BOOK OF PROJECTS 2018
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NISI MASA member associations Albania – First Step Association Austria – Kino5 Bulgaria – SEVEN Croatia – KinoKlub Zagreb Denmark – Aarhus Short Film Challenge Estonia – NISI MASA Estonia Finland – Euphoria Borealis France – FORMATOVA Germany – Munich Film Society Germany – Kino Datsche Greece – PSAROKOALO Italy – Lago Film Fest Kosovo – 7 Arte Lithuania – Kaunas International Film Festival Macedonia – Cre8iv8 Montenegro – Cinemapolis The Netherlands – Go Short Poland – Ad Arte Portugal – FEST Associacao Cultural Serbia – Filmkultura Slovenia – Film Factory Ukraine – Cinema Hall Ukraine – Wiz Art United Kingdom – Encounters Belarus – Social Film Studio
Index 1 BEYOND THE RIVER Galaxy Spanos - Greece 2 DEER István Hevesi - Hungary 3 DIVINE IN HIS CREATURES Katarina Stankovic - Serbia 4 DRAWING SHADOWS Maxence Vassilyevitch - France 5 ELENA Birute Sodeikaite - Lithuania 6 GILA WHO WALKS ALONE Yuval Shapira - Romania / Israel 7 HOME SWEET HOME Agata Puszcz - Poland 8 MAISSA Léa Triboulet - France / Spain 9 PALE SAINT Rhys Jones - United Kingdom / Ireland 10 RIZI Stella Kyriakopoulos - Greece / Spain 11 SEDRA Judita Gamulin - Croatia 12 THE INHERITANCE Mihnea Rares Hantiu - Romania 13 THE RUDENESS OF A GERMAN LADY Silva Ćapin - Croatia 14 TRAMPOLINE Kristian Sejrbo Lidegaard - Denmark/France 15 VENGEANCE OF THE VIXENS Leander Hanssen Jr. - Belgium 16 WHEN BODIES FALL FROM THE SKY Yenni Lee - Sweden / Norway
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 3
Works in progress 18 19 20
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EVA Xheni Alushi - Albania/Switzerland QUXUROBA Teymur Gambarov - Azerbaijan/Russia SOY TU PAPÀ Garrick J Lauterbach The Netherlands / Switzerland / Mexico TINA & SENDY Hani Domazet - Croatia ESP 2018 CONSULTANTS ESP 2018 TUTORS ESP 2018 TEAM ESP 2018 AWARDS
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39 40 42 44
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49 50 52 53
ESP PITCH 2018 Welcome to the 12th edition of European Short Pitch! For the second time around, ESP is taking place in Poznan as part of Short Waves Festival as part of POZNAN ID in collaboration with the Short Waves Festival and Ad Arte. We are very happy to see this partnership growing. In our quest to uncover European talents, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to keep on developing new perspectives and new partnerships to make sure ESP keeps on being on the forefront of the specific needs of the film industry. We still stand for promoting European short film coproduction and helping emerging writers/ directors have their projects reach their full potential. This year will be the 3rd edition of the Works-in-Progress Pitching as an endeavour to find new ways of supporting short films that need a gentle push. With a bunch of awards as the cherry on top. Our harvest of films over the last few years has been steadily increasing as over 80% of the selected projects from our last three editions have found a producer, received funding and eventually, were made into a film. Not only did they get made, but some of our alumni have been scoring big over the course of the last year. By the Pool by Laurynas Bareisa got selected for the short film competition of the Venice Film Festival, Mother’s Day by Kamile Milasiute was part of the International Competition of the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and both Deer Boy by Katarzyna Gondek and Volte by Monika Kotecka and Karolina Poryzała were selected for the short film competition of the Sundance Film Festival. We hope this coproduction platform will make encounters possible and will give rise to exciting new projects that we look forward to discovering on the big screen in world festivals. In that sense, don’t miss the ESP carte blanche as part of the festival, showcasing some of the recent success stories that you might have listened to as a pitch in the previous editions! Enjoy this new edition, may it prove inspiring and, although I’m the last one to push for restraining oneself, beware of that local specialty called Hazelnut Vodka! Wim Vanacker Head of the Script Department 5
At the ancient river, a place right before Limbo, an immortal and apathetic boatman is summoned to collect the dead, but when a living child appears, affection will take him over.
BEYOND THE RIVER Galaxy Spanos - Greece
SYNOPSIS The immortal Boatman, the sole inhabitant of the ancient river between life and death, sleeplessly awaits to be called upon by the Messenger to perform his task; gather the souls and execute them. But one day a living child is mysteriously brought to him. Unable to take his life, he shelters him in his cabin. Unexpected feelings start to possess him and he gradually loses his immortality. As he now faces his own death, he will take action for the first time.
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Galaxy Spanos galaxyspanos@hotmail.com Maria Repousi repousi.maria@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Galaxy Spanos [Writer/Director] holds both Greek and Swiss nationality and received his BA in Film Studies from University of Greenwich. His short films, Kiosk (2011) & Pyramid (2012) screened at the Drama ISFF and at the Athens Premiere Nights IFF respectively. He has also made a short documentary, The Fading Light of the Sun (2015). He lives in Athens, working on his next short film projects, Beyond the River & Camera Obscura. Maria Repousi (Producer) holds a Master in Film Production and an MBA. She lives in Athens, where she founded Wholewave in 2014. The company has four completed short films & a feature documentary in its line up and is currently in development of two shorts and a feature.
INTENTIONS I’ve always been fascinated by death and its perception in different cultures. In Greek mythology, Charon appeared as its archetypical image. He symbolized routine as he was condemned to live eternally for Hades. Although for me, mortality as a subconscious thought, manifests itself in a redemptive way, like a moving force that propels us out of our own inertia. The Boatman, now being able to feel, decides to break his eternal bond with the river in favour of his new identity as a father. The film is a modern fairytale unraveling in a non-place. I would like to convey an eerie feeling of discomfort by contrasting reality and fantasy. All the fantastical elements of the film, like the endless underwater fall of the souls into the abyss, will blend in organically. A bleak atmosphere will be created from the abrupt and calm transitions of rhythm, in the misty landscape of the river. The dreadfulness will be enhanced by the echoes and sounds of the bell, the breaths and the screams. All dialogues will be kept to a minimum, letting the story be told threw the gazes and the actions. In this wretched place, light will only be found through the hope the Boatman starts to feel.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Fantasy, Drama Length: 17 min Format: HD Production Company: Wholewave
Budget: 45.000 Financing Plan: 21.000 Secured financing: 17.000 granted by the Greek Film Center Looking For: Co-Producer, Sales Agents
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A couple has to face the unspoken problems of their relationship when they witness unexpected violence on their journey to a weekend holiday.
DEER István Hevesi - Hungary
SYNOPSIS Péter and Anna, a couple at the end of their thirties, head to a medical conference to a countryside hotel. Their plan is to stay there after the event for a weekend holiday, as an attempt to fix their decaying relationship. As they travel through the hazy countryside, from their car Anna witnesses a sudden act of violence: at the side of the road she spots a man slapping a woman. Péter claims he has not noticed that, but Anna, shocked by what she saw, convinces him to turn around and check what happened.
