Projects

Projects

Goes to Cannes

Triple Oh!

Category: Queer Screen Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Poppy Stockell | Writer: Erica Harrison

Produced by: Poppy Stockell, Alexandra Galloway, Tamasin Simpkin | Sirius Pictures

Country of Production: Australia

Original Title: Triple Oh!

Language: English

Runtime: 45'

Completed in: 2023

Triple Oh! is a dark comedy-drama following the lives of two ambulance paramedics, as they save lives in absurd medical emergencies. Their personalities clash and are tested when street-smart Tayls introduces by-the-book Cate to her unconventional policy of having sex when a patient dies.

Ukraine in Focus

Consider Vera

Directed by: Marina Stepanska

Produced by: Natalia Libet | Esse Production House

Country of Production: Ukraine

Original Title: Consider Vera

Language: Ukrainian

Runtime: 100'

Budget: 1 253 875 Eur

Completed in: 2025

Nina is a 6-year old curious girl who lives with her mother Antonina in a small village on the outskirts of Kyiv. Vera, a wild woman, appears in their small village and changes their lives dramatically. A film about womanhood in Ukraine in the 80s.

Cannes Docs

The Camera Never Cries

Original Title: الكاميرا لا تجيد البكاء

Directed by: Elsadig Abdelgayoum, Abuzar Adam

Produced by: Alyaa Musa (Black Balance Artistic Production, Sudan)

Country of Production: Sudan, Qatar

Runtime: 75'

Expected Release: April, 2024

Production Stage: Production

Budget: €200.000 (25% in place)

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Co-producers, sales agents, buyers, festivals

Synopsis:

When Elsadig and Abuzar meet while filming the Sudanese revolution 2019, neither knew they would eventually turn the camera on each other. An intimate journey of a growing friendship between two directors, whom seeking redemption and beauty through the art of filmmaking when all the odds are against them.

Director’s profile:

Elsadig Abdelgayoum is a Sudanese photographer and filmmaker. He studied Multimedia and participated in a few filmmaking and photography workshops in Khartoum and other cities in the continent. Elsadig employs filmmaking, photography not only as tools to tell stories, but to research and develop further understandings and new prespectives towards his own reality. In 2012 Abuzar Osman graduated from the telecommunication engineering. His passion of classic photography started during his childhood before fleeing Darfur region. Aubzar has joined filmmaking workshops and directed two graduation projects. Between December 2018 until the end of March Abuzar joined a journalistic network Ayin (Witness).

Producer’s profile:

Transforming from a Development professional to a storyteller, Alyaa is searching for controversy, hope and beauty behind closed doors. She has creative credits as a producer, director, cinematographer, editor and visual artist in about ten shorts that were screened in international film festivals. Alyaa has two higher degrees in filmmaking from the UK; PGD London Film School 2012 and MA with distinction in Cinematography and Post Production from the University of Greenwich 2014. A graduate of EAVE producers workshop 2021, Alyaa is currently leading two feature documentaries that are supported by regional and international documentary funds and film institutions.

Cannes Docs

Sisters of the Union

Category: Canada Showcase

Directed by: Dan Popa

Produced by: Line Sander Egede | TAK Films (Canada)

Country of Production: Canada

Original Title: Sisters of the Union

Runtime: 90'

Expected Release: January 2027

Production Stage: Post-Production

Budget: $296,637 (89% in place)

1st Feature: No

Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents / Distributors, Buyers, Gap Financing

Synopsis:

Sisters of the Union is a fantastical autobiographical documentary about my family’s life during Communism in Romania. The story is told through the voices and challenging shifts of five women that each come to symbolize various eras from the rise to the decline of the Union.

Director’s Profile:

Dan Popa is a Canadian filmmaker of Romanian origin. Popa graduated in film production from Concordia University. In his work, we find new explorations, as much in the narrative form as in the aesthetic treatment of the image. Always in search of crafting a contemporary cinema voice, his filmmaking process draws inspiration from various visual languages.
He directed several short films which won awards in Canada and at several international film festivals. His most recent immersive Installation project Partitions for Aquamarine is in dialogue with Symphony in Aquamarine (2018), his first feature film. These two works offer a poetic exploration of human nature in the face of its world in transition.

