News

Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films has revealed its production slate, with projects by Nastia Korkia, Vytautas Katkus, Ernst de Geer and Anna Roller.

Totem Atelier, the development and production arm of the company, has revealed that it has boarded Korkia’s “A Short Summer.”

Korkia’s short documentary “Dreams About Putin” premiered at IDFA last year. Her first documentary feature “Ges-2” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2021.

“A Short Summer” is produced by Germany’s TamTam (“Pacifiction” by Albert Serra) together with independent producer Natalia Drozd (“Compartment N°6” by Juho Kuosmanen) and Serbia’s Art&Popcorn.

The film centers on eight-year-old Katya, who is going on vacation with her grandparents. In the summer heat, the war in Chechnya takes shape, while her grandparents’ relationship falls apart. Despite her youth, Katya wants to look at the world straight in the eyes.

“A Short Summer” has received support from Creative Europe Media,...

28 projects selected from over 150 submissions.

New features from Mexican director Amat Escalante and Mexican-San Salvadoran filmmaker Tatiana Huezo are among the 28 feature projects selected for the fifth edition of European Work in Progress Cologne (Ewip), the industry pitching event held from October 17-19 in the run-up to Film Festival Cologne.

Escalante will pitch Lost In The Night, about a man searching for those responsible for his mother’s disappearance, who encounters an incompetent justice system.

The Mexico-Germany-Netherlands-Denmark co-production is produced by Nicolas Celis and Fernanda de la Peza for Tres Tunas Cine. Escalante has previously directed four features including Venice and Toronto 2016 horror The Untamed.

Trieste event welcomed 350 industry professionals this year.

Women producers were the big winners at the seventh edition of Trieste’s When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum, which was attended by more than 350 industry professional from over 30 countries.

The Wemw jury awarded the Cnc Development Award to Italian producer Erica Barbiani for her pitch of Hungarian director Peter Kerekes’ new documentary Wishing On A Star.

Two free accreditations to Cannes’ Producers Network went to Cecilia Frugiuele for Bosnian filmmaker Una Gunjak’s debut feature Alfa and to Georgia’s Tekla Machavariani for Marine Gulbiani’s documentary Before Father Is Back, about two Muslim girls waiting for their fathers to come home from abroad.

The Turkish producer-director team of Anna Maria Aslanoglu and Nazli Elif Durlu went home with the Flow Postproduction Award for Durlu’s feature debut Zuhal.

Film London’s Helena Mackenzie and Mia Co-Production Market’s Alexia De Vito were in Trieste to present the Trl...

Works In Progress winner is Nataliya Kudryashova for Pioneer Heroes.

The Les Arcs Film Festival’s CoProduction Village wrapped its sixth edition on December 15, including the Works-In-Progress, Projects in Development, Low Budget Film Forum and for the first year, the Music Village Pro.

The Voice by György Pálfi was chosen as the prize winner for the Projects in Development, earning the Hungarian filmmaker €4,000 as part of a first time prize-fund sponsored by Arte.

The film centers around a young boy in search of his father who went missing in Stockholm thirty years ago. Pálfi, a Les Arcs regular, attributes much of his success to the CoProduction Village. “I am very supportive of this festival, it has benefitted me immensely over the years. But never did I think I would win this award.”

For the second year, Digimage Classics offered a €6000 prize in post-production services for the Works-In-Progress section, this year given to first-time feature director Nataliya Kudryashova...

The Les Arcs European Film Festival is in full swing, including the sixth edition of the ever-growing Co-Production Village.

The industry events kicked off with the popular Works-In-Progress session, now in its fourth year, that showcases ten (European) films in post-production, looking for financing, distribution or a sales agent.

The event’s artistic director, Frederic Boyer, confirmed the films must be feature length, with a completion target of spring the following year. “The presentations that include three short clips are exclusive to this festival, and have not been presented at other neighbouring festivals such as Thessaloniki or Torino,” said Boyer.

Receiving 15% more entries than previous years, the event’s ‘first-look’ line-up spanned a wide range of themes and production styles. The full list included Family Film (Czech Republic/Slovenia); Galloping Mind (Belgium); The High Sun (Croatia/Slovenia); It’s Time (Romania); Magic Mountain (Poland/ Romania/ France); My Name is Emily (Ireland); Pioneer Heroes (Russia); Rams (Iceland); Sparrows...

