.…...
Production on Sebastian Mihăilescu‘s debut film (it was known as Double Happiness then) in October of 2021 and it received an invite to Berlinale’s Forum section. The Romanian filmmaker’s Mammalia is described as a surreal drama exploring contemporary masculinity via a man who wakes to discover his penis has disappeared during the night. Bucharest is the film’s backdrop. Microfilm’s Diana Păroiu and Ada Solomon produced the film. The cast includes István Téglás, Mălina Manovici, Denisa Nicolae, Steliana Bălăcianu, Rolando Matsangos, Mirela Crețan, Andreea Gheorghe, Mircea Bujoreanu, Marian Pîrvu, Dan Zarug Mihai, and Elena Chingălată.
Gist: This follows a 39-year-old man who embarks on a dreamlike journey where the mundane and the fantastic intertwine.…...
- 1/10/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo Wins Arab Critics’ Awards For European Films
Veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo, exploring the world through the eyes of a donkey, has won the fourth edition of the Arab Critics’ Awards For European Films, in which 76 critics hailing from 15 Arab-language territories voted on their favorite film out of Europe to have premiered on the festival circuit over the course of this year. The prize was announced at the Cairo International Film Festival. Skolimowski was not able to attend the awards ceremony in person because he is currently in L.A. promoting the film, which is Poland’s Oscar entry this year, but he sent a message of thanks. “I am incredibly happy that Eo has been appreciated by the Arab Critics’ Circle as it must mean that my simple story of a donkey has moved people’s hearts across different cultures,” he said. Pan-Arab...
Veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo, exploring the world through the eyes of a donkey, has won the fourth edition of the Arab Critics’ Awards For European Films, in which 76 critics hailing from 15 Arab-language territories voted on their favorite film out of Europe to have premiered on the festival circuit over the course of this year. The prize was announced at the Cairo International Film Festival. Skolimowski was not able to attend the awards ceremony in person because he is currently in L.A. promoting the film, which is Poland’s Oscar entry this year, but he sent a message of thanks. “I am incredibly happy that Eo has been appreciated by the Arab Critics’ Circle as it must mean that my simple story of a donkey has moved people’s hearts across different cultures,” he said. Pan-Arab...
- 11/18/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Hushed audiences witnessed footage of the first Russian shells hitting cities in Ukraine on the opening night of the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival on Tuesday as frontline filmmaking was honored.
Oksana Moiseniuk’s “8th Day of the War” screened at the Czech city’s venerable Dko cultural hall after audiences heard from the Ukrainian director via video link from Kiev, which remains under shelling in the eighth month of the war. The film’s diary-like immediacy captures the outbreak of the Russian attacks through the eyes of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic as they try to carry on with a semblance of normalcy, while their minds are consumed with the events taking place back home and they try to help any way they can.
Amid dimly lit tables in the decades-old theater building, Romanian producer Ada Solomon, a key film figure in regional art film behind “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,...
Oksana Moiseniuk’s “8th Day of the War” screened at the Czech city’s venerable Dko cultural hall after audiences heard from the Ukrainian director via video link from Kiev, which remains under shelling in the eighth month of the war. The film’s diary-like immediacy captures the outbreak of the Russian attacks through the eyes of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic as they try to carry on with a semblance of normalcy, while their minds are consumed with the events taking place back home and they try to help any way they can.
Amid dimly lit tables in the decades-old theater building, Romanian producer Ada Solomon, a key film figure in regional art film behind “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,...
- 10/26/2022
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Sweden’s Svt Orders ‘Whiskey On The Rocks’ From Skyverse Nordic
Sweden’s public service broadcaster Svt has boarded Skyverse Nordic comedy-drama Whiskey On The Rocks as its main commissioning broadcaster. The six-part series is still at script and production development stage and is being billed as a “premium, epic Cold War dramedy special event” directed by Björn Stein (Midnight Sun) and based on an original story from author Jonas Jonasson. It is among the first shows from Skyverse Nordic, which is a subsidiary of Sparkling, the Stockholm-based sister company to Humanoids that Deadline revealed back in May. The show reunites Jonasson with Skyverse boss Patrick Nebout and creative producer Henrik Jansson-Schweizer, who were collectively behind Sweden’s biggest export success, the Oscar-nominated The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. A Scandinavian and international cast are being sought to play the drama’s protagonists onboard the submarine and in Moscow.
