Exclusive: Female and non-binary filmmaker-focused international training initiative Circle has kicked off its inaugural Circle Fiction Orbit initiative at a meeting in Montenegro and unveiled the participants.
The new program extends Circle’s activities beyond its founding Woman Doc Accelerator program, which has supported some 50 non-fiction projects since its launch five years ago.
Employing the same methodology as the Doc Accelerator, the inaugural fiction initiative is supporting five fiction projects in development.
They include Greenlandic birthday party-set drama Kaffemi, from director Pipaluk Jørgensen, whose short film Ivalu was Oscar nominated this year, and screenwriter-actress Nukâka Coster Waldau.
Italian director Irene Dionisio participates with Idda about two childhood friends who reconnect as they scale the perilous slopes of Mount Etna. Dionisio previously made waves with Pawn Streets which played in Venice Critics’ Week.
Finnish director Laura Hyppönen and producer Merja Ritola (Greenlit Productions) are attending with Lex Julia, exploring the dynamics...
The new program extends Circle’s activities beyond its founding Woman Doc Accelerator program, which has supported some 50 non-fiction projects since its launch five years ago.
Employing the same methodology as the Doc Accelerator, the inaugural fiction initiative is supporting five fiction projects in development.
They include Greenlandic birthday party-set drama Kaffemi, from director Pipaluk Jørgensen, whose short film Ivalu was Oscar nominated this year, and screenwriter-actress Nukâka Coster Waldau.
Italian director Irene Dionisio participates with Idda about two childhood friends who reconnect as they scale the perilous slopes of Mount Etna. Dionisio previously made waves with Pawn Streets which played in Venice Critics’ Week.
Finnish director Laura Hyppönen and producer Merja Ritola (Greenlit Productions) are attending with Lex Julia, exploring the dynamics...
- 11/22/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
New projects from Cherien Dabis, Anders Thomas Jensen and Ameer Fakher Eldin have also been awarded
Ariane Labed’s feature-directing debut Sisters is among the 33 projects to receive funding from Eurimages second wave of 2023 co-production funding.
The French-Greek actor’s feature directing debut received €350,000 from the €9.7m pot. The Ireland, UK, Germany and Greece co-production is produced by Ireland’s Element Pictures. An English-language adaptation of Daisy Johnson’s gothic novel of the same name it follows two sisters who move to the countryside with their maniac depressive mother. Labed previously directed short film Olla which won three awards at...
Ariane Labed’s feature-directing debut Sisters is among the 33 projects to receive funding from Eurimages second wave of 2023 co-production funding.
The French-Greek actor’s feature directing debut received €350,000 from the €9.7m pot. The Ireland, UK, Germany and Greece co-production is produced by Ireland’s Element Pictures. An English-language adaptation of Daisy Johnson’s gothic novel of the same name it follows two sisters who move to the countryside with their maniac depressive mother. Labed previously directed short film Olla which won three awards at...
- 7/4/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Titles include ‘Little Death’ from ‘Dogtooth’ and ‘Burning Days’ producer Yorgos Tsourgiannis.
International co-production platform Transilvania Pitch Stop has unveiled the 10 projects set to be showcased at its 10th anniversary edition.
Titles will be presented to potential partners and financiers on June 15, during the Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania. The features in development are from first and second time directors from Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
They include Little Death, the feature directorial debut of Greece’s Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis, produced by Yorgos Tsourgiannis of Horsefly Films. Tsourgiannis produced Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth, which played at...
International co-production platform Transilvania Pitch Stop has unveiled the 10 projects set to be showcased at its 10th anniversary edition.
Titles will be presented to potential partners and financiers on June 15, during the Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania. The features in development are from first and second time directors from Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
They include Little Death, the feature directorial debut of Greece’s Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis, produced by Yorgos Tsourgiannis of Horsefly Films. Tsourgiannis produced Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth, which played at...
- 5/19/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Hushed audiences witnessed footage of the first Russian shells hitting cities in Ukraine on the opening night of the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival on Tuesday as frontline filmmaking was honored.
Oksana Moiseniuk’s “8th Day of the War” screened at the Czech city’s venerable Dko cultural hall after audiences heard from the Ukrainian director via video link from Kiev, which remains under shelling in the eighth month of the war. The film’s diary-like immediacy captures the outbreak of the Russian attacks through the eyes of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic as they try to carry on with a semblance of normalcy, while their minds are consumed with the events taking place back home and they try to help any way they can.
Amid dimly lit tables in the decades-old theater building, Romanian producer Ada Solomon, a key film figure in regional art film behind “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,...
