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Thom Lunshof’s “First Zone,” Jaume Claret Muxart’s “Strange River” and Janicke Askevold’s “Solomamma” picked up a trio of post-production prizes out of this year’s Les Arcs Film Festival Industry Village, which ran from December 14 – 17.

Capping its 16th edition, the industry event brought together 700 professionals – among them leading sales agents, festival programers, producers and distributors – for three days of collective pitches and one-and-one meetings, all with a healthy amount of skiing (and fondue) thrown in.

Held at a mountaintop resort high in the French alps, the industry event has leaned it to its getaway status, forgoing formal public pitches in order to prioritize one-on-one connections via unique networking activities. “We’ve calculated that the time spent on ski lift is perfect for a pitch,” says industry head Jeremy Zelnick.

While French sales and distribution outfits often flock to the Industry Village, the Les Arcs remains focused on...

Dutch filmmaker Floor Van der Meulen’s drama Happy Days, about a woman who suffers a burnout after she commits to looking after grandchildren several days a week, has scooped one of the top prizes at the Les Arcs Coproduction Village.

It is one 18 feature film projects selected for the 16th edition of the project market unfolding within the framework of the Les Arcs Film Festival in the French Alps, from December 14 to 17.

Happy Days won the €20,000 Eurimages Coproduction Development Award, decided by a jury consisting of Emilia Fort, producer at Avalon (Spain); Eleni Chandrinou, Consultant and Greek representative for Eurimages, and Victor Pothevin, co-head of Acquisitions at Diaphana.

Produced by Keplerfilm, Happy Days is inspired by the phenomenon of grandparents increasingly giving up their retirement to help their offspring with childcare.

Van der Meulen says the premise was sparked by a conversation with a friend who complained that her...

Les Arcs Industry Village, the professional platform of Les Arcs Film Festival, handed out 14 awards at its 16th edition on Monday, December 16).

Winners included Floor Van der Meulen’s Happy Days, recipient of the €20,000 Eurimages co-production development award in the coproduction village.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Produced by the Netherlands’ Keplerfilm, Happy Days follows a grandmother who risks burnout in trying to care for her grandchildren.

The film has €101,000 of a projected €2.6m budget in place, and is aiming for a late 2025 shoot ahead of a summer 2026 delivery.

The jury praised “a character rarely seen onscreen but omnipresent in our societies.

One of the more important recently new development labs on the film circuit have just unveiled their 2024 line-up. Les Arcs Film Festival’s Co-Production Village have eighteen European projects and in contention we find the likes of Sofia Alaoui, Claire Fowler and Anastasiia Solonevych. Alaoui is currently developing her sophomore feature film in Tarfaya – it finds her re-teaming with Margaux Lorier for a third time out after netting world premieres at Sundance. And speaking of Sundance, Claire Flower will be presenting her Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab workshopped Toad in France as well. Ukrainainen filmmaker Anastasiia Solonevych who worked with Under the Volcano filmmaker Damian Kocur on the Palme d’Or comp short “As it Was” is mounting what will be her feature debut film.…...

Features by Behrooz Karamizade and Sofia Alaoui are among the 18 European projects in development or financing selected for the Coproduction Village of theLes Arcs Film Festival in France next month.

Germany-based Karamizade’s Burning Skin haspreviously come through the Full Circle Lab Nouvelle-Aquitaine Hessen workshop earlier this year. Burning Skin will be produced by Germany’s Weydemann Bros. and Living Pictures Production. It will be Karamizade’s second feature, after 2023 Karlovy Vary selection Empty Nets.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

Also being showcased is French filmmaker Alaoui’s Tarfaya, produced by France’s Wrong Films, Morocco’s...

The Les Arcs Film Festival has announced the 18 in development film projects selected for its 16th Les Arcs Coproduction Village, aimed at connecting the upcoming features with coproducers, sales agents, distributors and other financing partners.

The copro meeting will take place within the context of Alpine festival’s industry program running December 14 to 17.

Sixteen of the 18 projects are directed by female filmmakers, with 38% of the features submitted directed by women. Ten are first fiction feature projects, seven are second features and one is by a more established filmmaker.