Sweden’s public service broadcaster Svt has boarded Skyverse Nordic comedy-drama Whiskey On The Rocks as its main commissioning broadcaster. The six-part series is still at script and production development stage and is being billed as a “premium, epic Cold War dramedy special event” directed by Björn Stein (Midnight Sun) and based on an original story from author Jonas Jonasson. It is among the first shows from Skyverse Nordic, which is a subsidiary of Sparkling, the Stockholm-based sister company to Humanoids that Deadline revealed back in May. The show reunites Jonasson with Skyverse boss Patrick Nebout and creative producer Henrik Jansson-Schweizer, who were collectively behind Sweden’s biggest export success, the Oscar-nominated The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. A Scandinavian and international cast are being sought to play the drama’s protagonists onboard the submarine and in Moscow.
- 9/5/2022
- by Jesse Whittock and Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Arthouse cinemas have a “crucial” role in promoting industry diversity,
The Venice Production Bridge panel on ’Visibility for Diversity - Promotional Strategies for Arthouse Cinema’ saw industry experts outline an action plan through which the challenges faced by the independent theatre sector may be addressed.
European Member of Parliament Salima Yenbou, the keynote speaker at the event on September 2, stressed the “crucial” role arthouse cinemas have in promoting industry diversity, and called for new strategies to draw the public back into these theatres.
“It is essential today to make arthouse cinemas dynamic again so as to support the diversity they offer,...
The Venice Production Bridge panel on ’Visibility for Diversity - Promotional Strategies for Arthouse Cinema’ saw industry experts outline an action plan through which the challenges faced by the independent theatre sector may be addressed.
European Member of Parliament Salima Yenbou, the keynote speaker at the event on September 2, stressed the “crucial” role arthouse cinemas have in promoting industry diversity, and called for new strategies to draw the public back into these theatres.
“It is essential today to make arthouse cinemas dynamic again so as to support the diversity they offer,...
- 9/5/2022
- by Alina Trabattoni
- ScreenDaily
Netflix and the European Producers Club (Epc) have revealed the winners of a pitch contest for fictional series at the ongoing Venice Film Festival.
The pitch contest is a joint initiative by Epc and Netflix to help create new opportunities for European women producers. It was launched at Series Mania in March, and open to Epc producers working for women-owned companies. Following a selection process by an independent jury, composed of Cia Edstrom, Francine Raveney and Olivier Kohn, the competition finalists pitched their projects to the Netflix content team.
Anna Mannion of Tri Moon Films, Ireland, won the first prize of €50,000, while Ada Solomon of Microfilm, Romania, won the second prize of €20,000.
Mariela Besuievsky, Tornasol Media (Spain), Martichka Bozhilova, Agitprop (Bulgaria), Gabriele M. Walther, Caligari (Germany) and Olena Yershova, Tato Film (Ukraine/Turkey), each won the third prize of €5,000.
The initiative is funded by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity,...
The pitch contest is a joint initiative by Epc and Netflix to help create new opportunities for European women producers. It was launched at Series Mania in March, and open to Epc producers working for women-owned companies. Following a selection process by an independent jury, composed of Cia Edstrom, Francine Raveney and Olivier Kohn, the competition finalists pitched their projects to the Netflix content team.
Anna Mannion of Tri Moon Films, Ireland, won the first prize of €50,000, while Ada Solomon of Microfilm, Romania, won the second prize of €20,000.
Mariela Besuievsky, Tornasol Media (Spain), Martichka Bozhilova, Agitprop (Bulgaria), Gabriele M. Walther, Caligari (Germany) and Olena Yershova, Tato Film (Ukraine/Turkey), each won the third prize of €5,000.
The initiative is funded by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity,...
- 9/3/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The award was presented this evening in Venice.
Irish producer Anna Mannion of Tri Moon Films has won the inaugural pitch contest for women producers run by the European Producers Club (Epc) and Netflix, for her project The Girl and the Ghost.
Launched at Series Mania in March this year, the contest aims to create new opportunities for European women producers, who entered fictional series pitches.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Mannion receives a €50,000 award for first place, to further develop her project. All six finalists received prizes, with €20,000 for Romanian producer Ada Solomon of Microfilm in...
Irish producer Anna Mannion of Tri Moon Films has won the inaugural pitch contest for women producers run by the European Producers Club (Epc) and Netflix, for her project The Girl and the Ghost.
Launched at Series Mania in March this year, the contest aims to create new opportunities for European women producers, who entered fictional series pitches.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Mannion receives a €50,000 award for first place, to further develop her project. All six finalists received prizes, with €20,000 for Romanian producer Ada Solomon of Microfilm in...
- 9/2/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Click here to read the full article.
Female producers from Ireland, Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany and Ukraine are the winners of the first-ever series pitch contest, the results of which were announced at the Venice Film Festival by Netflix and the European Producers Club (Epc) on Friday.