Oksana Moiseniuk’s “8th Day of the War” screened at the Czech city’s venerable Dko cultural hall after audiences heard from the Ukrainian director via video link from Kiev, which remains under shelling in the eighth month of the war. The film’s diary-like immediacy captures the outbreak of the Russian attacks through the eyes of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic as they try to carry on with a semblance of normalcy, while their minds are consumed with the events taking place back home and they try to help any way they can.
Amid dimly lit tables in the decades-old theater building, Romanian producer Ada Solomon, a key film figure in regional art film behind “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,...
- 10/26/2022
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
The top prize went to a family drama set entirely in an Ikea.
Croatian family drama Leave The Door Open has won the Eurimages Co-production Award, worth €20,000, at the closing of International Film Festival Rotterdam’s IFFR Pro Days and CineMart co-production market.
The film will mark the feature directorial debut of Judita Gamulin and is set entirely in an Ikea furniture store in Zagreb.
With early backing from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (Havc), the production aims to close financing in 2023 and shoot in 2024. Leave The Door Open is produced by Rea Rajcic, who is producing through her Zagreb-based film and TV outfit Eclectica.
Croatian family drama Leave The Door Open has won the Eurimages Co-production Award, worth €20,000, at the closing of International Film Festival Rotterdam’s IFFR Pro Days and CineMart co-production market.
The film will mark the feature directorial debut of Judita Gamulin and is set entirely in an Ikea furniture store in Zagreb.
With early backing from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (Havc), the production aims to close financing in 2023 and shoot in 2024. Leave The Door Open is produced by Rea Rajcic, who is producing through her Zagreb-based film and TV outfit Eclectica.
- 2/2/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
UK Global Screen Fund Awards
The UK Global Screen Fund, backed by Dcms and administered by the BFI, has awarded a further £2.1M ($2.8M) to UK companies through its £7M ($9.3M) International Business Development strand. The financial support will provide companies from around the UK with funding for business strategies to create, acquire and exploit Intellectual Property (IP) for increased international revenue, activities and profile.d The awards come in the form of non-repayable grants and range between £50,000 and £117,600 in total over a three-year period. Companies to benefit from this round include Number 9 Films (Mothering Sunday), The Ink Factory (The Night Manager), Warp Films (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) and Good Chaos. Further awards went to: Alphablocks Limited; Avanti Media; The Black Camel Picture Company; Blazing Griffin; Bohemia Club; Cantilever Media; Digital Media Distribution; Dog Ears; Dorothy Street Pictures; Ida Rose; Ie Ie Productions Little Door Productions; Outsider Games...
The UK Global Screen Fund, backed by Dcms and administered by the BFI, has awarded a further £2.1M ($2.8M) to UK companies through its £7M ($9.3M) International Business Development strand. The financial support will provide companies from around the UK with funding for business strategies to create, acquire and exploit Intellectual Property (IP) for increased international revenue, activities and profile.d The awards come in the form of non-repayable grants and range between £50,000 and £117,600 in total over a three-year period. Companies to benefit from this round include Number 9 Films (Mothering Sunday), The Ink Factory (The Night Manager), Warp Films (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) and Good Chaos. Further awards went to: Alphablocks Limited; Avanti Media; The Black Camel Picture Company; Blazing Griffin; Bohemia Club; Cantilever Media; Digital Media Distribution; Dog Ears; Dorothy Street Pictures; Ida Rose; Ie Ie Productions Little Door Productions; Outsider Games...
- 12/16/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Arguably the highlight of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival – certainly among the industry folk – is the Emerging Producers presentations, a glimpse of things to come as bizzers new to the nonfiction film field present their work and upcoming projects.
Selected for their initiative and dedication, then coached by more experienced leaders in the European doc world – often former Emerging Producers themselves – members of the group generally go on to successes in the genre at impressively high rates.
Held this year at Ji.hlava’s new Industry Hub venue, the event saw 18 producers on the rise introduced by fest head of industry Jarmila Outratova and Radim Prochazka, board member of the Czech Audiovisual Producers Assn., himself a former Emerging Producer, class of 2018.
First to present his work was Audun Amundsen of Norway, who said, “I started my career by following a family deep in the jungle of Indonesia for 15 years.
Selected for their initiative and dedication, then coached by more experienced leaders in the European doc world – often former Emerging Producers themselves – members of the group generally go on to successes in the genre at impressively high rates.
Held this year at Ji.hlava’s new Industry Hub venue, the event saw 18 producers on the rise introduced by fest head of industry Jarmila Outratova and Radim Prochazka, board member of the Czech Audiovisual Producers Assn., himself a former Emerging Producer, class of 2018.
First to present his work was Audun Amundsen of Norway, who said, “I started my career by following a family deep in the jungle of Indonesia for 15 years.