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István Hevesi istvan.h.hevesi@gmail.com László Józsa jl@speakeasyproject.com
BIOGRAPHIES István Hevesi [Director] graduated in film studies, then worked in multiple areas of the film industry: as assistant director for shorts and feature films, and as editor, writer and director for television series. He was director’s personal assistant in Son of Saul and in László Nemes’s upcoming project, Sunset, as well. Deer is going to be his second short film. László Józsa [Producer] studied Communications, Political Science and Anglo-Saxon Culture. He worked at Café Film as an agency producer on TV productions and commercials, short films and several documentaries. He has developed a documentary series on the new European mobility titled Leave/Stay. He is also involved in filming social projects and works with a number of NGOs. His first feature-length documentary as a producer ULTRA was co-produced by HBO Europe and premiered at Visions Du Réel.
INTENTIONS Most of us tend to think that violence is something we have nothing to do with until we are personally involved in it. But what do we do when we witness an act of violence between individuals who are total strangers to us? Do we act or do we look away? What if the possible outcome of intervening is not only vague but could be dangerous? Not just for us but for the one who suffers the violence as well. Deer explores these questions through a simple but rather unsettling story. Péter, the protagonist of the film finds himself in a situation that is way out of his comfort zone. He wants to conform to what he thinks to be the expectations of his wife, and on a broader scale, the expectations of society. But he understands that any solution for the conflict he is involved in is way beyond his reach. He strives to maintain his integrity, while he wants to avoid consequences of his decisions. The whole film is planned to be one single take. I feel that the uncompromising real time experience, as a result of this form, conveys effectively the nature of the dilemma the story depicts: it is a closed situation that gives no possibility to hide and in which one has no chance to look away.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama
Budget: 50.000
Length: 15 min Language: Hungarian
Funding: Hungarian Media Patronage Programme (application in April)
Production company: Speak Easy Project, Focus Fox
Looking for: Co-producers, Postproduction
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While society is at sleep children build their own arcadia.
DIVINE IN HIS CREATURES Katarina Stankovic - Serbia
SYNOPSIS An island resort built by a lost civilization is now a home to children of a new world. They show great unity in shipbuilding and learning how to swim. They are giving themselves up to something that is enchanting, mysterious, greater and more powerful that carries them into the future beyond their own existence. Yet this harmony is disrupted when one of the newcomers is unable to free himself of the narrow cage of his own desires and his own selfishness.
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Katarina Stankovic katarina.stankovich@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHY Katarina Stankovic [Director] is from Serbia. She has a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and Masters in film directing from Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and Film University Konrad Wolf in Potsdam-Babelsberg. She has directed several shorts and is developing her first feature film supported by CinĂŠfondation RĂŠsidence, TFL and HBF.
INTENTIONS Society is at sleep, concerned only with what is useless, living in a wrong world, a world which to me seems more chaotic and disorienting each day. Yet we are raised to believe in the wonderful world where everything is managed, where everything is rationally done. But the price we paid for going into this iron cage is that we became disenchanted. In our disenchanted age we miss the sense that there are things that are mysterious and wonderful in their mysteriousness. Who are we? Why are we here on this planet? Our idea of freedom has become very much an individualist one. As individuals we want to be free to do what each one of us want to do. But the individual self-expression while feeling limitless is limiting when looked at from another perspective. All we have then is our own desires. Yet there is a different kind of freedom, one which the children in my story try to convey.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama
Looking for: Producer, Coproducer
Length: 25 min Language: Serbo-Croatian Shooting location: Croatian coast Secured Financing: 4.250
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At the end, what does it mean to be alive? Are we so different from a forest, a sea, a stone ? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps everything is metamorphic‌
DRAWING SHADOWS Maxence Vassilyevitch - France
SYNOPSIS In some lunar society, on an Earth where the sunlight has become dangerous for humans, a community takes shelter, at first light, inside a blockhouse remaining from an earlier world. One day, a discovery changes its daily routine‌ A new planet is discovered. A bright and poetic future suddenly becomes possible. It will take the form of an interstellar fusion, a reconciliation between the multitude and the uniqueness of the living.
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Maxence Vassilyevitch maxence.vy@gmail.com Laurine Pelassy laurinepelassy@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Graduated in film studies at the Sorbonne and London Film School, Maxence Vassilyevitch [Director] is laureate 2014 of the G.R.E.C. which produced his 1st short film, Sunny star selected by many international film festivals. In 2017, he directed the short, Saranac Lake. In 2018, he’s awarded by the Medicis Workshops and prepares his next film, Drawing Shadows. Awarded by EAVE in 2015, Laurine Pelassy (Producer) founded Les Films de la Capitaine to produce talented young directors and lead them from short to feature films. Business affairs executive at Rectangle Productions since 2007, she worked on twenty feature films with high artistic and market standards. She’s producing the next feature film of Elia Suleiman.
INTENTIONS Drawing Shadows is an anticipation film about our society, our world, and the way human interference affects it, creates an uninhabitable planet so worn out that even the beams of the solar star become radioactive. A gallery of characters develops in an enclosed space, a blockhouse as a sanctuary. The film turns their burning thoughts into images. Lost and disillusioned souls are, in the deepest secrecies of their beings, the most intimate of their dreams, beyond their most shameful perversions, dependent of nostalgia. But within themselves, their soul and body will finally meet, merging for an instant towards the discovery of another planet, the hope of another world. Thanks to the new technologies, I’m finding a strange and sensory resonance with reality, drawing a particular aesthetic specific to this universe. I want this film to be the dream of a possible harmony between human and nature, where man would be mixing with beasts and natural elements despite the great impassable boundaries, that separate and protect him from the mirror of his guilty conscience : the tragic, cruel, wild, two-legged animals that we are.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre : Science Fiction
Shooting location : TBC
Length : 30 min
Production company : Les Films de la Capitaine – Laurine Pelassy (France)
Language : French Shooting format : HD Shooting days : 6 days during summer 2018
Estimated budget : 120.000 Looking for : Sales Agent, National and Regional Funds, TV, Coproducers
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Puppet Animation film about choosing freedom and how freedom slowly becomes a punishment and a prison.
ELENA Birute Sodeikaite - Lithuania
SYNOPSIS Puppet animation film “Elena� is a story about a choice and its haunting consequences. A young woman, Elena, aborts her child after giving in to the satisfaction of her personal needs. After enjoying her life as a free woman, the freedom she has attained from the choice becomes a prison for her. Plagued by guilt she tries to get to terms with these consequences by physically harming herself. It is a journey of a young woman towards forgiveness and reconciliation with herself.
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Agne Adomene agne@artshot.lt Birute Sodeikaite birute.sodeikaite@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Birute Sodeikaite (Director), Stop motion animation and theatre director, puppet maker, animator and artist who graduated from Arts University at Bournemouth in 2013. Since then she continue conquering world of stop motion, working in different studios with different projects all over the Europe. A founder and producer of the production company ART SHOT, Agne Adomene (producer) has educational background in culture management (The Master of Management, Department of UNESCO Cultural Management and Cultural Policy, Vilnius Academy of Arts) and works in film business since 2009. Founded in 2012, independent production company ART SHOT focuses on developing, producing and co-producing artistic animated films.
