Cph:Forum, the financing and co-production event on the industry programme of Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, has selected new projects from the producers of Flee and Cow for its 2024 edition; and has refreshed its industry awards with six prizes.
Danish producer Signe Byrge Sorensen will participate with Freedom (working title), directed by Camilla Nielsson, who previously made Sundance 2021 title President about a challenger in Zimbabwe’s corrupt presidential elections.
Scroll down for the full list of Forum projects
Sorensen is CEO of Danish documentary production house Final Cut For Real, which has made films including The Killing Of A Journalist,...
Danish producer Signe Byrge Sorensen will participate with Freedom (working title), directed by Camilla Nielsson, who previously made Sundance 2021 title President about a challenger in Zimbabwe’s corrupt presidential elections.
Scroll down for the full list of Forum projects
Sorensen is CEO of Danish documentary production house Final Cut For Real, which has made films including The Killing Of A Journalist,...
- 2/8/2024
- ScreenDaily
French-based sales agency Lightdox has acquired the international rights to feature documentary “The Mechanics of Things” by Italian director Alessandra Celesia, ahead of its international premiere Saturday at the Torino Film Festival. The film had its world premiere at Les Etats généraux du Film Documentaire in Lussas this August. The exclusive trailer is shown below.
The film’s starting point is a terrible accident: Tito, a stray cat adopted by Celesia, falls from the eighth floor, and is paralyzed. The filmmaker herself is struggling with invisible scars. Together, they embark on a journey to China, searching for regeneration, both mental and physical.
After her cat was paralyzed, Celesia set out to find a way to heal him. Meeting a French association of paralyzed people working on spinal cord regeneration, she embarked on a journey to China for a clinical trial. The scientific discovery and medical trial patented by the association...
The film’s starting point is a terrible accident: Tito, a stray cat adopted by Celesia, falls from the eighth floor, and is paralyzed. The filmmaker herself is struggling with invisible scars. Together, they embark on a journey to China, searching for regeneration, both mental and physical.
After her cat was paralyzed, Celesia set out to find a way to heal him. Meeting a French association of paralyzed people working on spinal cord regeneration, she embarked on a journey to China for a clinical trial. The scientific discovery and medical trial patented by the association...
- 11/24/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Yeo Siew Hua, the Singaporean director whose “A Land Imagined” won the Locarno Film Festival’s top prize in 2018, has cast acclaimed Taiwanese actors Lee Kang-Sheng and Wu Chien-Ho (“A Sun”) in his new “Stranger Eyes.”
The film, a thriller with domestic surveillance at its core, is currently shooting. It is set to wrap post-production by early 2024 and start a festival run thereafter. International sales are handled by France’s Playtime.
The Golden Horse-nominated Wu plays Darren, a struggling young father whose baby daughter has gone missing. When mysterious footage appears of his private and intimate life, Darren suspects that his neighbor Goh, a supermarket supervisor, is the voyeur linked to his daughter’s disappearance. Goh is portrayed by Lee, who is best-known for his three-decade-plus collaboration with Golden Lion-winning director Tsai Ming-liang. Increasingly frantic, Darren takes it upon himself to stalk Goh, meaning that the hunted becomes hunter.
“It...
The film, a thriller with domestic surveillance at its core, is currently shooting. It is set to wrap post-production by early 2024 and start a festival run thereafter. International sales are handled by France’s Playtime.
The Golden Horse-nominated Wu plays Darren, a struggling young father whose baby daughter has gone missing. When mysterious footage appears of his private and intimate life, Darren suspects that his neighbor Goh, a supermarket supervisor, is the voyeur linked to his daughter’s disappearance. Goh is portrayed by Lee, who is best-known for his three-decade-plus collaboration with Golden Lion-winning director Tsai Ming-liang. Increasingly frantic, Darren takes it upon himself to stalk Goh, meaning that the hunted becomes hunter.
“It...
- 8/18/2023
- by Patrick Frater and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Actor Sebastian Stan has come on board to produce “Blue Banks,” the feature debut of Romanian director Andreea Cristina Borțun, whose 2021 short film “When Night Meets Dawn” premiered in Directors’ Fortnight.
