Projects

Projects

Frontières

Cult Hero

Category: Buyers Showcase

Directed by: Jesse T. Cook

Produced by: Jesse T. Cook, Liv Collins, Craig Shouldice

Country of production: Canada

Genre: Action, Comedy, Horror

Language: English

Manager-summoning control freak Kallie Jones teams up with washed-up cult buster Dale Domazar to rescue her husband from the clutches of a cannibalistic death cult.

Goes to Cannes

Breaking and Entering

Category: SANFIC Industria Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Tomás Gonzalez Matos

Produced by: Camila Rodó Carvallo, Pira Films

Country of production: Chile

Original title: Allanamiento

Genre: Feature film

Language: Español

Runtime: 80min

Completed in: 2022

The Deputy Commissioner of the Investigative Police MATOS requests help from Commissioner NOVOA to enter the Prosecutor’s Office and get rid of some recordings that accuse them of drug trafficking, torture and corruption.

Goes to Cannes

Silent Ghosts

Category: HAF Goes to Cannes

Directed by: YANG Heng

Produced by: YAN Ni, No Chopsticks Pictures Limited

Country of production: Hong Kong

Original title: 失語鎮

Genre: Feature film

Language: Putonghua, Hunan Dialect

Runtime: 142min

Completed in: 2022

A story set in an enigmatic town featuring a woman in the morning mist, a tourist, a strange old man, a reckless young man and two policemen burdened with troubles.

Goes to Cannes

Lesvia, the herstory of Eressos

Category: Thessaloniki Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Tzeli Hadjidimitriou

Produced by: Tzeli Hadjidimitriou, Anemos Dimiourgias, with the support of the Region of North Aegean, developed with the support of Onassis Culture

Country of production: Greece

Original title: Λesvia, the herstory of Eressos

Genre: Documentary

Language: Greek, English, Italian, French

Runtime: 80min

Completed in: 2023

Birthplace of the Archaic Greek poet Sappho, Eressos, decorates its squares with statues of her, a lesbian. This affirmation has marked the island of Lesbos as a meeting point for the international lesbian community. What does this place actually mean to them and how do the locals perceive them?

Goes to Cannes

Demons

Category: Tallinn Black Nights Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Natalka Vorozhbyt

Produced by: Dmytro Minzianov (Kristi Film) Denis Ivanov (Arthouse Traffic)

Country of production: Ukraine

Original title: Демони

Genre: Feature film

Language: Ukrainian

Runtime: 105min

Completed in: May 2023

Slavik, a homeless man from Russia, finds himself in Gogol’s places near Sorochyntsi. In order to survive the winter, he becomes friends with Ninka, an older woman. However, he underestimates the scale of her personality and the peculiarities of the region that overwhelm the uninvited guest.

Animation Day

Lollipop

Directed by: Lisa Marie Russo

Produced by: Kate Ogborn (Fly Film), Vicki Rock (Enter Yes)

Country of production: UK - Ireland

Original title: Lollipop

Language: English

Runtime: 85min

Completed in: 2024

Lollipop (the sweet sounding name of a mastectomy scar) explores the creator’s surreal odyssey of tackling breast cancer. Twice. Her avatar, Eva, slips into youthful memories of seaside attractions and sunshine, which morph into something dark and corporeal as she juggles family life and illness.

Fantastic 7

Moshari

Category: Fantastic 7

Directed by: Nuhash Humayun

Country of production: Bangladesh

Original title: মশারি

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror

Language: English, Bengali, Hindi

SXSW South by Southwest Film Festival

When blood thirsty creatures have taken over the world, the only survivors are in South Asia: two sisters are forced inside a mosquito net (moshari) just to survive – but first they must survive each other.

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Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR

Genre: Adventure, Documentary, Sports

Produced by: Jonathan Griffith Productions

Directed by: Jonathan Griffith

Original title: Alex Honnold : The Soloist VR

Lead artist: Jonathan Griffith

Runtime: 2x 30 minutes

Language: English

Completed in: 2022

Synopsis:

A gripping two part series following Alex Honnold around his stomping grounds in the US before taking you to the high mountains of the European Alps. Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR is a ground-breaking VR production using the latest in high resolution 3D 360° capture in some of the most remote and wildest locations possible. From the director and Producer of Everest VR : Journey to the Top of the World , this experience brings you right by Alex’s side as he solos thousands of feet above the ground. In Episode 1 of Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR, viewers begin by getting to know Honnold, before following him to Yosemite National Park, home of the famed El Capitan, and Red Rocks. Viewers are then brought to Europe where Honnold teams up with Swiss climber and Red Bull athlete Nicolas Hojac to tackle some of the toughest climbs in the Dolomites.