- 11/1/2021
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
A young gay police officer who’s worked hard to keep his sexuality hidden must face his inner demons when he’s forced to intervene during an anti-gay protest at a Bucharest movie theater. Trapped in the macho, rigidly hierarchical world of the Romanian police force and confronted by a young protester who threatens to expose him, he suddenly finds himself spiraling out of control.
In “Poppy Field,” veteran theater director Eugen Jebeleanu makes his feature-film debut with a story inspired by real-life events in Romania. Produced by Velvet Moraru of Bucharest-based Icon Production, the film stars Conrad Mericoffer as the conflicted policeman, with acclaimed Romanian New Wave cinematographer Marius Panduru (“Aferim!”) handling the camera.
“Poppy Field” had its world premiere last fall in the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Ahead of its Romanian premiere at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, Jebeleanu spoke to Variety about the experience of switching...
In “Poppy Field,” veteran theater director Eugen Jebeleanu makes his feature-film debut with a story inspired by real-life events in Romania. Produced by Velvet Moraru of Bucharest-based Icon Production, the film stars Conrad Mericoffer as the conflicted policeman, with acclaimed Romanian New Wave cinematographer Marius Panduru (“Aferim!”) handling the camera.
“Poppy Field” had its world premiere last fall in the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Ahead of its Romanian premiere at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, Jebeleanu spoke to Variety about the experience of switching...
- 7/22/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
After a fallow 2017, European cinema at the Busan International Film Festival and the Asian Film Market enjoyed a renaissance in 2018. Now, this year is proving to be an improvement over 2018.
European Film Promotions’ (Efp) Europe! Umbrella scheme, operated in conjunction with Unifrance has drawn 36 European sales companies, more than in recent years. Gaumont, a heavy hitter missing in recent years, makes a return to the market in 2019 with the world premiere of “#iamhere.” New entrants include Belgium’s Best Friend Forever, representing several titles including Flash Forward strand competitor “Valley of Souls,” Austria’s EastWest Filmdistribution, present with the world premiere of “The Accidental Rebel,” and Poland’s company Media Move with Icelandic film “Agnes Joy,” another world premiere.
The number of European delegates at the market in 2019 as part of the Europe! Goes Busan plan has leaped, to 64 this year, from 42 in 2018. Of the hundreds of titles on offer at the market,...
European Film Promotions’ (Efp) Europe! Umbrella scheme, operated in conjunction with Unifrance has drawn 36 European sales companies, more than in recent years. Gaumont, a heavy hitter missing in recent years, makes a return to the market in 2019 with the world premiere of “#iamhere.” New entrants include Belgium’s Best Friend Forever, representing several titles including Flash Forward strand competitor “Valley of Souls,” Austria’s EastWest Filmdistribution, present with the world premiere of “The Accidental Rebel,” and Poland’s company Media Move with Icelandic film “Agnes Joy,” another world premiere.
The number of European delegates at the market in 2019 as part of the Europe! Goes Busan plan has leaped, to 64 this year, from 42 in 2018. Of the hundreds of titles on offer at the market,...
- 10/5/2019
- by Patrick Frater and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
An actress on the verge of a nervous breakdown heads to her hometown on the banks of the Danube, a river separating her adopted country of Romania from the Serbia of her youth. Hoping to recover from a mysterious illness no doctor can diagnosis, she instead falls into a torrid love affair with a younger man and becomes grist for the local rumor mill churned by her family, neighbors and childhood friends.
“Ivana the Terrible” is the second feature of Ivana Mladenovic, a Serbian-born filmmaker based in Romania. Mladenovic writes, directs and stars in the acerbic comedy inspired by true events and shot in her hometown of Kladovo, Serbia. Pic is a co-production between Romania’s microFILM and Serbia’s Dunav 84. Toronto-based sales agent Syndicado Film Sales has world rights. Featuring her real-life family and friends portraying themselves on screen, “Ivana the Terrible” had its world premiere at the Locarno...
“Ivana the Terrible” is the second feature of Ivana Mladenovic, a Serbian-born filmmaker based in Romania. Mladenovic writes, directs and stars in the acerbic comedy inspired by true events and shot in her hometown of Kladovo, Serbia. Pic is a co-production between Romania’s microFILM and Serbia’s Dunav 84. Toronto-based sales agent Syndicado Film Sales has world rights. Featuring her real-life family and friends portraying themselves on screen, “Ivana the Terrible” had its world premiere at the Locarno...
- 8/16/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Toronto-based sales agent Syndicado Film Sales has acquired world rights to “Ivana the Terrible,” the second feature by Ivana Mladenovic, ahead of its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival.