Pic follows Lavinia, a single mother trying to make a better life on her own terms for herself and her 13-year-old son, who live in a poor Romanian village. She is impulsive, prone to misreading situations, and not sure how to love. But her son, on the threshold between childhood and adolescence, needs his mother more than ever, and over the course of four seasons their relationship is put to the test.
Stan, who was born in Romania, will produce the film alongside Romanian producer Gabi Suciu, French co-producers Jean-Laurent Csinidis and Jerome Nunes and Slovenian co-producer Ales Pavlin. Shooting will take place in Romania throughout the year and is set to wrap in October.
Best known for playing...
Pic follows Lavinia, a single mother trying to make a better life on her own terms for herself and her 13-year-old son, who live in a poor Romanian village. She is impulsive, prone to misreading situations, and not sure how to love. But her son, on the threshold between childhood and adolescence, needs his mother more than ever, and over the course of four seasons their relationship is put to the test.
Stan, who was born in Romania, will produce the film alongside Romanian producer Gabi Suciu, French co-producers Jean-Laurent Csinidis and Jerome Nunes and Slovenian co-producer Ales Pavlin. Shooting will take place in Romania throughout the year and is set to wrap in October.
Best known for playing...
- 5/19/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Fifteen countries represented amongst the 18 individuals.
European producers platform Ace Producers has selected 18 producers for the latest edition of its Ace Producers’ Network programme, running in 2022 and 2023.
The 18 producers include Nadim Cheikhrouha of France’s Tanit Films, who will produce Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s next feature Mime. Cheikhrouha and Ben Hania secured an Oscar nomination for best international feature film last year for The Man Who Sold His Skin.
Scroll down for the full list of producers
Sara Laszlo, CEO at Hungary’s Campfilm, is another Ace Producers participant, through Denes Nagy’s The Vacation. Laszlo’s previous...
European producers platform Ace Producers has selected 18 producers for the latest edition of its Ace Producers’ Network programme, running in 2022 and 2023.
The 18 producers include Nadim Cheikhrouha of France’s Tanit Films, who will produce Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s next feature Mime. Cheikhrouha and Ben Hania secured an Oscar nomination for best international feature film last year for The Man Who Sold His Skin.
Scroll down for the full list of producers
Sara Laszlo, CEO at Hungary’s Campfilm, is another Ace Producers participant, through Denes Nagy’s The Vacation. Laszlo’s previous...
- 9/12/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Prolific Singapore-based production company Akanga Film Asia, led by producer Fran Borgia, has revealed a robust film slate, including several global co-productions.
Borgia and filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua teamed on 2018 film “A Land Imagined,” which reaped a rich haul of awards around the world, including top prizes at Locarno, Golden Horse, El Gouna, Pingyao, Singapore and Valladolid. They have now re-teamed on “Stranger Eyes,” which is selected at the ongoing Venice Production Bridge’s gap financing market.
The film follows master of surveillance Inspector Goh, who, as he keeps a close eye on a suspected credit card thief, is drawn into the suspect’s world and starts to see himself in the skin of the perpetrator. As it sets him to question the true meaning of his work, Goh is tasked to track down a serial voyeur on the loose who has been videotaping people’s most private moments.
“It...
Borgia and filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua teamed on 2018 film “A Land Imagined,” which reaped a rich haul of awards around the world, including top prizes at Locarno, Golden Horse, El Gouna, Pingyao, Singapore and Valladolid. They have now re-teamed on “Stranger Eyes,” which is selected at the ongoing Venice Production Bridge’s gap financing market.
The film follows master of surveillance Inspector Goh, who, as he keeps a close eye on a suspected credit card thief, is drawn into the suspect’s world and starts to see himself in the skin of the perpetrator. As it sets him to question the true meaning of his work, Goh is tasked to track down a serial voyeur on the loose who has been videotaping people’s most private moments.
“It...
- 9/2/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Germany’s Deckert Distribution has picked up international rights for Taiwanese filmmaker Elvis A-Liang Lu’s sophomore feature “A Holy Family,” which world premiered in Visions du Réel’s international competition section.
