New Horizons Studio talent revealed

A total of 24 young filmmakers from Portugal to Turkey will participate in the fifth edition of New Horizons Studio (July 27-30) held during the 14th international film festival in Wroclaw.

The training programme, which receives support from the EU’s Creative Europe programme, includes workshops on pitching, production, distribution and promotion.

As in past years, the majority of the participants are from Poland with others coming from Portugal, France, Switzerland, Romania and Turkey.

Four of the Polish film-makers attending Studio are also involved in films being presented as part of the Polish Days which kicks off its programme of finished films, works in progress and pitchings on July 30:

Julia Kolberger will be pitching Toxaemia, her adaptation of Malgorzata Rejmer’s eponymous novel, while producer Anna Chojnacka is working at RE Studio in the development Life Feels Good director Maciej Pieprzyca’s new feature I’m The Killer.

Producer Zuzanna Król will have a closed screening for international guests of Performer by Lukasz Ronduda and Maciej Sobieszczanski, while executive producer Agata Walkosz will see Tomas Weinreb and Petr Kazda’s I, Olga Hepnarova being presented in the “works in progress” showcase.

Partner festivals such as Romania’s Transilvania International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival and Portugal’s Indie Lisboa have sent up-and-coming talents such as Nicolae Constantin Tanase, Stefano Mosimann and Jorge Jácome to join Studio’s 2014 line-up.

Moreover, as part of this year’s Turkish focus, Hasan Serin, whose short film Ağrı and the Mountain premiered at the Berlinale, and Müge Özen, the producer of the Seyfi Teoman Best Debut Film Prize-winning film Mrs Nergis in Istanbul this year, will participate in workshops led by such experts as David Pope, Guillaume de Seille, Gavin Humphries, DoP/director Wojciech Staroń and producer Małgorzata Staroń.

In addition, Turkish director-producer Emre Yeksan who has worked, among others, with the directors of Come to My Voice, The Island, Do Not Forget Me Istanbul, and Eastern Plays, will speak about his experiences of film-making in his home country.

Previous participants to the past four editions of New Horizons Studio have included Polish film-maker Tomasz Wasilewski – a member of the New Horizons festival jury this year -, Romanian directors Iulia Rugina (Breaking News) and Andrei Cretulescu (Bad Penny), producer Pawel Sosnowski (Performer), director Bartosz Warwas (Jaskólka), and film composer Adrian Konarski (Close Ups).