INTENTIONS Puppet animation film “Elena” is a cruel journey of a young woman, Elena, who struggles towards self forgiveness. It tangles reality with hallucinations, visions and memories, triggered by the unbearable feeling of guilt. It is a story of complete selfdestruction, which in the end, causes the acceptance of herself, her guilt and of the forgiveness to herself. The idea of the film was strongly inspired by womanhood. My own and stories, memories of women, who are close to me; choices for abortion; freedom and how slowly the freedom one appreciated so much became a prison and punishment itself. The decision that most would never think of, could have any consequences. I have consciously taken away specifications of period and location from the film, as I want it to be as universal as possible. This is why the film takes place in nature, which is a metaphor for the main character’s feelings. Nature will later become slowly more aggressive and harsh towards her, before swallowing her completely. The main idea of the film is to raise the question of ‘’is it possible to forgive and accept oneself after taking a choice”.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama Length: 12 min Technique: Puppet - Stop motion animation Audience: Adults Status: Development
Production company: Artshot Estimated budget: 96.000 Looking for: Coproducer
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For one ultra-orthodox Jewish woman, the end of a surreal day is a long nighttime pilgrimage and a few small steps towards independence.
GILA WHO WALKS ALONE Yuval Shapira - Romania / Israel
SYNOPSIS Gila—a sickly, ultra-orthodox Jewish woman, 30 and unmarried—lives with her parents on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Beset by a patriarchal religion and a domineering community, her life is one of great restriction. After a day which confirms her own inability to determine her own future, she joins a pilgrimage to the tomb of Rachel the Mother—the Jewish saint of womanhood—where a yearly magical festival is being held. But instead of finding the blessing of fertility or a renewal of her faith, she takes the first steps towards independent life. 16
Yuval Shapira uvshapira@gmail.com Ilya Marcus ilyamarcus@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Yuval Shapira (Writer/Director): An Israeli-Romanian NYC-based filmmaker, an alumnus of Berlinale’s Talents Sarajevo and Reykjavik’s IFF’s Talent Lab. Babies, His MFA graduation film (Emerson College, USA), won Special Jury Prize at Festival International du Film d’Amiens. He received a Masters degree cum laude in visual anthropology (The Hebrew University, Israel). He works as an editor for NYC-based production companies Moxie Pictures and Pulse Films. Ilya Marcus (DoP): An Israeli cinematographer based in Tel Aviv. His filmography includes: Ten Buildings Away (Cannes’ Cinéfondation,) A Night With No Dawn (1st prize at TLV Film Festival,) Livorno 32 (Vienna Independent film festival,) Shmama (Jury Prize at Locarno Festival) And Babies with Yuval Shapira.
INTENTIONS Gila’s day is the story of femininity in an impossible context, at the moment when the impossible is made possible. I am drawn to Gila’s journey to Rachel’s tomb as it is a place like no other, where religious women—of the most marginalized groups, can challenge their marginal existence. In every aspect of their life, ultra-orthodox women’s gender translates into weakness: in their community, religion, and lack of individual voice. But on the night of the merrymaking, they are encouraged to stop being their men’s helpers and instead get closer to the divine; it is a unique expression of independence, one which constitutes an integral part of their core identity. These real surreal moments allow the narration of real-life women’s complex predicaments, and at the same time exploring the possibility of breaking out of their oppressive reality. Gila testifies to the power of small changes, of plausible steps an individual can take in order to gain control over her own life. Finding fantastical elements in a real-world setting is an act of transforming reality into a poetic liminal space. In this liminality lies an opportunity, which, Gila will show, is all she needs in order to transform her life.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Magical realist drama
Funds needed: 60,000.
Length: 20-25 min
Financing plan: Applying for two Israeli film funds—Makor (45,000) and Gesher (32,000)—combined with co-production funding.
Languages: Hebrew Shooting dates: Mid-October, around the days of the ritual Shooting locations: Jerusalem, Ramot Polin neighborhood, Rachel’s tomb
Looking for: Producers, Co-producer, Distributors 17
10 year old Olaf decides to bring his mummy back home at all costs.
HOME SWEET HOME Agata Puszcz - Poland
SYNOPSIS The action takes place in a world dominated by a global corporation Rent a Life which offers rich people the possibility of renting other people and creating the perfect illusion of happiness. 10 y.o. Olaf lives with his grandparents in poor suburbs. He takes part in a casting organised in his school by Rent a Life. At all costs he wants to get a role of a friend of one rich girl to take part in her birthday party in the City. He has a mission to fulfill. He needs to find his mother who has rented herself in the City and left him behind. 18
Agata Puszcz agatapuszcz@gmail.com Katarzyna Fukacz kfukacz@titoproductions.pl
BIOGRAPHY Agata Puszcz (Director): She studied at the Faculty of Directing of the Theatre Academy in Warsaw. Director of numerous theater and TV plays. She debuted in 2012 with “Freddie, dir.Irmina Kant”. She’s currently working on her first feature film “Rent a Life”. Michalina Fabijanska (Writer): Since 2008 she has been working for Munk Studio - PFA, where she’s responsible for international promotion of films. She’s now working on 2 feature film scripts. Katarzyna Fukacz (Producer): She was the managing director and executive producer at Akson Studio for 17 years. She participated in the production of over 150 theatrical productions,(including Oscar-nominated “Katyn”), multiple films and television series.
INTENTIONS We want “Home Sweet Home” to be a metaphor of a world in which it is more important to “have” than to “be”. The story itself is a bitter-sweet reflection of the end of a childhood. It’s about that moment when a child sees for the first time an imperfection of his beloved parent and has to deal with his shortcomings. The main character personally experiences, previously unknown rules of the cruel world, and he learns the base motives that sometimes drive adults. Knowing these rules, however, he has a chance to consciously decide about his own life. We have created a world of futuristic realism, which seems like future, but after a while we realize that our present reality isn’t much different. The Rent a Life world is a metaphor of extreme consumerism, as well as a critique of the terror of happiness that we are also experiencing today.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama
Production company: Tito Productions
Length: 20 minutes
Estimated budget: 45.000
Shooting location: Poland
Looking for: Co-producers, Postproduction, International sales agent
Shooting period: summer 2018
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Maïssa, a six year old refugee decides to confront the ghosts of her past and learn to swim.
MAISSA Léa Triboulet - France / Spain
SYNOPSIS Maïssa, a 6 year old refugee, has lived with her young mother Nadia for some months in an old coastal hostel which was converted into reception flats. Maïssa lives in a imaginary world made up of games and hope but, traumatized, she is afraid of the sea that she sees everyday. While Nadia is working with the other fisherwomen and trying her best to adapt to her new life and job for their sake, Maïssa will realize she wants to confront her fears and learn to swim.
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Léa Triboulet lea.triboulet@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Léa Triboulet is a director and scriptwriter from France. After receiving an honors Master’s degree in scenography at the art school ESAD of Strasbourg (FR), she joined the international programme Film Factory in 2013, which was led by Béla Tarr (Sarajevo, BiH). She has directed several short films which have travelled to film festivals worldwide. Her latest short film “The brother” (CNC quality prize) was selected for the Rotterdam IFFR, Clermont-Ferrand, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal, Uppsala, Sarajevo FF, New Orleans... At present, she is developing the script for her debut feature film chosen for the 2017 Annual Selection of the Groupe Ouest (FR), as well as her new short film.
