Projects
Projects
Children of the Lowest Heaven
Original title: Ønskeliv
Directed by: Birgitte Stærmose Mortensen
Produced by: Lise Lense-Moeller (Magic Hour Films, Denmark)
Country of production: Denmark, Kosovo, Sweden, Norway, Germany (TBD)
Runtime: 80'
Expected release: May, 2023
Production stage: Late production / early editing
Budget: € 1,022,400 (85% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Festivals, sales agent, gap financing
Synopsis:
On the murky streets of postwar Pristina 2009, a group of children sell cigarettes and whisper tales of loss and hope. A decade later these children, now young adults, still fight to survive at the bottom of society in one of Europe’s youngest and poorest nations, where hope is found in religious fundamentalism, or the dream of emigration. A collective portrait of a condition, a state of being.
Director’s profile:
Birgitte Stærmose Mortensen: An internationally acclaimed writer-director of early award-winning shorts and fiction feature films (Darling & Room 304). For the past five years Stærmose has worked internationally as lead director on drama mini-series for HBO, Starz and Netflix (Industry2, The Spanish Princess, In From the Cold and The English Game). She is currently in production on her third feature film Camino. The short hybrid Out of Love, which is an integral part of Children of the Lowest Heaven, was widely awarded internationally and received Best Documentary Award from the Danish Academy.
Producers’s profile:
Film producer, founder, and CEO of Magic Hour Films, a company set up in 1984 and based in Copenhagen. Magic Hour Films develops, produces and co-produces feature documentaries and fiction films for the national and international markets. A large number of productions are international co-productions, and many have received international acclaim, the top winner being Burma VJ by Anders Østergaard with 52 international awards and an Oscar-nomination. Other titles include Into Eternty by Michael Madsen, and Heartbound by Janus Metz and Sine Plambech. In addition, Lise has been teaching international workshops including since 1992 for EAVE, as first group leader, now Head of Studies. Lise also runs a small publishing house.
Bye Bye Tiberias
Original title: Bye Bye Tiberias
Directed by: Lina Soualem
Produced by: Jean-Marie Nizan (Beall Productions, France)
Country of production: France, Belgium, Palestine, Qatar
Runtime: 80'
Expected release: 2023
Production stage: Post-Production (editing)
Budget: €369,108 (65,13 % in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Gap financing, festivals, international sales agent & distributors, french distributor, buyers, co-producers
Synopsis:
30 years ago, Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass left her native village Deir Hanna in Galilee to follow her acting dream in France. Camera in hand, her daughter Lina questions her mother’s bold choices and the way the women in her family – who she has left behind – have influenced her life. How do those who live on the screen of our memories define who we are today ?
Director’s profile:
French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress, based in Paris. After studying History and Political Science at La Sorbonne University, Lina started worked as a programmer in film festivals, such as the International Human Rights Film Festival in Buenos Aires, among others. Her debut feature documentary Their Algeria premiered in Visions du Réel 2020 and received several award such as First Film prize in CINEMED 2020, Best Arab Documentary in El Gouna Film Festival 2020, Best Feature Length Arab Documentary at Amman International Film Festival 2021, Best Documentary Award at Cinemania Film Festival 2021. Lina acted in three feature films directed by Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass and Rayhana. She is currently developing her second feature documentary Bye Bye Tiberias, and works as a co-author & researcher on fictions, documentaries and TV series such as Oussekine (Disney+).
Producers’s profile:
Jean-Marie Nizan is a director and producer of documentaries and audiovisual programs. After studying architecture, he turns toward moving images. His films are broadcasted on Canal+, France Télévision, TF1 or Arte. He directed films about cinema in Iran, China, Thaïland, Argentina and in Australia, about the work of Daniel Buren and a documentary on Robin Wood for Arte. With Beall Productions, he dedicates himself to the production of documentaries, including Boléro, A Global Hit by Damien Cabrespines and Anne-Solen Douguet (Arte), Philippe Doumic, the twinkling eye by Sébastien Cauchon and Laurence Doumic (OCS, TV5Monde), The Cinematograph, Birth of an Art by Stefan Cornic (Arte), Mad In Belgium by Yves Montmayeur (Ciné+, BeTV).
