Projects

Projects

Fantastic 7

Seoul Horror Story

Category: Fantastic 7

Directed by: Kim Hyunjin

Produced by: LEE Dongha

Country of production: Korea

Original title: 서울의 공포

Genre: Horror

Language: Korean

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival

3 Colored omnibus stories occurred in Seoul. 1. Fluorescent blue color : “A Ghost station” in the northern area of Seoul. 2 . Colorful neon color: “Lost face” Plastic Surgery in Gangnam 3 . Gloomy Ash Gray: “Two worlds” College graduates looking for work in Noryangjin.

Animation Day

Mavka The Forest Song

Directed by: Malamuzh Oleg, Ruban Oleksandra

Produced by: Kostyuk Iryna, Koval (Eliseeva) Hanna (Anna), Olesov Egor. ANIMAGRAD (FILM.UA GROUP)

Country of production: Ukraine

Original title: Mavka The Forest Song

Language: English

Runtime: 90min

Completed in: 2022

Mavka, a magical sprite, responsible for protecting the forest from the outside world, faces her greatest challenge when she meets a human for the first time — and falls in love with him.

Cannes Docs

Gloriavale

Original title: Gloriavale: New Zealand’s Secret Cult

Directed by: Noel Smyth, Fergus Grady

Produced by: Fergus Grady, Noel Smyth

Country of production: New Zealand, Australia

Runtime: 95'

Expected release: September, 2022

Production stage: Production

Budget: €677,035 (100% in place)

1st feature: No

Looking for: Festivals, sales agents/distributors, buyers, & strategic guidance

Synopsis:

When widespread abuse is uncovered at a New Zealand cult, a family must turn to the legal system in an effort to save themselves and their community from the all powerful leaders.

Director’s profile:

Noel Smyth is an Australian based documentary writer, director, producer, cinematographer and editor. Having worked in the industry for 17 years, he started as an editor and cinematographer before moving into directing and producing. This experience across all stages of production has greatly informed his creative practice that centres around intimate stories of the human condition told through a verite lens. His debut feature documentary Camino Skies (co-directed with Fergus Grady) won the Doc Edge Film Festival awards for ‘Best NZ Directors’ and ‘Best NZ Emerging Filmmakers’ and was nominated for ‘Best NZ Feature’, ‘Best NZ Editing’ and ‘Best NZ Cinematography’. His nuanced and empathetic approach to following real life stories comes from a place of curiosity and it is this approach to storytelling that makes him an exciting new voice in the Australian cinema landscape.

Co-Director’s profile:

Fergus Grady is a producer, sales & distribution consultant who has over fifteen years experience in the film industry. His debut feature documentary Camino Skies was the second highest grossing NZ documentary of 2019 and won the Doc Edge Film Festival awards for ‘Best NZ Directors’ and ‘Best NZ Emerging Filmmakers’. He also associate produced West of Sunshine which competed for the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival in 2017.

Producers’s profile:

Noel Smyth & Fergus Grady’s debut feature documentary Camino Skies was the second highest grossing NZ documentary of 2019 and won the Doc Edge Film Festival awards for ‘Best NZ Directors’ and ‘Best NZ Emerging Filmmakers’. Gloriavale: New Zealand’s secret cult is their second feature.

Cannes Docs

Meezan

Original title: میزان

Directed by: Shahab Mihandoust

Produced by: Shahab Mihandoust (Canada)

Country of production: Iran, Canada

Runtime: 75'

Expected release: August, 2022

Production stage: Fine Cut

Budget: $98,000 CAD (100% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Festivals, Sales agents and distributors

Synopsis:

Beside its significance in the physical geography and its salience to the history, economy and politics of the The Middle East, waterways of Khuzestan in Iran remain to be a significant source of income for the communities who inhabit the region. Meezan (Scales) looks at the physical and emotional aspects of labor among these communities and reflect on the relation between bodies and scales.

