Playtopia

Runtime: 80'

Expected release: February, 2026

Production stage: Pre-production

Budget: €496 000 (45% in place)

1st feature: No

Looking for: Co-producers, Gap Financing, Buyers, Sales Agents

Synopsis:

A playful exploration of power, money, hierarchy, and inequality through the eyes of children from all walks of life. Playtopia tells the story of a filmmaker and mother delving into the minds of 8 children, seeking to understand their perceptions of our world and its future. The film combines the real and the imagined in a documentary film with whimsical and magical elements.

Director’s profile:

Bara Jichova Tyson is a Czech-American artist and filmmaker. Her first feature documentary film Talking About Adultery premiered at the 2019 Sheffield Doc/Fest and its North American premiere was at DOC NYC. As a co-editor and writer, Bara co-created the feature documentary “Organ Player” directed by Narcissister (2018 Sundance Film Festival). She edited the feature documentary “Instructions on Parting”, directed by Amy Jenkins ( 2018 MoMA /Doc Fortnight). Jichova Tyson was also the art director of “Now, Forager,” a feature film by Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin, selected for the 2012 New Directors/New Films. Jichova Tyson studied fine art and film at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. In 20027 she obtained a BFA from MASSART in Boston, MA. In 2016, she was a recipient of The MacDowell Fellowship.

Producer’s profile:

Alice Taberywas was born in France in 1985. She graduated from FAMU in Prague, studied at the Film School CCC in Mexico City, La Fémis in France and Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Her first feature film she produced at FAMU, the documentary New Life by Adam Olha (Hot Docs 2013, Audience Award at Jihlava IDFF). She co-produced two feature films – Eva Nová by Marko Škop (FIPRESCI Award at Toronto IFF 2015) and Little Crusader by Václav Kadrnka (Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary IFF 2017, Eurimages Development Award). Last few years she has been focusing on documentaries: Traces of a Landscape (Visions du Réel 2020, Student Jury Award at Jihlava IDFF), Reconstruction of Occupation (Karlovy Vary IFF 2021), Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits (Tallinn Black Nights 2022, Vancouver IFF), Atirkül in the Land of Real Men (IDFA 2023). She is an EAVE and Producers on the Move graduate.