Projects
Projects
The Portal
Category: Fantastic 7
Directed by: Chadi Abo
Produced by: Ruba El-Khesh Khair, Lilas Wahbe, May Odeh, Zorana Musikic, Chadi Abo
Country of Production: France - Syria
Original Title: The Portal
Genre: Fantasy, Science-fiction, War
Language: Arabic - French - English
Cairo International Film Festival
In a war zone, a little girl prays for salvation. A cosmic power comes to help her. From now on, Sana will resurrect dead children.
Area Man Lives
Genre: Comedy
Produced by: Michael Perrotto, Numinous Games in association with Cyan Ventures and City Lights
Directed by: Amy Noel Green, Ryan Green
Original Title: Area Man Lives
Lead Artist: Amy Noel Green, Ryan Green
Runtime: 120-300 minutes of gameplay (Variable length)
Language: English
Completed in: 2022
Synopsis:
AREA MAN LIVES. Or does he? A quirky radio drama unfolds around you in VR while you do your best to keep the radio station humming along as its new DJ. You speak out loud to produce commercials, interview callers and have conversations with your producer. Try your best to piece together how your actions inside the station impact your listening audience. And when things get super weird, don’t forget to save the Area Man.
Director’s statement:
AREA MAN LIVES is a hilariously absurd VR adventure that uses unique storytelling to reveal what we believe about our place in the world and surface questions of destiny, examining how those beliefs connect us to others or drive us apart. We believe that everyone wants to be seen and that when we choose to connect with others we discover all the profound ways that we matter.
Origin: US
Devices: Oculus Quest series
Platform: VeeR
U are the Universe
Category: Buyers Showcase
Directed by: Pavlo Ostrikov
Produced by: ForeFilms
Country of Production: Ukraine
Genre: Sci-Fi Comedy
Language: Ukrainian, French
After the explosion of the Earth, the Ukrainian space trucker Andriy becomes the only human in the Universe until French woman Catherine calls him from the faraway space station. Andriy decides to see her despite all the obstacles.
The Second Woman
Category: Proof of Concept
Directed by: Zach Gayne
Produced by: Precious Chong (Party Hunks Inc.)
Country of Production: Canada
Genre: Dark Thriller, Horror
Language: English
A Canadian literary legend tucked away in an Algonquin Park cabin writing her final memoirs fights for her life and her sanity when a stalker attacks her perception of reality.
Dead Enders
Category: Fantastic 7
Directed by: Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker
Produced by: Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker
Country of Production: USA
Original Title: Dead Enders
Genre: Comedy, Coming-of-Age, Horror
Language: English
SXSW Film & TV Festival
Dead Enders is a horror comedy about a listless slacker who must reconnect with her ex-best friend in order to stop a scourge of mind controlling bugs from taking over their small town.
Mother
Directed by: Alina Matochkina
Produced by: Eugene Rachkovsky | TABOR Production
Country of Production: Ukraine
Original Title: Мати
Language: Ukrainian
Runtime: 90'
Budget: 500 000 Eur
Completed in: 2025
There is a great distance between Lida and her mother, both physically and mentally, they live separately and communicate only through a laptop screen. But in order to build a personal life, Lida must first reconnect this bond, and find how to change the old patterns.
Dad’s Lullaby
Original Title: Татова колискова
Directed by: Lesia Diak
Produced by: Lesia Diak (DramaFree, Ukraine), Monica Lazurean-Gorgan (FilmWays, Romania), Elena Martin (FilmWays, Romania), Dagne Vildziunaite (Just a moment, Lithuania)
Country of Production: Ukraine, Romania
Runtime: 75'
Expected Release: November, 2023
Production Stage: Post-production, Rough cut stage
Budget: €200.050
1st Feature: Yes
Looking for: Festivals, sales agents, distributors, buyers, gap financing
Synopsis:
Serhiy returns home after 3 years at war, between Ukraine and Russia, deeply burned out. He served as a commander and was responsible for other people’s lives. The veteran starts working night shifts, dedicates short hours of rest to his three sons and wife. War trauma manifests when the couple starts expecting a baby. After a large-scale invasion Serhiy is forced to defend Ukraine on the frontline again.