Fairy, Einstein and the Cherry Tree
Original title: Fairy, Einstein and the Cherry Tree
Directed by: Haruo Inoue
Produced by: Mitsuhiro Nakamura (Japan), Makoto Sugano (Japan)
Country of production: Japan, Kyoto/Hiroshima
Runtime: 50', 90'
Expected release: September, 2023
Production stage: In production
Budget: $262,000 USD (35% secured)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Sales agents, international distributors, Co-producers, strategic guidance, investors, funders
Synopsis:
Sano Toemon, 93 years of age, is a worldwide celebrated cherry blossom expert. Sano – who listens to the “voices” of his beloved cherry trees – has lived through as many experiences as the thousands of trees he cared for but never talked about these. However, he realizes that soon – like the weathered leaning cherry tree he might not be able to save – his juices of life will stop flowing, and his memories will wither away like fallen blossoms. So his grand-granddaughter visits him and, in an intimate conversation, gently rakes together the life lessons he now wants to share with the audience.
Director’s profile:
Inoue Haruo’s film The Reality Behind What We See was selected for competition at 19 international film festivals and won 10 awards including the Best Director Award and Grand Prix. He recently finished a documentary film, Vertigo, in memory of the late poet Jonas Mekas, who was considered the father of American avant-garde art cinema.
Producers’s profile:
Nakamura Mitsuhiro spent his school days in Kyoto and worked as a math teacher at a cram school before entering the TV production business. He has also worked for many years on programs introducing the history, culture, and tourist information of Kyoto and Nara, and has made it his life’s work to make use of his knowledge and connections. Co-Producer, Sugano Makoto has been working as a TV program director on art and science documentaries since 2005. In 2017, he also internationally co-produced a documentary of the first female surfer in Bangladesh. He also plays a role as a committee member of Tokyo Docs, the Japanese largest industry event for docs.
Asteroid 2518
Original title: Asteroide 2518
Directed by: Amanda Ruttlant
Produced by: Amanda Rutllant (Make More Meaning Media, Chile) Constanza Luzoro (Pataka Animation, Chile)
Country of production: Chile
Runtime: 62'
Expected release: April, 2024
Production stage: Late Production
Budget: $229,847 (31% in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Co-producers, gap financing, strategic guidance, festivals.
Synopsis:
As I struggle tu understand my heritage, an autoimmune disease will push me to undertake an unexpected journey through time and space.
Director’s profile:
Amanda Rutllant is a Chilean/Brazilian Documentary Filmmaker and Master in Sociology, passionate for digital and new narrative aproches as well as found footage and home movies. She has worked for the United Nations and International Think Tanks as a consultant in narrative analysis. She started her career in documentary filmmaking in 2014 with her short film Of the 90’s and something, selected to the 10th version of the Rengo International Film Festival. She has directed and produced several short documentary films and has been AD in viral contents for social media. In 2019 she was executive director of the digital platform OpinaDocs, showcasing new chilean short documentarty film talents. She currently works in her own production company/digital marketing agency. Asteroid 2518 is her first feature film.
Producers’s profile:
Constanza Luzoro has a degree in Audiovisual Communication with a mention in Scripts for Film and Television. After working for five years at the Santiago International Film Festival, SANFIC, she worked as an assistant director in several national productions. After, she begins to dedicate herself exclusively to audiovisual production, writing and collaborating in scripts such as the short film A history of two women by Max Sotomayor, the winning documentary of InEdit 2019 Something is happening produced by Red Bull and directed by Tomás Alzamora, the children’s animation series Guitarra y Tambor (PUNKROBOT; HYPPE), and Dream in (STOON). In 2018 she teamed up with Kike Ortega to found the audiovisual content platform PATAKA, where she currently produces the 2D animation series Outlandish, winner of Corfo Series 2018, and developed the Stop Motion webseries Pajarones.
A Place of Our Own
Category: Film Bazaar Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Ektara Collective
Produced by: Ektara Collective
Country of production: India
Original title: Ek Jagah Apni
Genre: Feature film
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 90min
Completed in: 2022
Laila and Roshni, two transwomen, are looking for a house after they are evicted from the place they rented. It soon becomes evident that their search for a home is also their ongoing search for a place in this society that wants to keep them away in a section that can not be the centre.
