Projects
Projects
Jumping the Fence
Category: Spanish Screenings Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Benito Zambrano
Produced by: Cine365 Films / Castelao Productions / Noodles Production
Country of production: Spain
Original title: EL SALTO
Language: Spanish, French
Runtime: 120'
Completed in: 2023
After arriving in Spain several years ago from his native Guinea Conakry, Ibrahim settled in Madrid, where he lives with Mariama and works as a builder. One day, the police arrest Ibrahim and, not having legal residence status, he is deported back to his home country.
The Fin
Category: Fantastic 7
Directed by: Syeyoung Park
Produced by: Heejung Oh
Country of production: Republic of Korea
Original title: 지느러미
Genre: Disaster, Independent, Science-fiction
Language: Korean
Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival
A dying merman asks a friend to give his remains to his daughter, hiding amongst the humans.Tasked with this dangerous journey, the merman secretly heads to the land of humans. He is chased by a new civil servant recruit fueled by curiosity and hatred.
Silex and the City
Directed by: Jul and Jean-Paul Guigue
Produced by: Je suis bien content, Left Field Ventures
Country of production: France, Belgium
Original title: Silex and the City
Language: French
Runtime: 90'
Completed in: 2024
In a prehistory for operettas that is seemingly doomed never to evolve, a conflicted father and daughter disrupt the Stone Age routine. After a tragic-comedy round-trip to the future, they accidentally bring back an Ikea « bent key », which will at last trigger Evolution, for better or for worse… Writing, religion, politics… who will be capable of putting an end to these disasters?
Alone in the Night
Category: Málaga Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Guillermo Rojas
Produced by: Laura Hojman, Guillermo Rojas, Olmo figueredo (Summer Films)
Country of production: Spain
Original title: Solos en la noche
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Runtime: 90'
Completed in: 2023
Paco and his friends, a group of labor lawyers, hide in a house during the harrowing night of February 23, 1981, when there was an attempted coup d’état in Spain without really knowing what to do, whether to wait for events, flee the country or go out to fight for young Spanish democracy.
Closing Night
Category: Queer Screen Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Timothy Despina Marshall
Produced by: Bec Dakin & Timothy Despina Marshall | B&T Films, Orange Entertainment Co.
Country of production: Australia
Original title: Closing Night
Language: English
Runtime: 82'
Completed in: 2023
When his life falls apart, a young queer theatre actor, poised to play the lead in The Glass Menagerie, must reckon with his demons and fight for survival while trapped in a hotel room with a sinister presence.
Archive. Box #64
Directed by: Eva Dzhyshyashvili
Produced by: Natalia Libet | 2Brave Productions
Country of production: Ukraine, Germany, Sweden, Poland
Original title: Archive. Box #64
Language: Ukrainian, German, Swedish, Polish
Runtime: 85'
Budget: 185 000 Eur
Completed in: 2024
The artistic image of the archive and personal stories of characters, who collect and store archival information, are intertwined, showing the experience of accumulating knowledge, building a bridge between the past and the present. However, does knowledge have enough power to prevent new tragedies?
Let’s Play Soldiers
Original title: يلا نلعب عسكرة
Directed by: Mariam Al-Dhubhani
Produced by: Mohammed Al-Jaberi (Meem Square Films LLC, Yemen)
Country of production: Yemen
Runtime: 90'
Expected release: September, 2024
Production stage: In production
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Gap financing, strategic guidance, editing and narrative-build consultants, co-producers
Synopsis:
A 16-year-old former child soldier, Nasser, returns home to a small village South of Yemen to care for his family and prevent his two younger siblings from dropping out of school and following the same path. The ongoing 8-year war had broken his older brother and father before him and forced Nasser to become the guardian of his younger siblings’ fate.
Director’s profile:
Mariam Al-Dhubhani is a Yemeni-Russian award-winning journalist, filmmaker, curator, and educator based in the MENA region. She first pursued her passion for media during the 2011 Arab uprisings and co-founded her first media production. She is a two-time TEDx speaker and one of the first directors to utilize virtual reality to highlight stories from Yemen. Mariam attempts to shed light on the dangers of stereotyping the region in the mainstream media and provides a counterviewpoint to showcase equality in humanity.
