Cannes Docs

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: December, 2025

Production stage: Pre-production

Budget: €1 349 276 (37,24% in place )

1st feature: No

Looking for: Sales Agents, Distributors, Buyers, Investors, Commissioners, Gap Financing

Synopsis:

« Cyclovia » is a cinematic voyage through Colombia, weaving intimate tales of love and life amidst the rhythmic pulse of biking. From high up in the Andes to the Amazon, it immerses us in diverse lives: elite cyclists, refugee couriers, and daring youngsters on heavy bikes without brakes. A sensory odyssey unveiling the simple and transformative power of the bike, providing freedom and independence for all.

Director’s profile:

Finlay is a BAFTA winning filmmaker and producer driven by the authenticity and rawness of non-fiction cinema. He immerses his audience in an experience they wouldn’t have access to themselves. His debut feature, the award-winning film Time Trial (2018) takes the audience to the core of bike racing via disgraced Tour de France cyclist David Millar, using pioneering sound and visual techniques Finlay’s breakthrough as a filmmaker was in 2007 with Standing Start followed by Ma Bar, Cutting Loose and other award-winning shorts which he co-directed with his friend Adrian McDowall. His films have have screened in hundreds of film festivals around the world including IDFA, Sundance, SXSW, Hotdocs, Sheffield Docfest, Visions du Réel, Berlinale etc.. In 2019 Finlay set up a joint label “Parcel of Rogues” with Sonja Henrici.

Producer’s profile:

Sonja is a leading German-British producer of many acclaimed feature documentaries and campaigns, including The Oil Machine (Sheffield/ IDFA/ BBC), Merkel (Telluride/ IDFA/Netflix), Time Trial (SXSW), Donkeyote (IFFR), I Am Breathing and more. She was Co-Director/Exec Producer of Scottish Documentary Institute from 2013 – 2020 and founder of its production arm, SDI Productions. In 2021 she founded Sonja Henrici Creates for all her future creative and production work. “Parcel of Rogues” is her joint label for Finlay Pretsell projects. Her films have screened on all continents, in top festivals, cinema, TV, VOD, DVD, in over 60 countries. She loves to collaborate internationally from her base in Edinburgh. Forthcoming feature docs (2024): Love & Trouble by Amy Hardie and Tracing Light by Thomas Riedelsheimer. Sonja is a member of AMPAS and BAFTA.

Runtime: 85'

Expected release: April, 2025

Production stage: Production

Budget: €320 000 (58% in place)

1st feature: Yes

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

Synopsis:

A filmmaker has recurring dreams about wolves. She visits a wolf park, hoping it will help her understand their hold on her. There she becomes captivated by the young female wolf Talla. For years she returns to witness Talla’s confinement, as it is a lens through which she sees herself. Wolf Park questions the natural and artificial, free and confined, and our paradoxical relationship with the wild.

Director’s profile:

Dr Demelza Kooij is a filmmaker, artist, and researcher. In her work she depicts other worlds: un(der)explored territories nearby and far away; the beyond human, film as art, ecologies of the sea, land, sky and exchanges in-between. Demelza’s work is presented at film festivals, art exhibitions, and museums. Highlights are winner of the Jury Prize at the 57th Ann Arbor Film Festival 2019 for WOLVES FROM ABOVE, Wroclaw Media Art Biennale, and screenings at Festival Du Nouveau Cinéma Montréal, Hamptons IFF, Edinburgh IFF, Zinebi, Full Frame, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp [M HKA], FACT Liverpool, and The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul [MMCA].

Producer’s profile:

Anita Norfolk is the founder of Folk Film, an independent production company in Bergen, Norway. It most recently co-produced feature documentaries MOTHERLAND (winner DOX:AWARD 2023, nominated for the European Film Awards) and HOW TO SAVE A DEAD FRIEND (Acid Cannes 2022, winner DOC:NYC). Anita also produced Demelza Kooij’s short film WOLVES FROM ABOVE. Prior to Folk Film Anita worked for over a decade in the UK, first in animation for video games developer Rockstar Games (Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption), before moving into producing for the award-winning studio Mosaic Films. She was the development producer on feature documentary OUT of THIN AIR (Netflix, BBC Storyville), and series producer on When I Worry About Things (BBC), an animated documentary series that won an RTS award. Anita is a Eurodoc alumni.

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: August, 2025

Budget: €677 345,67 (36% in place)

1st feature: Yes

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

Synopsis:

A group of outsiders on the autism spectrum strive to rise above their loneliness by building a community in the most unexpected of places – an elevator. Led by Andrew, the star of the elevator filming scene on YouTube, they use the magical multi-sensory experience of elevator riding to discover who they want to be and demand acceptance in a world that is not made for them.

Director’s profile:

Gustav Littorin is a filmmaker based in Stockholm, Sweden. He has previously directed the short documentaries Elevatours and Sara: en på 1,3 miljoner, as well as the fiction shorts Jag vill att vi stanna and Kasta Sten. While filming Elevatours in Finland, he met Andrew Reams, star of the worldwide elevator-filming community. Since 2019 he has been working on the feature documentary, Elevated, where he is an invited guest in the neurodivergent world of the elevator community. This autumn he will begin his final year in the bachelor’s program in Directing at Stockholm University of the Arts. Elevated is his feature debut.

Producer’s profile:

Clara Harris studied documentary filmmaking in Sweden before joining Sisyfos Film. Now based in her hometown of Edinburgh, she runs Sisyfos’ Scottish outpost. She produced the documentary shorts There’s Not Much We Can Do (Glasgow Short FF; Doc NYC) and Yellow is the Color of Happiness (Tempo Doc Fest). Mario Adamson and Ashley J. Smith are Artistic Directors of Sisyfos Film in Stockholm, Sweden. Rooted in animation, grown through documentary, Sisyfos seeks to flourish in fiction, XR, and experiential projects. Through creative collaborations with emerging and established filmmakers we make high-profile, award-winning stories for an international market. Mario and Ashley have produced acclaimed films such as Motherland (DOX:Award, CPH:DOX; EFA nomination), How to Save a Dead Friend (Grand Jury Award Doc NYC), and Scheme Birds (Best Documentary, Tribeca; Swedish Academy Award nomination)

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: May, 2025

Production stage: Editing

Budget: $654 223 (74% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Festivals/Sales Agents/Distributors/Gap financing

Synopsis:

« Conscious » is a hopeful and cinematic experience, taking us closer to understanding the strength and frailty of the human mind. Through the lens of dementia, the film explores what it means to be conscious. What can a neuroscientist and three people living with dementia tell us about consciousness in a technological age?

Director’s profile:

Suki Chan is an established British film artist. Her films take audiences on an immersive journey and shine a light on subjects that challenge and destabilise our understanding of reality. Chan seeks out narratives that explore alternative ways of looking at the world. Her passion is to change perception and build empathy for other people’s experiences. Suki is a recipient of the 2020 Film London’s FLAMIN Productions Award, a major award supported by Arts Council England and a member of BAFTA Connect and Women In Film & TV (WFTV). CONSCIOUS is her first feature documentary.

Producer’s profile:

Aimara Reques is an award-winning producer and the CEO of Aconite Productions, the award-winning company behind films such as the ambitious AQUARELA, which premiered in Venice in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Oscars in 2020, and Electric Malady, which was nominated for a BAFTA and premiered in competition at CPH:DOX 2022. Aimara has over 30 years of experience in the film industry and has collaborated with a number of internationally renowned directors and producers. She is also a winner of two BAFTA Scotland Awards; a Fox Searchlight Award; an Amnesty International Media Award; and the Golden Star Award from El Gouna Film Festival.