The film is a home-coming story about the director who returns to his village in Taiwan after a 24-year absence. His elder brother is a psychic who offers career advice to the villagers, but fails in his own entrepreneurial ventures as a farmer, and his father is a gambling addict in poor health.
The one who holds the family together is his mother, a stubborn woman who worries about the future and finds consolation in a stream of religious rituals at the Taoist altar in their home.
The previously estranged family, where love and grudges intertwine and surface, slowly comes closer through A-Liang’s lens in an intimate portrait of rekindled family bonding and a tale of self-discovery through filmmaking.
The film is a home-coming story about the director who returns to his village in Taiwan after a 24-year absence. His elder brother is a psychic who offers career advice to the villagers, but fails in his own entrepreneurial ventures as a farmer, and his father is a gambling addict in poor health.
The one who holds the family together is his mother, a stubborn woman who worries about the future and finds consolation in a stream of religious rituals at the Taoist altar in their home.
The previously estranged family, where love and grudges intertwine and surface, slowly comes closer through A-Liang’s lens in an intimate portrait of rekindled family bonding and a tale of self-discovery through filmmaking.
- 4/14/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel has unveiled its VdR-Industry selection, which includes 27 projects in different stages of production.
The works will be invited to participate in three key forums – VdR-Pitching, VdR-Work in Progress and VdR-Rough Cut Lab – that run as part of the fest’s industry activities in Nyon from April 10-14.
Those who cannot make it to the festival will be able to participate online but organizers are focusing strongly on the in-person event.
“We can’t wait to finally welcome back project holders and industry representatives to the shores of Lake Geneva. We feel strengthened by the lessons we have learned from the digital and hybrid editions of the last two years. In fact, they have opened up new possibilities in terms of activities format and allowed us to widen the range of professionals participating in VdR–Industry,” said Madeline Robert, head of industry and artistic advisor of Visions du Réel,...
The works will be invited to participate in three key forums – VdR-Pitching, VdR-Work in Progress and VdR-Rough Cut Lab – that run as part of the fest’s industry activities in Nyon from April 10-14.
Those who cannot make it to the festival will be able to participate online but organizers are focusing strongly on the in-person event.
“We can’t wait to finally welcome back project holders and industry representatives to the shores of Lake Geneva. We feel strengthened by the lessons we have learned from the digital and hybrid editions of the last two years. In fact, they have opened up new possibilities in terms of activities format and allowed us to widen the range of professionals participating in VdR–Industry,” said Madeline Robert, head of industry and artistic advisor of Visions du Réel,...
- 3/11/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
“Papa Fujii’s Unexpected Journey,” a film project about a Japanese man’s attempt to understand his dead daughter’s life in Taiwan was named as the grand prize winner at the 2012 edition of the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion event. It wins a Nt$1 million prize.
Prizes were announced on Wednesday evening at a ceremony as part of the ongoing Golden Horse Film Festival. The Golden Horse Film Awards, often regarded as the most important for Chinese-language cinema, will be announced on Saturday (Nov. 27).
“Unexpected Journey” is to be directed by Hou Chi-jan, a writer-director and cinematographer best known for his 2012 film “When a Wolf Falls in Love With a Sheep.” The jury judging the project market praised the project’s “humanistic warmth and portrayal of intergenerational reconciliation,” and said that it is “not only poetic but also possesses commercial potential.”
The project market involved a record-high 63 works with some in development,...
Prizes were announced on Wednesday evening at a ceremony as part of the ongoing Golden Horse Film Festival. The Golden Horse Film Awards, often regarded as the most important for Chinese-language cinema, will be announced on Saturday (Nov. 27).
“Unexpected Journey” is to be directed by Hou Chi-jan, a writer-director and cinematographer best known for his 2012 film “When a Wolf Falls in Love With a Sheep.” The jury judging the project market praised the project’s “humanistic warmth and portrayal of intergenerational reconciliation,” and said that it is “not only poetic but also possesses commercial potential.”
The project market involved a record-high 63 works with some in development,...
- 11/25/2021
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Marseille-based Films de Force Majeure has boarded “Blue Banks,” the buzzy feature debut from Romania’s Andreea Cristina Borțun, whose latest short film “When Night Meets Dawn” premiered in the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight section, Variety can reveal.