The pitch contest, set up by the Epc and Netflix with backing from Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, aims to build new opportunities for underrepresented communities within the entertainment industry.
The first prize, which comes with 50,000 (€50,000) in development funding, went to producer Anna Mannion of Ireland’s Tri Moon Films. Second prize, and 20,000 in funding, was awarded to Ada Solomon of Romania’s Microfilm. Netflix and the Epc also picked four third place winners: Mariela Besuievsky of Spain’s Tornasol Media, Martichka Bozhilova from Agitprop in Bulgaria, Gabriele M. Walther of German production company Caligari and Olena Yershova from the Ukraine/Turkish company Tato Film.
Female producers from Ireland, Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany and Ukraine are the winners of the first-ever series pitch contest, the results of which were announced at the Venice Film Festival by Netflix and the European Producers Club (Epc) on Friday.
The pitch contest, set up by the Epc and Netflix with backing from Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, aims to build new opportunities for underrepresented communities within the entertainment industry.
The first prize, which comes with 50,000 (€50,000) in development funding, went to producer Anna Mannion of Ireland’s Tri Moon Films. Second prize, and 20,000 in funding, was awarded to Ada Solomon of Romania’s Microfilm. Netflix and the Epc also picked four third place winners: Mariela Besuievsky of Spain’s Tornasol Media, Martichka Bozhilova from Agitprop in Bulgaria, Gabriele M. Walther of German production company Caligari and Olena Yershova from the Ukraine/Turkish company Tato Film.
- 9/2/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rule 34International Competition(Jury: Michel Merkt, Laura Samani, Prano Bailey-Bond, Alain Guiraudie, William Horberg)Golden Leopard: Rule 34 (Julia Murat)Special Jury Prize: Gigi la legge (The Adventures of Gigi the Law) (Alessandro Comodin)Best Direction: Valentina Maurel (Tengo sueños eléctricos)Best Actress: Daniela Marín Navarro (Tengo sueños eléctricos)Best Actor: Reinaldo Amien Gutiérrez (Tengo sueños eléctricos)Filmmakers Of The Present( Jury: Annick Mahnert, Gitanjali Rao, Katriel Schory )Golden Leopard: Svetlonoc (Nightsiren) (Tereza Nvotová)Special Jury Prize: Yak Tam Katia? (How Is Katia?) (Christina Tynkevych)Prize for Best Emerging Director: Juraj Lerotić (Sigurno mjesto (Safe Place))Best Actress: Anastasia Karpenko (How Is Katia?)Best Actor: Goran Marković (Safe Place)Special Mention: Den siste våren (Franciska Eliassen)First Feature(Jury: Boo Junfeng, Shahram Mokri, Madeline Robert)Best First Feature: Sigurno mjesto (Safe Place) (Juraj Lerotić)Special Mention: Love Dog (Bianca Lucas) and De noche los gatos son pardos (Valentin Merz)Pardi Di Domani(Jury: Walter Fasano,...
- 8/13/2022
- MUBI
Polish filmmaker’s latest work world premieres at Karlovy Vary.
Fools is the latest feature from Polish filmmaker Tomasz Wasilewski whose previous films include Floating Skyscrapers and United States Of Love, which won the Silver Bear for best script at the 2016 Berlinale.
Fools is debuting in the Proxima competition at Karlovy Vary, and centres around a couple, played by Dorota Kolak and Lukasz Simlat, who live a contentedly secluded lifestyle in a house by the coast. But when the woman brings her sick son to come and live with them, the façade of their relationship begins to crumble around them...
Fools is the latest feature from Polish filmmaker Tomasz Wasilewski whose previous films include Floating Skyscrapers and United States Of Love, which won the Silver Bear for best script at the 2016 Berlinale.
Fools is debuting in the Proxima competition at Karlovy Vary, and centres around a couple, played by Dorota Kolak and Lukasz Simlat, who live a contentedly secluded lifestyle in a house by the coast. But when the woman brings her sick son to come and live with them, the façade of their relationship begins to crumble around them...
- 7/1/2022
- by Laurence Boyce
- ScreenDaily
Ana-Maria Comănescu’s debut feature “Horia” starts shooting in Romania on Wednesday. The film is a Romanian/Bulgarian/Serbian coproduction, produced by Carla Fotea and Ada Solomon through Romania’s MicroFILM, in coproduction with Rossitsa Valkanova through Bulgaria’s Klas Film, and Nikolina Vučetić-Zečević through Serbia’s Biberche Productions, Film New Europe reports.
