Projects

Projects

Cannes Docs

Fairy, Einstein and the Cherry Tree

Original title: Fairy, Einstein and the Cherry Tree

Directed by: Haruo Inoue

Produced by: Mitsuhiro Nakamura (Japan), Makoto Sugano (Japan)

Country of production: Japan, Kyoto/Hiroshima

Runtime: 50', 90'

Expected release: September, 2023

Production stage: In production

Budget: $262,000 USD (35% secured)

1st feature: No

Looking for: Sales agents, international distributors, Co-producers, strategic guidance, investors, funders

Synopsis:

Sano Toemon, 93 years of age, is a worldwide celebrated cherry blossom expert. Sano – who listens to the “voices” of his beloved cherry trees – has lived through as many experiences as the thousands of trees he cared for but never talked about these. However, he realizes that soon – like the weathered leaning cherry tree he might not be able to save – his juices of life will stop flowing, and his memories will wither away like fallen blossoms. So his grand-granddaughter visits him and, in an intimate conversation, gently rakes together the life lessons he now wants to share with the audience.

Director’s profile:

Inoue Haruo’s film The Reality Behind What We See was selected for competition at 19 international film festivals and won 10 awards including the Best Director Award and Grand Prix. He recently finished a documentary film, Vertigo, in memory of the late poet Jonas Mekas, who was considered the father of American avant-garde art cinema.

Producers’s profile:

Nakamura Mitsuhiro spent his school days in Kyoto and worked as a math teacher at a cram school before entering the TV production business. He has also worked for many years on programs introducing the history, culture, and tourist information of Kyoto and Nara, and has made it his life’s work to make use of his knowledge and connections. Co-Producer, Sugano Makoto has been working as a TV program director on art and science documentaries since 2005. In 2017, he also internationally co-produced a documentary of the first female surfer in Bangladesh. He also plays a role as a committee member of Tokyo Docs, the Japanese largest industry event for docs.

Cannes Docs

Asteroid 2518

Original title: Asteroide 2518

Directed by: Amanda Ruttlant

Produced by: Amanda Rutllant (Make More Meaning Media, Chile) Constanza Luzoro (Pataka Animation, Chile)

Country of production: Chile

Runtime: 62'

Expected release: April, 2024

Production stage: Late Production

Budget: $229,847 (31% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Co-producers, gap financing, strategic guidance, festivals.

Synopsis:

As I struggle tu understand my heritage, an autoimmune disease will push me to undertake an unexpected journey through time and space.

Director’s profile:

Amanda Rutllant is a Chilean/Brazilian Documentary Filmmaker and Master in Sociology, passionate for digital and new narrative aproches as well as found footage and home movies. She has worked for the United Nations and International Think Tanks as a consultant in narrative analysis. She started her career in documentary filmmaking in 2014 with her short film Of the 90’s and something, selected to the 10th version of the Rengo International Film Festival. She has directed and produced several short documentary films and has been AD in viral contents for social media. In 2019 she was executive director of the digital platform OpinaDocs, showcasing new chilean short documentarty film talents. She currently works in her own production company/digital marketing agency. Asteroid 2518 is her first feature film.

Producers’s profile:

Constanza Luzoro has a degree in Audiovisual Communication with a mention in Scripts for Film and Television. After working for five years at the Santiago International Film Festival, SANFIC, she worked as an assistant director in several national productions. After, she begins to dedicate herself exclusively to audiovisual production, writing and collaborating in scripts such as the short film A history of two women by Max Sotomayor, the winning documentary of InEdit 2019 Something is happening produced by Red Bull and directed by Tomás Alzamora, the children’s animation series Guitarra y Tambor (PUNKROBOT; HYPPE), and Dream in (STOON). In 2018 she teamed up with Kike Ortega to found the audiovisual content platform PATAKA, where she currently produces the 2D animation series Outlandish, winner of Corfo Series 2018, and developed the Stop Motion webseries Pajarones.

Cannes Docs

A Sad and Vulgar Loner

Original title: Un Vulgar y Triste

Directed by: Efthymia Zymvragaki

Produced by: Patricia Sánchez Mora (Gris Medio, Spain) co-producers: Novena Nube - Kaboga - Thurnfilm - Tranvía

Country of production: Spain, Germany

Runtime: 90', 60'

Expected release: November, 2022

Production stage: Post production

Budget: €388,800 (50% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Gap financing, strategic guidance, buyers, sales agent, distributors, festivals

Synopsis:

A Sad and Vulgar Loner explores what happens when an abusive man speaks out, positioning himself as a critic of violence. Without excusing his acts, the film creates a space in which the abuser has a voice, bringing a new perspective on violence and abuse with a focus on the breaking of violent cycles and the urgent need for a healing process in society.