Director’s statement:

The film is the result of two years of meticulous planning and crafting. What really sets it apart aside the visuals is the narrative. Leaning on the strenghts of VR we striped the entire experience down to the bare bones; you will find yourself fully immersed in a live action adventure- there is no voice over, and only minimal music. The end result is a far more intense and immersive experience because of it.

Origin: UK

Devices: HTC Vive series/Ocolus Rift series/Quest

Platform: VeeR, Alexandria

Cannes Docs

Caiti Blues

Original title: Caiti Blues

Directed by: Justine Harbonnier

Produced by: Nellie Carrier (Cinquième maison, Canada), Julie Paratian (Sister Productions, France)

Country of production: Canada, France

Runtime: 70'

Expected release: November, 2022

Production stage: Post Production

Budget: $264 127 (63% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Gap financing, festivals, sales agents

Synopsis:

Caiti Blues portrays the daily life of a 30 year old singer, Caiti Lord, and the locals of Madrid, US, an ancien ghost town transformed in a landmark for hippies and marginal people. Through Caiti’s life and artistic practice, this film explores more universal struggles such as self-acceptance, the burden of social norms and the ideological challenges of her generation in the US current political landscape.

Director’s profile:

After getting a Master’s degree in comparative literature, Justine directed her first short film, Angèle. Distributed by Spira (Canada), the film had its world premiere at the MoMA in New York. All while directing experimentals projects – including the video poem Waste Land, which was distributed by La Maison de la poésie in Montreal – Justine participated in documentary development for production companies. Her second short film, Andrew Keegan is Moving was screened in various film festivals (FID Marseille, RIDM, DOXA). Justine is currently developing her first feature Caiti Blues, with Sister productions (France) and Cinquième Maison (Québec).

Producers’s profile:

Nellie Carrier produced in 2016 her first feature, Sashinka by Kristina Wagenbauer, (FNC, Seattle int. film fest., Canadian Screen awards 2019). In 2017, She co-created Cinquième maison and produced the same year the short films Girlfriends (TIFF 2018) and Looking for strong woman (best director Rhode Island festival, best short film Berlin film fest. and Big water fest.). She co-produced in 2019 the short film As prings comes by Marie-Ève Juste (TIFF, FNC 2020) and Miryam Charles’ first feature This house as line producer (Berlinale – forum, Hot Docs 2022), both with Embuscade films. She is currently co-producing the documentary Caiti Blues (copro France-Canada), by Justine Harbonnier and the short films Ghislaine (Franie-Éléonore Bernier), and Nuit blonde (Gabrielle Demers). She is developing short and features, including fiction feature Querelle de Roberval by Gabrielle Demers.

Cannes Docs

Dark Child

Original title: Dark Child

Directed by: Ursula Williams

Produced by: Alexander Behse (Monsoon Pictures International, New Zealand)

Country of production: New Zealand

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: Januray, 2024

Production stage: Shooting

Budget: $1M USD (100% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Sales Agents

Synopsis:

Eminent household star Marlon Williams is pissing off his publicist by choosing to write and record his next album in the indigenous language of New Zealand, te reo Māori. This feature music documentary secures a years unvarnished access to a rising star from the bottom of the globe on his journey to international fame. Dark Child, befitting the laid back personality of its subject, will never take itself too seriously and it will never forget that, at heart, it is a story of joyful self discovery and reclamation; on that journey, we witness Marlon connecting the threads of self. This, of course, is always something to celebrate. 

Director’s profile:

Ursula has a knack for telling intimate stories. As Head of Production for VICE New Zealand she produced and directed a number of award-winning documentaries. Her most recently awarded documentary, Deportees of Tonga: Gangsters in Paradise, has so far been viewed by over eleven million people worldwide and was awarded Best Feature Video at the 2021 Voyager Media Awards. The Zealandia series, which Ursula produced and directed, has been picked up by networks all over the globe and viewed collectively by nearly twenty five million people. Since VICE, Ursula has directed the six part series Milk and Money on the New Zealand dairy industry which was picked up by The Guardian.

Producers’s profile:

German born Alexander Behse has been in the Pacific for over two decades and swiftly established himself as one of NZ’s most respected film and television producers. Landmark productions include, the top 3 NZ feature documentaries of all time POI-E: The Story of our Song (Sony Pictures); the Hulu released and globally sold Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web; My Year with Helen about former PM Helen Clark (EP) and NZ’s first HBOmax Original: There is no I in Threesome.