The script, written by Comănescu, follows Horia, a cautious teenage boy from a Romanian village, who is badly longing for his crush, who lives on the other side of the country. He resents his only parent, Petrică, a charming mechanic, for constantly pushing him to pursue girls. After a big fight, Horia tries to do something impulsive for a change and flees on his father’s old motorcycle.
His decision tumbles him into a series of encounters, the most significant being with Stela, a 13-year-old street-smart girl who runs away from her family. She becomes a key influence on him,...
The script, written by Comănescu, follows Horia, a cautious teenage boy from a Romanian village, who is badly longing for his crush, who lives on the other side of the country. He resents his only parent, Petrică, a charming mechanic, for constantly pushing him to pursue girls. After a big fight, Horia tries to do something impulsive for a change and flees on his father’s old motorcycle.
His decision tumbles him into a series of encounters, the most significant being with Stela, a 13-year-old street-smart girl who runs away from her family. She becomes a key influence on him,...
- 6/28/2022
- by Anna Franklin
- Variety Film + TV
Tomasz Wasilewski’s “Fools” (Głupcy) has debuted its trailer ahead of its world premiere at Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Proxima Competition. World sales are being handled by Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales.
Wasilewski won the best script award for “United States of Love” at the Berlin Film Festival in 2016, and the East of West Award at Karlovy Vary in 2013 for “Floating Skyscrapers.”
“Fools” follows Marlena and Tomasz, hidden away from the world in a small seaside town, who have been in a happy relationship for many years. Their intricately woven everyday life slowly begins to unravel when, against Tomasz’s wishes, Marlena allows her sick son to move in with them. As the past comes back to them in full force they will have to redefine their love, choices and life.
Karlovy Vary’s Lenka Tyrpáková commented: “After the triumph of his previous film ‘United States of Love,...
Wasilewski won the best script award for “United States of Love” at the Berlin Film Festival in 2016, and the East of West Award at Karlovy Vary in 2013 for “Floating Skyscrapers.”
“Fools” follows Marlena and Tomasz, hidden away from the world in a small seaside town, who have been in a happy relationship for many years. Their intricately woven everyday life slowly begins to unravel when, against Tomasz’s wishes, Marlena allows her sick son to move in with them. As the past comes back to them in full force they will have to redefine their love, choices and life.
Karlovy Vary’s Lenka Tyrpáková commented: “After the triumph of his previous film ‘United States of Love,...
- 6/28/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Upcoming animation from ’My Life As A Courgette’ director Claude Barras also among recipients.
Berlin Golden Bear winner Radu Jude’s upcoming feature A Case History is one of 24 features to receive a share of €6.5m (6.87m) in the latest round of Eurimages co-production support funding.
The film, a co-production between Romania and Croatia, has received €150,000 and marks the Romanian filmmaker’s next feature after winning the Golden Bear in 2021 with Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn.
Produced by Ada Solomon and Adrian Sitaru of Bucharest-based 4Proof Film, the story will be told in two parts. The first follows a...
Berlin Golden Bear winner Radu Jude’s upcoming feature A Case History is one of 24 features to receive a share of €6.5m (6.87m) in the latest round of Eurimages co-production support funding.
The film, a co-production between Romania and Croatia, has received €150,000 and marks the Romanian filmmaker’s next feature after winning the Golden Bear in 2021 with Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn.
Produced by Ada Solomon and Adrian Sitaru of Bucharest-based 4Proof Film, the story will be told in two parts. The first follows a...
- 6/27/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Cameroon’s Cyrielle Raingou has won the Kirch Foundation Award, which comes with a €5,000 cash prize, for her film project “I’m Coming for You.”
The award comes at the conclusion of the first edition of Munich Film Up!, an eight-month mentoring and residency program for film school graduates that started in November.
The program was created by the Pop Up Film Residency, in partnership with the University of Television and Film Munich (Hff München) and the Munich Film Festival.
The six filmmakers who took part in the program were:
Lana Bregar, Slovenia (Film school: Agfrt Ljubljana) with “Dark Head”
Erec Brehmer, Germany (Film school: Hff München) with “Lightness and Weight”
Anastasiya Gruba, Ukraine (Film school: Kyiv University) with “Women Suicide Season”
Loïc Hobi, Switzerland/France (Film school: Ecole de la Cité) with “Crypto Lover”
Cyrielle Raingou, Cameroon (Film school: Doc Nomads Master) with “I’m Coming for You”
Pratik Thakare,...
The award comes at the conclusion of the first edition of Munich Film Up!, an eight-month mentoring and residency program for film school graduates that started in November.
The program was created by the Pop Up Film Residency, in partnership with the University of Television and Film Munich (Hff München) and the Munich Film Festival.