Director’s profile:

Shahab Mihandoust is an Iranian-Canadian filmmaker. His practice stands at the intersection between cinema and anthropology. Inspired by ethnographic approaches to research and creation his work deals with issues of identity and labor in relation to natural and built environments to study how social, cultural and political processes affect people and places. His attention in his practice is to how everyday social and sensorial experiences are formed in response to current circumstances and transformations of our environments. Shahab’s first documentary, Zagros, which won the national award at RIDM 2018, follows the creation of carpets across the Western mountains of Iran to reflect on the ways labor and culture are interconnected. Zagros has been shown and awarded internationally in several documentary and ethnographic festivals.

Cannes Docs

Listening to the World

Original title: Прислухаючись до світу

Directed by: Yelizaveta Smith

Produced by: Eugene Rachkovsky, Olha Beskhmelnytsina (TABOR, Ukraine)

Country of production: Ukraine

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: Late 2023

Production stage: Production

Budget: € 205,500 (4% in place)

1st feature: No

Looking for: Co-producers, sales agents / distributors

Synopsis:

Iva doesn’t hear the world because of her disability. She is an art curator and human-right activist trying to find her place in the world and make it hear her. But unfortunately, she and her son Mykyta faces the war and are evacuated from bombed Kharkiv to Lviv and then to Germany, where they as well as thousands of other Ukrainians try to find peace until the war ends.

Director’s profile:

Yelizaveta Smith graduated from the KNUTC as a film director. In 2014, she co-founded the film production company Tabor Production. After the Ukrainian revolution, she started volunteer work with children in the city of Mykolaivka in the Donetsk area, which the war partly destroyed. Her experience there led to the documentary School Number 3, co-directed by George Genoux. The film premiered at Berlinale 2017, winning the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus, and a Special Award at HumanDOC in Warsaw. Her debut short fiction Solitude was selected to Odesa IFF and Raindance in 2019 and was nominated for Best Short Film at the Ukrainian Film Academy Awards 2020. Currently working on development of Vacuum – feature fiction film that took part at Torino Film Lab Extended, MidPoint Feature Launch etc. Yelizaveta is a Berlinale Talents alumni and member of the Ukrainian Film Academy and EFA.

Producer’s profile:

Eugene Rachkovsky was born in Odesa, Ukraine. Graduated from the Odesa National Maritime University as a Master of Transport technologies and systems. He was working as a Director of sales for a petroleum trading company, but changed his professional way and move to Kyiv for working in the film industry. In 2018 worked as associate producer on a short film Solitude directed by Yelizaveta Smith. In 2019-2021 worked for the service production company Radioaktivefilm, which shoot commercials for brands like Apple, Samsung, Honda, Jo Malone and etc. After working few years in advertisement he focus on film producing. From October 2020 has worked as Chief Commercial Officer in TABOR Production. Producer of a short fiction film Black Dog, which release are going to be in the summer 2022. Participant of the EURODOC22 programs with the project Silent Flood by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk.

Cannes Docs

Leaving Jesus

Original title: Leaving Jesus

Directed by: Ellen Fiske

Produced by: Michael Krotkiewski, David Herdies (Momento Film, Sweden)

Country of production: Sweden, Denmark, Norway

Runtime: 88'

Expected release: May, 2023

Production stage: Production

Budget: € 651,240 (80 % in place)

1st feature: No

Looking for: Prebuys, Sales Agents, Distributors, financiers, festivals

Synopsis:

A group Christian ex-fundamentalists gather at Journey Free retreat in San Fransisco. Lost and with traumatic experiences they attempt to free themselves from their fundamental communities that they were born into. But how do one find meaning, identity and a moral compass in our frantic world, while at the same time having to question your closest friends and the truths you once took for granted?

Director’s profile:

Ellen Fiske studied documentary filmmaking at Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. Fiske’s feature doc, Scheme Birds won Best Documentary Feature and Best New Documentary Director award at Tribeca in 2019. Her latest feature doc Josefin & Florin received a Guldbagge for Best Editing at the ”Swedish BAFTA’s” and won the prestigious Prix Europa Iris award in 2020.