Producer’s Profile:

Line Sander Egede, originally from Copenhagen and based in Montreal since 2015, began producing films in Denmark in 2010. She founded TAK Films in 2018, producing works such as Vacarme (2020) by Neegan Trudel and Gabor (2021) by Joannie Lafrenière, focusing on auteur-driven fiction and documentaries with strong social and artistic ambition. From 2021 to 2024, she was a partner at production company Art et Essai and, among other projects, produced Ariane Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023), which premiered in Venice and Toronto and was sold to over 70 territories.

Cannes Docs

Burning Daddy

Category: Chile-Colombia Showcase

Directed by: Tana Gilbert

Produced by: Paola Castillo Villagrán | Errante (Chile), Dirk Manthey | Dirk Manthey Films (Germany), Carolina Astudillo, Wendy Espinal | Isolda Films (Spain)

Country of Production: Chile, Germany, Spain

Original Title: Papito Corazón

Runtime: 80'

Expected Release: September 2026

Production Stage: Editing

1st Feature: No

Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents / Distributors, Buyers, Gap Financing

Synopsis:

Camila and her family reconstruct the image of her swindler father through photographs, court records and memories fractured by his violence. A charismatic man who promised limitless success. When the fantasy crumbled, intimacy became fear and silence a way to endure. The film traces the dismantling of a father shaped by neoliberal illusion, and the fragile rebuilding of those who survived his fiction

Director’s Profile:

Tana Gilbert is a filmmaker graduated from the University of Chile with a Master’s degree in Documentary Cinema. Her work focuses on the representation of the domestic and the political, exploring family archives and the lives of women in Latin American contexts.
Her first feature film, Malqueridas (2023), received the Grand Prize for Best Film at the Critics’ Week of the Venice International Film Festival and has earned over 30 awards and 60 official selections at international festivals. Her short films — Rest, Zulema (2013), I’m Still Here (2017) and No Star (2022) — were screened and awarded at festivals such as Hot Docs, Chicago and the Valladolid International Film Week.
She is currently pursuing a PhD in Communication at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, within the research line in Cinema. Her work has established her as one of the new voices in contemporary Chilean cinema.

Producer’s Profile:

Paola Castillo Villagrán is a director and producer of award-winning documentaries, including Beyond My Grandfather Allende (Golden Eye Prize, Cannes Film Festival, 2015), Malqueridas (Best Film, Venice International Critics’ Week, 2023), The Lifeguard, Cielo and Relentless Memory, among others. She has also directed Frontera, Genoveva and 74m².
She is co-founder and Executive Director of the Chilean Documentary Corporation (CCDoc) and Deputy Director of the Chiledoc sector brand, both non-profit organisations supporting the national and international distribution of Chilean documentaries. She has served as a jury member at film festivals, a mentor for documentary labs, and an evaluator for international funding programs.
She is a professor in the Film and TV programme at the University of Chile and in the Audiovisual Direction programme at the Catholic University.

Cannes Docs

Land of Evanescence

Category: Docs by the Sea Showcase

Original Title: Vùng đất của những biến mất

Directed by: Trang Nguyen Thi Xuan

Produced by: Wilfredo Manalang | Fusee, (Philippines), Charlotte Lelong | Trance Films (France)

Country of Production: Vietnam, Philippines, France

Runtime: 75'

Expected Release: November 2026

Production Stage: Post-Production

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents/Distributors, Buyers, Impact Producer, Gap Financing, Strategic Ideas, Post Services.

Synopsis:

Land of Evanescence is a creative documentary where the director, a child of the post-war era, makes the link between her recurring nightmares and a trauma inherited from the Vietnam War.

Director’s Profile:

Nguyen Thi Xuan Trang is an acclaimed filmmaker with nearly 20 years of experience in international cinema. After early work in commercials, she transitioned to independent film in 2014 via the Kyoto Filmmaker Lab. Her career gained global momentum at the Bucheon Fantastic Film School and Locarno’s Open Doors Lab, where she won the 1st Prize FAI Producer Grant.
A pivotal figure in Southeast Asian cinema, Trang is known for high-profile collaborations with Trương Minh Quý. She was Line Producer for Hair, Paper, Water… (2025), the Golden Leopard winner at Locarno. Her production Viet and Nam (2024) competed in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, following the success of The Tree House (2019). In 2022, she debuted as a director with After Taste, which premiered at Fantasia. Her work reflects a deep commitment to independent storytelling and global co-production.

