Projects
Projects
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.
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).
Homefire
Category: Spain Showcase
Directed by: Neus Pagès
Produced by: Laura Alvarez | Nanouk Films (Spain), Glia Films (Spain), 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).
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.
Portrait of A
Category: CIRCLE Showcase
Directed by: Rand Beiruty
Produced by: Rand Beiruty, Jude Kawwa | Shaghab Films (Jordan)
Country of Production: Jordan, Germany, Qatar
Original Title: Portrait of A
Runtime: 90'
Expected Release: May 2027
Production Stage: Late Development
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Financing, Co-Producer, Festivals, Sales Agents
Synopsis:
Andrea is a young Romani woman in eastern Germany who runs toward love at sixteen, eloping with her boyfriend. He is unfaithful, but leaving him is not simple. Over seven years we follow Andrea through love, betrayal and motherhood, weaving in stop-motion animation into an ongoing dialogue with the filmmaker about compromise and the choices we make.
Director’s Profile:
Rand Beiruty is a writer, director and creative producer. She holds a practice-based PhD from Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, focusing on questions of representation and participatory filmmaking. Her debut feature documentary Tell Them About Us premiered at CPH:DOX 2024 and received the German Documentary Film Award 2025 for an emerging filmmaker and the ECFA Award for Best European Feature Documentary for Young Audiences. Her short animated documentary Shadows premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival and went on to screen at 100+ festivals, winning over 20 awards.
Producers’ Profiles:
Rand Beiruty and Jude Kawwa are the Amman-based founders of Shaghab Films, a company on the lookout for talent with a strong artistic vision and social commentary. The company focuses on international co-productions and has invested in establishing and implementing capacity-building incubators and training programs. Current slate includes Murad Abu Eisheh’s A Calling from the Desert to the Sea (short fiction, Cairo IFF, 2022), Rand Beiruty’s debut documentary Tell Them About Us (CPH:DOX, 2024) and Shadows (short animated documentary, Venice, 2024
Chilapa´s Girl
Category: Chile-Colombia Showcase
Directed by: Juana Lotero
Produced by: Anahí Farfán | Fuega Cine (Colombia), Juana Lotero | Noctámbulos Cine (Colombia)
Country of Production: Colombia
Original Title: Muchachita Chilapa
Runtime: 90'
Expected Release: January 2028
Production Stage: Editing, Production
1st Feature: Yes
Looking for: Sales Agents / Distributors, Buyers, Co-Producers, Impact Producer
Synopsis:
Yulieth (11–15), a brave and rebellious girl grows up in a wild territory where natural beauty coexists with the harshness of machismo. As she becomes a mother, she forms a fragile adolescent family while striving to shape a different path from the one inherited by the women in her family.
Director’s Profile:
Juana Lotero is a Medellín-based filmmaker, lifelong learner, feminist, and economist. She studied directing at EICTV and is co-founder of Noctámbulos Cine. She is currently producing Muchachita Chilapa, winner of the Colombian Film Development Fund (FDC). At the same time, she is distributing Niña Chilapa (2025), selected for the Refresh Vol. 6 catalogue. The film won Best Colombian Short Film at FICCI and MIDBO, as well as the Americana Award at Festival Regard, and has been screened at Durban, Winterthur, Uppsala, Oberhausen, FIPADOC and DOC NYC.
She wrote, directed, and co-produced Wild Strawberries (2022), which premiered at FICCI and received an Honorable Mention for Best Actress at the Libélula Dorada Film Festival, and Sweet Dreams (2020), which premiered at the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival, received FACIUNI grants, and won Best Fantasy Short Film at the Colombian Women’s Film Festival.
Producer’s Profile:
Anahí Farfán is an Argentine producer based in Colombia and the founder of Fuega Cine. Her work focuses on auteur cinema and feminist and territorial narratives. She has produced or co-produced films such as Las almas (dir. Laura Basombrío, Best Director, Mar del Plata 2023), Transfariana (dir. Joris Lachaise, Berlinale 2023), Al impenetrable (dir. Sonia Bertotti, Best Film and Best Production, Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre 2023), and the short Geografía espectral (dir. Manuel Mateo Gómez, Vision du Reel 2026). She is currently developing the feature documentaries Muchachita Chilapa (dir. Juana Lotero, FDC Development 2022 and Production 2024) and Mujeres públicas (dir. Agustina Comedi, FDC Minority Co-production 2024).
Night Town
Category: Proof of Concept
Directed by: Imogen Murphy
Produced by: Tailored Films
Country of Production: Ireland
Genre: Drama, Gothic Horror
Language: English
In Dublin’s late 19th century red light district, a teenage girl on the run is drawn into a sinister vortex of love, revenge – and murder.
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.
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.
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.