Pic is the story of a single mother trying to raise her son in a poor Romanian village who’s forced to leave him behind when she gets a job in Marseille. While she’s away, he’s left with a sea of possibilities trying to figure out who he can become.
Borțun described her first feature as “a world of contrasts, where the old and the new, the natural and the man-made sometimes absurdly overlap.”
” ‘Blue Banks’ is a chronicle, told over four seasons, about a young mother’s ambition to live her life according to her own dreams. However her dreams are neither precise, nor great. They are mostly cursory and inappropriate,...
Pic is the story of a single mother trying to raise her son in a poor Romanian village who’s forced to leave him behind when she gets a job in Marseille. While she’s away, he’s left with a sea of possibilities trying to figure out who he can become.
Borțun described her first feature as “a world of contrasts, where the old and the new, the natural and the man-made sometimes absurdly overlap.”
” ‘Blue Banks’ is a chronicle, told over four seasons, about a young mother’s ambition to live her life according to her own dreams. However her dreams are neither precise, nor great. They are mostly cursory and inappropriate,...
- 7/30/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary projects from the US, Africa and China among those awarded.
Upcoming documentary The Vanishing by Senegalese filmmaker Rama Thiaw received one of the top prizes at Visions du Réel’s industry awards last night (April 20), hosted virtually from the Swiss town of Nyon.
The online ceremony saw 17 prizes awarded to documentary projects from the US, Asia, Africa and Europe, which had been presented to buyers and potential partners during the industry event.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The Vanishing won the Visions Sud Est Award, which includes a cash prize of 10,000Chf and is given to the best project from Africa,...
Upcoming documentary The Vanishing by Senegalese filmmaker Rama Thiaw received one of the top prizes at Visions du Réel’s industry awards last night (April 20), hosted virtually from the Swiss town of Nyon.
The online ceremony saw 17 prizes awarded to documentary projects from the US, Asia, Africa and Europe, which had been presented to buyers and potential partners during the industry event.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The Vanishing won the Visions Sud Est Award, which includes a cash prize of 10,000Chf and is given to the best project from Africa,...
- 4/21/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Documentary film festival Visions du Réel, which runs April 15-25, has unveiled the 29 projects that will be presented in its industry program, VdR-Industry.
The project will participate in the three key forums in the industry section: VdR-Pitching, VdR-Work in Progress and VdR-Rough Cut Lab. Industry activities will take place from April 14-22, both online and on site in Nyon, Switzerland – if sanitary measures permit.
The VdR-Industry Awards, including three new cash awards, will be granted by an international jury gathering Eurimage’s executive director Roberto Olla, Italian film director Roberto Minervini and Rasha Salti, independent film and visual arts curator, as well as commissioning editor for La Lucarne, Arte France.
“This year’s selection depicts not only the incredible diversity of contemporary documentary filmmaking, but also its ever wider ranging influence,” said Madeline Robert, new head of industry and artistic advisor of Visions du Réel.
VdR-Industry is designed as a springboard for projects,...
The project will participate in the three key forums in the industry section: VdR-Pitching, VdR-Work in Progress and VdR-Rough Cut Lab. Industry activities will take place from April 14-22, both online and on site in Nyon, Switzerland – if sanitary measures permit.
The VdR-Industry Awards, including three new cash awards, will be granted by an international jury gathering Eurimage’s executive director Roberto Olla, Italian film director Roberto Minervini and Rasha Salti, independent film and visual arts curator, as well as commissioning editor for La Lucarne, Arte France.
“This year’s selection depicts not only the incredible diversity of contemporary documentary filmmaking, but also its ever wider ranging influence,” said Madeline Robert, new head of industry and artistic advisor of Visions du Réel.
VdR-Industry is designed as a springboard for projects,...
- 3/19/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Documentarians from Ecuador, Argentina, Kenya, Vietnam and France are among projects from 19 countries to receive support totalling $520,000 from Sundance Institute.
Documentarians from Ecuador, Argentina, Kenya, Vietnam and France are among projects from 19 countries to receive support totalling $520,000 from Sundance Institute.