Producer’s Profile:

Wilfredo Manalang is the founder of FUSEE and a prominent producer in the Asian film industry. His diverse co-production portfolio includes Plan 75 (2022), which won a Cannes Camera d’Or Special Mention, and Don’t Cry, Butterfly (2024), the Venice Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner. Other notable works include Elsewhere at Night (2025), winner of Best Screenplay at Torino, and Through Your Eyes (2025), selected for the Berlinale Short Competition.
Locally, he produced Blue Room (2022) and Topakk (2023), which premiered at Locarno. An alum of EAVE Ties That Bind and APOSTLAB, Manalang previously served as Managing Director for International Production at ABS-CBN and Executive Director of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (2016–2019). He also represented the nation as a board member of the Directors’ Guild of the Philippines.

Cannes Docs

Gaza Sunbirds

Category: Palestinian Showcase

Directed by: Flavia Cappellini

Produced by: Kristian van der Heyden | Harald House (Belgium), Alex King, Andrea Kurland | Perfidious Pictures (UK), Lydia Kali | Urbania (France), May Jabareen | Philistine Film (Palestine)

Country of Production: Belgium, UK, France, Palestine

Original Title: Gaza Sunbirds

Runtime: 90'

Expected Release: May 2027

Production Stage: Post-Production

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Co-Producers, Broadcasters, Sales Agents, Distributors

Synopsis:

When a young amputee cyclist and his underdog team of bike racers chase their dream of representing Palestine on the world stage, their six-year odyssey becomes a matter of life or death adaptation as bombs descend on Gaza.

Director’s Profile:

Flavia Cappellini is a self-shooting director who also works as a correspondent for Sky News Italia in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Her work as a filmmaker has appeared on The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, Sky News Italia and RAI. Her stories explore unexpected aspects of our world by picking out the human experiences and everyday quirks that give meaning to complexity without over-simplification. This multi-year project is her first feature film, and it relates sport to conflict, politics and geographical boundaries. She has also investigated abortion, burials and women’s reproductive rights in Italy through original testimonies and unearthed records. Her career in filmmaking started as a producer of films about travel and the environment for RAI, later producing and shooting in-depth features about professional road cycling racing around the world for 3 years.

Producer’s Profile:

Kristian Van der Heyden began Harald House Belgium in 2016 after honing his skills in Los Angeles as a writer, producer, and actor for eight years. He produced A Punk Daydream (2019), a documentary that delves into the street punk culture of Indonesia, which premiered at Rotterdam Film Festival in 2019. Kristian produced Slave Island, a co-production with Belgium, Estonia, Taiwan, and Italy, about present-day slavery on a remote island of Indonesia, which premiered at Movies That Matter 2025 and won Best Belgian Documentary at Docville 2025. His projects typically explore significant social challenges within various communities, across cultures. Appreciative of the learning experiences each project brings, Kristian’s dedication to impactful storytelling was acknowledged in 2022 when he was named an Emerging Producer at the Ji-Hlava Film Festival.

Cannes Docs

The Undermine

Category: Scotland Showcase

Directed by: Alice Nelson

Produced by: Lili Sandelin | North Isle Productions (UK)

Country of Production: UK, Ireland

Original Title: The Undermine

Runtime: 70'

Expected Release: June 2028

Production Stage: Production

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Sales Agents / Distributors

Synopsis:

The Undermine straddles the real and the inner world of four generations of the director’s family – a dreamlike juxtaposition stitching together a version of the past, and a possible map for the future. Themes of trauma and neurodiversity mirror the worldwide explosion of diagnoses, an increasing understanding of how different brains work and how traditional western systems have failed them.

Director’s Profile:

Alice Nelson is an award-winning Irish documentary director, based in Scotland. Alice specialises in creative, personal storytelling. Alice’s approach, using a range of tools like archive, animation, old audio recordings, motion graphics, reconstruction, paper dioramas and immersive sound design, brings a multi-layered storytelling style to her documentaries. The Undermine is her first feature with long-time collaborator, producer Lili Sandelin.
Alice’s films include War Letters, a multi-screen adaptation of Kamila Shamsie’s story for Edinburgh international Book Festival (Edinburgh Fringe First Award), the Right to Privacy (Jury Award: Dokumentart) and Channel4 commissioned Losing Myself: Annie which won a Scottish BAFTA. A Map With Gaps, screened at Documentary Fortnight MoMA and over 40 other film festivals, winning 10 awards including Best Short Doc at Slamdance Festival.

