Projects
Projects
I am a comedian
Original Title: I am a comedian
Directed by: Fumiari Hyuga
Produced by: Emi Ueyama (ARTicle Films, Japan), Gary Byung-Seok Kam
Country of Production: Japan, Korea
Runtime: 105'
Expected Release: November, 2022
Production Stage: Post Production
Budget: €135,000 (90% in place)
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Festivals, Sales agents, Distributors, Buyers
Synopsis:
Daisuke Muramoto (39) has been in the entertainment industry for 20 years. In 2013, he became the champion in one of the most prestigious comedy contests in Japan, rising to the top from a field of 1855 contestants. At the time he was flooded with offers, appearing on TV almost every day. However, because he repeatedly criticized politicians, Japanese entertainment industry – in 7 years, Daisuke’s appearance on TVhas plummeted to zero.
Director’s profile:
Fumiari Hyuga joined the production company ‘Documentary Japan’ in 2006. He has directed various TV programs and short documentaries for NHK and the other channels. His short film Tokyo Kurds (17) has been selected for numerous Films Festivals including HOT DOCS Films Festival, DMZ Documentary Festival, and also won the Excellence Award in TokyoDocs Short Documentary showcase. Fumiari continued to follow the subject, feature length film Tokyo Kurds (21) screened International premier at JEONJU International film festival as International Competition, Taiwan International Documentary Festival as Asian Competition and so on.His latest film I am a comedian (22) chosen at DMZ Documentary Festival`s industry rough-cut presentation.
Producers’s profile:
Gary Byung-Seok Kam 2020 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Documentary In the Absence (18), Shadow Flowers (19), Best Documentary award- National Competition at the DMZ Docs, IDFA , DOC Point Helsinki , and so on. Emi Ueyama, producer based in TOKYO Japan, The legacy of Frida Khalo (15) have won awards and screened at numerous festivals including JEONJU IFFl, HOT DOCS and so on.Tokyo Kurds (21) screened as International premier at JEONJU IFF as International Competition, Taiwan International Documentary Festival as Asian Competition and so on. Her latest film I am a comedian (22) chosen at DMZ Docs`s industry rough-cut presentation.
Malqueridas
Original Title: Malqueridas
Directed by: Tana Gilbert
Produced by: Paola Castillo (Errante, Chile), Dirk Manthey (Dirk Manthey Film UG, Germany)
Country of Production: Chile, Germany
Runtime: 75'
Expected Release: February, 2023
Production Stage: Early edition
Budget: €240,495 (70% in place)
1st Feature: Yes
Looking for: Festivals, sales agent, distributors, buyers, gap financing.
Synopsis:
Women in prison reconstruct their experience of motherhood through videos and photographs captured with their forbidden cell phones while serving their sentences. Malqueridas offers a reflection on the severity of motherhood when faced with confinement and the loss of affections.
Director’s profile:
Filmmaker from the University of Chile, with a master’s degree in Documentary Filmmaking at the same university. Her first short film, Rest, Zulema was produced during her second year in film school, and was awarded and screened in several national and international festivals (Best documentary short film Femcine 2013). Her last short film I’m still here was released at Hot Docs 2017 and participated in 25 international IFF, and received several awards such as: Best Short Film at Cine Las Americas (United States), Jury Award at MiradasDoc (Spain), among others. Professor of documentary courses at University of Chile and Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. She is developing her career with an interest in social gender issues.
Producers’s profile:
Filmmaker graduated from the EICTV in Cuba. She has been a speaker on documentary filmmaking for several Chilean institutions and Latin American seminars. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Since 2020 and co-founder of CCDOC / Chiledoc, a non-profit organization that has made an impact on the national and international visibility of Chilean documentaries. Among her productions, the Chilean-Brazilian co production Haydee and the Flying Fish, directed by Pachi Bustos, acknowledged in Hot Docs, DocsMx and others festivals; the Canadian-Chilean co-production Cielo, directed by Alison McAlpine, selected in New York Film Festival and Karlovy Vary; Beyond my Grandfather Allende, by Marcia Tambutti Allende, Best Documentary Film at Cannes 2015, among others films. Director of the renowned documentaries as Border, 74m2, Genoveva and The last trace.