Lapalissade
Category: Ukrainian Features Preview
Directed by: Philip Sotnychenko
Produced by: Halyna Kryvorchuk (Viatel), Valeria Sotnychenko, Sashko Chubko (Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema)
Country of production: Ukraine
Original title: La Palisiada
Genre: Feature film
Language: Ukrainian, Russian
Runtime: 110
Completed in: 2022
Synopsis:
Two old friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist investigate a murder of a colleague whose widow they both loved when they were young. Immersed in memories of the past, they unconsciously create a future for their children where they reap the fruits of their parents’ lost hopes.
Bury Me When I’m Dead
Category: Buyers Showcase
Directed by: Patrick Clement
Produced by: Amanda Freedman & Nicholas Santos (8890 Productions)
Country of production: USA
Genre: Drama, Horror
Language: English
After failing to keep his wife’s dying wish, a series of tragic events leads Henry to believe she’s returned to get revenge.
Absolution
Category: Proof of Concept
Directed by: Filip Kovacevic
Produced by: Filip Kovacevic, Djordje Stankovic & Vukota Antunovic (Void Pictures)
Country of production: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro
Genre: Adventure, Dystopian, Science-fiction
Language: English
In a barren wasteland far removed from the mythical city of the gods, there is one human settlement left. They are dying out under the leadership of a zealous priest who started conducting human sacrifice rituals after experiencing a religious vision.
Autumn
Category: Tallinn Black Nights Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Antonio Sequeira
Produced by: Joana Domingues, Steven Flynn (Caracol Studios Kurious Studios)
Country of production: Portugal, United Kingdom
Original title: OUTONO
Language: Portuguese, English
Runtime: 120 min
Completed in: 2023
A small town Portuguese family have to confront their new life and some uncomfortable truths after their son leaves to London for university. As he returns home at the end of each trimester for the school breaks (Winter, Spring, Autumn) he discovers that he is not the only one going through changes.
Asog
Original title: Asog
Directed by: Seán DEVLIN 叶 世民
Produced by: Amanda ERNST (Beb Bingo Entertainment, Canada)
Country of production: Canada, Philippines
Runtime: 99'
Production stage: Post-production
Budget: $255.000 USD (85% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Sales Agents / Distributors, Buyers, Gap Financing, Strategic Guidance, Festivals
Synopsis:
JAYA is a non-binary Filipino comedian who survived Super Typhoon Haiyan but lost their TV career when the storm destroyed the studio where they hosted their local talk show. ASOG follows Jaya on a road trip to a drag pageant and along the way they encounter Filipinos enduring the impacts of climate change, including residents of Sicogon Island whose land was stolen in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.
Director’s profile:
Seán Devlin 叶 世民 is a Filipino-Canadian filmmaker and comedian. His debut feature WHEN THE STORM FADES is available on Amazon Prime and AMC+ / Sundance TV. It earned Devlin two international jury prizes for Best Director and the Emerging Canadian Director prize presented by the DGC at VIFF. It won Best Canadian Film (Gimli Film Festival) and two Vancouver Film Critics’ Awards. While screening at the 40th Cairo International Film Festival Devlin participated in Brillante Mendoza’s directing masterclass (the first Filipino to ever win “Best Director” at Cannes). Mendoza deepened Seán’s understanding of the Filipino cinematic practice of “found story”, directly shaping his 2nd feature ASOG. His debut album AIRPORTS. ANIMALS was nominated for the 2022 JUNO award for Comedy Album of the Year’. In 2023 he made his TV stand-up debut on Just For Laughs & CBC’s NEW WAVE OF STAND-UP.
Producer’s profile:
Amanda Ernst is an emerging Canadian film producer with over a decade of experience in artist and project management. As a producer at Beb Bingo Entertainment, Amanda oversees projects from the early development stage, financing, pre-production, on set, and through to distribution. Amanda is the lead producer on her first feature length film, docufiction hybrid ASOG, which will premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. Currently Amanda serves as producer on a slate of projects including features, TV series, and an experimental Indigenous language adaptation project.