Projects

Projects

Cannes Docs

Touché

Original title: Touché

Directed by: Martina Moor

Produced by: Filippo Macelloni (NANOF, Italy)

Country of production: Italy, Belgium

Runtime: 85'

Expected release: September, 2023

Production stage: Post-production

Budget: €185.000 (80% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Festivals, Buyers

Synopsis:

Italo-Brazilian fencing champion Nathalie Moellhausen filmed intimately over 10 years. Three Olympics with two different flags. Challenges, defeats (many) and victories (few). A legendary trainer, a number of dubious mentors, a famous chef as a boyfriend. A distressing relationship with a cumbersome father. A turbulent journey, defined by blind ambition and haunted by demons of failure.

Director’s profile:

Martina Moor, is an Italian filmmaker and editor based in Brussels. She graduated in Visual Arts and Theatre from University of Architecture of Venice and later she gained an MA in TV Screen Documentary from Goldsmith University, in London. Since 2010 she has been directing and producing several short experimental films and edited award winning feature documentaries and video art pieces. Touché is her first feature length documentary film as director.

Producer’s profile:

Filippo Macelloni is an award-winning director, producer and writer. His work has played in numerous film festivals and on TV networks across the world. In 2001, together with Lorenzo Garzella, he founded NANOF, independent production company based in Rome, committed to develop and produce documentaries, fiction and cross media projects. Some of their most significant film credits include: “Climbing Iran” (2020), “The Disappearance of My Mother”, premiered at Sundance 2019; “The lost World Cup”, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2011, “Silvio Forever”, released in 2011.

Cannes Docs

Life

Original title: Monguen

Directed by: Antonio CARO

Produced by: Michel TOLEDO (Tótem Producciones, Chile)

Country of production: Chile

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: May, 2024

Production stage: Editing

Budget: €135.000 (83% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Festivales, Sales Agents, Distributors, Co-Producers, Gap Financing

Synopsis:

Fresia, a young Pewenche girl who has lived all her life in a community that mistrusts Chilean institutions, must gradually move away from her home and territory because she is pregnant. Fresia visits clinics for her maternity check-ups, travels to cities she does not know and finally enters a public hospital, where after a long wait she gives birth to her baby, Dalila, who is born with the cleft palate.

Director’s profile:

Born in 1982 in Kiev, in a Chilean-Russian family. Living in Chile since the age of 10, he first studied Medicine. From 2006 to 2009 he worked as a general practitioner in the Pewenche territory of the Bio-bio river. During that time he was the chief of the maternity department at the Santa Barbara hospital, and in 2007 he was the founder of the Intercultural Health Team. Then, he graduated as a film director at the EICTV in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. In 2012 he was selected at Nikita Mikhalkov’s Film Academy in Moscow. He’s been guest teacher of film directing at the Escuela Veracruzana de Cine Luis Buñuel and the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico. Previous documentary works include his co-direction with the Mapuche filmmaker José Carihuentro « Pentukuwün, Viajando con Imágenes » (24 min, 2016); « Arbenin’s Mask » (50 min, 2017) and « Through the Wall », feature- length documentary.

Producer’s profile:

Michel Toledo is a chilean director, screenwriter and producer. He studied Film at the University of Valparaíso, Chile; Advanced Screenwriting at EICTV, Cuba and has a Master’s degree in Film and Digital Image from the University of Sydney in Australia. He is the founder and creative director of Totem Productions, a company dedicated to create audiovisual projects for film, television and digital media. He develops audiovisual works in short, feature film and serial formats, both in the documentary and fiction genres. He also works as an academic in the University of Viña del Mar, where he teaches photography and production in the degree of Film Studies and Audiovisual Communication and transmedia production at the Master’s Digital Communication and Transmedia from the same university. Actually he is in charge of research and creation for the film studies department.

Cannes Docs

A Film By Fernando Ruiz Vergara

Original title: Um Filme de Fernando Ruiz Vergara

Directed by: Concha BARQUERO, Alejandro ALVARADO

Produced by: Sara SÀNCHEZ, José M. RODRÍGUEZ (Azhar Media, Spain), Alejandro ALVARADO (Alvarquero, Spain)

Country of production: Spain

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: February, 2024

Production stage: Closing first cut

Budget: €182.440 (90% in place)

1st feature: No

Looking for: Co-Producers, Gap Financing, Distributors, Buyers, Sales Agents, Festivals

Synopsis:

After his death, Ruiz Vergara left dozens of sketches for films he was unable to make. The filmmaker only directed one film, Rocío, heartbreaking and fascinating, cursed after its judicial censorship in the early years of Spanish democracy. Since then, his projects remained in the imagination. In Um filme de Fernando Ruiz Vergara we take up again the films dreamed by Fernando to film them, from the present.