Mladenovic writes, directs and stars in the acerbic comedy about a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Inspired by true events and shot in her hometown of Kladovo, Serbia, it features her real family and friends portraying themselves on screen. The film is a co-production between Romania’s microFILM and Serbia’s Dunav 84.
“‘Ivana the Terrible’ is a film that reaches new heights of self-reflection,” says Aleksandar Govedarica of Syndicado, a world sales and production company established in 2016 that specializes in authorial, cinematic and character-driven narratives. “We are thrilled to work with Ivana Mladenovic on her second feature film.”
Producer Ada Solomon, of microFILM, says Syndicado brings a unique perspective and “in-depth understanding” to “Ivana.” “We decided to...
Mladenovic writes, directs and stars in the acerbic comedy about a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Inspired by true events and shot in her hometown of Kladovo, Serbia, it features her real family and friends portraying themselves on screen. The film is a co-production between Romania’s microFILM and Serbia’s Dunav 84.
“‘Ivana the Terrible’ is a film that reaches new heights of self-reflection,” says Aleksandar Govedarica of Syndicado, a world sales and production company established in 2016 that specializes in authorial, cinematic and character-driven narratives. “We are thrilled to work with Ivana Mladenovic on her second feature film.”
Producer Ada Solomon, of microFILM, says Syndicado brings a unique perspective and “in-depth understanding” to “Ivana.” “We decided to...
- 8/6/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Producer Ada Solomon, whose credits include Cãlin Peter Netzer’s Berlin Golden Bear winner “Child’s Pose,” Radu Jude’s Berlin Silver Bear winner “Aferim!” and Maren Ade’s Oscar-nominated “Toni Erdmann,” has announced new projects from Jude and Ivana Mladenovic, whose debut feature “Soldiers. Story from Ferentari” premiered in Toronto in 2017.
Jude’s “Uppercase Print” (pictured) is an adaptation of a documentary play by Gianina Cărbunariu that interweaves two narrative strands. One is the true story of Mugur Călinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote graffiti messages of protest against the regime of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and was subsequently apprehended, interrogated, and ultimately crushed by the secret police. The other story uses archival footage from the public broadcaster to depict everyday life in Romania in the 1980s.
Solomon said the film will celebrate the “unknown heroes of the Communist era,” using a cinematic method to reveal the brutal mechanisms of repression by juxtaposing “secret vs.
Jude’s “Uppercase Print” (pictured) is an adaptation of a documentary play by Gianina Cărbunariu that interweaves two narrative strands. One is the true story of Mugur Călinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote graffiti messages of protest against the regime of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and was subsequently apprehended, interrogated, and ultimately crushed by the secret police. The other story uses archival footage from the public broadcaster to depict everyday life in Romania in the 1980s.
Solomon said the film will celebrate the “unknown heroes of the Communist era,” using a cinematic method to reveal the brutal mechanisms of repression by juxtaposing “secret vs.
- 5/31/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Hlynur Pálmason wins best directing award for his debut Winter Brothers.
Marcelo Martinessi’s feature debut The Heiresses received the Transilvania Trophy at the closing ceremony of the 17th Transilvania International Film Festival in Romania’s Cluj-Napoca.
The main competition jury, which included filmmakers Ágnes Kocsis and Dagur Kari and actor Vlad Ivanov, praised Martinessi for his “sublime direction” and “the captivating rhythm of his narrative”.
Accepting the trophy and the €15,000 cash prize on stage of the National Theatre from international opera star Angela Gheorghiu, Martinessi said that this award would be further encouragement for Paraguayan filmmakers following the news...
Marcelo Martinessi’s feature debut The Heiresses received the Transilvania Trophy at the closing ceremony of the 17th Transilvania International Film Festival in Romania’s Cluj-Napoca.
The main competition jury, which included filmmakers Ágnes Kocsis and Dagur Kari and actor Vlad Ivanov, praised Martinessi for his “sublime direction” and “the captivating rhythm of his narrative”.
Accepting the trophy and the €15,000 cash prize on stage of the National Theatre from international opera star Angela Gheorghiu, Martinessi said that this award would be further encouragement for Paraguayan filmmakers following the news...
- 6/4/2018
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses,” a Paraguayan-set story of sisterhood and entrapment, won the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival’s top prize Saturday, capping a week of honoring “films that dare,” in the words of its artistic chief Mihai Chirilov.
Crowds filled the ornate, 19th-century national theater in Cluj for the awards gala simulcast Saturday, marking the close of Romania’s top international art film fest, which this year focused on presenting fresh perspectives and provocative work in half a dozen sections, along with industry tech workshops, sessions on micro-budget filmmaking and popular screenings of archival films, often with live orchestral accompaniment.