Director’s profile:

Efthymia Zymvragaki works as a director, writer and cinematographer. Drawn to social and gender issues, she is attracted towards intimate, first-person approaches to complex and lesser-known realities, with the desire to explore spaces of intimacy within and between people.

After graduating in Psychology. University of Crete, Greece in 2001, studied photography Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain (2003-2005) and completed a Master in Artistic Production and Research at the University of Barcelona (2011-2012).

Her film career began during her Master’s degree by means of artistic productions and by collaborating with Angelo Orlando for the production company Gris Medio. She is an alumni of the IDFA Academy, the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator and the Acció Producció, Dones Visuals, LIM Development Angels, DOK.incubator International Program 2022.

Producers’s profile:

Patricia Sánchez Mora, graduate in Library Science and Documentation, Audiovisual Communication (University of Extremadura), Master in Audiovisual Anthropology (UB). Alumni of Acció Producció Dones Visuals, 2021, LIM Development Angels, 2021, DOK.incubator International Program 2022. She is head of the L’Alternativa Professionals program (pitching, mentoring, meetings and industry activities) since 2010. In 2007 she created the production company Novena Nube. The films she has produced have been selected for festivals such as DOK Leipzig, Visions du Réel, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Busan, BFI London Film Festival, Cinespaña, Festival de Málaga, Sevilla European Film Festival, D’A Film Festival, Mecal, Seminci and Zinemaldia.

Ukraine in Focus

Lapalissade

Category: Ukrainian Features Preview

Directed by: Philip Sotnychenko

Produced by: Halyna Kryvorchuk (Viatel), Valeria Sotnychenko, Sashko Chubko (Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema)

Country of production: Ukraine

Original title: La Palisiada

Genre: Feature film

Language: Ukrainian, Russian

Runtime: 110

Completed in: 2022

Synopsis:

Two old friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist investigate a murder of a colleague whose widow they both loved when they were young. Immersed in memories of the past, they unconsciously create a future for their children where they reap the fruits of their parents’ lost hopes.

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Deja-vu

Genre: Adventure, Animation, Narrative

Produced by: Martin Schmidt, Raumkapsel Animation

Directed by: Dennis Stein-Schomburg

Original title: Déjà-vu

Lead artist: Dennis Stein-Schomburg

Runtime: 15-30 minutes (Variable due to interactive aspect.)

Language: English

Completed in: 2021

Synopsis:

In the city of “Evia” residents are infected with light. A girl discovers what appears to be the host. She befriends it and houses it. Not to the delight of the other residents who want to drive the host away. A persecution begins…

Director’s statement:

People shape cities. But who are these people and how do they react when an apparent threat invades their living space.
In Deajvu its about exploring a detailed world to linger, combine and make up your own experience.

Origin: Germany

Devices: Oculus Rift series/Quest

Platform: Alexandria

Frontières

Bury Me When I’m Dead

Category: Buyers Showcase

Directed by: Patrick Clement

Produced by: Amanda Freedman & Nicholas Santos (8890 Productions)

Country of production: USA

Genre: Drama, Horror

Language: English

After failing to keep his wife’s dying wish, a series of tragic events leads Henry to believe she’s returned to get revenge.

Frontières

Absolution

Category: Proof of Concept

Directed by: Filip Kovacevic

Produced by: Filip Kovacevic, Djordje Stankovic & Vukota Antunovic (Void Pictures)

Country of production: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro

Genre: Adventure, Dystopian, Science-fiction

Language: English

In a barren wasteland far removed from the mythical city of the gods, there is one human settlement left. They are dying out under the leadership of a zealous priest who started conducting human sacrifice rituals after experiencing a religious vision.

Goes to Cannes

Autumn

Category: Tallinn Black Nights Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Antonio Sequeira

Produced by: Joana Domingues, Steven Flynn (Caracol Studios Kurious Studios)

Country of production: Portugal, United Kingdom

Original title: OUTONO

Language: Portuguese, English

Runtime: 120 min

Completed in: 2023

A small town Portuguese family have to confront their new life and some uncomfortable truths after their son leaves to London for university. As he returns home at the end of each trimester for the school breaks (Winter, Spring, Autumn) he discovers that he is not the only one going through changes.

