Prishtina expands industry programme

Kosovo’s Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will expand its industry programme in 2016 with the launch of the Prishtina Rendezvous, a one-day event for distributors and international sales agents to meet talent from the region.

As part of the festival’s industry platform PriFORUM (April 23-27), the day will feature companies from across Europe, including French sales agents Memento Films, Indie Films and Le pacte, as well as German distributors Pluto Films and Neue Visionen.

Representatives from the companies will attend a pitching session with selected participants from the Balkans and nearby countries, before participating in one-on-one sessions.

The festival has also locked up a partnership with the Torino Film Lab for its 2016 edition. The event’s regular Best Pitch competition, now in its fifth year, will include a two-day pitching training programme hosted with the Torino Lab’s Matthieu Darras and Joana Solecka, with a focus on making projects appealing to an international audience.

A script development workshop will also be held for Best Pitch entrants as part of this year’s PriForum, hosted by Franz Rodenkirchen and Françoise von Roy from the Script Circle Berlin.

Festival director Vjosa Berisha commented: “Our filmmakers from Kosovo and many from the region have limited possibilities to travel to bigger festivals because of the costs, and in the case of Kosovo, also because of visa restrictions.

“Even when they do travel to big markets like Cannes or European Film Market, it is difficult to get the attention of these companies, because there are so many priorities that they have and their schedules are so busy. This way we bring the attention of these companies here in our festival, and they will be here for the weekend to meet talents from our region and see or listen to their projects.”

Last year’s Prishtina International Film Festival was cancelled over a last-minute government funding cut.