The awards gala honored Hlynur Palmason with the director prize for Icelandic-Danish sibling rivalry story “Winter Brothers” while all three actors from U.K.-Spanish fertility triangle tale “Anchor and Hope,” Natalia Tena, Oona Chaplin and David Verdaguer, shared the best performance prize.
Asghar Yousefinejad’s “The Home,” an...
Crowds filled the ornate, 19th-century national theater in Cluj for the awards gala simulcast Saturday, marking the close of Romania’s top international art film fest, which this year focused on presenting fresh perspectives and provocative work in half a dozen sections, along with industry tech workshops, sessions on micro-budget filmmaking and popular screenings of archival films, often with live orchestral accompaniment.
The awards gala honored Hlynur Palmason with the director prize for Icelandic-Danish sibling rivalry story “Winter Brothers” while all three actors from U.K.-Spanish fertility triangle tale “Anchor and Hope,” Natalia Tena, Oona Chaplin and David Verdaguer, shared the best performance prize.
Asghar Yousefinejad’s “The Home,” an...
- 6/3/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
For a movement that announced itself with a proverbial flatline, with Cristi Puiu’s dry, sardonic, darkly comic “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” (2005), the Romanian New Wave seems poised for a dramatic rebirth.
More than a decade after Puiu took home the Un Certain Regard Award, and Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in 2007 for his harrowing abortion drama, “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” Romanian cinema is on the brink of a “new New Wave,” says Transilvania Intl. Film Festival artistic director Mihai Chirilov.
As the fest unspools its essential Romanian Days program, beginning on May 30, audiences are witnessing “first-time filmmakers that… are completely different than the aesthetic of the New Wave,” says Chirilov. Breaking from the muted palettes, flat compositions, and slow-burn realism of their predecessors, they’re bringing “a more than welcome freshness to what Romanian cinema is, and the idea of how Romanian cinema is perceived abroad.
More than a decade after Puiu took home the Un Certain Regard Award, and Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in 2007 for his harrowing abortion drama, “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” Romanian cinema is on the brink of a “new New Wave,” says Transilvania Intl. Film Festival artistic director Mihai Chirilov.
As the fest unspools its essential Romanian Days program, beginning on May 30, audiences are witnessing “first-time filmmakers that… are completely different than the aesthetic of the New Wave,” says Chirilov. Breaking from the muted palettes, flat compositions, and slow-burn realism of their predecessors, they’re bringing “a more than welcome freshness to what Romanian cinema is, and the idea of how Romanian cinema is perceived abroad.
- 5/30/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Looking to ramp up collaborations between countries in an oft-overlooked corner of Southeastern Europe, the Transilvania Pitch Stop has selected 10 projects that will be pitched to industry professionals on June 1-2 as part of its growing co-production platform.
Hailing from Georgia, Russia, Turkey, Serbia and Hungary, as well as the host country, Romania, the selection offers a cross-section of filmmaking from what Dorina Oarga, industry manager of the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, describes as an “underrepresented” region around Romania and the Black Sea. “We’re trying to…build [capacity] where it’s necessary,” she says.
Conceived four years ago as a five-day workshop for first- and second-time directors from Romania and Moldova, the Pitch Stop expanded its focus in 2017 to include a co-production platform with projects from neighboring countries.
While the workshop still focuses on mentoring emerging Romanian and Moldovan directors and producers, the new co-production forum encourages filmmakers in Eastern...
Hailing from Georgia, Russia, Turkey, Serbia and Hungary, as well as the host country, Romania, the selection offers a cross-section of filmmaking from what Dorina Oarga, industry manager of the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, describes as an “underrepresented” region around Romania and the Black Sea. “We’re trying to…build [capacity] where it’s necessary,” she says.
Conceived four years ago as a five-day workshop for first- and second-time directors from Romania and Moldova, the Pitch Stop expanded its focus in 2017 to include a co-production platform with projects from neighboring countries.
While the workshop still focuses on mentoring emerging Romanian and Moldovan directors and producers, the new co-production forum encourages filmmakers in Eastern...
- 5/25/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Eight features and five TV projects from first and second time directors will take part.
The Sarajevo Film Festival (August 11-18) has revealed the eight feature film and five television drama projects that will take part in the Cinelink Project Development Workshop.
The selection is made up of projects from first and second time directors from southeast Europe. All the projects are in the early stages of development and are now in the preparatory workshop in Sarajevo which runs from April 2-6. The workshop includes assistance from script consultants plus discussion on directing, production, financing and marketing. Masterclasses, lectures and...
