Projects
Projects
Dark Tide
Category: Proof of Concept
Directed by: Peter Ricq
Produced by: Hangar 18 Media, GoodBye Productions, League Productions
Country of production: Canada
Genre: Horror
Language: English
A young Fisherman, along with his dead comrades, washes up on a mysterious island where a deranged Captain is hunted by a dark-hungry-beast.
Broken
Category: Tallinn Black Nights Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Facundo Escudero Salinas
Produced by: Nicolás Münzel Camaño (Pensilvania Films)
Country of production: Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Germany
Original title: FRAGMENTADA
Language: Spanish
Runtime: 105 min
Completed in: 2023
A police woman returns with her daughter to her hometown, from which she always wanted to escape in the Patagonia, to take care of her dying mother. The murder of an old friend’s daughter will keep her in that place longer than expected. She will try to solve a case that seems to matter to no one.
Celluloid Underground
Original title: Celluloid Underground
Directed by: Ehsan KHOSHBAKHT
Produced by: Mary BELL, Adam DAWTREY (Bofa Productions, UK)
Country of production: United Kingdom
Runtime: 85'
Expected release: September, 2023
Production stage: Post-production
Budget: €195.697 (75% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Sales agents, Distributors, Festivals
Synopsis:
After the Iranian Revolution, a movie collector in Tehran hid thousands of films to prevent their destruction by the new Islamic regime. Despite arrest and torture, he refused to give up his secret. His story of resistance is told by the boy who became his partner in crime, recollected years later from exile in London. A moving and inspiring autobiography about the subversive power of celluloid dreams.
Director’s profile:
Ehsan Khoshbakht is an Iranian filmmaker, curator and author, based in London. His debut feature Filmfarsi (2019), about the lost Iranian cinema of the Shah’s era, was released in the US by Gunpowder/Criterion, and screened at over 50 film festivals and cinematheques around the world. He has also made several archive documentaries for BBC Persian, including Duke Ellington in Esfahan, which was selected for Telluride. Ehsan is co-director of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, the world’s premier festival for film history and restoration. He regularly programmes seasons around the world, most recently at Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, Cinemateca Portuguesa in Lisbon, MoMA in New York, the Viennale in Vienna, Cinemateket in Copenhagen, and Filmoteca Catalunya in Barcelona. He is the author and editor of several books about cinema, jazz and architecture.
Producer’s profile:
After decades of experience in the film and TV industry, Mary Bell and Adam Dawtrey founded Bofa Productions in 2013 to make cinema documentaries in Scotland. Their credits include A Story of Children and Film (Mark Cousins, 2013), Antonia Bird: From EastEnders to Hollywood (Susan Kemp, 2016), Stockholm My Love (Cousins, 2016), The Eyes of Orson Welles (Cousins, 2018), Iorram (Alastair Cole, 2021), The Story of Looking (Cousins, 2021) and La Sagrada Familia (Borja Alcalde, 2022). They are currently in production with Celluloid Underground (Ehsan Khoshbakht, 2023) and A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things (Cousins, 2024). Mary Bell was previously deputy managing director of Hat Trick Productions, where she produced hit TV shows including Father Ted and Have I Got News For You. She won an Oscar for her short film Work Experience. Adam Dawtrey was previously European Editor of Variety.
The Soldier’s Lagoon
Original title: La Laguna del Soldado
Directed by: Pablo ALVAREZ MESA
Produced by: Pablo ÁLVAREZ MESA
Country of production: Canada, Colombia
Runtime: 75'
Expected release: February, 2024
Production stage: Post-production
Budget: $115.000 CAD (100% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents, Distributors, Buyers
Synopsis:
200 years after Simón Bolívar’s liberation campaign across Colombia, The Soldier’s Lagoon retraces The Liberator’s journey across the high altitude marshlands while searching for glimpses of his ghost still present in this historically contested territory.
Director’s/Producer’s profile:
Pablo Alvarez-Mesa‘s films have played at international film festivals including Berlinale, IFFR, MoMA, Visions du Reel, and RIDM. His most recent film looking into Simón Bolívar’s battles of Independence and titled « Bicentenario » played at the 2021 Berlinale, MoMA Doc Fortnight and Viennale amongst other festivals and earned a Jury Mention at Festival Punto de Vista in the Main Competition. « The Soldier’s Lagoon » is the second in a trilogy of films tracing Bolivar’s path through Colombia. Pablo is an affiliate member of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University, and is Artist in Residence at Fogo Island Arts. Pablo’s interest in documentary lies in the relationship between fact and fiction; between what is recalled and what is inevitably constructed. His films all touch in one way or another issues of displacement, history and collective memory.