Documentary Fund recipients encompass projects in development, production, and post-production stages and their work spans subject matter from a deeply personal family project in Ecuador, to a mission to save libraries in Kenya, to a musical involving female and trans prisoners in Buenos Aires.
Frederick Wiseman’s Boston City Hall project, City Hall, is among post-production grant recipients.
A little...
Documentarians from Ecuador, Argentina, Kenya, Vietnam and France are among projects from 19 countries to receive support totalling $520,000 from Sundance Institute.
Documentary Fund recipients encompass projects in development, production, and post-production stages and their work spans subject matter from a deeply personal family project in Ecuador, to a mission to save libraries in Kenya, to a musical involving female and trans prisoners in Buenos Aires.
Frederick Wiseman’s Boston City Hall project, City Hall, is among post-production grant recipients.
A little...
- 5/20/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
New partner organisations from Egypt, Nepal and SingaporeScroll down for full list
International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) has selected 61 emerging film producers from 26 countries to the 16th edition of Rotterdam Lab.
Rotterdam Lab is organised by Iffr’s co-production market, CineMart, in collaboration with various partner organisations involved in the training of young producers, as well as funding bodies.
Rotterdam Lab is a five-day training workshop for emerging producers designed to provide the means to create and expand their international network and boost their confidence and skills to navigate the world of international finance, sales and distribution and markets.
Another aim of Rotterdam Lab is to support its participants setting up or adapting their companies within the quickly changing media landscape. The participants are nominated by the 29 CineMart partners. This year, Rotterdam Lab welcomes Arab Cinema Center (Egypt), Docskool (Nepal) and Singapore Film Commission as new partners.
The Rotterdam Lab programme includes panel discussions on topics such as...
International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) has selected 61 emerging film producers from 26 countries to the 16th edition of Rotterdam Lab.
Rotterdam Lab is organised by Iffr’s co-production market, CineMart, in collaboration with various partner organisations involved in the training of young producers, as well as funding bodies.
Rotterdam Lab is a five-day training workshop for emerging producers designed to provide the means to create and expand their international network and boost their confidence and skills to navigate the world of international finance, sales and distribution and markets.
Another aim of Rotterdam Lab is to support its participants setting up or adapting their companies within the quickly changing media landscape. The participants are nominated by the 29 CineMart partners. This year, Rotterdam Lab welcomes Arab Cinema Center (Egypt), Docskool (Nepal) and Singapore Film Commission as new partners.
The Rotterdam Lab programme includes panel discussions on topics such as...
- 1/30/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Details revealed of 10 upcoming European features seeking distribution and sales agents.Scroll down for project details
Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 12-19) hosted its fifth annual Work in Progress event on Monday (Dec 14), offering industry a first look at 10 forthcoming features and documentaries from across Europe – eight of which are directed by female film-makers.
Hosted by the festival’s artistic director, Frederic Boyer, directors and producers seeking sales agents and distribution introduced short clips of their films before discussing the productions, 2,000m up at the French ski resort.
A jury comprising Karlovy Vary artistic director Karel Och, Locarno artistic director Carlo Chatrain and Haugesund managing director Gyda Velvin Myklebust chose Elina Psykou’s Son Of Sofia as the winner of the Digimage prize, worth €4,000 in services from post-production lab Monal Group [more here].
At the end of the event, Eurimages took the opportunity to announce that Les Arcs was one of four festivals selected for its new Lab...
Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 12-19) hosted its fifth annual Work in Progress event on Monday (Dec 14), offering industry a first look at 10 forthcoming features and documentaries from across Europe – eight of which are directed by female film-makers.
Hosted by the festival’s artistic director, Frederic Boyer, directors and producers seeking sales agents and distribution introduced short clips of their films before discussing the productions, 2,000m up at the French ski resort.
A jury comprising Karlovy Vary artistic director Karel Och, Locarno artistic director Carlo Chatrain and Haugesund managing director Gyda Velvin Myklebust chose Elina Psykou’s Son Of Sofia as the winner of the Digimage prize, worth €4,000 in services from post-production lab Monal Group [more here].
At the end of the event, Eurimages took the opportunity to announce that Les Arcs was one of four festivals selected for its new Lab...
- 12/14/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
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