INTENTIONS In my work, I’m interested in investigating what comes after trauma, this fragile moment where we start to live again; the exploration of a traumatic situation in a cinematic way. For a long time, I have had this idea of developing a short film where a little girl tackles her fears and trauma. In Barcelona, since I have a lot of friends who support and work with refugees I have been told many of their stories. One friend works at a center that welcomes young single mothers with kids, which I find particularly touching. The story repeats itself again and again; children remain at the center of the madness and the tragedy continues. The intimate and poetic short film “Maïssa”, a coming of age story, takes place on the Catalan coast. The story will be told from the point of view of Maïssa, six-year-old. As refugees, Maïssa and her mother escaped from their country, crossing the Mediterranea by boat. Upon arrival, they went to a “residencia maternal”. Now they live alone and begin to adjust themselves to their new life. It’s a story about a little girl dealing with her trauma and the process of resilience. It’s also a story between a daughter and her mother embarking upon a new life…
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama
Budget: approx. 60.000
Length: 15 – 20 min Language: Catalan & Arabic
Looking for: Producer, Co-production, Distribution
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17 year old mother Kat craves for freedom and fun as she pursues a local boy and attempts to hide her recent pregnancy.
PALE SAINT Rhys Jones - United Kingdom / Ireland
SYNOPSIS Kat (17) is a single-teenage mother. She’s relocated with her family from the city of Dublin to coastal Wales; her parents are converting a barn into a family home. A young worker Dwayne (20) invites Kat out, mistaking the baby for her sister. Kat allows him to believe this but makes an excuse despite desiring freedom and fun. After an argument over dinner, Kat leaves her child and meets up with Dwayne at the beach. Over a night of risky behaviour she ultimately seduces him, only for her body to betray her and reveal her recent pregnancy. 22
Rhys Jones rmj309@nyu.edu Alexander Polunin anipolunin@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Rhys is a (writer/ director) raised in Yorkshire, UK to Irish and Welsh parents. After a stint as a stop-motion animator he he was accepted into the Graduate Film Program at NYU Tisch on a departmental scholarship. In 2016 Rhys was awarded the BBC America Award followed by the BAFTA LA Scholarship in 2017. At NYU Rhys studied under acclaimed filmmakers Spike Lee, Todd Solondz and Frederick Elmes ASC and his student shorts ‘Burn Bridge’ and ‘Boundaries’ are currently playing the festival circuit. Rhys is interested in telling authentic stories about real people facing real-life dilemmas. ‘Pale Saint’ would act as his thesis film and has the full support of NYU.
INTENTIONS For me the most satisfying shorts tend to be simple stories set over a short period of time. ‘Pale Saint’ is social-realist drama about motherhood told over one night that comments on the social dynamics of Ireland circa ’90 when the prevailing Catholic dogma marginalised single mothers. The Isle of Anglesey is the perfect backdrop with her rolling mountains and beaches tarnished by quarries and mines; symbolic of the internal struggle of the protagonist Kat. Our aim is to create an authentic but poetic rendering of youth with a textured aesthetic that exploits the natural beauty of the coastline. The film will employ a pared down filmmaking in tradition of European social realism and have a bittersweet tone. Altruistic protagonists have no place in cinema; Kat is complex, confused and acting out of self-interest. We will neither condemn nor condone her, but endeavor to represent her truthfully to evoke empathy. Now in my twenties I can view my own adolescence with greater perception and am increasingly intrigued by this dramatic period in one’s life; both internally via the uncontrollable urges and externally with the erratic and impulsive ways one tended to act.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama Length: 25 min Language: English / Welsh Format: HD Shooting days: 6 days, September 2018
Shooting Locations: Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, UK Estimated budget: 20.000 Secured finance: 10, 000 euros, Arri Alexa and Zeiss Super Speed Lens
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When Maria’s phone falls into the pool while recording her infant son’s final survival swimming lesson, she reveals what safety really means to her.
RIZI Stella Kyriakopoulos - Greece / Spain
SYNOPSIS Maria has always believed that one can never be too safe. Her 1 yr old Nikola, a backyard pool, and Greece’s long coastlines, led her to baby survival swimming. Barely able to handle the first lesson, recording the next 6 weeks of daily lessons on her phone somehow helped. For the final test, Nikola will prove that if he falls into water fully clothed, he will survive. With weeks of videos safe in her phone and Nikola about to prove that it was all worth it, Maria’s final video and RIZI starts.
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Stella Kyriakopoulos stella.kyr@gmail.com Fani Skartouli f.skartouli@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Stella Kyriakopoulos (Director) studied Sculpture at Swarthmore College and the Athens School of Fine Arts before receiving her MFA in Film at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her thesis short film, Volta (2016) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at over 100 festivals worldwide. It was awarded the Women in Film Award at Sundance and Best Short Film by the Hellenic Film Academy. Fani Skartouli (Producer) started her career as an Intellectual Property lawyer and switched to film production in 2015. She line-produced the short film A drowning man (Competition Shorts Cannes 2017). Her latest short film production, Postcards From The End, is currently in the editing process.
INTENTIONS Rizi means rice in Greek. It’s a pointedly absurd title for a film in which suspense and grotesque comedy fluidly interchange. At its core, it’s about how we use images to construct, or better yet, safeguard our version of reality. Like any good parent, Maria wants to provide her son with every skill to survive that she possibly can. For her, this extra layer of protection comes in the form of survival swimming lessons. Rizi finds comic ground in her son’s final graduation test from these lessons and in Maria’s overwhelming impulse to document his achievement, or in this case “survival,” in her backyard pool. What fuels our never-ending impulse to document experiences visually? In a time of endlessly multiplying screens and various versions of reality, can documentation become more important than reality? These questions touch upon the very basics of the filmmaking impulse and also have wide-reaching political implications. Beyond all this, I want to make a film that is formally playful, entertaining but also conceptually bold. In RIZI, all this is held in one location, a backyard pool, and in one emotional bond; that between a mother, her one year old son and her cell phone.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Dark comedy
Budget: 75.000
Length: 10 min Language: Greek
Financing plan: 10,000 secured (Sundance Film Award, La Aventura Audiovisual) 20,000 (Greek Film Centre, decision pending)
Production company: Either/Or Productions
Looking for: Co-producers, Casting services, Sales
Format: Digital
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The same way we are an assemblage of our family’s body parts, we are also an assemblage of our family’s frustrations.
SEDRA Judita Gamulin - Croatia
SYNOPSIS The film follows an urban family consisting of mother, father, young daughter and preschooler son on a really hot summer day they spend at the beach on a small island. This film shows us how their unhealthy relationship and behavior affects their two children, especially the daughter who starts to mirror her father. Children’s overall irritable behavior makes the situation escalate. As a result, their small boy wanders away and finds his place in a different family. Will the panic search for him make them aware of their impact on the children? 26
Judita Gamulin judita.gamulin@gmail.com Rea Rajčić rea@eclectica.com
BIOGRAPHIES Judita Gamulin (Writer/Director) is finishing master degree in film and TV directing in Zagreb, Croatia. For the last 5 years she has been working on films and TV commercials in various roles. She shot 4 short fiction films, and one of them - Flowers (2015) was shortlisted for the 43rd Student Academy Awards in 2016, among all the other awards and recognitions. Rea Rajčić (Producer) has master degree in film production. She has great experience working for leading distribution and production companies, and from 2015 as head of Cinema Exhibition department in Croatian Audiovisual Centre. She is currently working for her company Eclectica, and as an professor assistant at at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb.
