Berlinale's Co-Production Market reveals line-up

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, the Co-Production Market’s director Sonja Heinen said the number of projects submitted for the official selection had increased from 333 last year to 354, while the number of entries for the Talent Project Market, held in cooperation with the Berlinale Talent Campus, had risen from 175 to a record 267 submissions.

There are 23 features, with budgets ranging from $1.4m (€1m) to $10m (€7m), in this year’s official selection with an additional three projects through a Rotterdam-Berlinale Express initiative. A further eleven films have been selected for the Talent Project Market.

“Initially, we hadn’t expected to see more entries given the financial crisis and the fact that one of our requirements is that the projects need to have quite advanced financing, with at least 30% in place,” Heinen said.

“The longer we organise this market, the better we know which projects we can help when they are here,” she added. “We pay attention to matchability. One of our advantages is that the market takes place during the Berlinale and so you also have people attending who wouldn’t normally go to a co-production market.”

One of the projects selected for this year – The Have-Nots – is a Co-Production Market “baby”, said Heinen. It was first presented at the market’s Breakfast & Books event in 2006. It attracted the attention of K5 Films, who acquired the rights and have been working on the development. It is not in the official selection seeking co-production and financial partners.

Meanwhile, in collaboration with Rotterdam’s CineMart, three additional projects have been chosen for the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express. Two of the projects come from Russia -  Alexey Balabanov’s Leather and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena - with a third from Romanian filmmaker Florin Serban’s El Rumano. The three will participate in both the CineMart and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

According to Heinen, the Co-Production Market has a success rate of 40% for the projects selected in the past six editions. Over 90 films presented in Berlin having already been realised, including competition film The Hunter by Rafi Pitts and Esmir Filho’s feature debut The Famous And The Dead which will be showing in Generation 14plus.

The projects for the 2010 Berlinale Co-Production Market (listed alphabetically by production company) are:

- Napoleon and Betsy (dir: Benjamin Ross), 2B Pictures, Great Britain

- The Inheritance (dir: Hiam Abbass), Alma Films, Israel/Mozer Films, Israel/Agat Films, France

- Storm (Kategida) (dir: Harry Patramanis), Argonauts Productions, Greece/KinoElektron, France/4Letter Word, USA

- I, Anna (dir:  Barnaby Southcombe), Arsam International, France/Embargo Films, Great Britain

- Perish (dir: Catherine Linstrum), Bright Pictures, Great Britain/Levain Film Development, Sweden

- Love and Other Troubles (dir: Samuli Valkama), Bronson Club, Finland

- In Embryo (dir: Ulrich Thomsen), Cine plus /Royal Pony Film, Germany

- Burning Heads (dir: George Siougas), CL Productions, Greece

- Liquid Roads (dir: Marco Bechis), Classic Srl, Italy

- Only Son (dir: Miel Van Hoogenbemt), Entre Chien et Loup, Belgium

- The Notebook (dir: János Szász), Intuit Pictures, Germany

- The Future (dir: Alicia Scherson), Jirafa Films, Chile/Ulysses Films, Spain

- The Have-Nots (dir: Florian Hoffmeister), K5 Film, Germany

- Montana (dir: Stephan Streker), M.G. Productions, Belgium

- Cut Snake (dir: Tony Ayres), Matchbox Pictures, Australia

- My Dog, Killer (dir: Mira Fornay), Mirafox, Slovakia/Cineart TV Prague, Czech Republic

- Clara’s War (dir: tba), Neue Bioskop Film, Germany/Corey Marr Productions, Canada

- My Sweet Orange Tree (dir: Marcos Bernstein), Passaro Films, Brazil

- Bethlehem (dir: Yuval Adler), Pie Films, Israel

- The Shades (dir: Darrell James Roodt), Red Pill Productions, South Africa

- Towrz (dir: Faye Gilbert), The Bureau Film Company, Great Britain

- Invasion (dir: Dito Tsintsadze), Twenty Twenty Vision/Pallas Film, Germany

- The Testament (dir: Eduardo Rípari), Zarlek Producciones/Rizoma Films, Argentina

Rotterdam-Berlinale Express:

- Leather (dir: Alexey Balabanov), CTB Film Company, Russia

- Elena (dir: Andrey Zvyagintsev), Non-Stop Production, Russia

- El Rumano (dir: Florin Serban), Strada Film, Romania

Talent Project Market

(listed alphabetically by talent):

- Kin (writer/dir: Asitha Ameresekere), Great Britain

- Princesas Rojas (writer/dir: Laura Astorga), Costa Rica

- Lifelined (writer/dir: Basile Doganis), France

- My Sweet Euthanasia (writer/dir: Tal Granit), Israel

- Out of Time Man (writer/dir: Arne Kohlweyer), Germany

- Central Station (writer/dir: Amiel Livne), Israel

- I Am North (writer/dir/prod: Noah Pink), Canada

- The Samaritan (writer/dir: Odilon Rocha), Great Britain

- Gone, June (director: Brooke Sebold), USA

- Arcadia (writer/dir: Olivia Silver), USA

- Without Mercy (writer/dir: Thomas Wangsmo), Norway