The Sarajevo Film Festival (August 11-18) has revealed the eight feature film and five television drama projects that will take part in the Cinelink Project Development Workshop.
The selection is made up of projects from first and second time directors from southeast Europe. All the projects are in the early stages of development and are now in the preparatory workshop in Sarajevo which runs from April 2-6. The workshop includes assistance from script consultants plus discussion on directing, production, financing and marketing. Masterclasses, lectures and...
- 4/3/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
My Own Private HellThe titles for the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam are being announced in anticipation of the event running January 24 - February 4, 2018. We will update the program as new films are revealed.SIGNATURESInsect (Jan Švankmajer)Asino (Anatoly Vasiliev)Lek and the Dogs (Andrew Kötting)The Bottomless Bag (Rustam Khamdamov)Mrs. Fang (Wang Bing)Readers (James Benning)The Wandering Soap Opera (Valeria Sarmiento, Raúl Ruiz)Lover for a Day (Philippe Garrel)Bright FUTUREThe Flower Shop (Ruben Desiere)Look Up (Fulvio Risoleo)My Friend the Polish Girl (Ewa Banaszkiewicz)Rabot (Christina Vandekerckhove)Respeto (Alberto Monteras II)The Return (Malene Choi Jensen)Windspiel (Peyman Ghalambor)All You Can Eat Buddha (Ian Lagarde)Azougue Nazareth (Tiago Melo)My Own Private Hell (Guto Parente)Ordinary Time (Susana Nobre)3/4 (Ilian Metev)Cocote (Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias)Drift (Helena Wittmann)The Wild Boys (Bertrand Mandico)Gutland (Govinda Van Maele)The Watchman (Alejandro Andújar...
- 12/15/2017
- MUBI
Based on lead actor Adrian Schiop’s fictionalized biography, Ivana Mladenovic’s Soldiers. Story From Ferentari shows a world of poverty and futility possessing few avenues of escape for those born within. Schiop’s character Adi arrives at the Bucharest ghetto known as Ferentari to study its people’s music of choice: manele. He’s researching the sound for his PhD thesis, the recent dissolution of a relationship at the behest of his ex-girlfriend providing the room to uproot himself for the work. But while this setting provides cheap rent—thanks to sharing an apartment with young translator Vasi (Cezar Grumarescu)—it also holds the unpredictable danger of desperation. Adi finds himself surrounded by unemployed hustlers and ex-cons using fear to satiate their vices. And it risks consuming him.
The film is his meandering journey: an optimist gradually trapped within a world devoid of optimism. Adi is a soft-spoken intellectual,...
The film is his meandering journey: an optimist gradually trapped within a world devoid of optimism. Adi is a soft-spoken intellectual,...
- 9/20/2017
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Films from Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, Alexandros Avranas and Diego Lerman added to competition line-up.
Further competition titles for the 2017 San Sebastian Film Festival (22-30 September) have been announced, including The Disaster Artist.
Written, directed and starring James Franco, the project tells the story of Tommy Wiseau’s infamous cult film The Room. It will also appear at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Other titles competing for the Golden Shell include Diego Lerman’s A Sort Of Family (Una Especie De Familia); Love Me Not from Alexandros Avranas; Barbara Albert’s Mademoiselle Paradis; and The Lion Sleeps Tonight from Nobuhiro Suwa.
Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s C’est La Vie!, Ivana Mladenovic’s Soldiers. Story From Ferentari and Matt Porterfield’s Sollers Point have also been announced.
Alexandros Avranas won the best director Silver Lion at Venice for Miss Violence in 2013. Diego Lerman’s Suddenly won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Festival in 2002.
Nakache...
Further competition titles for the 2017 San Sebastian Film Festival (22-30 September) have been announced, including The Disaster Artist.
Written, directed and starring James Franco, the project tells the story of Tommy Wiseau’s infamous cult film The Room. It will also appear at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Other titles competing for the Golden Shell include Diego Lerman’s A Sort Of Family (Una Especie De Familia); Love Me Not from Alexandros Avranas; Barbara Albert’s Mademoiselle Paradis; and The Lion Sleeps Tonight from Nobuhiro Suwa.
Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s C’est La Vie!, Ivana Mladenovic’s Soldiers. Story From Ferentari and Matt Porterfield’s Sollers Point have also been announced.
Alexandros Avranas won the best director Silver Lion at Venice for Miss Violence in 2013. Diego Lerman’s Suddenly won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Festival in 2002.
Nakache...
- 8/4/2017
- by orlando.parfitt@screendaily.com (Orlando Parfitt)
- ScreenDaily
The Disaster Artist is heading to San Sebastian Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival San Sebastian Film Festival announced a selection of the films that will compete at its 65th edition this September - including features from James Franco, Alexandros Avranas, Diego Lerman and Barbara Albert.