INTENTIONS I like to think about a dysfunctional family like it is a rudimentary habit. An institution we are destined to, and of whose failure we are so afraid of, or even ashamed of, that we rather choose to stay in it, even when it becomes harmful to us. People belong to families at all costs, families they don’t like, they condemned themselves to while they would rather run away from them. Why do they keep coming back? This film, set on a claustrophobically small, maze-like island, is a portrait of such dysfunctional family. It is about how it feels to be a part of it, how it feels to be trapped in an unhealthy relationship and, most importantly, about those things we inherit by growing up in one. I’m excited about that mirroring effect - about showing how all of the words you hear from the daughter in this film, actually, at some previous point, came from the mouth of the father. That is what I call inheritance here - how our parents’ dysfunctional relationship affects us when we are kids, and how we tend to create new families based on those inherited frustrations. And how often we don’t realize we could easily become members of another family we would fit better into.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama
Budget: 49.000 EUR secured budget
Length: 15 min
(45K Euros from Croatian Audiovisaul Centre (production support) and 4K from City of Rijeka, regional fund
Language: Croatian Production company: Eclectica
Looking for: Coproducers, Sales agents
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Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.
THE INHERITANCE Mihnea Rares Hantiu - Romania
SYNOPSIS Estranged brothers Toni and Victor are reunited by the death of their grandma and the inheritance they have to split. They decide to sell the house and secure a down payment from a preliminary sales agreement. As they dismantle furniture, childhood memories resurface and they seem to be mending their broken relationship. What looks like a harmonious reconciliation escalates when they reveal their hidden agendas. Toni already spent his share of the money and tries to convince Victor not to sell anymore. But Victor has another plan: he’s moving to Canada. 28
Mihnea Rares Hantiu mihnearareshantiu@gmail.com Oana Furdea oana.f@citizenit.ro
BIOGRAPHIES Mihnea Rares Hantiu [Director] studied film at the National University of Theatre and Film and has directed 5 short films: The Kite, tHIS iS nOT a bANANA, This is Peter, The Cabin, White Is The New White and many experimental videos. He played the lead in the feature film Discordia (2016). His interest in cinema fuses with a broad interest in contemporary art and theatre. Oana Furdea [Producer] is a project manager for CitiZenit. She has a background in Comparative Literature and an MA in Contemporary Literature. She was an editor and contributing writer for various cultural magazines in Romania and UK. She’s always looking for stories, which she occasionally sets her mind to rewrite and produce.
INTENTIONS The Inheritance is a backwater drama which explores how you can represent the ideas of home & family in their absence. On a hot summer day, in a countryside house, Toni & Victor are taking furniture apart. As they throw away the trinkets gathered throughout the years, the silent tension is soaked in alcohol, tongues unwind & they become more open towards each other. As the film unfolds, we realize that the tale of the 2 brothers is a story of contrasts meeting. In the beginning there are achingly beautiful scenes of the house, an idyllic Zvyagintsev-like setting, where the brothers, with their beers & their conversation, belong less & less every minute. Because it’s hard to know what a person thinks, but easy to see what a person wants, their pseudo-harmonious meeting turns sour as they realize they’re connected only by childhood memories & hidden agendas. They are both at a crossroads in their lives. Toni has recently broken up with his girlfriend, has no money, nowhere to go & is hopelessly out of his depth. Victor plans to start a new life with his girlfriend in Canada. As they strip the house of memories, they are also thrown into the uncontrollable arms of an uncertain future.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama Length: 17-20 min. Language: Romanian Shooting date: Late Summer/ Early Autumn 2018 Production: CitiZenit
Budget: 25.000 Financing plan: CNC (National Centre of Cinematography, application date TBA), Municipal Cultural Centre Arad (application in March) Looking for: Distribution, Co-production
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Nothing will ruin a perfect day at the beach. Not even a dead old German lady.
THE RUDENESS OF A GERMAN LADY Silva Ćapin - Croatia
SYNOPSIS A local boat owner brings a group of enthusiastic tourists to the beach. Trees are nowhere to be seen and the beach only offers one parasol occupied by a big lady and one portable cooler. As the day goes by and the Sun scorches, the tourists try to make contact with her. She’s not moving, so they think that she is either German and thus doesn’t understand them or she is simply ignoring them. More and more people feel that she might actually be dead, but choose to believe that she’s doing this just to spite them. That’s what German ladies are like. Also it might rain tomorrow. 30
Silva Ćapin silva.capin@gmail.com Rea Rajčić rea@eclectica.com
BIOGRAPHIES Silva Ćapin (Writer/Director) is film director from Croatia. Since 2014, she has been working as an external associate at Croatian national television. Besides “The Rudeness of a German Lady” she is also developing feature-debut “On Leave”, and they are both supported by Croatian Audiovisual Centre. The latter won The Best Pitch Award at Pack & Pitch Programme at Sarajevo Film Festival. Rea Rajčić (Producer) has master degree in film production. She has great experience working for leading distribution and production companies, and from 2015 as head of Cinema Exhibition department in Croatian Audiovisual Centre. She is currently working for her company Eclectica, and as an professor assistant at at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb.
INTENTIONS This short film tackles the issue of human callousness and general disinterest for others, especially if those others are foreigners. The characters are stripped to their swimsuits; their beer bellies and plastic beach sandals do not fit them into an everyday context. However, even though they may seem different, deep down they’re all the same. This is why the beach is an ideal setting for this ‘microcosmos’. Vacations are just like night taxi fares: they cost double. The focus switches from one character to another, following fragments of their conversations, but always features the German lady in the background. As the plot thickens, she is slowly brought into the spotlight and eventually remains the only person on the beach. This gives the viewer a realistic detachment and insight into the whole of the situation, which felt fragmentary up to that point. The diffusion of responsibility works for them, but not the viewer. This short is infused with dark humor. Through dialogues and fragments of conversations, its goal is to depict the beach the way it really is. It’s alive and change is the only constant. Even when death gets in the way, the life of the beach goes on.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: (Black) Comedy Length: 15 minutes Language: Croatian, Czech, Italian, Slovenian... Production company: Eclectica
Funding: 42.000 EUR secured budget (40K Euros from Croatian Audiovisaul Centre (production support) and 2K from pitching award at Creative Europe Media desk Croatia workshop / pitching forum) Looking for: Coproducers, Sales agents 31
If you’re the one dictating the game, then you have the power.
TRAMPOLINE Kristian Sejrbo Lidegaard Denmark/France
SYNOPSIS Olivia (11) is playing on a trampoline with her new class mates on a hot summer day. Suddenly a group of older kids take over the trampoline; disarmed and frightened, Olivia pretends to be insane. The older kids find themselves in a state of fascination, pity and fear. Some believe she is faking it, while others believe she really must be insane. As the distinction between makebelieve and reality begins to unravel, Olivia’s lie has unforeseen consequences for herself and the older kids surrounding her. When reality hits, escape is the only way out. 32
Kristian Sejrbo Lidegaard kristiansejrbo@gmail.com Maria Moller Kjeldgaard mmkjeldgaard@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Kristian Sejrbo Lidegaard (director): Kristian graduated from the independent film school, Super16 in 2016. Additionally he holds a BA in History, with electives in Philosophy and Literature, and he has spent a semester in Paris. Songs in the Sun is his feature debut, which premiered at Slamdance 2018. He has written and directed five short films, several of which have screened in the international film festival circuit. Maria Moller Kjeldgaard (producer): Maria graduated from the independent film school Super16 in 2016. Additionally she holds a Master in Film Studies from Copenhagen University and she was also a semester in London. In 2013 she established her own production company, Manna Film, focusing on young talent with strong personal voices. She has participated in Young Nordic Producers Club in Cannes and ACE Producers Training Days Nordic Focus.