The six filmmakers who took part in the program were:
Lana Bregar, Slovenia (Film school: Agfrt Ljubljana) with “Dark Head”
Erec Brehmer, Germany (Film school: Hff München) with “Lightness and Weight”
Anastasiya Gruba, Ukraine (Film school: Kyiv University) with “Women Suicide Season”
Loïc Hobi, Switzerland/France (Film school: Ecole de la Cité) with “Crypto Lover”
Cyrielle Raingou, Cameroon (Film school: Doc Nomads Master) with “I’m Coming for You”
Pratik Thakare,...
- 6/24/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Producers will learn about sustaining business foundations.
Match Factory Productions’ Michael Weber is one of 12 producers and film professionals on the inaugural Ace Leadership Special, a workshop to improve business prospects for industry leaders.
Supported by Creative Europe Media and the Netherlands Film Fund, the programme will take place in the Netherlands in June and in France in September this year.
Scroll down for the full list of producers
In a workshop format, the selected producers will learn how to sustain sound business foundations, improve performance and prospects for their teams, and develop personal leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Eve Gabereau,...
Match Factory Productions’ Michael Weber is one of 12 producers and film professionals on the inaugural Ace Leadership Special, a workshop to improve business prospects for industry leaders.
Supported by Creative Europe Media and the Netherlands Film Fund, the programme will take place in the Netherlands in June and in France in September this year.
Scroll down for the full list of producers
In a workshop format, the selected producers will learn how to sustain sound business foundations, improve performance and prospects for their teams, and develop personal leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Eve Gabereau,...
- 5/4/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Berlin Golden Bear winner Radu Jude (“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”) is set to begin production in Romania on his next feature, Variety can reveal.
“A Case History” analyzes the relations between individuals and multinational companies in the mad dash of new Romanian capitalism, starting from the real story of preparing and shooting a problematic work safety video. Principal photography is slated to begin in summer or early fall.
“The film is composed of two parts which respond to each other, forming a diptych of sorts,” Jude told Variety. “Each of them explores a certain aspect of the main theme, and the final picture is obtained by juxtaposing the two of them in what we can call ‘a tale of cinema and economy.’” It is a film about work relations, but also a film about images and the way they are made and their place in society.
The first...
“A Case History” analyzes the relations between individuals and multinational companies in the mad dash of new Romanian capitalism, starting from the real story of preparing and shooting a problematic work safety video. Principal photography is slated to begin in summer or early fall.
“The film is composed of two parts which respond to each other, forming a diptych of sorts,” Jude told Variety. “Each of them explores a certain aspect of the main theme, and the final picture is obtained by juxtaposing the two of them in what we can call ‘a tale of cinema and economy.’” It is a film about work relations, but also a film about images and the way they are made and their place in society.
The first...
- 2/10/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The top prize went to a family drama set entirely in an Ikea.
Croatian family drama Leave The Door Open has won the Eurimages Co-production Award, worth €20,000, at the closing of International Film Festival Rotterdam’s IFFR Pro Days and CineMart co-production market.
The film will mark the feature directorial debut of Judita Gamulin and is set entirely in an Ikea furniture store in Zagreb.
With early backing from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (Havc), the production aims to close financing in 2023 and shoot in 2024. Leave The Door Open is produced by Rea Rajcic, who is producing through her Zagreb-based film and TV outfit Eclectica.
Croatian family drama Leave The Door Open has won the Eurimages Co-production Award, worth €20,000, at the closing of International Film Festival Rotterdam’s IFFR Pro Days and CineMart co-production market.
The film will mark the feature directorial debut of Judita Gamulin and is set entirely in an Ikea furniture store in Zagreb.
With early backing from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (Havc), the production aims to close financing in 2023 and shoot in 2024. Leave The Door Open is produced by Rea Rajcic, who is producing through her Zagreb-based film and TV outfit Eclectica.
- 2/2/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Arguably the highlight of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival – certainly among the industry folk – is the Emerging Producers presentations, a glimpse of things to come as bizzers new to the nonfiction film field present their work and upcoming projects.
Selected for their initiative and dedication, then coached by more experienced leaders in the European doc world – often former Emerging Producers themselves – members of the group generally go on to successes in the genre at impressively high rates.
Held this year at Ji.hlava’s new Industry Hub venue, the event saw 18 producers on the rise introduced by fest head of industry Jarmila Outratova and Radim Prochazka, board member of the Czech Audiovisual Producers Assn., himself a former Emerging Producer, class of 2018.
First to present his work was Audun Amundsen of Norway, who said, “I started my career by following a family deep in the jungle of Indonesia for 15 years.
