Les Arcs team launches Paris Coproduction Village

The team behind Les Arcs European Film Festival is launching a new Paris-based co-production market to run in the French capital in June.

The new event, titled Paris Coproduction Village, launches its call for applications today (March 11) with a deadline for April 18.

The platform has been created to continue the work of Paris Project, which used to run during the Paris Cinema Film Festival in July but has been axed due to public spending cuts. The festival continues in a reduced format.

“Paris is a key hub for co-productions and from the moment it became clear that Paris Project was being axed, we decided to launch an alternative platform,” explained Pierre Emmanuel Fleurantin, co-founder of Les Arcs European Film Festival alongside Guillaume Calop.  

Les Arcs European Film Festival, which runs in December in the French Alps, has built a solid industry programme since its launch in 2009 including the Arcs Coproduction Village. 

Projects presented at the 2013 Les Arcs Coproduction Village included Hans Van Nuffel’s Equator, produced by Bart Van Langendonck of Savage Film, Daniele Vicari’s Long Way Down and Runar Runarsson’s Sparrows.  

“Our plan is to use Les Arcs’ infrastructure and team to run the new Paris event… we aim to invite 12 to 15 projects this year,” said Fleurantin, who also produces under the Paris-based Paprika Films banner. 

Vanja Kaludjercic, who organised Paris Project in 2012 and 2013 and is also head of industry at Les Arcs, will coordinate the new Paris Coproduction Village.

“We’ll build on our work at Les Arcs and also incorporate what I learnt at Paris Project,” commented Kaludjercic, who also manages the short film programme at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

“Some 400 projects were submitted to Paris Project for the 2013 edition, we’re expecting 200 submissions from around the world for the first edition of Paris Coproduction Village,” she added.

In its first edition, the new event will take place on June 12-13, during the Champs Elysées Film Festival, which will unfold on and around Paris’ most famous boulevard June 11- 17 this year.

The festival, launched in 2012 by Paris-based distributor Sophie Dulac, focuses on French and American cinema and exchange between their two film industries.

The festival already hosts the US in Progress event, showcasing features by independent US filmmakers to European buyers.

“There are a lot of potential synergies,” commented Fleurantin. “We would like Paris Coproduction Village to become a hub for cooperation between American, European and Asian indie filmmakers.

“We’re also creating partnerships with Asian film markets to bring in interesting Asian projects to Paris,” he added.

Aside from the Champs Elysées Film Festival, other backers for the new platform include the Ile-de-France region, ACE, EAVE, Europa International and Europa Distribution.

For more information about  Paris Coproduction Village visit www.pariscopro.com