Producer’s profile:
Mohammed Al-Jaberi is a Yemeni producer and cinematographer who worked on award-winning short documentary films focusing on Yemen. His feature-length debut is a film showing the impact of the war in Yemen on children, produced in collaboration with DFI and AlJazeera. He received specialized training from international film experts including the French Cambodian director, Rithy Phan, and the Sundance consultant Bruni Burres. He participated in a number of international film industry events including in Beirut DC, HotDocs, Doha Film Institute, AJB DOC, Close up Initiative, MEDIMED, Jacob Burns Film Center, IDFA, and Cairo International Film Festival. He holds two degrees in international relations and development.
Barnstormers: Determined to Win
Genre: Historical
Produced by: Derek Ham, Logic Grip Inc.
Directed by: Derek Ham
Original title: Barnstormers: Determined to Win
Lead artist: Derek Ham
Runtime: 16min
Language: English
Completed in: 2021
Synopsis:
« Barnstormers: Determined to Win.” is an interactive VR experience set to the backdrop of Negro League Baseball. Experience a time when men were prevented from playing in the Major Leagues all because of the color of their skin. Players like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige are now brought to life in this immersive experience. Get introduced to this history from a first-person experience as the story unfolds around you.
Director’s statement:
Derek Ham, PhD is the founder of Logic Grip Inc., a VR company that looks to expand the way stories are told. He is also an Associate Professor and Department Head of Art + Design at NC State University’s College of Design. His work spans the areas of game-based learning, algorithmic thinking, and immersive media. Derek has a PhD in Design Computation from MIT, holds a Master’s in Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Hampton University.
Origin: US
Devices: Oculus Rift series/Quest
Platform: Alexandria
The Starry Sand Beach
Genre: Documentary, Fantasy
Produced by: Lucid Realities
Directed by: Nina Barbier, Hsin-Chien Huang
Original title: La plage de sable étoilé
Lead artist: Nina Barbier, Hsin-Chien Huang
Runtime: 15min
Language: French, English, Chinese
Completed in: 2021
Synopsis:
The Starry Sand Beach is a scientific tale in virtual reality that takes us on a journey to discover the star-shaped foraminifera, small organisms of crucial ecological importance threatened by global warming and ocean acidification. The experience is divided into three parts: the legend, the underwater forest, and the exploration of the Earth’s ancient geological memory. All throughout the experience and along with the foraminifera, you witness signs of the many threats to the marine and coral microorganisms, embodied by sea serpent symbolizing the acidification if the oceans. You are invited to travel vertically from the sea to the sky, starting in a small room before moving deep into the sea and finally returning to the stars.
Director’s statement:
Nina Barbier : In this project, I intended to match science and poetry, as the stars combine these two elements: for science, they are a plasmatic celestial corpse shining from their own light, but in a poetic and mythologic way, they tell stories and legends.
Hsin-Chien Huang : The essence of this experience is to understand the starry beach sensibly and rationally. Both the sensible mythical tale and the rational scientific explanation are equally important to create the full experience.
Origin: France
Devices: HTC Vive series/Oculus Rift series/Quest w/link
Platform: Alexandria
End of Night
Genre: Drama, Narrative
Produced by: Mikkel Skov, A Makropol production - in co-production with Novelab
Directed by: David Adler
Original title: Nattens ende
Lead artist: David Adler
Runtime: 49 minutes
Language: English
Completed in: 2021
Synopsis:
1943. You are sitting in a boat with Josef. He is rowing from Nazi-occupied Denmark to safety in neutral Sweden. As the boat crosses the ocean, the sea gives way to the streets and people that populate his mind. Your journey together becomes a living landscape of painful recollections from the night of his escape. As dawn draws near, you will witness the trauma of escape and the guilt of surviving – when loved ones are left behind.
Director’s statement:
End of Night is a story that probes how the choices we make in the present eventually become memories. It is a reconstruction built from emotions like regret, nostalgia and pride. I want the audience to have a personal meeting with a refugee – someone whose life is defined by memories. I worked with the story of my family, as well as the stories of escape that have shaped my native city.
Origin: Denmark
Devices: HTC Vive series/Oculus Rift series/Quest w/link
Platform: Alexandria