Other directors in contention for the Golden Shell include Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano Matt Porterfield and Ivana Mladenovic..
Franco puts himself in front of the camera for his latest film, comedy The Disaster Artist, starring as Tommy Wiseau, the director of the "Citizen Kane of bad movies" The Room. The film showed as a work in progress at SXSW with considerable success and will have its world premiere in Toronto.
Also heading to the festival after a premiere in Canada is Mademoiselle Paradis (Licht), a historical drama about a blind piano prodigy, directed by Austrian filmmaker Albert, who previously competed at the festival...
Other directors in contention for the Golden Shell include Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano Matt Porterfield and Ivana Mladenovic..
Franco puts himself in front of the camera for his latest film, comedy The Disaster Artist, starring as Tommy Wiseau, the director of the "Citizen Kane of bad movies" The Room. The film showed as a work in progress at SXSW with considerable success and will have its world premiere in Toronto.
Also heading to the festival after a premiere in Canada is Mademoiselle Paradis (Licht), a historical drama about a blind piano prodigy, directed by Austrian filmmaker Albert, who previously competed at the festival...
- 8/4/2017
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Beginning in 1937 — the opening credits take us through a series of period photos and alert us to expect something with a potentially greater scope than simply the biopic of one man — Scarred Hearts is still inspired by the life of one figure: writer and intellectual Max Blecher, in the case of this film reconfigured as Emanuel (Lucius Rus), suffering from bone tuberculosis and put in a hospital on the edge of the Black Sea. A 20-year-old man with his life ahead of him, there’s the belief within him that this is all to pass, though, as history will attest, that’s unfortunately not true.
Like another two-and-a-half-hour Romanian dry comedy about the medical process, Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Scarred Hearts plays up the control doctors hold over us in a critical state for maximum absurdity, of course the joke of antiquated health care emphasized in director Radu Jude’s case.
Like another two-and-a-half-hour Romanian dry comedy about the medical process, Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Scarred Hearts plays up the control doctors hold over us in a critical state for maximum absurdity, of course the joke of antiquated health care emphasized in director Radu Jude’s case.
- 8/10/2016
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
Contemporary Romanian cinema is usually identified by moody, real-time dramas about modern social dysfunction. Radu Jude’s recent work offers a notable exception: With last year’s “Aferim!”, a black comedy set in the 19th century about a Roman officer and his son transporting a Gypsy slave, Jude cast a wider net to explore Romanian identity through the ages. “Scarred Hearts,” a lush drama based on the life of writer M. Blecher, continues that tradition. Whereas “Aferim!” explored a dark period in the country’s history, “Scarred Hearts” strikes a warmer note by resurrecting an unsung hero of its literary canon.
Alternately funny, raunchy and sad, “Scarred Hearts” is an intimate look at one writer making the best of awful conditions. Starring extraordinary newcomer Lucian Tedor Rus in his first lead role, the movie tracks the experiences of 20-year-old Emanuel, who spends nearly the entire film hospitalized with a spinal disease — specifically,...
Alternately funny, raunchy and sad, “Scarred Hearts” is an intimate look at one writer making the best of awful conditions. Starring extraordinary newcomer Lucian Tedor Rus in his first lead role, the movie tracks the experiences of 20-year-old Emanuel, who spends nearly the entire film hospitalized with a spinal disease — specifically,...
- 8/10/2016
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The film reunites Beta with Child’s Pose producer Ada Solomon and Aferim! director Radu Jude.
Beta Cinema has taken on world sales for Radu Jude’s Scarred Hearts.
The film is inspired by Romanian author Max Blecher’s novel of the same name, and is the story of a young man’s agony told in several episodes. The story is set in 1937 Romania as a young man spends his days at a sanatorium at the Black Sea coast, suffering from bone tuberculosis. Falling in love with another patient, he narrates his and his fellow patients’ attempts to live life to the fullest as their bodies slowly wither but their minds refuse to give in.
The film, now in production, stars Lucian Teodor Rus, Ivana Mladenovic and Ilinca Harnut. The Romanian-German co-production is produced by Hi Film & Komplizen Film with the support of the Romanian Cnc & Media Program.
Beta Cinema’s Thorsten Ritter said: “We are very...
Beta Cinema has taken on world sales for Radu Jude’s Scarred Hearts.
The film is inspired by Romanian author Max Blecher’s novel of the same name, and is the story of a young man’s agony told in several episodes. The story is set in 1937 Romania as a young man spends his days at a sanatorium at the Black Sea coast, suffering from bone tuberculosis. Falling in love with another patient, he narrates his and his fellow patients’ attempts to live life to the fullest as their bodies slowly wither but their minds refuse to give in.