I Belong to Nowhere
Original title: Jeg tilhører ingen steder
Directed by: Kaspar Astrup SCHRÖDER
Produced by: Katrine A. SAHLSTRØM, Maria Helga STÜRUP (Good Company Pictures, Denmark)
Country of production: Denmark, Sweden
Runtime: 90',56'
Expected release: January, 2025
Production stage: Production
Budget: €526.064 (75% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Presales and grants to close the financing gap.
Synopsis:
Set in Japan, the film centers around a mental health chat service started by the 21-year-old student Koki, who himself has felt lonely all his life. “A Place for You” quickly becomes a lifeline in a society where more and more people feel isolated. I BELONG TO NOWHERE follows Koki and a handful of the vulnerable users struggling to find meaning in their lives, who now finally have a place to turn to.
Director’s profile:
Director Kaspar Astrup Schröder is a self-taught film director who worked as an international artist, graphic designer, furniture designer and film editor of numerous short films and documentaries, before he directed his first feature length documentary, The Invention of Dr. NakaMats in 2009. Since then, Kaspar has written and directed more than 10 documentary films ranging from children’s stories to social realistic stories from places that are rarely portrayed in documentaries. Some of his selected films include Medina (2022), Making a Mountain (2020), BIG TIME (2017), Waiting for the Sun (2017) and Rent a Family Inc. (2012). Kaspar’s films have been selected for more than 50 international film festivals such as IDFA, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, DOC NYC and Chicago IFF and has won numerous awards and nominations in most international territories.
Producer’s profile:
Katrine A. Sahlstrøm worked for Danish director Lars von Trier for 7 years before she took the leap from fiction to documentaries in 2011. Her debut as producer (Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case) was shortlisted for the main prize at IDFA and won the national critic’s award for best documentary in 2014. Since then, she has produced several documentaries that have gained recognition around the world including Medina (2022), All That remains to be Seen (2022, CPH:DOX), Beautiful Something Left Behind (SXSW 2020 Grand Jury Prize) and Photographer of War (2019) – a hit in Danish cinemas and nominated for a Danish Academy Award.
Maria Helga Stürup has been with Good Company Pictures since 2017 working as a producer assistant. Her debut as producer, Nobody Knows Casper (2022), premiered at CPH:DOX.
LUX SANTA
Original title: LUX SANTA
Directed by: Matteo RUSSO
Produced by: Orazio GUARINO ( Naffintusi, italy)
Country of production: Italy
Runtime: 75', 33'
Expected release: November, 2023
Production stage: Post-production
Budget: €110.000 (70 % in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Festival, Sales agent, Distgribution, Co-producer
Synopsis:
Crotone, the young people of the Rione Fondo Gesù deal with the absence of their fathers. Forced to be husbands for their mothers, every year among the grey buildings, they gather to honor the millenary tradition of the Santa Lucia fire, trying to rediscover their lost adolescence.
Director’s profile:
Matteo Russo was born in Crotone on 10/15/1992. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, founding the collective « Hi, Toys videoproject » in 2011 with some of his collaborators approaching the world of teh cinema. In 2014 he made his first real experience in the world of cinema, working on the set of the film « Confusi e felici » by Massimiliano Bruno, playing the role of assistant director. The two real film projects are those made in 2015 or « Voglia di fragola » written by Emilio Maria Costa (awarded as best experimental short at TMFF) and « My beloved son » written, produced and directed by the same Matteo, a short film that has received several selections in national and international film festivals. His latest short film « Amare affondo » has just started distributing and has received 20th Official Selection and awards in a World Film Festival.
Producer’s profile:
Orazio Guarino, director, screenwriter and producer, was born in Sava (Ta) on 27 July 1981. he graduated at DAMS Cinema In Bologna with a thesis on the poetics of director JL Godard.In 2004, together with Marco Santoro, he founded Naffintusi Cinema with which he produced his first short films, presented in numerous festivals and receiving various awards. In addition to short films, with Naffintusi he produces his own films and decisions of videoclips and documentaries for major Italian artists.His feature film “Sp1ral” receives the Audience Award at the Terra di Siena Film Festival.He is currently engaged in the pre-production of his new film as director « »Let the flames burn » » and on several short films by young authors and authors including that of Antonio La Camera co-produced by Palme d’Or director Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
El Menor
Original title: El Menor
Directed by: Mijael BUSTOS
Produced by: Felipe EGAÑA (Los Reyes del Parque, Chile), Diego SALDIVIA (Los Reyes del Parque, Chile)
Country of production: Chile
Runtime: 80', 52'
Expected release: February, 2024
Production stage: Editing
Budget: €205,000 (100% in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Festivals, Sales agents / distributors
Synopsis:
El Menor is an intimate portrait of Efraín (15), a marginal teenager without family, who in a few months becomes a worldwide phenomenon in freestyle music battles. Efrain faces sudden fame without anyone emotionally close to him. In that loneliness, but surrounded by hundreds of thousands of fans, Efrain begins to gradually disappear behind « El Menor », his artistic persona.