A Successful Man
Original Title: Nem haltam meg
Directed by: Asia Dér
Produced by: Noémi Veronika Szakonyi, Máté Artur Vincze (Match Frame Productions, Hungary
Country of Production: Hungary
Runtime: 80'
Expected Release: January, 2023
Production Stage: Post production
Budget: €92,300 (100% in place)
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Festivals, sales agents, distributors, strategic guidance
Synopsis:
A life loving, successful gallery owner’s life turns upside down when at the age of 50, he is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He takes it as a chance to confront his long suppressed existential questions. But coming face to face with his true self turns out to be more frightening than death. If not a fatal illness, what can make us slow down to be able to listen to what we really need?
Director’s profile:
Asia Dér graduated as a documentary director from the DOCnomads MA program. Her graduation film was nominated for the best short film at the Hungarian Film Festival. Currently she is pursuing her doctoral studies at the University of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest.
Her first feature film, Her Mothers (co-directed with Sári Hargonics), was premiered at Hot Docs 2020 and it was screened at more than 30 international film festivals. It won Best Film Award at Moscow International Documentary Film Festival DOKer and at CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival Linz. Asia is a member and a professor at FREEszfe association and a presidium member of the Hungarian Documentary Association.
Producers’s profile:
Noémi Veronika Szakonyi is a freelance film director and producer. She is the owner and managing director of Match Frame Productions, a Budapest based boutique film production company, focusing on social issues driven documentaries and short films. The films she produces are supported by HBO Europe, Creative Europe MEDIA and the Hungarian Film Institute. As a director, she works on her first long-term feature documentary, Afterglow, and on her first television film, Six weeks, which is currently in post-production. Noemi is a Sundance Documentary Film Program Grantee 2015, 2019 and 2021, due to Afterglow and her first feature documentary as a producer, Her Mothers which premiered at Hot Docs 2020. She has currently four documentary projects is production and post-production and one VR piece in post production.
Baghjan
Category: Film Bazaar Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Jaicheng Zxai Dohutia
Produced by: Jaicheng Zxai Dohutia, Mayamara Productions
Country of Production: India
Original Title: Baghjan
Genre: Feature film
Language: Assamese and Moran
Runtime: 85min
Completed in: 2023
Fisherman Manab lives with his wife Bharabi in a small village, Baghjan, which is a fertile oil & gas field. One day during oil extraction a massive blast takes place and the entire village catches fire that has devastating consequences.
Lucky Girl
Category: Ukrainian Features Preview
Directed by: Marysia Nikitiuk
Produced by: Yanina Sokolova + Julia Sinkevych (Yanina Sokolova Production)
Country of Production: Ukraine, Germany
Original Title: Ya, Nina
Genre: Feature film
Language: Ukrainian
Runtime: 100
Completed in: 2022
Synopsis:
Nina is a young and successful TV star. She has everything in her life, until her life suddenly changes after she is diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Going from the highest peak to the darkest places she faces personal crisis, confronts fears, stereotypes, betrayal in order to reinvent herself.
Den Mother Crimson
Category: Buyers Showcase
Directed by: Siluck Saysanasy
Produced by: J. Joly, George Assimakopoulos, Katarina Kovecses (Branded to Film)
Country of Production: Canada
Genre: Science-fiction
Language: English
Three experts are brought together to consult. As the nature of their task is revealed, they must grapple with the moral implications and the outcome it may have on the world.
Dark Tide
Category: Proof of Concept
Directed by: Peter Ricq
Produced by: Hangar 18 Media, GoodBye Productions, League Productions
Country of Production: Canada
Genre: Horror
Language: English
A young Fisherman, along with his dead comrades, washes up on a mysterious island where a deranged Captain is hunted by a dark-hungry-beast.