Selected for their initiative and dedication, then coached by more experienced leaders in the European doc world – often former Emerging Producers themselves – members of the group generally go on to successes in the genre at impressively high rates.
Held this year at Ji.hlava’s new Industry Hub venue, the event saw 18 producers on the rise introduced by fest head of industry Jarmila Outratova and Radim Prochazka, board member of the Czech Audiovisual Producers Assn., himself a former Emerging Producer, class of 2018.
First to present his work was Audun Amundsen of Norway, who said, “I started my career by following a family deep in the jungle of Indonesia for 15 years.
- 11/1/2021
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Romanian “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” and “Aferim!” director Radu Jude is back with another shocking and brilliant satire, “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.” This pandemic-era take on society’s awful state won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival this year, and just recently played the New York Film Festival. Next up, it’s set to open in theaters from Magnolia Pictures on November 19. Exclusive to IndieWire, watch the trailer for the film below.
Here’s the synopsis courtesy of Magnolia Pictures: “Emi (Katia Pascariu), a schoolteacher, finds her reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is uploaded onto the internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender. ‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’ is a film in three loosely connected parts: a walk in the city of Bucharest, then a playful essay on obscenities,...
Here’s the synopsis courtesy of Magnolia Pictures: “Emi (Katia Pascariu), a schoolteacher, finds her reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is uploaded onto the internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender. ‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’ is a film in three loosely connected parts: a walk in the city of Bucharest, then a playful essay on obscenities,...
- 9/30/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Wolschlager was a member of the European and Austrian Film Academies and the project commission of the Austrian Film Institute.
Austrian producer, screenwriter and educator Ursula Wolschlager died on September 26 in Vienna at the age of 52, after suffering from an illness.
Wolschlager has collaborated with filmmakers including Barbara Albert, Ruth Beckermann, Nathalie Borgers, Christian Frosch, Michael Glawogger, Bakhtiar Khodoynazarov, Marie Kreutzer, Tina Leisch, Tony Pemberton and Kirill Serebrennikov.
Alongside Robert Buchschwenter, she founded the script development and later also film production company Witcraft Scenario in 2008. She was also a mentor at the Diverse Stories script development programme, a founding member...
Austrian producer, screenwriter and educator Ursula Wolschlager died on September 26 in Vienna at the age of 52, after suffering from an illness.
Wolschlager has collaborated with filmmakers including Barbara Albert, Ruth Beckermann, Nathalie Borgers, Christian Frosch, Michael Glawogger, Bakhtiar Khodoynazarov, Marie Kreutzer, Tina Leisch, Tony Pemberton and Kirill Serebrennikov.
Alongside Robert Buchschwenter, she founded the script development and later also film production company Witcraft Scenario in 2008. She was also a mentor at the Diverse Stories script development programme, a founding member...
- 9/29/2021
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Talk to the people behind the Zff Academy, and it quickly becomes clear that this Zurich Film Festival talent program is close to their hearts.
Launched back in 2006, just a year after the festival itself, the aim of the Zff Academy is to promote exchange between notable filmmakers and aspiring directors, writers and producers. It’s there to help up and coming creatives and execs to learn from film industry experts, connect with each other and to exchange ideas.
In many ways, it’s like the well-known Berlinale Talents program – only more intimate. Just 19 talents – nine women and 10 men – have been selected from hundreds of applicants to take part in the five-day Zurich initiative.
Talent from all over the world traditionally apply to the Zff Academy, but this year the cohort is largely European – reflecting the difficulties that many people are having travelling due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Head of Zff...
Launched back in 2006, just a year after the festival itself, the aim of the Zff Academy is to promote exchange between notable filmmakers and aspiring directors, writers and producers. It’s there to help up and coming creatives and execs to learn from film industry experts, connect with each other and to exchange ideas.
In many ways, it’s like the well-known Berlinale Talents program – only more intimate. Just 19 talents – nine women and 10 men – have been selected from hundreds of applicants to take part in the five-day Zurich initiative.
Talent from all over the world traditionally apply to the Zff Academy, but this year the cohort is largely European – reflecting the difficulties that many people are having travelling due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Head of Zff...
- 9/26/2021
- by Tim Dams
- Variety Film + TV
Sales
Abacus Media Rights has sold documentary “The Beatles and India” to HBO Max for Latin America, BritBox North America for the U.S. and Canada, Channel 4 for the U.K., Foxtel for Australia, Channel One for Russia, and A Contracorriente Films for Spain, with more deals in the pipeline.
Inspired by Ajoy Bose’s “book Across The Universe – The Beatles in India,” the film marks Bose’s directorial debut, is co-directed by Peter Compton and is produced by Reynold D’Silva, CEO of Silva Screen Music Group.