Director’s profile:

Concha Barquero and Alejandro Alvarado (Málaga, 1975) filmmakers, lecturers, researchers and programmers. They have formed a creative tandem since 2001 under the name Alvarquero. They have directed, scripted and edited a dozen films, mainly creative documentaries and experimental pieces. Among these works, their short film Descartes (2021) and the feature film Pepe el andaluz (2012) stand out. Their works have been selected in audiovisual competitions around the world, such as the Mar del Plata International Film Festival (Argentina), European Media Art Festival of Osnabrück (Germany) or DocLisboa (Portugal) and have won numerous awards, such as the Best Spanish Documentary Award at Documenta Madrid, the Grand Prize for Spanish Cinema at Zinebi or the XXIX Andalusia Journalism Award in the audiovisual category.

Producer’s profile:

After working in the production of films, documentaries and spots for more than 10 years, producers Sara Sánchez and José M. Rodríguez founded Azhar Media in 2010, an independent production company focused on the international market, with experience in a wide range of formats (commercials, video clips, corporate,…), and with a strong focus on the international market. In addition to producing several documentaries for television (El mapa de Carlos, Amor Brujo:regreso a casa…) the exploration of new audiovisual narratives has led them to non-fiction and experimental films: La vida perfecta (in postproduction, co-production with Argentina), Um filme de Fernando Ruiz Vergara and El mar nos mira de lejos (premiere at Berlinale 2017, selected in more than 20 international film festivals).

Cannes Docs

The Tongue of Water

Original title: The Tongue of Water

Directed by: Polen LY

Produced by: Lucas SENECAUT (L'OEIL VIF Productions, France), Rithy PANH (ANUPHEAP Productions, Cambodia), Thibaut AMRI, Benjamin COSTES (Avant la Nuit, France)

Country of production: France, Cambodia

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: February, 2024

Production stage: Post-production

Budget: €250.000 (88% in place)

1st feature: Yes

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

Synopsis:

In Cambodia, Neang, an indigenous mother, tries to rebuild her life after her village is swallowed up by a dam reservoir. Despite pressure from the government and industrialists to leave her ancestral land, she fights to keep her community and family together. Between memories and connection with nature, The Tongue of Water tells the story of her journey of resilience.

Director’s profile:

Polen stopped his medical study to pursue his passion in filmmaking in 2012. He explored his filmmaking skill and taste through self-teaching while making his short films and documentaries that often explore social issues, human stories, and nature’s. His works often reflect his significant personality in story-telling through his way of using natural elements as symbolism. His last short film Further And Further Away was selected in the short film competition at the 2022 Berlinale. At the same time, Polen works on his first feature documentary, called The Tongue Of Water.

Producer’s profile:

After a master’s degree in private law, Lucas Senecaut studied cinema and production in Montpellier, his hometown. Lucas settled then in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to co-direct his first documentary film entitled Khmerica. In parallel, he worked at the Bophana Center with director and producer Mr Rithy Panh. Back in France, Lucas continued his learning as a production manager within the company Les Films de l’Œil Sauvage alongside producer Quentin Laurent. His background in production includes several award-winning films such as Downstream to Kinshasa (Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2020) or Against the Tide (Jury Price Winner Sundance 2023). In 2021, he worked on his first short fiction film entitled Sound of the Night. In 2022, he co-founded L’Oeil Vif Productions. In 2023 he completed Khmerica and La Maison Brûle (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs 2023) as an associate producer.

Cannes Docs

Tata

Original title: Tata

Directed by: Lina VDOVÎI, Radu CIORNICIUC

Produced by: Monica LĂZUREAN-GROGAN (Manifest Film, Romania), Corso Film (Germany), Halal production (Netherlands)

Country of production: Romania, Germany, Netherlands

Runtime: 75'

Expected release: January, 2024

Production stage: Work in Progress

Budget: €733.180 (84% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents, Distributors, Buyers

Synopsis:

A journalist, long estranged from her father for being violent to her as a child, discovers that he’s being abused. When she agrees to help him expose the injustice, will she also be able to heal the pain he caused her?