Producers’s profile:

Michael Krotkiewski born in 1980 in Sweden, is a director, tutor, producer and co-owner of Momento Film. As a producer Michael has produced and coproduced several fiction and documentary films and some of his latest releases include; Amparo by Simon Mesa Soto (won the Rising Star Award at Semaine de la Critique in Cannes 2021, Yung Lean: In My Head by Henrik Burman (competed at Tribeca FF 2020, theatrical release in over 113 cinemas worldwide, sold to VICE), Transnistra by Anna Eborn (won the Big Screen Competition at Rotterdam IFF, the Dragon Award for best Nordic Documentary at Gothenburg IFF and The Swedish Guldbagge Award for Best Documentary in 2019). Michael has a diploma from Stockholm Academy Of Dramatic Arts, EURODOC and EAVE.

Cannes Docs

Out of Place

Original title: خارج المكان

Directed by: Mohammed Al Majdalawi

Produced by: Manolo Diaz Rämö, Beatrice Pourbagher Garcia (Filmilia AB, Sweden)

Country of production: Sweden, Qatar

Runtime: 90', 58'

Expected release: April, 2023

Production stage: Production

Budget: € 302,259 (20,3% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Co-producers, gap financing, sales agents/distributors

Synopsis:

A coming of age story about four Palestinians dabke dancers from Jabalia refugee camp, who now live in Europe. Through material filmed for 20 years, the film explores dabke and how its meaning and importance changes for the characters – from resistance of the occupation in Gaza to the struggle to revive their cultural heritage in exile.

Director’s profile:

Mohammed Al-Majdalawi was born in Palestine. He has a masters degree in documentary film from Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. While living on the Gaza Strip, he worked as crew for a number of international films including Bridges Over Blood and Eyewitness Gaza. He also made his own film, Gaza Art Through Barbed Wire. He is currently working on his documentary Out Of Place and To Mai.

Producers’s profile:

Manolo Diaz Rämö was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He has a bachelor’s degree in Documentary film from Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. In his films Manolo often explores the longing for something unreachable, in the past or the future, usually connected to migration. His films have been nominated for numerous awards and his latets documentary Like a mountain is screened at SVT.

Beatrice Pourbagher Garcia was born in Halland, Sweden. She has a bachelor’s degree in film production from Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. Beatrice became a producer since she is convinced that everyone has a story to tell but many lack the privilege to do so. She has worked with numerous fiction and documentary films that have been screened in festivals around the world.

Cannes Docs

Married to a Poisonous Lady

Original title: Married to a Poisonous Lady

Directed by: Masahiro Nimura

Produced by: Masahiro Nimura (Japan)

Country of production: Japan

Runtime: 85'

Expected release: September, 2023

Production stage: In production

Budget: $180,000 USD (45% secured)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Sales agents, international distributors, Co-producers, strategic guidance, investors, funders

Synopsis:

Death Row inmate Masumi Hayashi seems monstrous; accused of poisoning the curry at a summer festival, killing 4 and injuring dozens of others, as well as an insurance fraud scheme involving the same poison used in the killings. But one of her victims, her husband Kenji, is proving her innocence, and struggles against an impenetrable bureaucracy to clear her name and save her life. In spite of compelling evidence of a miscarriage of justice, his odds seem impossibly long.

Director’s profile:

Masahiro Nimura Director, Producer, has directed and produced various TV programs for 20years, titles, such as, School refusal has arrived (2021) for NHK, Short documentary about a unique method to bring out a dramatic recovery from schizophrenia. How To Train Your Schizophrenia and so on. In recent years, he has followed the subject of Japanese criminal justice, the death penalty, and false accusations.