INTENTIONS Trampoline is based on a childhood memory. I have changed school six times. I became good at making up games that the other kids wanted to play. Once enthralled in a game, everybody forgot that I was a new face. It was as if an alternative world showed itself. A world where all of reality’s hierarchies could be suspended. And once something had been altered through the game, reality was also affected. I have been Olivia on that trampoline, who in fear of the older kids turned to play the part of the demon. I remember how I feared that they would go get a grown-up. For if I had to lie to first one adult, then to my own teacher and finally to my parents, I would never be able to escape the insanity I had created. When would I have to reveal that I was only pretending? And as the game went on, it only became more impossible to get out of. I have always been interested in, how easily a group’s perception of right and wrong can be altered. And how much all of us – for better and for worse – are molded by what our surroundings judge to be right. In a way, our values are something we make up as we go along. It is a very serious game perhaps, but a game nonetheless.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama Duration: 15 min. Language: Danish or French Status: In development Shooting: Fall 2018
Production company: Manna Film (Denmark) Co-producer: Mélissa Malinbaum, Face Nord Films (France) Estimated budget: 100.000 Looking for: sales agents, distributors, financiers 33
An elderly porn mogul has to fight off his monstrously mutated sexworkers who turn against him after snorting toxic cocaine.
VENGEANCE OF THE VIXENS Leander Hanssen Jr. - Belgium
SYNOPSIS Ninety-year old Wally Fitzgerald Montello is the richest man in the Hardcore Roman Pornography business. One night, during the lavish celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his empire, he treats everybody to an exotic form of cocaine. The drugs, however, turn out to be terribly toxic and all the women transform into grotesque mutants that are thirsty for male blood! Will the patronizing patriarch Wally be able to defeat the uprising of frenzied female freaks and escape his mansion with his manlihood intact?
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Leander Hanssen Jr. hanssenleander@hotmail.com Niels Snoek nielsnoek@hotmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Leander Hanssen Jr. (Director) has always been a huge fan of crazy cult cinema, grotesque comedy, practical special effects and exploding heads. Since his graduation from RITCS film school with the pastel coloured high school sex comedy ‘Sizzlin’ Bacon’ (selected for Leuven International Short Film Festival 2016), he has been working as a music video director. Niels Snoek (writer) is the man with the plan. He and Leander met at film school and have been working together ever since. Niels has a knack for writing snappy dialogue and never loses sight of the big picture. Together, these bad boys from Brussels want to reinvent the eurohorror genre.
INTENTIONS A good genre movie transports you to a strange and wonderful cinematic place where you can never predict what kind of madness is coming next. These experiences are unique in cinema and our goal is to create one and share it with as many audiences as possible. To thrill people, surprise them, make them laugh, make them scream, and give them something they won’t forget. But of course, a good horror movie should also revolve around a primal, visceral fear. In this short, the viewer will be brutally confronted with the male fear of castration. We will also playfully touch upon broader issues, like the sexual abuse by old white men in power positions. To put ‘Vengeance of the Vixens’ somewhere in the cinematic spectrum: Cronenbergian body horror with Fulci-levels of flubbery gore, John Waters-like campiness and slapstick-on-steroids reminding of Sam Raimi.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Live-action, horror/comedy Status: screenwriting stage Language: English Duration: 15-20 minutes Producer: Bekke Films
Estimated budget: 95.000 Looking for: Coproducer
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On the roof of the 25th floor of Tokyo’s tall skyscraper, Sunshine City Hotel, Jenny sends a last voice message to her sister.
WHEN BODIES FALL FROM THE SKY Yenni Lee - Sweden / Norway
SYNOPSIS The body of Jenny needs to be transported back home to Sweden by her twin sister Emma and best friends Sara and Toshi. Home from the other side of the planet, Tokyo, where her last sign of life was from the roof of the 25th floor of the mega city’s tall skyscraper, Sunshine City Hotel.
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Yenni Lee lee.yenni@gmail.com Nina Barbosa nina@barbosafilm.no
BIOGRAPHIES Yenni Lee (director) has an MFA from Sweden Film School of Directing. Festivals include SXSW, Outfest, Nordic Film Days, Göteborg FF and Locarno Festival (Locarno Filmmakers Academy). She’s developing her first feature and explores intricate subjects such as sexuality, death, violence and power. Ronny Fritsche (producer) was headhunted to Zentropa Sweden by CEO Madeleine Ekman after film school. He is a Student Academy Award Nominee and has produced 4 shorts and one feature + 4 projects in development. Win his heart by talking about veganism and sustainable filmmaking! Nina Barbosa (co-producer) has in lightning speed after film school produced 7 shorts + 8 projects in development through her company Barbosa Film. She was selected to the Young Nordic Producers Club in Cannes and won a Norwegian Oscar for best short. Nina fights actively for gender equality in film!
INTENTIONS What is death and what is grief? Grief does not consist of stages. Like love, it’s chaotic, unexpected, undemanded. Here the characters’ individual grief take unexpected turns as there are no specific order in their pain. We get to know Jenny through the grief, from her remains in her apartment, and the visual identity. Slow-paced and meditative, the film is a hybrid where I want to make the border between reality and fiction unclear. The synergy of the images and sound becomes a micro-poetic psychosis with at times reality crack, where you may lose perception of time and space. This film is based on my own experience around the death of my close and dear friend Jonas. It’s about friendship, to not let go of each other, but also to let go.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama Length: 25 min Format: HD Language: Swedish / Norwegian Production Companies: Zentropa Sweden and Barbosa Film Budget: 155.000
Secured Financing: 73.000 from The Norwegian Film Institute and Film i Väst Sweden Financing Plan: Apply for 62 000 from the Swedish Film Institute (Dec), 20 000 from regional film fund Viken Filmsenter (Apr) Looking For: Distributors, Sales Agents, Festival Contacts 37
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WORK IN PROGRESS PITCH
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An introverted young girl discovers a gateway to a parallel world, in which she finds comfort and ease for her feeling of guilt.
EVA Xheni Alushi - Albania / Switzerland
SYNOPSIS Though being a swimmer, Eva was unable to save her little brother from nearly drowning at sea. He now lies in a coma and the cold relationship with her mother is not helping Eva’s conscience either. She stumbles upon a mysterious puddle in her bathroom, which takes her to the depths of the sea. As her mother looks for Eva, she only finds a puddle of water that she starts to wipe away.
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Xheni Alushi xheni.alushi@hyperwerk.ch Noah Bohnert noah@letterbox-collective.com
BIOGRAPHIES Before she started her bachelor studies in Switzerland, Xheni Alushi (director) (1991) worked for a project office at the Albanian ministry of culture. She came about film when she worked on short film productions at the Academy of the Arts in Tirana, Albania. She loves to write short stories. The script for EVA is developed out of one of these stories. Noah Bohnert (producer) (1991) from Zurich, Switzerland has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies from the University of Zurich. 2015 – 2016 further education in European co-production and distribution with the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and la Fémis). His partners David F. Geiser and Garrick J Lauterbach are also producers on the project.