Producer’s Profile:

Lili Sandelin has run North Isle Productions since 2007, producing and exec producing documentary and fiction for UK and international funders. With Alice Nelson War Letters (Grid Iron Theatre, Edinburgh International Book Festival), Ron and Linda (Glasgow Film), Workers Union (Red Note Ensemble / Lammermuir Festival). Other films include Marram (in Gaelic, BBC Alba), Family Portrait (Arts Premiers, France 3, at 50+ festivals), Hula (Bafta Scotland New Talent Award), Finding Josefine (Steps / Why Poverty). Science doc topics include stem cells, Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson’s. She also PMs feature doc and drama including Orain, the Search For Beethoven’s Gaelic Songs (Media Co-op, BBC Alba, Screen Scotland), Dark Sense (Encaptivate, Amazon Prime), The List (Stellar Quines), Stem Cell Revolutions (SDI, Screen Scotland).

Cannes Docs

Homefire

Category: Spain Showcase

Directed by: Neus Pagès

Produced by: Laura Alvarez, Ventura Durall | Nanouk Films (Spain), Mar Maduell | Glia Films (Spain), Eric Dufour | Minimum Moderne (France)

Country of Production: Spain, France

Original Title: Un fogal

Runtime: 90'

Expected Release: May 2027

Production Stage: Production

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents, Distributors, Private Investors, Gap Financing

Synopsis:

After decades of abandonment, a village in the Pyrenees begins to come back to life as a family of beekeepers settles there in search of a simpler, more sustainable way of living. But the arrival of an industrial beekeeper and the spread of wildfires threaten their project, forcing them to ask: is it worth fighting for a way of life that may be disappearing?

Director’s Profile:

Neus Pagès is a filmmaker who graduated with high distinction in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Girona. She often works as a camera operator on documentary series for Disney+, National Geographic, 3Cat and RTVE (Spanish broadcasters) as well as a first assistant DOP for fiction projects. In 2023, she co-wrote and co-directed her first short film, which was commissioned by a Catalan environmentalist social movement. The film was screened at the European Parliament. She is currently developing her debut film, Homefire, while collaborating as a DOP on the upcoming feature documentary De muertos iguales by Mariam Tajer (Spain).

Producer’s Profile:

Laura Alvarez moved into filmmaking after twelve years in television, where she built a strong foundation in production management and team leadership. She now supports theatrical projects with a unique vision and a strong authorial voice.
In 2023, she began working as an independent creative producer with the Barcelona-based company Nanouk Films, where she started developing the feature documentary Homefire, directed by Neus Pagès.
In 2025, she participated in EURODOC and was selected by CIMA (Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media in Spain) as an emerging talent.
In 2026, she joined Alba Sotorra, a Barcelona-based production company specialising in international co-productions, where she is now also producing fiction projects, combining this role with the delegate production of Homefire, film produced by Nanouk Films (ES), Glia Films (ES) and Minimum Moderne (FR).

Cannes Docs

Island Nation

Category: The Five Nordics Showcase

Directed by: Nikolai Galitzine

Produced by: Dögg Mósesdóttir | Northern Wave Productions (Iceland)

Country of Production: Iceland, UK

Original Title: Eyríki

Runtime: 74'

Expected Release: May 2026

Production Stage: Post-Production

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Sales Agents, Festivals, Strategic Guidance, Post-production Funding

Synopsis:

A love letter to a remote Arctic community going through upheaval, depopulation and climate change.

Director’s Profile:

Nikolai Galitzine has worked in Iceland for over 15 years. He previously focused on cinematography and producing. His eclectic background in visual effects and directing award winning commercials led to coming full circle to make his own films and co-produce internationally. Island Nation is his first feature documentary as director/writer/cinematographer/editor.

Producer’s Profile:

Dögg Mósesdóttir is an Edda nominated Icelandic producer and a director and owner of Northern Wave Productions. She has produced documentary series, feature documentaries, shorts and music videos for the past 15 years of her career.