Cannes Docs

Notes For a Film

Original title: Notas para una película

Directed by: Ignacio Agüero

Produced by: Amalric de Pontcharra (Ignacio Agüero & Asociado Ltd, Chile), Tehani Staiger (Ignacio Agüero & Asociado Ltd, Chile), Elisa Sepulveda (Fulgurance Films, France)

Country of production: Chile, France

Runtime: 92', 110'

Expected release: September, 2022

Production stage: Editing stage

Budget: €416,205 (85% in place)

1st feature: No

Looking for: Presales / Sales Agents / Festivals / Buyers

Synopsis:

A film which portrays the radical transformation of the territory of Araucanía at the end of the 19th through the eyes of a young foreigner, Gustave Verniory. The film draws a sensitive cinematic space, playing with and creating a dialogue between past and contemporary. It is a path that meanders between human and geographic landscapes, in order to reveal the deep essence of the Araucanía territory.

Director’s profile:

Ignacio Agüero is a film director, mainly documentary films. He is a titular professor at the University of Chile and has taught film there for the last fifteen years. He was Director of the Master’s program in documentary filmmaking between 2012 and 2017. He has been an actor in numerous films. He has won numerous awards for his films, the latest of which is the Grand Prix at the FID Marseille in 2019, and the Prince Claus Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. Two books have been published on his work, “El cine de Ignacio Agüero”, by authors Catalina donoso and Valeria de los Ríos, and “Dos o tres cosas que sabemos de él”, by several contributors coordinated by Eva Sangiorgi and Camila Donoso, edited by Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Retrospectives of his films have been held in Barcelona, Mexico City, La Paz, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Lima, Paris, Biarritz, Trieste, Chile.

Producers’s profile:

Amalric de Pontcharra is a french producer living in Santiago de Chile since november 2006. In Chile, he has been asociate producer of Ignacio Agüero’s El Diario de Agustín (Agustin Newspaper), El otro día (The other day), Como me da la gana II (This is the way I like it II) and Notas para una película (Notes for a film). Amalric de Pontcharra is funding member of Les Producteurs Indépendants Associés (Paris): As a Producer of this group he executive produced more than 100 hours of documentary features between 2000 and 2007 for Arte.

Cannes Docs

Becoming Ema

Original title: Becoming Ema

Directed by: Patricia Drati

Produced by: Sidsel Lønvig Siersted (Good Company Pictures, Denmark), Marcel Pazman (Frame Film, Slovakia)

Country of production: Denmark, Slovakia

Runtime: 80'

Expected release: September, 2023

Production stage: Production

Budget: €394.819

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Co-producers, sales agents/distributors, festivals

Synopsis:

Set in Slovakia, and the countryside of Mallorca, the film examines motherhood as an identity, a calling, a journey. In pursuit of a dream, Ema and her husband, spend their savings on a plot of land on Mallorca. While expecting their second daughter, they embark on an exhaustive journey to build a settlement. Ema believes she has chosen the best life for her family, close to nature, full of connection.

Director’s profile:

Patricia Drati is a director, creative producer and film development consultant, working with both documentary and fiction. Between 2009-2015, Patricia was Head of CPH:LAB at CPH:DOX International Documentary Film Festival. She curated, developed and managed the cross-cultural training and production lab for international filmmaking talents. Patricia completed Torino Film Lab as a story editor in 2016, where she has since then been a member of the selection committee. Patricia also works as a consultant for Doha Film Institute, Qatar and International Film Festival Rotterdam. Becoming Ema is her debut film as a director.

Producers’s profile:

Sidsel Lønvig Siersted has worked on widely distributed and internationally awarded titles such as Nielsson’s Democrats (2014, PBS), Polak’s Something Better to Come (2014, HBO Europe), Greenfield’s The Kingmaker (2019, Showtime) and Kossakovsky’s Oscar short-listed Aquarela (2019, Sony Classics). She is the producer of Jepsen’s Natural Disorder, selected for IDFA’s feature length competition 2015 and nominated for a Danish Film Academy Award and Danish Critics Award. She was a consulting producer on Costa’s Oscar nominated The Edge of Democracy (2019, Netflix) and development producer of Mulvad’s Love Child, which premiered at TIFF 2019. Most recently she co-produced the award winning, IDFA Bertha Fund supported My Darling Supermarket by Brazilian director Yankelevich.