Visar Morina’s Hatixhe And Shaban, Alexandra Makarová’s Perla, and Ivan Ostrochovský’s The Spring are among 13 feature projects in post-production selected for the 2024 Les Arcs Film Festival Work in Progress session.
The strand is designed to help the films find international sales agents, distributors and festival premieres. The projects will be presented to industry professionals on Sunday, December 15 as part of the Industry Village (December 14-17) at the 16th edition of the festival (December 14-21).
Scroll down for the full list of projects
Kosovo-born German filmmaker Visar Morina will pitch his third feature Hatixhe And Shaban about a family living in a village in rural Kosovo who lose their farm and are forced to move to the city to earn a living. Morina’s Babai (Father) won best director at Karlovy Vary in 2015 and his 2020 follow-up Exil won the Heart of Sarajevo for best film at Sarajevo. Hatixhe And Shaban is produced by Morina’s company Vicky Bane, which he runs with Pia Hellenthal, and Germany’s Schuldenberg Films.
Marakova’s second feature is set in the spring of 1981 and follows the titular Perla, a painter who has to return to communist Czechoslovakia to settle an old debt. It is produced by Austria’s Golden Girls Film and Slovakia’s Hailstone.
Ostrochovský brings The Spring, following Ukraine War hybrid drama-documentary Photophobia, co-directed by Pavol Pekarčík, which won the Europa Cinemas Label award after its Venice Days premiere. The duo previously directed Berlin award-winning Velvet Terrorists with Peter Kerekes in 2013.
As part of a 2024 festival-wide focus on Iceland, Ugla Hauksdottir’s The Fires will screen out of competition. The debut feature centres on a volcanologist caught between a love affair that may destroy her family and an eruption that threatens the capital city. It is produced by Iceland’s Netop Film and Poland’s Madants and Bankside Films is handling international sales.
The Work in Progress selection committee received 151 project submissions, 31% from female filmmakers. The proportion is reflected in the final selection that includes four films directed by women and nine from male directors. Eight of the films are first features.
The projects in competition will vie for three awards including the €10,000 TitraFilm award for image, sound and post-production, the €6,000 Alphapanda audience engagement award for digital film marketing and the €10,000 22D music award for score composition.
The festival’s Revelation female film composer award launched with Sacem and the Lab Femmes du Cinema in 2022 will go to Audrey Ismaël, whose credits include Agathe Riedinger’s Cannes Competition feature Wild Diamond and Julien Colonna’s Un Certain Regard first feature The Kingdom.
Les Arcs 2024 Work in Progress
(*denotes first features)
A Light That Never Goes Out* (Fin-Nor)
Dir: Lauri-Matti Parppei
Prod co: Made, Goodtime Pictures
Arru* (Nor-Swe-Fin)
Dir: Elle Sofe Sara
Prod co: STÆR, Garagefilm International AB, It’s Alive
A Second Life (Fr)
Dir: Laurent Slama
Prod co: 21Juin Cinema
First Zone* (Neth)
Dir: Thom Lunshof
Prod co: Makaki Productions
Gabin, A Youth In The Backland* (Fr-Ger-Switz)
Dir: Maxence Voiseux
Prod co: Alter Ego Production, AMA Film, Rita Productions
Hatixhe And Shaban (Ger-Kos-Slo-Alb-N.Mac-Bel)
Dir: Visar Morina
Prod co: Vicky Bane, Schuldenberg Films, Eagle Eye Films Kosova, Vertigo Ljubljana, On Film Production, List Production, Quetzalcoatl
Perla* (Aus-Slo)
Dir: Alexandra Makarová
Prod co: Golden Girls Film, Hailstone
Reedland* (Neth-Bel)
Dir: Sven Bresser
Prod co: Viking Film, A Private View
Strange River* (Sp-Ger)
Dir: Jaume Claret Muxart
Prod co: ZuZú Cinema, Miramemira, Schuldenberg Films GmbH & Co. KG
Solomamma* (Nor-Den-Lett-Lith-Fin)
Dir: Janicke Askevold
Prod co: Bacon Pictures Oslo, Bacon Pictures Copenhagen, Mistrus Media, Dansu Films, It’s Alive
The Boy With The Light Blue Eyes* (Greece-Cyp-Mac-Cro-Ser-Rom-US)
Dir: Thanasis Neofotistos
Prod co: Argonauts Productions S.A., Atalante Productions S.A., YE Films Ltd, Sektor Film, Studio Corvus, Sense Production, Luna Film, Willam, Astrakan Films, Cold Iron Pictures
The Spring* (Slo-Czech-Hun)
Dir: Ivan Ostrochovsky
Prod co: Punkchart films, NEGATIV, Proton Cinema, Slovak Television and Radio, Czech Television, Anna Geislerová
Out of competition:
The Fires (Ice-Pol)
Dir: Ugla Hauksdottir
Prod co: Netop Film, Madants
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