Director’s profile:
Lesia Diak is a Ukrainian documentary film director and producer. Before shifting career to filmmaking she worked for 7 years in the area of journalism and communications. Lesia graduated from the Serhiy Bukovsky Film Program in 2017. In 2022, she completed her studies at DocNomads, an international documentary film directing Master’s program. She created several short documentaries selected for international film festivals and primarily dedicated to trauma and healing experience. Her work-in-progress feature-length documentary debut “Dad’s Lullaby” has received the award for the best documentary film in post-production at Docu Sarajevo Talents from the East, a special mention and won the post-production grant from IDFA Bertha Fund. In 2023 Lesia founded DramaFree film production company.
Producer’s profile:
Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan is an experienced producer and a member of the AMPAS/Oscar, as well as EFA. Monica is the producer of the successful documentary Acasa, My Home by Radu Ciorniciuc, winner of the Sundance Cinematography Award and other 40 international awards, delegate producer for Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie and co-producer for Chuck Norris vs Communism by Ilinca Calugareanu. Monica is the director for feature length documentaries such as A Mere Breath, winner of Best Doc in Sarajevo IFF, Best Doc in CEE Vienna IFF, co-director of Wood, premiered in HotDocs and CPH:Dox 2020 etc.
Vieux Kilo
Category: Spotlighted Projects
Directed by: Nelson Makengo
Produced by: Madeline Robert | Les Films de la Caravane (France), Nelson Makengo | Théâtre Urbain Studio (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Country of Production: Democratic Republic of Congo, France
Original Title: Vieux Kilo
Runtime: 70'
Expected Release: February 2028
Production Stage: Development
1st Feature: No
Looking for: Financing
Synopsis:
Spring 2021, Brussels. As Black Lives Matter reopens debates on colonial memory, a Belgian missionary invites me into his attic, where traces of his past in Congo have remained hidden for decades. Photographs, notebooks, and a hollowed Bible concealing a gun resurface. Through these archives and fragmented memories, I embark on a personal investigation into a shared yet unequal past – confronting inherited narratives, silenced violence, and my position as an African son facing a paradoxical paternal voice.
Director’s Profile:
Nelson Makengo (b. 1990, lives and works in Kinshasa, DR Congo) is a filmmaker working at the intersection of contemporary art and cinema. His short documentary Nuit Debout won the Best Documentary Short Award at IDFA 2019, screened at over 100 festivals worldwide, and was listed among the BFI’s 350 best films of 2020. His film E’ville (2018) received the Sharjah Art Foundation Award at the Videobrasil Biennial.
His first feature documentary, Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night), premiered at the Berlinale 2024 and screened in over 80 cities. It received multiple awards, including the Special Jury Prize at Visions du Réel and major prizes at IndieLisboa, Astra Film Festival, Carthage, and FESPACO.
He is currently developing two documentaries, Vieux Kilo and Malo Kotra, and writing his first fiction film. His work has been supported by Sundance and Doha Film Institute. In 2026, he will represent the DR Congo at the Venice Art Biennale.
Producer’s Profile:
Madeline Robert is a producer and founder of Les Films de la Caravane, established in Lussas, France in 2012. She has since produced around fifteen auteur-driven documentaries, including Malavoune Tango by Jean-Marc Lacaze (IDFA 2021) and Or de Vie by Boubacar Sangaré (Berlinale 2023, with a strong international run). She has been closely collaborating for over a decade with Visions du Réel (Switzerland) and currently heads the Swiss fund Visions Sud Est. She also works regularly as a consultant and mentor, with strong expertise in documentary filmmaking and international co-productions.
Street Trash
Category: Proof of Concept
Directed by: Ryan Kruger
Produced by: Justin Martell [Not The Funeral Home], Matt Manjourides [Not The Funeral Home], James C. Williamson [The Department of Special Projects], Ryan Kruger
Country of Production: United States, South Africa
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Language: English
A group of homeless misfits must fight for survival when they discover a plot to exterminate every homeless person in the city.
Genre: Horror, Science-fiction
Language: English
A veteran recovering from addiction returns to the intentional community she once called home in search of her missing friend, but finds that it has been infiltrated by an otherworldly force.