Director’s profile:

Lina Vdovîi is an award-winning independent reporter from Moldova, based in Romania, with experience in investigative and narrative journalism and new media. Her articles have been published in major national and international outlets and her work was nominated for the European Press Prize. Lina’s filmmaking career started with the news and documentary producing for the national German television ZDF. She was the screenwriter of Acasa, My Home. Currently, she is co-directing her debut documentary TATA, a film about her relationship with her violent father. The project won several awards: the Eurimages Co-production Development Award at CPH:Forum 2021 for the best pitch and – Alex Leo Serban award at Transilvania International Film Festival for best script.

Co-Director’s profile:

Radu Ciorniciuc’s debut feature documentary film, “Acasa, My Home”, tells the story of a family that lived for two decades in the wilderness, in perfect harmony with nature, until they are chased out and forced to adapt to life in the big city. The film premiered at Sundance 2020, where it won the Special Jury Award for Cinematography. It later had an exceptional festival run, and has been selected for a nomination at the European Film Academy Awards.

Producer’s profile:

Monica Lăzurean Gorgan is an experienced Romanian producer, with over ten years of international co-productions. Among the titles of the films she produced or co-produced, there are: Between Revolutions (Berlinale 2023), ACASA, MY HOME, by Radu Ciorniciuc, winner of the Cinematography Award, Sundance 2020, TOUCH ME NOT by Adina Pintilie, winner of Golden Bear (Berlinale 2018), CHUCK NORRIS VS COMMUNISM by Ilinca Calugareanu (Sundance 2015), A MERE BREATH, THE CAGE by Adrian Sitaru, with over 20 awards including an award in Berlinale 2010. Monica is an EAVE 2011 graduate, “Producer on the Move” at Cannes IFF 2012 and Oscar Academy member.

Goes to Cannes

Werewolf

Category: Spanish Screenings Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Pau Calpe Rufat

Produced by: Galápagos Media S.L. + Dacsa Produccions S.L.

Country of production: Spain

Original title: LLOBÀS (LOBISÓN)

Language: Catalan

Runtime: 104'

Completed in: 2023

Adrià lives from town to town with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend. He is mute, cannot stand closed spaces and finds it hard to keep his attention. But Adrià has a secret: on full moon nights he can’t sleep and wanders the streets, smells blood, searches the chicken coops and eats them.

Fantastic 7

Corpus

Category: Fantastic 7

Directed by: Pablo Delgado

Produced by: Eva Ruiz de Chávez and Mariana Rodríguez

Country of production: Mexico

Original title: Corpus

Genre: Horror

Language: Spanish

Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara

Something is happening in the dungeons of an old seminary in the middle of the woods. A dark and ancient force has risen from the depths to reclaim its freedom.

Animation Day

Hina is beautiful

Directed by: Kenji Iwaisawa

Produced by: Rock'n'Roll Mountain, Yuya Machida (ABC Animation)

Country of production: Japan

Original title: Hina is beautiful

Language: Japanese

Runtime: NSP

Completed in: 2026

Set in Izu, Japan. Men are fighting over a woman called Hina. What is it exactly that makes Hina mislead men? As the men try to reveal their true feelings for Hina, strong, muscly men also get involved and the sound of the festival drum signals the start of a confrontation.

Goes to Cannes

Human / Animal

Category: Málaga Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Alessandro Pugno

Produced by: Jose Alba (Pecado Films & First Draft)

Country of production: Spain

Original title: Animal / Humano

Language: Spanish with English subtitles

Runtime: 92'

Completed in: 2023

In a small misty village of the North of Italy, the son of a funeral home’s owner dreams of becoming a bullfighter. In the sunny Andalusian meadow, a male calf is born. Matteo and Fandango grow up in completely different worlds, but their lives reflect on each other. Only at the end, they will meet.

Goes to Cannes

Salli

Category: HAF Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Lien Chien-Hung

Produced by: Lee Lieh, Dennis Wu, Amanda Man-Yin Reinert, Uilin Ong

Country of production: Taiwan, France

Original title: 莎莉

Language: Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, French

Runtime: 110'

Completed in: 2023

An online romance with a foreigner takes a lonely middle-aged farmer to an unknown land. Despite everyone calling it a romance scam, she wants to prove that love indeed exists.