The film, now in production, stars Lucian Teodor Rus, Ivana Mladenovic and Ilinca Harnut. The Romanian-German co-production is produced by Hi Film & Komplizen Film with the support of the Romanian Cnc & Media Program.
Beta Cinema’s Thorsten Ritter said: “We are very...
- 11/3/2015
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Rams wins Special Jury Prize and Audience Award, The Treasure picks up Best Romanian Film at 14th Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj
Juan Schnitman’s The Fire has won the top prize at the 14th Transilvania International Film Festival (May 29-July 7).
The Argentinian relationship drama, which received its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, won the Transilvania Trophy and a €15,000 cash prize at the Cluj-Napoca event.
The Special Jury Prize, worth €1,500, and the audience award for one of the 12 first or second films by their directors in the international competition, went to Grímur Hákonarson’s Rams.
The Icelandic film won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section last month.
The most popular film overall at the festival was Operation Arctic by Grethe Bøe-Waal from Norway, one of the countries in Focus at this year’s Tiff, along with Argentina.
Bulgarian-Greek hit The Lesson, which has already won a string of awards at Sofia, Thessaloniki, Gothenburg...
Juan Schnitman’s The Fire has won the top prize at the 14th Transilvania International Film Festival (May 29-July 7).
The Argentinian relationship drama, which received its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, won the Transilvania Trophy and a €15,000 cash prize at the Cluj-Napoca event.
The Special Jury Prize, worth €1,500, and the audience award for one of the 12 first or second films by their directors in the international competition, went to Grímur Hákonarson’s Rams.
The Icelandic film won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section last month.
The most popular film overall at the festival was Operation Arctic by Grethe Bøe-Waal from Norway, one of the countries in Focus at this year’s Tiff, along with Argentina.
Bulgarian-Greek hit The Lesson, which has already won a string of awards at Sofia, Thessaloniki, Gothenburg...
- 6/8/2015
- by vladan.petkovic@gmail.com (Vladan Petkovic)
- ScreenDaily
Sarajevo’s co-production market’s first batch of projects includes new films by Erol Mintas, Ivana Mladenovic
The Sarajevo Film Festival has announced first eight selected projects for this year’s edition of CineLink.
They have been chosen from the first call for entries which was intended for projects from first- and second-time directors interested in the preparatory workshop, set for April 3-7.
The selection includesx Crows by director Erol Mintas and producer Asli Erdem from Turkey, who return to Sarajevo one year after winning the Heart of Sarajevo for best film with The Song Of My Mother, and best actor for Feyyaz Duman.
Serbian-born and Romanian-based director Ivana Mladenovic, whose film Turn off the Lights won the Heart of Sarajevo for best documentary in 2012, teams up with producer Ada Solomon for her first fiction feature, Soldiers.
Greece’s Dimitris Bavellas whose Runaway Day was in competition in 2013, is coming with the project In the Strange Pursuit...
The Sarajevo Film Festival has announced first eight selected projects for this year’s edition of CineLink.
They have been chosen from the first call for entries which was intended for projects from first- and second-time directors interested in the preparatory workshop, set for April 3-7.
The selection includesx Crows by director Erol Mintas and producer Asli Erdem from Turkey, who return to Sarajevo one year after winning the Heart of Sarajevo for best film with The Song Of My Mother, and best actor for Feyyaz Duman.
Serbian-born and Romanian-based director Ivana Mladenovic, whose film Turn off the Lights won the Heart of Sarajevo for best documentary in 2012, teams up with producer Ada Solomon for her first fiction feature, Soldiers.
Greece’s Dimitris Bavellas whose Runaway Day was in competition in 2013, is coming with the project In the Strange Pursuit...
- 4/1/2015
- by vladan.petkovic@gmail.com (Vladan Petkovic)
- ScreenDaily
Ivana Mladenovic was born in Serbia, but has spent the last six years living in Romania. However, Mladenovic says she does not notice any major differences between the two countries. But she believes this perception sets her apart from others. "All the characters I chose to film have a lot to do with how I feel about life. I always end up meeting and trying to understand characters who go beyond what is permissible in society. Maybe I chose filmmaking due to the simple fact that I’m trying to understand myself from within. After all, I’m also living as an outcast, a misfit!" What it's about: A film about three young men released from prison. Three destinies that become one. The story of Alex, a streetwise convict who is trying to deal with his own contradictions in straight time. Guilty or not depends on the circumstances, the borders that his destiny may cross.
- 4/10/2012
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
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