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Exclusive: Evgeny Ruman’s upcoming feature follows two Soviet Union dubbing artists in 1990s Israel.

Vladimir Friedman and Maria Belkin have signed to co-star in Evgeny Ruman’s [pictured] upcoming feature Golden Voices as a pair of veteran Soviet Union dubbing artists struggling to make a new life in Israel in the 1990s.

Ruman will publicly unveil the project for the first time alongside producer Eitan Evan of Tel Aviv-based Evanstone Film Productions at the Jerusalem Pitch Point industry event today.

The director, who moved to Israel from Belarus in the 1990s as part of an immigration wave that saw more than one million Soviet citizens move to the country, says the feature is inspired by his own experiences as well as those of his parents.

“Things have changed since then but when we arrived it was like coming from a different planet. Everything was so strange and bizarre for us and I want to capture this feeling...

Industry Days 2016 includes the fifth edition of Us in Progress and the third edition of Paris Coproduction Village. Industry Days aims at becoming a reference in professional meetings for French and European producers, with a strong positioning towards the enhancement of emerging cinematography.

Paris Co-Production Village Unveils Its Project Selections

Organized by Les Arcs European Film Festival within the frame of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival Industry Days, Paris Co-production Village is a development and financing platform for feature projects selected worldwide.

For its third edition, which will take place June 8-10, 2016 in Paris, the 12 following projects have been selected:

-"Afronauts" by Frances Bodomo (2015 - short film « Afronauts » Sundance Ff, Berlinale, AFI Fest, Chicago Iff ; 2014 - short film "Boneshaker" Sundance Ff, SXSW Ff, Chicago Iff, Edinburgh Iff) produced by Nomadic Independence (USA).

-"Blood-Drenched Beard" by Aly Muritiba (2015 - "To My Beloved" San Sebastian Ff Horizontes Latinos, Official Competition Montreal World Film Festival; 2015 - "Tarantula" Venice Ff Orizonti) produced by Rt Features (Brazil).

-"The Bus to Amerika" by Derya Durmaz (2015 - short film "Mother Virgin No More" Berlinale Generations 14plus Short Film Competition) produced by Mars Production (Turkey).

-"Dark Lies the Island" by Ian Fitzgibbon (2011 - "Death of a Superhero" Toronto Iff, Jury and Audience Awards Les Arcs European Film Festival ; 2010 - "Perrier's Bountru" Toronto Iff, Seattle Iff) produced by Grand Pictures (Ireland).

-"God Exists, her Name is Petrunija" by Teona Strugar Mitevska (2012 - "The Woman Who Brushed Her Tears" Berlinale Panaroma Special; 2008 - "I am from Tito Veles" Berlinale Panorama Section, Special Jury Award Sarajevo Ff, Toronto Iff, Cannes Ff Acid selection) produced by Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production (Macedonia).

-"Golden Voices" by Evgeny Ruman (2015 - "The Man in the Wall" Rotterdam Iff, Best acting Award Odessa Iff; 2012 - "Igor & the Cranes' Journey" Toronto Iff, Special Mention Haifa Iff) produced by United Channel Movies (Israel).

-"Prince" by Sebastian Muñoz produced by Niña Niño Films (Chile) and Le Tiro Films (Argentina).

-"Remarkable Things During a Killing" by Joko Anwar (2015 - "A Copy of my Mind" Venice Iff, Toronto Iff, Busan Iff, Rotterdam Iff; 2012 - "Ritual" SXSW, Gerardmer Fantasy Ff) produced by Lo-Fi Flicks (Indonesia).

-"When the Waves are Gone" by Lav Diaz (2016 - "A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery"Alfred Bauer Award Berlinale Official Competition; 2014 - "From What is Before" Golden Leopard Locarno Iff, Audience Award Sao paulo Iff) produced by Epicmedia (The Philippines).

Projets selected within the frame of the Focus Colombia :

"Almost Never Too Late" by Alfonso Acosta (2012 - "The Crack" Busan Iff, Sao Paulo Iff, Gerardmer Fantasy Ff, Neuchatel International Fantastic Ff) produced by Cabecitanegra Producciones.

-"The Stone" by Rafael Martinez Moreno (2015 - short film "Round Numbers" Zinebi Bilbao Official Selection; 2012 - short film "120 Minutes of Freedom", Bogota International Film Festival) produced by Miramar Entertainment.

-"The Tailor" by Cesar Heredia (2015 - short film "Elefante" Official Competition Cartagena Iff) produced by Corte Film, Tree House Film (Panama) and Diafragma (Colombia).

This selection aims at showing the diversity of world cinema, in terms of geography as well as a balance between newcomers and experienced directors. It includes:

- 1 American project, 1 Israeli project, 3 European projects, 2 Asian projects and 5 projects from Latin America including 3 projects part of the Colombian Focus

- 5 first feature films projects (marked with *)

Colombia is the guest country of this third edition

In partnership with Proimágenes Colombia, Paris Coproduction Village will present this year a « Colombian Focus », inviting 3 Colombian projects in development. A conference, organized with the support of the Cnc, will take place during the event and will discuss the improvement of the French-Colombian coproduction framework.

