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Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master, director Ivan Salatić’s sophomore feature, will be world premiering in the Tiger Competition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), which runs Jan. 30-Feb. 9. THR can here present an exclusive trailer for the cinematic reflection on identity, displacement, and home.

Written and directed by Salatić, the movie stars Marko Pogačar, Croatia’s most translated contemporary poet in his debut film role, Luka Petrone, Jakov Zovko, and Vanja Matic.

The film is set in 19th-century Montenegro “where tribes led by a poet and a bishop named Morlak (Pogačar) are locked in an age-old struggle against a common enemy,” according to a synopsis. “When Morlak falls gravely ill, he sets out in search of a cure, leaving behind his war-torn homeland. Along with his daughter and two loyal servants, Morlak settles in a remote house in southern Italy, hoping for healing and peace.”

Torn between duty and homesickness,...

Les Arcs Film Festival’s industry sidebar has unveiled prizes for several projects at different stages, including Annarita Zambrano’s black comedy “Rossosperanza.”

“Rossosperanza” is being produced by Italy’s Mad Entertainment, Rai Cinema, Minnerva Pictures, and France’s Ts Productions. The movie is set in the 1980’s and unfolds at a luxurious villa turned into a rehabilitation center for troubled children from rich families.

The film was one of the 14 projects in post-production presented to film executives from top international banners and festivals as part of the work-in-progress section. The sidebar, now in its 12th edition, is curated by Frederic Boyer, the director artistic of both Tribeca and Les Arcs film festivals, alongside producer and fest co-founder Jeremy Zelnik, among others.

“Rossosperanza” won the TitraFilm Award, chosen by a jury comprising of Ava Cahen, the artistic director of Cannes Critics’ Week), Louisa Dent, managing director of Curzon Artificial Eye,...

‘Rossosperanza’, ‘Veni Vidi Vici’ also win prizes.

Vytautas Katkus’ Lithuanian feature The Visitor has won its latest development prize, taking the Coproduction Village award at Les Arcs Industry Village.

It was selected for the €6,000 prize by Remi Burah, president of ArteKino Foundation and CEO of Arte France Cinema. Burah noted “a director walking the line between fiction and documentary, social realism and fantastic poetry.”

Scroll down for the full list of winners

The Visitor previously won the Cannes Critics’ Week Next Step prize in May. The film follows a young man as he tries to make a new life for...

Lithuanian filmmaker Vytautas Katkus’s debut feature project The Visitor won the top €6,000 Artekino International Award at the Les Arcs Coproduction Village on Tuesday.

The award, decided by Rémi Burah, President of ArteKino Foundation and CEO of Arte France Cinéma, is granted to support the development of the project.

The project, which previously won Cannes Critics’ Week Next Step prize in May, revolves around a young man attempting to make a new life for himself in a foreign land where he does not speak the language or know anyone.

“For this 2022 edition, the ArteKino International Award supports a first feature by a director walking the line between fiction and documentary, social realism and fantastic poetry, with a subtle balance that he has demonstrated in his already very mastered short films,” said Burah.

The Visitor was among 18 feature projects participating in the Les Arcs Coproduction Village.

It is one element of...

Heading to the Sarajevo Film Festival to celebrate the world premiere of “The Elegy of Laurel,” Dušan Kasalica is already lining up his next projects. As a director, but also as a producer, developing the upcoming film by Ivan Salatić, “Melting of the Ruler,” set to shoot in 2022. The two have established production company Meander Film, also behind Kasalica’s feature debut.

“Our relationship is full of understanding; we are open to criticism and to new ideas,” the Montenegrin filmmaker tells Variety, describing the company as “a kind of a collective.” “We like to work in small teams as that gives us freedom to be creative and to experiment. We want to keep our stories small and simple.”

In “The Elegy of Laurel,” he focuses on Filip (Frano Lasić), a university professor in his sixties who heads to a spa on the coast with his wife (Savina Geršak). It’s hard to relax,...

Pia Borg’s ‘Michelle Remembers’ and Lucrecia Martel’s ‘Chocobar’ among those to win awards.

Pia Borg’s “documentary horror” Michelle Remembers was among a raft of winners at TorinoFilmLab’s annual Meeting Event, which shifted entirely online this year due to the pandemic.

The co-production forum, which usually takes place in the Italian city of Turin, virtually awarded its prizes this evening, marking the end of the five-day event that ran November 16-20.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The first of two €50,000 Tfl production awards, funded by Creative Europe, went to Michelle Remembers, a documentary exploring the...

While the coronavirus pandemic prompted the Sarajevo Film Festival to shift to an online edition just days before opening night, the organizers of CineLink Industry Days—Sarajevo’s buzzy industry confab—were prepared to go virtual from the moment that the virus began sweeping across Europe in March.

That means plans have long been in place for an online edition of the CineLink Co-Production Market, which has become one of the leading platforms for projects from Southeast Europe and the wider region, including countries from the Middle East, North Africa, and the former Soviet Union. Sixteen projects were selected for this year’s edition, with pitching sessions taking place from Aug. 15-18 on CineLink’s online platform.

CineLink industry coordinator Armin Hadzic says roughly 70% of the projects pitched in the market get produced within three years of appearing in Sarajevo, with most of those going on to get international distribution deals and festival premieres.

Teenagers struggling with sexual identity, women fighting to reconcile their multi-faceted roles in society, and men grappling with the destructive constraints of masculinity are among the themes to be explored in the 2020 edition of the TorinoFilmLab’s FeatureLab, an intensive annual workshop focused on first and second feature film projects at advanced stages of development.

The 10 projects selected to participate include seven debut features, spanning the globe from the sweltering jungles of the Amazon to the sun-soaked islands of Greece, from the mountains of Montenegro to the shores of Australia.

“We are proud to present a very diverse selection,” said TorinoFilmLab curator Vincenzo Bugno. “Ten projects with an original artistic identity coming from very different parts of the world, all of them representing somehow the complexity of this planet (and) the state of things in a challenging political-cultural situation.”

Bugno heralded a selection that features a new generation of filmmakers...

All have projects at the Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink industry strand.

With the CineLink industry programme in full swing at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Screen profiles five producers from the region with an international outlook.

Jelena Angelovski (Serbia/Montenegro)

Serbian-born actress and producer Angelovski began to make her mark internationally when she produced Tamara Drakulić’s feature debut Wind through her Belgrade-based Monkey Production in 2016. It played at various international festivals including Torino and Goteborg.

Angelovski followed it up with two freelance projects: Ivan Salatić’s 2018 Venice Critics Week entry You Have the Night. made through Podgorica-based Meander Film,...

History, memory, and female-driven stories mark some of the main themes in the six Serbian films selected for Locarno’s First Look, a pix-in-post strand that represents one of the high points of the mid-summer festival on the shores of Lake Maggiore.

The competitive showcase this year highlights an industry that has become increasingly prolific in the past decade. Thanks in large part to an uptick in government funding, which has opened the door for more international collaborations, it’s also grown in scope and ambition. “The industry itself, in terms of production power, it’s growing,” said First Look project manager Markus Duffner. More importantly, he added, young Serbian producers are “rapidly growing in terms of international industry experience.”

As part of its partnership with Locarno, Film Center Serbia selected six projects – including five documentary features – with all but one in post-production. Four of the six films are helmed by female directors.