They include Ukrainian director Anastasiia Solonevych’s debut feature 30 Days Of Summer, about two sisters who reconnect against the backdrop of a military training camp. Solonevych won the Cannes Palme d’Or for Best Short Film in 2023 for As It Was.

German director Sophie Linnenbaum, whose 2022 fantasy drama The Ordinaries enjoyed a buzzy awards and festival run, will participate with second fiction feature The Nose.

Paris- and Berlin-based sales house Salaud Morisset has picked up international sales for “Under the Volcano,” which is set to world premiere in the Centrepiece section at Toronto Film Festival next month.

“Under the Volcano,” Polish director Damian Kocur’s second feature, tells the story of a Ukrainian family spending the last day of their holiday on the island of Tenerife, Spain. Once at the airport, their flight is canceled: Russia has invaded Ukraine. Trapped on the island, the tourists become refugees.

“The world has never been as close to a ‘volcanic eruption’ as we are now, although we all fall asleep with the certainty that the eruption will not happen in our lifetime,” Kocur said. “Unresolved social conflicts or climate change are left to be dealt with by the next generation. My film is about how apparent our security is, and how quickly, overnight, we can go from being tourists to refugees,...

UK director Molly Manning Walker is among the six filmmakers who have been selected for Cannes Film Festival’s annual La Résidence programme for first- or second-time directors, running March 15-July 31.

Walker won the Un Certain Regard award last year for her debut feature How To Have Sex, which also picked up the European film award for discovery and four Bafta nominations.

She is joined by Oscar-nominated director Daria Kashcheeva from the Czech Republic. Her 2020 film Daughter was nominated in the best animated short film category while her next project Electra won best short film at Toronto last year.

The...

The huge winner of the last Un Certain Regard section in Molly Manning Walker (watch the award’s ceremony below for the craziest ever acceptance below) is among the half dozen participants for what is essentially an incubator of sorts (and professional network helper par excellence) where six burgeoning filmmakers become residents in Paris’s 9th arrondissement. Created in 2000, La Résidence has invited Walker with Ernst De Geer, Daria Kashcheeva, Danech San, Anastasiia Solonevych and Aditya Ahmad. Some of the names have a past history with Cannes, but for the most part are unknowns but might one day crack a future Cannes line-up and their projects could be packaged in just a couple of years and move into production as early as 2026.…...

UK director, writer and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker, who won the Cannes Un Certain Regard prize last year for How To Have Sex, has been selected for the festival’s four-and-a-half month La Résidence program in Paris.

She will be joined by Aditya Ahmad (Indonesia), Daria Kashcheeva (Tajikistan), Danech San (Cambodia), Ernst De Geer (Sweden) and Anastasiia Solonevych (Ukraine).

They follow in the wake of Meltse Van Coillie (Belgium), Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Vietnam/Czech Republic), Hao Zhao (China), Gessica Généus (Haiti), Andrea Slaviček (Croatia), Asmae El Moudir (Morocco) who are currently coming to the end of their residency.

Both intakes will be brought together at the Cannes Film Festival’s 77th edition, running May 14 to 25.

Since its launch in 2000, La Résidence has welcomed 250 directors from around 60 countries including Lucrecia Martel, Kornél Mundruczó, Sebastián Lelio, Antonio Campos, Karim Aïnouz and Jonas Carpignano.

Based in a large flat in Paris’ ninth arrondissement,...

European development programme Less Is More (Lim) has selected 16 feature film projects for its 2024 edition, including titles from the UK, Ireland, Greece and three from Ukraine.

The titles include Isla Badenoch’s UK feature Whisperer, a BFI-backed production about a neurodiverse teenager whose relationship to horses helps her navigate the joy and pain of growing up.

Scroll down for the full list of Lim 2024 projects

Also selected is Gift From God, the debut feature of Scottish filmmaker Catriona MacInnes, whose 2008 short I’m In Away From Here played at Venice.

Further projects include Like There Is No Tomorrow from Norwegian...