In addition, the 6 residents of Cannes Film Festival Cinéfondation will join the selection:

-"Feathers of a Father" by Omar El Zohairy (Egypt)

-"Fronteira" by Nuno Baltazar (Portugal)

-"Letters from the Land of the Tarahumara" by Federico Cecchetti (Mexico/France)

-"Tinnitus" by Gregorio Grazios (Brazil)

-"The Users" by Ivan Ikic (Serbia)

-"Disappearance" by Ali Asgari (Iran)

All these projects will benefit from one-to-one pre-scheduled meetings with producers, sales agents, distributors, from networking events, as well as seminars taught by leading film industry professionals.

Paris Coproduction Village is supported by the Cnc, Procirep and Cofiloisirs. It is organized in collaboration with our partners Cannes Cinéfondation, Ace, Cinando, Haf (Hong-Kong Asian Film Financing Forum), Variety, LatAm, Producers Network, Screen, Eave, Europa International, Cineuropa and Ecran Total.

The team behind Paris Coproduction Village is the team of Les Arcs European Film Festival, that is to say:

Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin, CEO

Jérémy Zelnik, Head of Industry

Alice Guilbaud, Coproduction Village Manager

Guillaume Calop, General Manager

Claire-Marine Piétriga, General Coordinator

Clémentine Larroudé, Head of Partnerships

Fabienne Silvestre-Bertoncini, Public and Institutional Relations

Us in Progress Unveils Its Project Selection

Us in Progress will take place in the scope of the 5th edition of Champs-Elysées Film Festival in Paris on June 8-10. The Program is a joint initiative between the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, the Champs-Elysées Film Festival in Paris and Black Rabbit Film in New York. It is the first and only industry event devoted to Us indies in Europe. The aim of the program is to present Us indie films in post-production to European buyers in order to foster the circulation and distribution of American indie films in Europe.

For the 5th edition of Us in Progress within the scope of the Industry Days, 4 feature-length narrative films have been selected to compete for the Us in Progress Prize :

-"California Dreams" Directed by Mike Ott / Produced by Alex Gioulakis

-"Easy Living" Directed by Adam Keleman / Produced by Laura Wagner

-"Everything Beautiful is Far Away" Directed by Pete Ohs and Andrea Sisson / Produced by Andrea Sisson and Saul Germaine

-"Otto : My Life is a Soundtrack" Directed by Margarita Jimeno / Andrew Corkin and Sol Bondy

This year, we are also introducing documentaries at the Us in Progress Paris with the selection of 2 films:

-"Academy" Directed by Brent Chesanek / Produced by Andrew Renzi and Andrew Corkin

-"Whirlybird" Directed by Matt Yoka / Produced by Steve Holmgren, Erin Lee Carr, Greg Lanesey and Matt Radecki

For two days, the project holders will present their rough cuts to 40 top European sales agents, distributors, festivals programmers and producers. On the third day, they will get advices and feedbacks from the screenings through one-to-one meetings with the buyers.

The awarded film will get post-production, acquisition and promotion services offered by our partners : TitraFilm, Europa Distribution, Producers Network, Ciné +, Eaux Vives Productions, Indiewire-SydneysBuzz, Centre Phi, Kickstarter and a newcomer the Studios d’Arenberg (Arenberg Creative Mine).

Us in Progress involves two yearly get-togethers and the next edition will take place in Wroclaw in October 2016 in the scope of the American Film Festival. Us in Progress Wroclaw’s submissions starts from April 6th to August 31st.

New projects from Evgeny Ruman [pictured], Lav Diav, Ian Fitzgibbon and Frances Bodomo to attend.Scroll down for full list of projects

Evgeny Ruman, Lav Diav, Ian Fitzgibbon and Joko Anwar will be among the directors presenting new projects at the third edition of the Paris Co-production Village in June.

A joint venture between Les Arcs European Film Festival and Champs Elysées Film Festival, the event will unfold June 8-10 in Paris as part of the latter event’s Industry Days. Its aim is to connect international film-makers and producers with French production and sales partners.

The line-up for Us in Progress has also been unveiled featuring seven projects including Easy Living by Adam Keleman who was assistant director on Brooklyn.

The central Co-production Village selection features 12 projects, hailing from Europe, Asia and Latin America, the Us and Israel.

Israeli film-maker Evgeny Ruman will present Golden Voices, his third film after The Man In The Wall which played...

Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang and Eva Neymann’s Song Of Songs among winners; industry awards.

Women filmmakers were the big winners at this year’s Odessa International Film Festival (Oiff) which closed at the weekend with a gala screening of Naomi Kawase’s film Sweet Red Bean Paste (An), which premiered in Cannes in May.

The festival-goers voted to give the “Golden Duke” Grand Prix to Deniz Gamze Ergüven for her feature debut Mustang.