INTENTIONS In the tradition of non-conventional cinema, this is a minimalistic tale, which will keep the audience guessing to the very end. It promises what an atypical movie has to offer: slow pacing, mood, atmosphere and a touch of surrealism, as the story is mostly unfolded through the play of sounds rather than through dialogues. EVA mixes it all along with a generous amount of what it feels like being helpless on events we can’t control.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Fantastic/Drama
Estimated Budget: 20.000
Length: 15 min
Secured financing: 13.000
Format: digital 4k/2k, 1.85:1
Financing: regional foundations
Language: Swiss German (subtitles: English, German) Production company: Letterbox Collective Filmproduktion (Switzerland)
Looking for: sound mix, distribution, sales, world premiere
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30-year-old taxi driver Rasim, living a routine life, unexpectedly meets on his way a woman who’s totally opposite to him.
QUXUROBA Teymur Gambarov Azerbaijan / Russia
SYNOPSIS A 30-year- old taxi driver Rasim lives alone in the Baku. He is a closed person, difficult to contact. One of the days Rasim is asked to deliver a wedding dress to the country side. On the way he is asked to bring a woman who also travels in the same direction. A ride with a woman who’s totally opposite to him.
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Teymur Gambarov teymur.gambarov@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Teymur Gambarov (Writer/Director) an independent director from Azerbaijan. About 10 years after graduation worked at the international advertisement agency called Starcom Mediavest Group. Participated in several advertisement shootings. In 2015 made his first short film (The Wall) which was made using only 2 actors and a camera. During the last 2 years, he wrote a scenario for the Quxuroba film and have completed first half of the film. Currently working on the second half of this film.
INTENTIONS In my film Quxuroba, I wanted to demonstrate the aspects of the real life of real people who lives in more remote and less fortunate regions of Azerbaijan, the realities of my country. I am also trying to show main characters’ struggles with himself and his fears, his deep emotions that might not be acceptable for everybody who would watch my film. I am trying to demonstrate his relations with the woman who made him feel something real, potentially for the first time in his life. This film is a one-day film. One day that can change someone’s life whether he or she wants it or not. Almost all the episodes in this movie I came across myself in real life. No one can tell me “It does not happen”. This is the reality of our life today: cynicism, irresponsibility, frivolity. Despite all of this, you can find the light at the end of the tunnel, yourself or with the help of a person who suddenly entered your life.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Drama
Estimated budget for 1st half: 3000 Eur
Country: Azerbaijan
Estimated budget for 2nd half: 7000 Eur
Duration: 25 min Language: Azerbaijani, English
Looking for: Co-producer
Production company: Memuar Films, Fil Production
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When acting out a Mexican telenovela with her plush toys, a little girl has to face her own fantasy.
SOY TU PAPĂ€ Garrick J Lauterbach The Netherlands / Switzerland / Mexico
SYNOPSIS AZUL (6-10) is a TV-addict. She is so preoccupied by her daily overdose of TV that her perception of reality and fantasy begins to blend. With her stuffed animals she reenacts Mexican telenovelas: hysterical, brutal, ironic and surprising. Ultimately Azul loses control over her very personal TV-drama and finds herself endangered by her own creations.
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Garrick J Lauterbach garrick@letterbox-collective.com Noah Bohnert noah@letterbox-collective.com
BIOGRAPHIES Garrick J Lauterbach (director) (1989) grew up in Basel and studied philosophy, film and literature at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. As self-educator he has made numerous short films, music videos and advertisements and has thusly been able to prove his skills as a visually thinking director. Noah Bohnert (producer) (1991) from Zurich, Switzerland has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies from the University of Zurich. 2015 – 2016 further education in European co-production and distribution with the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and la Fémis). His partners David F. Geiser and Garrick J Lauterbach are also producers on the project. This film will be distributed to festivals by Moritz Schneider from CUT-UP. He will also be present at ESP 2018. Sales rights still available.
INTENTIONS Told with the grungy aesthetics of an old tube screen TV and held in the aspect ratio of 4:3 the depths of the human abyss are exploited against the backdrop of Mexican telenovelas that themselves are subject of satire.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Adventure/Comedy
Co-production: Fidelio Films (Mexico)
Length: 18min
Estimated Budget: 140.000
Format: digital 2k, 1.78:1
Secured financing: 120.000
Language: Spanish (subtitles: English, German)
Financing: Swiss ministry of culture, regional film fund Basel (Switzerland), in-kind price for best script at Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
Production company: Letterbox Collective Filmproduktion (Switzerland)
Looking for: VFX, sales, world premiere 45
One Day/One Night/A Porn Audition/Two Girls// The big male force that will put that friendship on test///
TINA & SENDY Hani Domazet - Croatia
SYNOPSIS “Tina & Sendy� is a film about 2 girls meeting at a porn audition, getting infatuated by one another and going through a journey in one day, followed by one dominant male figure, whose face we never see and who will put that friendship on test.
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Hani Domazet hani.domazet@gmail.com Mirta Puhlovski mirta.puhlovski@gmail.com
BIOGRAPHIES Hani Domazet (director) graduated German/Comparative Literature and Film Directing at The Academy of Dramatic Arts. Worked on many short films& commercials. She currently works as a freelance director, copywriter and assistant director on several projects and preparing her first feature movie. Mirta Puhlovski is a producer from Croatia with more than 20 short films awarded worldwide. She graduated Film and Theatre Production at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. She also produced several documentaries and other film formats. In 2011 she founded the production house “Slavica Film”. Since then she has coproduced 6 short films with other EU Countries.
INTENTIONS “Tina & Sendy” is a film about 2 girls meeting at a porn audition, getting infatuated by one another and going through a journey in one day and one night with a male figure, whose face we never but who plays as the force that separates them. It is a film about friendship and a metaphor for power and dominance that gets in the way of woman who could connect more strongly otherwise. Other than carrying that message, the movie has dark humour, a flashy and at moments uncomfortable atmosphere and a distinctive East European girl aesthetic.
PRODUCTION NOTE Genre: Live Action Drama Length: 19:44 minutes Format: Digital 4K Languages: English/Croatian Location: Zagreb, Croatia Status: Postproduction
Shooting date: Finished, February, 1st, 2018 (without sound post-production) Budget: 55.000€ Looking for: Co-producers, Sales Agents, TV Seeking partners for: Sound post-production, Distributor 47
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ESP 2018 CONSULTANTS Ben Vandendaele Ben Vandendaele is a versatile producer based in Brussels where he studied Audiovisual Techniques at the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound. He has gathered experience in various filmrelated settings: as a digital image technician, film editor and a vault manager. He is the founder of two companies: the production company Bekke Films that supports provocative cinema and authors with a purpose and Radiator IP Sales with which he has represented, distributed and sold a total of 80 short and 3 feature films to date. The films have been selected for multiple international film festivals, including Berlinale, Clermont-Ferrand, Sundance, SXSW, Locarno, Venice and others. Fo the moment he’s busy with several international co-productions and the development of a film distribution - platform.
David Verdurme David Verdurme, a Belgian editor, finished his studies at RITS film school in Brussels with the editing of Gust Van den Berghe’s Little Baby Jesus of Flandr, selected for the 2010 Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. He hasn’t slowed down since. His work ranges from rigorous art house films, to comedy, children’s films and documentary.
