Meeting Point Vilnius (MPV), which ran March 17-20 during the 30th anniversary edition of the Vilnius International Film Festival known locally as Kino Pavasaris, brought together producers from Lithuania and the neighbouring Baltic states with international festival programmers and potential partners from around the world.
The lively gathering included a producers’ presentations on co-production policies in different territories, networking meet-and-greets and the annual works-in-progress project showcase of Baltic titles.
There was also a location tour to showcase the city organised by the Vilnius Film Office. Vilnius is the European Green Capital 2025 and is formatting a set of ecological filmmaking standards in line with similar ones already in action Germany and about to be enacted across the Nordic region.
For Georgian producer Gvantsa Mindiashvili of 1707 Productions, attending MPV’s works-in-progress became vital after all her funding was pulled on the eve of production of Me-Greta; the production a victim of the socio- political turmoil in Georgia and politically-motivated changes at the National Film Centre. Directed by Miranda Namicheishvili, who was also at MPV, the contemporary family drama details the story of a young single mother who is forced to make hard choices in order to survive.
“We are determined to make this film, if not in Georgia, somewhere else where we can operate freely,” said Mindiashvili.
Norway-based roducer Rebekka Rognøy was in Vilnius with Solomamma, the directorial debut of Norwegian filmmaker Janicke Askevold that is being set up as a Norway-Denmark-Latvia-Lithuania-Finland co-production. “MPV is good for getting independent films of a compatible scale seen by co-producers working with similar budgets.”
Veteran Czech producer Miloš Lochman of Moloko Film agreed MPV was a vital pitstop for European producers. He was in Vilnius with the drama Three Weeks Under The Sea, a co-production between Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania. “For independent European films, it is not about hierarchy, it’s always about co-operation and having to distribute creative responsibility,” says Lochman.
Local heroes
Lithuanian filmmakers have been buoyed by the recent success of Ignas Miskinis’ homegrown hit Southern Chronicles, which has become the country’s biggest film of all time with a box-office gross of $2.9m, as of March 9. The coming-of-age drama follows a young working-class teenager who falls in love with a young woman from a middle-class family.
It is produced by Lukas Trimonis of In Script, the company he runs with writer Eglė Vertelytė, who adapted the script from the semi-autobiographical book by Rimantas Kmita.
Trimonis told Screen he is now juggling a slate of projects and working out which one to move forward. Additionally, he is moving into service production working with Estonia’s NAFTA Films to create a one- stop shop for the Baltic region aimed predominantly at incoming international productions. NAFTA Films has an office in Estonia, Latvia and now Lithuania.
“It’s a different model to the majority of production companies or service production companies [in Lithuania] because we can do locations for all three countries, budget for all three countries, whatever suits you,” said Trimonis. “In most cases you would need to find individual producers in each
Another busy Lilthuanian producer is Marija Razgutė, producer and founder of M-Films, with credits including Marija Kavtaradze’s Sundance prize winner Slow, a Lithuania, Spain and Swedish co-production. She is s now producing the €2.6m drama Divorce During The War, a Lithuania- Luxembourg-Ireland -Czech Republic co-production written and directed by Andrius Blaževičius. It is presently shooting in Vilnius.
Razgutė was in MPV to talk to festival programmers about two films on the M-Films slate: Karolis Kaupinis’ completed Hunger Strike Breakfast, set up as a Lithuania-Czech Republic-Latvia collaboration, on which M-Films is the majority partner, and Vytautas Katkus’ drama The Visitor, a Lithuania-Norway-Sweden co-production in post.
Strategies to help producers secure international festival slots for films was the subject of an MPV panel on which the speakers were Denis Krupnov, co-managing director of UK outfit Reason8 Films, Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro and Heidi Zwicker, senior programmer for the Sundance Film Festival.
“Stay true to what you want to achieve as an artist, and don’t try to make a film at a particular festival or sales agent, or a particular audience,” Krupnov said.
“I encourage you to take time to think about what you want for the future of your project. You really need to know there is not just one path to success for any film,” Zwicker said. “Different festivals have different tastes, and just because your your film doesn’t connect with one another might love it.”
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