Abacus MD Jonathan Ford said: “Using rare archival footage, an array of unseen recordings and photographs, eye-witness accounts and stunning location shoots across India, ‘The Beatles and India’ energetically reveals a fascinating journey which was to have a profound impact on The Beatles’ spiritual lives and their music.”
“The universal appeal of the subject has been one of our main aims in...
Abacus Media Rights has sold documentary “The Beatles and India” to HBO Max for Latin America, BritBox North America for the U.S. and Canada, Channel 4 for the U.K., Foxtel for Australia, Channel One for Russia, and A Contracorriente Films for Spain, with more deals in the pipeline.
Inspired by Ajoy Bose’s “book Across The Universe – The Beatles in India,” the film marks Bose’s directorial debut, is co-directed by Peter Compton and is produced by Reynold D’Silva, CEO of Silva Screen Music Group.
Abacus MD Jonathan Ford said: “Using rare archival footage, an array of unseen recordings and photographs, eye-witness accounts and stunning location shoots across India, ‘The Beatles and India’ energetically reveals a fascinating journey which was to have a profound impact on The Beatles’ spiritual lives and their music.”
“The universal appeal of the subject has been one of our main aims in...
- 9/21/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Ammonite, Apples, Promising Young Woman, Supernova, The Dig, The Father and The Mauritanian are among the first wave of movies recommended by a European Film Awards committee for nomination at this year’s event.
A record number of movies have been suggested by the committee this year in light of the pandemic disruption. More than 40 films have been revealed today — features and docs — with more set to be revealed in September.
The feature films have been selected by a committee of the Academy Board and a range of European industry professionals. The documentary films have been selected by Efa Board Members Graziella Bildesheim (institutional/Italy) and Ada Solomon (producer/Romania), Katja Gauriloff, Kathrin Kohlstedde (festival programmer/Germany), Veton Nurkollari (artistic director/Kosovo), Orwa Nyrabia, Rada Šešić (festival programmer and filmmaker/Bosnia & Herzegovina/The Netherlands), Rajesh Thind and...
A record number of movies have been suggested by the committee this year in light of the pandemic disruption. More than 40 films have been revealed today — features and docs — with more set to be revealed in September.
The feature films have been selected by a committee of the Academy Board and a range of European industry professionals. The documentary films have been selected by Efa Board Members Graziella Bildesheim (institutional/Italy) and Ada Solomon (producer/Romania), Katja Gauriloff, Kathrin Kohlstedde (festival programmer/Germany), Veton Nurkollari (artistic director/Kosovo), Orwa Nyrabia, Rada Šešić (festival programmer and filmmaker/Bosnia & Herzegovina/The Netherlands), Rajesh Thind and...
- 8/24/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The CineLink Talks run August 14-19.
Screen International and Documentary Campus once again teamed up with the Sarajevo Film Festival (September 13-20) to host CineLink Talks, an online programme of panels for the festival’s 2021 industry strand.
The series of 60-minute CineLink Talks ran from August 15-19. Topics included filmmaking during the pandemic, working with streamers, female filmmaker quotas, mental health in the film industry and new models for distribution; and masterclasses with filmmakers Mads Brugger and Alexander Nanau.
The talks are available to watch in full below.
In conversation with filmmaker Mads Brugger
Moderator: Damir Šagolj
What have producers...
Screen International and Documentary Campus once again teamed up with the Sarajevo Film Festival (September 13-20) to host CineLink Talks, an online programme of panels for the festival’s 2021 industry strand.
The series of 60-minute CineLink Talks ran from August 15-19. Topics included filmmaking during the pandemic, working with streamers, female filmmaker quotas, mental health in the film industry and new models for distribution; and masterclasses with filmmakers Mads Brugger and Alexander Nanau.
The talks are available to watch in full below.
In conversation with filmmaker Mads Brugger
Moderator: Damir Šagolj
What have producers...
- 8/19/2021
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
The 10 hour-long CineLink Talks will run from August 14-19.
Screen International and Documentary Campus have once again teamed up with the Sarajevo Film Festival to host CineLink Talks, an online programme of panels for the festival’s 2021 industry strand.
The 10 hour-long CineLink Talks will run from August 14-19. Topics include filmmaking during the pandemic, working with streamers, female filmmaker quotas, mental health in the film industry and new models for distribution. The line-up also includes masterclasses with filmmakers Mads Brugger and Alexander Nanau.
All of the webinars will run via Zoom and feature a live Q&a in which audience...
Screen International and Documentary Campus have once again teamed up with the Sarajevo Film Festival to host CineLink Talks, an online programme of panels for the festival’s 2021 industry strand.