Director’s profile:
Audiovisual Communicator and Master in Documentary Filmmaking. He is director and screenwriter of the short films « La última escena » (2013) and « Un cuento de amor, locura y muerte » (2015) which accumulated more than 70 selections in festivals such as Toronto (TIFF), IDFA, Clermontt-Ferrand, FicValdivia and more than 20 awards in festivals such as Krakow, Chicago, Camerimage, among others. Director of the transmedia project « Los Reyes del Parque », which includes the feature film currently in development « El Menor ».
Producer’s profile:
Film and TV director and producer. His short films « El Elefante Blanco », « Última Cena » and « Huésped » have been selected and awarded in multiple festivals in countries such as Cuba, Holland, Portugal and Chile. Has been assistant director to Nicolás Acuña, Pepa San Martín, Carmen Castillo, among others. Is producer of the feature film « Gran Avenida » by Moisés Sepúlveda, the TV series « Libre » by Juan Pablo Sallato and the feature film « La Hija del Pacífico » by Juan Olea. Partner and producer at Juntos Films.
Itoiz Summer Sessions
Original title: Itoiz Udako Sesioak
Directed by: Larraitz ZUAZ
Produced by: Ainhoa ANDRAKA, Zuri GOIKOETXEA (Doxa Producciones, Spain)
Country of production: Spain
Runtime: 100'
Expected release: September, 2023
Production stage: Editing
Budget: €450.000 (90% in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Gap Financing, Sales Agents / Distributors, Buyers, Festivals, Co-Producers, Strategic Guidance.
Synopsis:
The discovery of some unpublished recordings leads Juan Carlos, leader of ITOIZ, to ponder the dissolution of the band at the height of their success, after having adopted a more accessible pop style which he now disowns. Juan Carlos begins a cathartic journey to the essence of the band, reliving their beginnings in the 70s as a progressive rock group in Mutriku, in an attempt to reconcile with the past.
Director’s profile:
Immersed in the audiovisual world since 2003, Larraitz currently combines her work as an executive producer and director at BEGIRA PRODUKZIOAK with a more cinematic facet focused on documentary language and music videos, working as a director, editor, and screenwriter. Her first documentary works were situated in a social framework, portraying two of the most important labor struggles that occurred in the Basque Country after Franco’s regime with « »Nosotras, mujeres de Euskalduna » » and « »163 días, la huelga de Bandas » ». Later, she delved into a more artistic environment with projects such as « »Hilos de tiempo » » and « »Ekilibrismoaren artea » ».
Her passion for music and music video language has led Larraitz to direct more creative projects and fully immerse herself in the history of one of the most iconic groups in the Basque Country during the 1980s, the rock band ITOIZ.
Producer’s profile:
Doxa is a production company based in Bilbao, Spain specializing in documentary films. Some of our films are Asier AND I (Asier ETA biok, Amaia & Aitor Merino, 2015), INLAND (MESETA, Juan Palacios, 2019), FANTASIA (Aitor Merino, 2021), CABEZA Y CORAZÓN (Ainhoa Andraka and Zuri Goikoetxea), ABOVE 592 METRES (Maddi Barber, 2018) and IN A NEARBY FIELD (Laida Lertxundi and Ren Ebel, 2023). They have been screened and awarded at numerous film festivals such as SSIFF, CPH:DOX, Bafici, Visions du Réel, FICX, FICG, Pesaro Film Festival, or Festival de Málaga. Currently, we are producing, writing and editing the film « ITOIZ UDAKO SESIOAK » (Larraitz Zuazo), coproducing « CAIGAN LAS ROSAS BLANCAS » (Albertina Carri) with Gentil Cine (Argentina), El Borde (Argentina) and Punta Colorada (Brazil) and developing the documentary series CLOSE FAMILY (Ainhoa Andraka, Zuri Goikoetxea and Lucila Rodríguez).
