Cannes: EFP names 20 Producers on the Move

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European Film Promotion (EFP) has selected 20 emerging young European producers for the 16th edition of its Producers on the Move networking initiative, which will be held during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival from May 15-18.

The 2014 selection includes Danish producer Katja Adomeit, who produced and co-directed the hybrid film Not At Home with the Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat as well as co-producing Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure as a freelancer for the Copenhagen office of Philippe Bober’s The Coproduction Office.

Cologne-based Ingmar Trost of Sutor Kolonko has also been selected. His credits include Ilian Metev’s award-winniıng documentary Sofıa’s Last Ambulance, Latvian director Juris Kursietis’  Modrıs and Ingo Haeb’s The Chambermaid Lynn, and he has just completed production of his third feature, Isabelle Stever’s The Weather Inside.

Lithuania will be represented in Cannes by Fralita Films’  Živilė Gallego who produced Alante Kavaite’s The Summer of Sangaile which premiered in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition in January and won the Best Director Award. Gallego is now in pre-production on Donatas Ulvydas’ drama Emilia which is scheduled to begin principal photography this summer.

EFP’s initiative will also be casting its spotlight on the Polish producer Mariusz Włodarski of Lava Films, who continued his collaboration with Swedish-born film-maker Magnus von Horn after the award-winning short Without Snow by producing von Horn’s feature debut The Here After which has its world premiere in this year’s Directors’ Fortnight.

Włodarski is also working with Berlin-based Rohfilm on developing  Mariko Saga’s Viet Wander House which was backed by the German-Polish Co-Development Fund.

In addition, Snezana Penev of This and That Productions will be flying the flag for Serbian cinema this year. The graduate from Belgrade’s Academy of Arts in Belgrade has recently produced Serbian actress Mirjana Karanovic’s (Grbavica) directorial debut A Good Wife and co-produced of Miha Knific’s Perseverance. She is now in preproduction on Rastko Petrovic’s coming of age tale Five Skyscrapers.

Moreover, Czech producer Jan Macola of Mimesis Films will be back in Cannes after having presented his debut as producer, Petr Vaclav’s The Way Out, as a part of the ACID selection in Cannes last year. Since then, Macola has completed Vaclav’s feature documentary Confession Of The Vanished (now being developed as a fiction version entitled Il Boemo) and his new feature We Are Never Alone.

For the first time this year, EFP has restricted the line-up to 20 producers after having presented 24 in 2014, and 29 two years ago.

EFP member organisations had nominated 29 producers from 29 countries to participate in the promotional platform. The final selection was made by the Hamburg-based pan-European organisation according to a points system and such criteria as the producer’s international  experience in co-productions and evidence of theatrical releases of their films outside of their home territory.

Producers in motion

According to EFP, participants in the Producers on the Move initiative over the past five years have collaborated together on 19 European co-productions, involving 36 different producers from 18 countries.

The resulting co-productions have included Bobbie Peers’ drama Dirk Ohm (The Disappearing Illusionist) between Norway’s Maria Ekerhovd, Germany’s Gian‐Piero Ringel and Sweden’s Lizette Jonjic, and Rebecca  Daly’s Mammal, which brought  Luxembourg’s Gilles Chanial and Ireland’s Conor Barry together with fellow Irish producer Macdara Kelleher and Dutch colleague Reinier Selen.

Looking ahead, former German Producer on the Move Janine Jackowski of Komplizenfilm  has found a partner in Bulgaria’s Borislav Chouchkov of Sofia-based Chouchkov Brothers for Valeska Grisebach’s new film Western which will shoot on location in Bulgaria this summer.

Komplizenfilm is also a co-producer on Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights (Les Mille et une Nuits) which has its world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight next month.

In addition, past Producers on the Move are regularly in the news with new projects: the UK’s Tristan Goligher, a participant from 2014, saw his production of Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years premiere at February’s Berlinale and pick up two acting awards for Sir Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling.

Another 2014 participant, Germany’s Henning Kamm of DETAiLFILM, is back in Cannes this year with Turkish director Kutlug Ataman’s new project Hilal, Feza and the Other Planets which will be presented at the Cinéfondation’s L’Atelier during the festival.

Moreover, Polish producer Mikołaj Pokromski of Pokromski Studio – who was also in the line-up last year - has begun principal photography in Belgium on Marie Noelle’s Maria Skłodowska-Curie (working title) as a co-production with Germany’s P’Artisan Filmproduktion, France’s Sepia Production and Belgium’s Climax Films, with other shooting days in Paris, Munich and Poland.

Polish actress Karolina Gruszka has been cast in the title role with veteran actor Daniel Olbrychski as Emile Amagat, her fierce opponent, with other parts taken by  André Wilms, Charles Berling, Sabin Tambrea and Samuel Finzi.

According to Pokromski, who also has an international crew assembled behind the camera, Noelle’s film will not be “yet another retrospective of the impressive life and academic achievements of Maria Skłodowska-Curie”, but, rather, “an intimate portrait of this outstanding woman.” “The picture will be a tale of her sorrows and joys, moments of triumph and defeat not only in the academic sphere but, above all, in her private and family life. We want to show the previously unknown side of the protagonist.”

Producers on the Move

Czech Republic: Jan Macola, Mimesis Film

Denmark: Katja Adomeit, Adomeit Film

Finland: Mikko Tenhunen, Mjölk Movies

France: Pierre Guyard, Nord Ouest Films

Germany: Ingmar Trost, Sutor Kolonko Filmproduktion

Iceland: Heather Millard, Compass Films/Spier Films

Ireland: Juliette Bonass, Element Pictures

Italy: Arturo Paglia, Paco Cinematografica

Lithuania: Živilė Gallego, Fralita Films

FYR of Macedonia: Svetozar Ristovski, Small Moves Films

Netherlands: Ellen Havenith, PRPL

Norway: Kjetil Omberg, Norsk Superfilm

Poland: Mariusz Włodarski, Lava Films SP. Z O.O.

Portugal: Joana Ferreira, C.R.I.M. Producoes

Serbia: Snezana Penev, This And That Productions

Slovak Republic: Marek Urban, Sentimentalfilm s.r.o.

Slovenia: Miha Černek, Staragara

Spain: Montse Triola, Andergraun Films

Switzerland, Aline Schmid, Intermezzo Films