News

Exclusive: Female and non-binary filmmaker-focused international training initiative Circle has kicked off its inaugural Circle Fiction Orbit initiative at a meeting in Montenegro and unveiled the participants.

The new program extends Circle’s activities beyond its founding Woman Doc Accelerator program, which has supported some 50 non-fiction projects since its launch five years ago.

Employing the same methodology as the Doc Accelerator, the inaugural fiction initiative is supporting five fiction projects in development.

They include Greenlandic birthday party-set drama Kaffemi, from director Pipaluk Jørgensen, whose short film Ivalu was Oscar nominated this year, and screenwriter-actress Nukâka Coster Waldau.

Italian director Irene Dionisio participates with Idda about two childhood friends who reconnect as they scale the perilous slopes of Mount Etna. Dionisio previously made waves with Pawn Streets which played in Venice Critics’ Week.

Finnish director Laura Hyppönen and producer Merja Ritola (Greenlit Productions) are attending with Lex Julia, exploring the dynamics...

Maija Isola, who died in 2001, was a Finnish designer of printed textiles. She created more than 500 patterns, including home furnishings and fashion company Marimekko’s most iconic print, “Unikko” (“Poppy”), in 1964 – ironically enough, right after the company’s founder Armi Ratia declared a ban on flower patterns. But a new Finnish-German production tries to look beyond the things that made her famous, showing Isola as a person and not just an artist, says director Leena Kilpeläinen.

Produced by Merja Ritola of Greenlit Productions, with sales handled by New Docs, the film will premiere at the Helsinki Film Festival – Love & Anarchy in September, alongside the company’s other co-production “The Other Side of the River.” It will be also shown as a part of the Finnish Film Affair lineup, with Greenlit Productions bringing two new projects to the event, including psychological thriller “Lex Julia,” currently in development, and documentary “Power of the People” by Mervi Enqvist,...

Initiative highlights 25 established feature film and TV producers from Europe, Canada, the USA and India.

Film and TV drama co-production training and networking programme Trans-Atlantic Partners (Tap) has revealed its 2018 line-up of 25 producers from across Europe, Canada, the USA and India.

Tap, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, provides case studies of trans-Atlantic projects, market intelligence, legal advice and information on sales and distribution. The programme is directed at producers at career mid-level who have produced at least one feature film or TV series.

It includes two training modules in Berlin (June 16 – 21) and Halifax, Canada (September 10– 16), where Tap producers...

Exclusive: Ireland-Finland-Germany drama set to shoot later this year.

Berlin-based sales outfit Pluto Film has boarded international sales rights to Ireland-Finland-Germany co-production Black Sun from Finnish writer-director Maria Ruotsala (Apeiron).

The English-language drama, currently in pre-production, is aiming to shoot in Ireland, Latvia and Finland during late 2017 and early 2018.

Set shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in a former satellite state, the film follows a small band of idealists who seek to establish an artists’ retreat.

Producers are Finnish company Greenlit Productions (War/Peace), Irish film and TV outfit Abú Media Film Productions (TV series An Klondike) and German partners Cornelsen Films (Berlin Dance Battle 3D), marking the first co-production between the three countries.

Attached cast includes Chloé Farnworth (Soy Nero), Nicolas Fagerberg (Imperial Blue) and Johan Hwatz.

Around 65% of the €1.3m budget is in place with funders including the Finnish Film Fund and Finnish national broadcaster Yle. The production...