Cannes Docs

Asog

Original title: Asog

Directed by: Seán DEVLIN 叶 世民

Produced by: Amanda ERNST (Beb Bingo Entertainment, Canada)

Country of production: Canada, Philippines

Runtime: 99'

Production stage: Post-production

Budget: $255.000 USD (85% in place)

1st feature: No

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

Synopsis:

JAYA is a non-binary Filipino comedian who survived Super Typhoon Haiyan but lost their TV career when the storm destroyed the studio where they hosted their local talk show. ASOG follows Jaya on a road trip to a drag pageant and along the way they encounter Filipinos enduring the impacts of climate change, including residents of Sicogon Island whose land was stolen in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

Director’s profile:

Seán Devlin 叶 世民 is a Filipino-Canadian filmmaker and comedian. His debut feature WHEN THE STORM FADES is available on Amazon Prime and AMC+ / Sundance TV. It earned Devlin two international jury prizes for Best Director and the Emerging Canadian Director prize presented by the DGC at VIFF. It won Best Canadian Film (Gimli Film Festival) and two Vancouver Film Critics’ Awards. While screening at the 40th Cairo International Film Festival Devlin participated in Brillante Mendoza’s directing masterclass (the first Filipino to ever win “Best Director” at Cannes). Mendoza deepened Seán’s understanding of the Filipino cinematic practice of “found story”, directly shaping his 2nd feature ASOG. His debut album AIRPORTS. ANIMALS was nominated for the 2022 JUNO award for Comedy Album of the Year’. In 2023 he made his TV stand-up debut on Just For Laughs & CBC’s NEW WAVE OF STAND-UP.

Producer’s profile:

Amanda Ernst is an emerging Canadian film producer with over a decade of experience in artist and project management. As a producer at Beb Bingo Entertainment, Amanda oversees projects from the early development stage, financing, pre-production, on set, and through to distribution. Amanda is the lead producer on her first feature length film, docufiction hybrid ASOG, which will premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. Currently Amanda serves as producer on a slate of projects including features, TV series, and an experimental Indigenous language adaptation project.

Cannes Docs

An Army of Women

Original title: An Army of Women

Directed by: Julie Lunde LILLESÆTER

Produced by: Natalya SARCH (Differ Media, Norway)

Country of production: Norway, Germany, USA

Runtime: 80', 52'

Expected release: March, 2024

Production stage: Post-production

Budget: €720.000 (95% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Sales agent, distributors, executive producer, festivals, broadcast/streaming, strategic guidance for release, impact campaign partners

Synopsis:

Two women in Austin, Texas join forces with 13 other survivors to build a movement legally challenging the system that allowed their rapists to walk free. Their groundbreaking class-action lawsuit is the first to argue that sexual assault isn’t prosecuted due to gender discrimination. This is the landmark story of women fighting to hold law enforcement accountable, with resounding relevance worldwide.

Director’s profile:

As director and cinematographer, Julie combines a strong visual eye with a commitment to social change. Her films have explored themes such as women’s rights & equality issues, migration, and the climate crisis, and her short documentaries have been broadcast on Al Jazeera English, NRK, and The Atlantic, among others. Her work has screened at festivals such as CPH:DOX, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Hot Docs and BFI Flare. Julie’s cinematography on the documentary feature Thank You For The Rain (2017) has landed her multiple awards, including a WIFTV award for Best Cinematography. She is the co-founder of Differ Media, a production company focusing on impact-driven creative documentaries. In 2018, she was named Norwegian Video Journalist of the Year, and in 2020, she was listed on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list.

Producer’s profile:

Natalya Sarch has worked in the U.S., The Netherlands, and Norway on projects such as Trust Me (2021), Neighbors (2017) and No Time to Lose (2017). Her Interactive project Another Dream (2019) by Tamara Shogaolu premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2020, Natalya joined forces with Julia Dahr and Julie Lunde Lillesæter at the independent production company Differ Media, based in Oslo, Norway. We tell character-driven, visually strong stories about some of the most important issues of our time. Our films have focused on issues like climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, migration and human rights. Differ’s productions have been broadcast in 60+ countries, and have been co-produced with broadcasters like Arte/ZDF, Al Jazeera, and NRK. In 2018, our feature Thank You for the Rain won Doc Society’s DocImpactHi5 award for its impact campaign.