The Turkish director was also named Best Director by the International Competition jury headed by French writer-director-actress Jeanne Labrune.

The Turkish-French-German co-production had its world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in May and is handled internationally by Kinology.

Ukrainian-born Eva Neymann’s third feature Song Of Songs – which had premiered in Karlovy Vary - was named Best Film by the juries for the International and National Competitions.

Israeli actress Tamar Alkan received the Best Acting Award for her performance as a woman...

Exclusive: The Paz brothers are eyeing their first European production, titled Plan A.

Yoav and Doron Paz, the directing duo whose apocalyptic horror film JeruZalem had a work-in-progress screening at Jerusalem Film Festival (July 9-19) on Friday, are planning their first European production.

The film, which has a completed script and is titled Plan A, will be a historical thriller based on the Nakam, the Jewish revenge squad that targeted Nazi war criminals at the end of the Second World War; it promises to tell the real story behind Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.

“It’s an amazing true story that not a lot of people in Israel know about,” said Yoav Paz. “It’s about Jews after the Second World War who, after going through the Holocaust, through hell, decide they can’t go on with their lives as if nothing happened and decide to take justice into their own hands.”

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Titles in the Feature and Documentary Film competitions unveiled.Scroll down for full list

The programme of Israeli films at the 35th Jerusalem Film Festival (July 9-19) has been revealed, including Feature and Documentary Film competitions.

The winner of the Haggiag Competition for Isreali Feature Films will take home the biggest prize in any Israeli film competition: $32,000 (120,000 Nis).

Prizes are also awarded for best first feature, actor, actress, cinematography, editing, screenplay, music and the audience choice award, as well as the Van Leer Competition for Israeli Documentary Films.

Other competitions include the International Spirit of Freedom competition and the Jewish Experience competition.

The festival will feature more than 200 Israeli and international films.

Full line-up

Synopses provided by Jerusalem Film Festival

Haggiag Competition for Israeli Feature Films

Tikkun (dir. Avishai Sivan; pro. Ronen Ben-Tal, Avishai Sivan, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery)

Cast: Aharon Traitel, Khalifa Natour, Riki Blich, Gur Sheinberg

Haim-Aharon, a Hassidic yeshiva student, collapses and loses...

Producer-director Andrey Silvestrov’s The Ice Hole was named the winner of the first Screen International Best Pitch Award at the Moscow Business Square (Mbs).

The €400,000 comedy by Silvestrov’s new company Cooperation Propub is based on characters who are typical to the modern world: an artist, an oligarch, the Russian president and an alcoholic.

The ironic and tragic view of modern Russia also received an award sponsored by the Russian company Cosmosfilm.

In addition, the Finnish post-production house Post Control offered production services as a prize to Elizaveta Stishova’s Suleiman Mountain by Trikita Entertainment, which is being developed as part of the B’Est training programme.

The Mgap entertainment legal practice donated a prize of legal advice to the documentary project Baubxy about the Bauhaus and Vkhutemas movements by Sergei Shanovich.

Valeriy Polienko’s 1990s-set drama Kosa was selected by the Russian crowdfunding platform Planeta.ru to receive professional advice on its production.

The award-winning...

Thierry Frémaux to provide live commentary on restored films by Louis Lumière.

Cannes Film Festival general delegate Thierry Frémaux is to present a screening of Lumière! - and will provide live commentary himself - at the 6th Odessa International Film Festival (July 10-18).

The selection of 98 restored films, directed by movie pioneer Louis Lumière and his cameramen, will be screened internationally for the first time following its Cannes premiere.

It forms part of the line-up of the festival, which also announced the 12 films in the international competition and six features (and 18 shorts) in the national competition.

Two Ukrainian films will participate in both competitions.

Oiff president Viktoriya Tigipko said there had been a trend this year for submissions by female directors.

“During this year’s selection we have noticed an interesting trend: 30% of the entries submitted to the International Competition were from female directors,” said Tigipko.

“As a result, four out of the 12 films selected are directed...

Iffr reveals Big Screen Awards nominees and the complete line-up for its Bright Future and Spectrum strands, including world premieres from the Us, China and the Netherlands.

Second Coming, starring Idris Elba and Nadine Marshall, has been named as one of 10 films up for the Big Screen Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) (Jan 21 - Feb 1).

The UK film, written and directed by Debbie Tucker Green, will be vying for a prize of €10,000 ($12,000) awarded specifically to support theatrical distribution of the film in The Netherlands

The 10 nominees are from Iffr’s Bright Future and Spectrum programmes with the winner chosen by a specially selected audience jury. Other titles include Lisandro Alonso’s Cannes Fipresci winner Jauja and Carlos Vermut’s San Sebastian winner Magical Girl.

The nominees are:

I Swear I’ll Leave This Town, Danial AragãoJauja, Lisandro AlonsoKey House Mirror, Michael NoerThe Lesson, Kristina Grozeva, Petar ValchanovMagical Girl, Carlos VermutA...