Broken
Category: Tallinn Black Nights Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Facundo Escudero Salinas
Produced by: Nicolás Münzel Camaño (Pensilvania Films)
Country of Production: Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Germany
Original Title: FRAGMENTADA
Language: Spanish
Runtime: 105 min
Completed in: 2023
A police woman returns with her daughter to her hometown, from which she always wanted to escape in the Patagonia, to take care of her dying mother. The murder of an old friend’s daughter will keep her in that place longer than expected. She will try to solve a case that seems to matter to no one.
Celluloid Underground
Original Title: Celluloid Underground
Directed by: Ehsan KHOSHBAKHT
Produced by: Mary BELL, Adam DAWTREY (Bofa Productions, UK)
Country of Production: United Kingdom
Runtime: 85'
Expected Release: September, 2023
Production Stage: Post-production
Budget: €195.697 (75% in place)
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Sales agents, Distributors, Festivals
Synopsis:
After the Iranian Revolution, a movie collector in Tehran hid thousands of films to prevent their destruction by the new Islamic regime. Despite arrest and torture, he refused to give up his secret. His story of resistance is told by the boy who became his partner in crime, recollected years later from exile in London. A moving and inspiring autobiography about the subversive power of celluloid dreams.
Director’s profile:
Ehsan Khoshbakht is an Iranian filmmaker, curator and author, based in London. His debut feature Filmfarsi (2019), about the lost Iranian cinema of the Shah’s era, was released in the US by Gunpowder/Criterion, and screened at over 50 film festivals and cinematheques around the world. He has also made several archive documentaries for BBC Persian, including Duke Ellington in Esfahan, which was selected for Telluride. Ehsan is co-director of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, the world’s premier festival for film history and restoration. He regularly programmes seasons around the world, most recently at Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, Cinemateca Portuguesa in Lisbon, MoMA in New York, the Viennale in Vienna, Cinemateket in Copenhagen, and Filmoteca Catalunya in Barcelona. He is the author and editor of several books about cinema, jazz and architecture.
Producer’s profile:
After decades of experience in the film and TV industry, Mary Bell and Adam Dawtrey founded Bofa Productions in 2013 to make cinema documentaries in Scotland. Their credits include A Story of Children and Film (Mark Cousins, 2013), Antonia Bird: From EastEnders to Hollywood (Susan Kemp, 2016), Stockholm My Love (Cousins, 2016), The Eyes of Orson Welles (Cousins, 2018), Iorram (Alastair Cole, 2021), The Story of Looking (Cousins, 2021) and La Sagrada Familia (Borja Alcalde, 2022). They are currently in production with Celluloid Underground (Ehsan Khoshbakht, 2023) and A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things (Cousins, 2024). Mary Bell was previously deputy managing director of Hat Trick Productions, where she produced hit TV shows including Father Ted and Have I Got News For You. She won an Oscar for her short film Work Experience. Adam Dawtrey was previously European Editor of Variety.
The Soldier’s Lagoon
Original Title: La Laguna del Soldado
Directed by: Pablo ALVAREZ MESA
Produced by: Pablo ÁLVAREZ MESA
Country of Production: Canada, Colombia
Runtime: 75'
Expected Release: February, 2024
Production Stage: Post-production
Budget: $115.000 CAD (100% in place)
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents, Distributors, Buyers
Synopsis:
200 years after Simón Bolívar’s liberation campaign across Colombia, The Soldier’s Lagoon retraces The Liberator’s journey across the high altitude marshlands while searching for glimpses of his ghost still present in this historically contested territory.
Director’s/Producer’s profile:
Pablo Alvarez-Mesa‘s films have played at international film festivals including Berlinale, IFFR, MoMA, Visions du Reel, and RIDM. His most recent film looking into Simón Bolívar’s battles of Independence and titled « Bicentenario » played at the 2021 Berlinale, MoMA Doc Fortnight and Viennale amongst other festivals and earned a Jury Mention at Festival Punto de Vista in the Main Competition. « The Soldier’s Lagoon » is the second in a trilogy of films tracing Bolivar’s path through Colombia. Pablo is an affiliate member of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University, and is Artist in Residence at Fogo Island Arts. Pablo’s interest in documentary lies in the relationship between fact and fiction; between what is recalled and what is inevitably constructed. His films all touch in one way or another issues of displacement, history and collective memory.