The 10 hour-long CineLink Talks will run from August 14-19. Topics include filmmaking during the pandemic, working with streamers, female filmmaker quotas, mental health in the film industry and new models for distribution. The line-up also includes masterclasses with filmmakers Mads Brugger and Alexander Nanau.
All of the webinars will run via Zoom and feature a live Q&a in which audience...
- 8/6/2021
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Film+ supports emerging filmmakers from Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Moldova.
The Film + programme that supports independent micro-budget film production by filmmakers from Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova, has seen films by seven alumni, including five world premieres, selected for this year’s Transilvania (TIFF) programme.
Two of the films premiering in Cluj this week had been developed in one of the Film + modules over the past five years.
Alex Pintica’s musical short No Singing After 8, which is being shown in one of the Romanian Shorts programmes, had participated in Film +’s first Production Llab in 2016, while...
The Film + programme that supports independent micro-budget film production by filmmakers from Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova, has seen films by seven alumni, including five world premieres, selected for this year’s Transilvania (TIFF) programme.
Two of the films premiering in Cluj this week had been developed in one of the Film + modules over the past five years.
Alex Pintica’s musical short No Singing After 8, which is being shown in one of the Romanian Shorts programmes, had participated in Film +’s first Production Llab in 2016, while...
- 7/30/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The Pop Up Film Residency, a mentorship program founded by former TorinoFilmLab artistic director Matthieu Darras and Slovak producer Juraj Krasnohorsky, will be the exclusive and creative partner of Munich Film Up!, a new initiative by Munich’s University of Film and Television in partnership with the Munich Intl. Festival of Film Schools and the Munich Film Festival.
The eight-month mentoring program and residency will support six promising young filmmakers from around the world as they make the transition from film school into the industry. The inaugural lab will kick off this November at the 40th anniversary of the Munich Intl. Festival of Film Schools and will wrap at the Munich Film Festival in June 2022.
Co-Director Elena Diesbach, head of international at the University of Film and Television (Hff Munich), described the new initiative as a “cultural incubator” that will help the esteemed film school strengthen ties with the city...
The eight-month mentoring program and residency will support six promising young filmmakers from around the world as they make the transition from film school into the industry. The inaugural lab will kick off this November at the 40th anniversary of the Munich Intl. Festival of Film Schools and will wrap at the Munich Film Festival in June 2022.
Co-Director Elena Diesbach, head of international at the University of Film and Television (Hff Munich), described the new initiative as a “cultural incubator” that will help the esteemed film school strengthen ties with the city...
- 7/12/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
French distributor Arp has acquired the rights to “Fools,” an upcoming drama by Berlinale Silver Bear winner Tomasz Wasilewski (“United States of Love”). Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe Film Sales brokered the deal.
“Fools” is the story of Marlena and Tomasz, who are hidden away from the world in a small seaside town and have been in a happy relationship for many years. But when Marlena allows her son to move in with them against Tomasz’s will, the past comes back to haunt them, and their intricately woven everyday life slowly begins to come apart.
“We were extremely impressed by the powerful way the director brings us along with him on such a powerful journey,” said Arp’s Michele Halberstadt. “The film is beautifully composed, and the lead actress is just mesmerizing. It is the kind of film that commands you to watch it. Tough at times,...
“Fools” is the story of Marlena and Tomasz, who are hidden away from the world in a small seaside town and have been in a happy relationship for many years. But when Marlena allows her son to move in with them against Tomasz’s will, the past comes back to haunt them, and their intricately woven everyday life slowly begins to come apart.
“We were extremely impressed by the powerful way the director brings us along with him on such a powerful journey,” said Arp’s Michele Halberstadt. “The film is beautifully composed, and the lead actress is just mesmerizing. It is the kind of film that commands you to watch it. Tough at times,...
- 7/8/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Radu Jude’s satire won the top prize at the 2021 Berlinale.
Sovereign Film Distribution has secured UK and Ireland rights to Radu Jude’s Romanian irreverent satire Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn, which won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.
The London-based distributor struck the deal with Athens-based sales agent Heretic Outreach and is planning a theatrical release for the feature.
The latest film from Romanian writer/director Jude stars Katia Pascariu as a school teacher who finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked onto the Internet.
Sovereign Film Distribution has secured UK and Ireland rights to Radu Jude’s Romanian irreverent satire Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn, which won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.
The London-based distributor struck the deal with Athens-based sales agent Heretic Outreach and is planning a theatrical release for the feature.
The latest film from Romanian writer/director Jude stars Katia Pascariu as a school teacher who finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked onto the Internet.
- 7/1/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.