Kevorkian, Shoval, Haq, Fiennes, Sigurðsson, Nikonova and Runarsson heading to Les Arcs European Film Festival with upcoming projects.Scroll down for full list of projects

The UK’s Johnny Kevorkian and Sophie Fiennes, Israeli Tom Shoval, Norwegian Iram Haq and Russia’s Angelina Nikonova will be among the filmmakers presenting their upcoming projects at the Les Arcs Co-Production Village this year.

The event, running Dec 13-16 within the Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 13-20), will present 25 projects in development and a further 10 Works-in-Progress.

“I thinks it’s a good sign that filmmakers whose projects we presented in development are now coming back to show their films in Work-in-Progress, which is the case for Sparrow and Rams,” said Les Arcs industry head Vanja Kaludjercic.

“Conversely, we’ve got directors who presented in Works-in Progress, such as Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, who came with Paris of the North last year, who is back with his new project The Tree...

St Petersburg International Media Forum closes inaugural edition with world premiere of Serena.

Francois Ozon’s latest feature The New Girlfriend was voted as the Best of the Fest by the audience at the inaugural edition of the St Petersburg International Media Forum (Spimf) which closed on Friday evening with the world premiere of Susanne Bier’s Serena, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

However, neither director Bier, nor any of the talent were in St Petersburg for the film, which Volgafilm will be releasing in Russian cinemas on October 30.

Although there was no formal competition for Spimf’s film programme, a jury of local film critics was formed to give awards for what they regarded as the best film and TV series showing in the 2014 line-up.

Australian film-maker Anna Broinowsky’s documentary Aim High In Creation, which screened in the Kor-kor sidebar about North Korean cinema, was named best film, while the Press...

A roundup of news from the inaugural St Petersburg International Media Forum includes a busy French delegation and a local controversy brewing over Leviathan.

The King Of Madagascar, a kind of Russian answer to the pirate adventure films à la Pirates of the Caribbean, is being set up as a $ 16m international co-production by producer-director Oleg Ryaskov’s Moscow-based Bft Movie.

Speaking at the opening of St Petersburg International Media Forum’s (Spimf) co-production market this morning, producer Ryaskov revealed that the project - which is based on real historical events abouta Russian expedition by Peter The Great to the island of Madagascar in danger of being thwarted by Great Britain’s King George - has Spain’s Smartline Spain and the Us casting company Scott Carlson Entertainment on board as partners and is currently in talks with French and German production companies to join.

Ryaskov added that he intends to have American, European and Russian...

A roundup of news from the inaugural St Petersburg International Media Forum includes a busy French delegation and a local controversy brewing over Leviathan.

The King Of Madagascar, a kind of Russian answer to the pirate adventure films à la Pirates of the Caribbean, is being set up as a $ 16m international co-production by producer-director Oleg Ryaskov’s Moscow-based Bft Movie.

Speaking at the opening of St Petersburg International Media Forum’s (Spimf) co-production market this morning, producer Ryaskov revealed that the project - which is based on real historical events abouta Russian expedition by Peter The Great to the island of Madagascar in danger of being thwarted by Great Britain’s King George - has Spain’s Smartline Spain and the Us casting company Scott Carlson Entertainment on board as partners and is currently in talks with French and German production companies to join.

Ryaskov added that he intends to have American, European and Russian...

Pussy Riot has certainly made Russian women a pinnacle of female empowerment in their country, and producer Natalia Drozd manages to uphold that standard in her latest movie "I Won't Come Back." Set in Drozd's hometown of St. Petersburg, the drama follows two young women who form a bond while journeying through the frightening environment of their own homeland in order to find a better life for themselves. Tell us about yourself. I was born and grew up in St. Petersburg. After school, I studied law at St. Petersburg State University. When I graduated, I got a job as a production lawyer for Ctb, a major Russian film company. I worked there for almost ten years. By the end of that period in my career, I came to realize that I wanted to completely change my life and become a film producer. What was your biggest challenge in completing this project?...