Island of the Winds
Original title: Da Feng Zhi Dao
Directed by: Ya-Ting HSU
Produced by: Ya-Ting HSU (Argosy Films and Media Productions, Taiwan), Huang YIN-YU (Moolin Films, Ltd. & Moolin Production, Co., Ltd, Taiwan & Japan), Baptiste BRUNNER (Wide Productions - La Cuisine aux Images, France)
Country of production: Taiwan, Japan, France
Runtime: 120'
Expected release: February, 2024
Production stage: Post-production
Budget: €318.371 (30.7% in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: International Distribution, Gap Financing, Co-producers, Pre-Sales, Sales
Synopsis:
Following the endless and unforgettable fighting of a social movement around a leprosy sanatorium in Taiwan, a lifework of the filmmaker for two decades.
Director’s profile:
Ya-Ting HSU is a Taiwan based independent filmmaker and began her filmmaking career in 2009 officially. By challenging all manner of artistic conventions and genres, she has been able to form her unique aesthetic and has proven herself to be a skilled and sensitive storyteller. At present, she’s focused on exploring personal desire and loss at specific historical moments. She believes one person’s story can illuminate an entire era. Her latest directorial works “The River”, selected for the 55th Ann Arbor Film Festival; she also in association with Taiwan PBS documentary series “The Making of Modern Taiwan”. She is nominated for Best Editor at Golden Bell Awards for « Our Happy Birth Day ». Currently, she is working on a documentary project “Island of the Winds”has been selected in 2022 Doc By the seas, Editing Lab (the pitch session, won Current Time Prize) and 2021 ASIADOC.
Producer’s profile:
Huang Yin-Yu is a director and producer based in Okinawa. He began documentary filmmaking in 2010, and he founded Moolin Films, Ltd. (Taiwan) in 2015, later Moolin Production Co., Ltd. (Japan) in 2019. His films include “After Spring, the Tamaki Family…” (2016) and “Green Jail” (2021) which were theatrically released in Japan and Taiwan, and his films were selected in Visions du Réel, DOK.fest München, Taipei Film Festival, Kinema Junpo Best 10 Documentaries and others. He is an Emerging Producers 2020 and Rotterdam Lab 2023 alumni and one of the mentors of ASIADOC 2021. As producer, he focuses on international projects with Asian perspectives and aesthetics. Besides film production, he’s the executive director of Cinema at Sea International Film Festival.
Co-Producer’s profile:
Baptiste Brunner is a film Producer for Wide Studios, a French production group covering a large documentary portfolio, supported by all companies acquired by the group. Since 2018, Baptiste has been involved in international co-production meetings several times a year. He has been developing and coproducing documentaries globally. Passionate about author-driven documentary film, Baptiste is also highly interested in major social and environmental topics. His lastest produced documentary works include “WANI”, “AMCHILINI” and “BLUEBERRY DREAMS”, and is now producing « Island of the Winds. »
72 hours
Original title: 72 hours
Directed by: Anna SAVCHENKO
Produced by: Isabel DE LA SERNA (Playtime films, Belgium), Jean-Marie GIGON (Sanosi Productions, France), Volia CHAJKOUSKAYA (Volia Films, Belarus)
Country of production: Belgium, France, Estonia
Runtime: 90'
Expected release: September, 2023
Production stage: Post-Production
Budget: €350.885 (75% in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Gap Financing, TV Coproduction, Prebuys, Sales Agent, Festival, Impact Partners
Synopsis:
A woman’s life has been incomplete ever since her son was wrongfully accused, sentenced to death and executed within a year. From a grieving mother she transforms to a symbol of the struggle against the death penalty. Today, she shares her painful reminiscences with a theater group of 4 young people, all displaced for different reasons. They all gather to poetically process the mother and son’s story, combining documentary theater with media and family archives.
Director’s profile:
Anna studied documentary film at Doc Nomads international master program. Her main interest is creative documentary, hybrid and experimental cinema, while in her work she tends to explore the dialogue between the genres. Based in Belgium and Spain, she works both as director and editor. Her feature documentary project “72 Hours” was awarded at DOK Industry Leipzig 2019 (EWA Network Talent Award), at East Doc Market 2021 (Czech TV co-production award) and won FIFDH Geneva 2021 Impact Day Award.
Producer’s profile:
Playtime Films is founded in 2007 in Brussels, Belgium. It focuses on ambitious cinematographic works and eye-catching television shows with international scope in both the fiction and documentary genre. Playtime is always on the road searching for audacious authors and directors who have a singular vision of the world. Isabel de la Serna joined Playtime Films in 2010 and one year after she became partner and producer in charge of Playtime’s films development and production. As the unique producer at Playtime Films, she aims to build up a strong network of Belgian and international talented writers and directors to develop and produce high-hand documentaries with international potential and art house and market driven feature film.