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ESP 2018 TUTORS Nadja Dumouchel
Nadja Dumouchel is currently engaged in script consulting for various film labs such as Next Step run by Semaine de la Critique, Realness in South Africa and Racconti in Italy. She is also working, with various filmmakers and producers around the world, on the development of their feature films and writing a documentary series on art history for ARTE. During the past years, she has been working in European feature film development at ARTE in Strasbourg and has been trained as a story editor at Torino Film Lab. She is the co-founder and a script consultant at “La Scénaristerie”, a development platform for screenwriters in Paris, where she supports authors with feature film projects “on spec”.
Britta Krause
Britta Krause is a script editor and director. She has been working as a tutor with emerging screenwriters for Kultburo Moscow, Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Nipkow Programm, Berlin, and Nisi Masa’s European Short Pitch workshops. She was a script editor trainee at TorinoFilmLab’s Script&Pitch workshop in 2012 before joining the laboratory again in 2018 as trainer for FeatureLab. Britta is currently teaching Script Development Strategies at Filmakademie Ludwigsburg to students of the International Producing program as well as working one on one with writers and directors from all over Europe. After having started her studies at New York University’s film & television program Britta graduated from the London Film School with a distinction in script-writing. She worked as a writer, director and editor on short and TV-films. Since 2001 she has been directing commercials for leading international brands in Austria, Germany, Portugal, Russia and South Africa. Britta Krause lives in Berlin.
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Razvan Radulescu
Razvan Radulescu is one of the most productive Romanian scriptwriters. As a director, he made one film, First of all Felicia and is in pre-production with his second one. He represents the so-called post-revolution cinema in Romania and is part of its most successful generation of filmmakers. He studied Linguistics at the University of Bucharest, specializing himself in French literature, and Opera Directing at the Music Academy of Bucharest. His literary debut in 1995 was a collection of anthologies and he has written since two novels which were translated into Italian, Spanish, French, Croatian and Hungarian. His second novel, Theodosius the Small, received in 2011 the European Prize for Literature. As a scriptwriter, he has collaborated with numerous directors such as Cristi Puiu (Stuff and Dough, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), Radu Muntean (The Paper Will Be Blue, Tuesday After Christmas, One Floor Bellow), Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days), Calin Netzer (Childs’s Pose), Rafi Pitts (Soy Nero). Since 2006, he was a frequent guest of the Academy of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe and York University in Toronto, and of the Museum of Cinema in Torino, for workshops on dramaturgy. From 2011 until 2014, he had a permanent assignment to teach film directing at the ESAV (Superior School of Visual Arts) in Marrakesh. He is currently teaching film at The Academy of Arts and Design in Karklsruhe.
Leonardo Stagliano
A former participant of the ESP, Leonardo Staglianò is a writer and story editor who studied Philosophy (Università di Firenze), Techniques of Narration (Scuola Holden) and Dramatic Writing (New York University). He wrote the feature film Yuri Esposito, winner of the Biennale College at the 70° Venice Film Festival, the play Cashmere, WA, winner of the Diego Fabbri Award, and short stories published in various literary magazines. As a script consultant he has run workshops for organizations and institutions such as TorinoFilmLab, Le Groupe Ouest, Doha Film Institute. Currently, he is the Program Coordinator of the College of Storytelling at the Scuola Holden, where he teaches dramaturgy.
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ESP 2018 TEAM Wim Vanacker After studying psychology, Wim Vanacker moved to Dublin to work as a psychologist in the field of drug addiction. Three years later, he picked up studying again at EICAR where he made two shorts : Endgame and The Naked leading the Blind. After graduating, he discovered NISI MASA where he became the Head of the Script Department. Recently, he founded Sireal Films where he produced the VAF funded short film empire. As a writer/director, he’s currently developing the short film [ˈsɪə. ri.əl ]. On the side, he works as a script consultant, tutor and guest speaker and from this year onward, he’s also part of the Selection Committee for the Official Short Film Competition of the Cannes Film Festival. Jérôme Nunes Jerome works and lives in Marseille. Together with Jean-Laurent Csinidis, he created the company Films de Force Majeure (France Televisions Emerging Producer award), focusing on documentaries, with a keen interest in international co-productions. He also works as a script consultant: Aflam workshop (Rencontres Int. des Cinémas Arabes – CNC, Talents en court), Summer Scriptwriting Camp (Bulgaria), Pitch Please! (Luxembourg City Film Festival), le G.R.E.C. (SouthEast of France, 2012)… As an ESP alumnus, he directed the short film Relapse in 2013 (Cinébanlieue, Clermont-Ferrand…). That’s when he became an active member of Nisi Masa’s script department, co-organising European Short Pitch and in particular the coproduction forum. Marija Fridinovaite M. Fridinovaite graduated from Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2015. Positioning as a production manager and producer, Marija took part in the production of various feature and short film projects. At the moment Marija is working for NISI MASA (Paris, France), and developing two shorts as well as a documentary, all about to be produced in 2018. The last short, The Mother’s Day, produced by M.Fridinovaite has won the national film award - Silver Crane for the best short of the year 2017, and was premiered at Clermont-Ferrand ISFF (2018). Laima Grazdanovica Laima graduated from theater and cinema art theory studies in Latvian Academy of Culture, has worked for several years at RadioNABA radio show about cinema “Sixty Minutes Older”, is a programmer and curator at the Riga International Film Festival 2ANNAS, including being actively involved in international cinema, photography and theater projects, with special focus on the interdisciplinarity of documentary art. 52
ESP 2018 AWARDS ESP awards 3 money awards of € 1.000 each in cash will be awarded by the City of Poznan - as voted by the audience of professionals Aubagne International Film Festival award European market for film music composition – 3rd Character One project will be invited for the next edition of the Festival to find and meet their potential music composer www.aubagne-filmfest.fr
ALCIMÉ
FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DU FILM D’AUBAGNE
GEAR AWARD 2K4K Film Rental - Wacław Maczynski 2K4K film rental will provide consulting services regarding equipment supply as well as provide the equipment for film shooting. www.2k4k.pl WIP awards - as voted by the jury of the companies offering their services Distribution Award - Radiator IP Sales - Ben Vandendaele Distribution and promotion by Radiator IP Sales (Belgium) www.radiatorsales.eu Image Award Poznanska Wytwórnia Filmowa (Poznan Motion Pictures) - Anita Trzyna Providing image postproduction: VFX, compositing, color grading and graphic design (credits etc.) - www.pwfilmowa.pl Mastering in-kind Award - The Fridge Belgium www.thefridge.tv Award ceremony on 24 March 2018 at 8pm / Rialto cinema 53
CREDITS HEAD OF SCRIPT DEPARTMENT Wim Vanacker wim@nisimasa.com CO-PRODUCTION FORUM MANAGER Jérôme Nunes nunes@films-de-force-majeure.com PROJECT COORDINATOR Marija Fridinovaite marija@nisimasa.com PROJECT ASSISTANT Laima Grazdanovica laima@nisimasa.com 54
LAYOUT & DESIGN Francesca Merlo francesca-merlo@libero.it Nora Bertone nora.bertone@gmail.com
FUNDERS
WITH THE SUPPORT OF
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
ALCIMÉ
FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DU FILM D’AUBAGNE
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