European Short Pitch announces selection and tutors for its 15th edition
Helmed since 2020 by Julie Marnay (Head of Programme) and Olga Lamontanara (Head of Coproduction Forum), European Short Pitch is thrilled to announce the 12 projects in development selected for its 2021|22 edition.
In continuity with the 2020 edition, this year’s line-up surpasses the previous one in terms of female representation: 8 projects out of the 12 selected are directed by women, thus boasting a ratio of 66%; moreover, 2 projects are directed by non-binary persons.
Région Bretagne (France) has been accompanying the programme since 2019, and this year the Coproduction Forum takes place in partnership with the Travelling Film Festival, in Rennes. ESP is also very pleased to focus on the emerging Russian scene thanks to its partnership with the Vostok Agency. The final selection includes one Breton project and one Russian project.
The European Short Pitch team is very proud of this new selection that covers a wide array of cinematic approaches and genres, fiction, documentary and animation with a special appetite for strong emerging voices. A broad variety of European countries is represented, in line with the ESP mission, with a special attention to low-production capacity states and an opening to non-European countries, with two projects presenting stories set respectively in China and Lebanon.
The twelve selected projects are hailing from 12 European countries and include 1 animation, 1 anidoc, 1 documentary and 9 fictions.
Across the Waters by Viv Li - China, Germany, produced by BB Gun / Alexander Sussmann
Campolivar by Alicia Moncholí - Spain, produced by Oberon Media / Alba Bosch and Antonio Chavarrías
Dva by Alexandra Karelina - Russia, produced by Stereotactic / Sergey Yahontov - Focus Russia
Fanny A.M. by Manolis Mavris - Greece, produced by Akran / Romanna Lobach
Find The Boy by Paulin.e Goasmat - France, produced by Nationale 12 / Stéphen Seznec - Focus Brittany
Hun Tun by Magdalena Hejzlarova - Czech Republic, produced by 13ka / Karolína Davidová
Imaginary Numbers by Jelica Jerinić, co-writer: Aleksandar Markovič - Serbia, Finland, produced by This and That productions / Dragana Antić
Penance by Sebastião Salgado - Portugal, produced by Maria & Mayer / Filmes do Tejo / Maria João Mayer and Isabel Pestana
Sea Salt by Leila Basma - Lebanon, Czech Republic, produced by Other stories / Natalia Pavlove
The One Who Knows by Eglė Davidavičė, co-writer: Aušra Umbrasaitė - Lithuania, produced by Art Shot / Agnė Adomėnė, Baltic Pitching Forum talent
The Primal Fear by Frida Spång - Sweden, seeking production
The Reptiles by Kristina Spassovska - Bulgaria, produced by Viktoria Films Ltd. / Maya Vitkova-Kosev
The team of script consultants tutoring the projects is composed by the following professionals: Polish-born, French-educated, Anna Ciennik, a script consultant for labs such as Locarno Open Doors, BoostNL and TorinoFilmLab, with a background in production and a 5-year stint as Industry events Manager at Les Arcs European Film Festival and Paris’ Coproduction Village; Berlin-based experimental fiction and documentary film producer of Flaneur Films, Zsuzsanna Kiràly, who was formerly Head of Development at Komplizen Film from 2009 to 2020; and Finnish author, poet and filmmaker Mikko Myllylahti, co-writer of Juho Kuosmanen’s The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (Prix Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2016) and director of the short The Tiger (Semaine de la Critique, Cannes 2018). Joining them is Nukleus Film founder and producer Siniša Juričić, whose credits include among others Ilian Metev's Sofia’s Last Ambulance (Semaine de la Critique, Cannes 2013), and Chris the Swiss by Anja Kofmel (Semaine de la Critique, Cannes 2018). He will advise participants on the (co-)production-related aspects of their projects.
The first part of the programme – the scriptwriting workshop will take place online on 15-19 November 2021. It will focus on script development and will aim at enhancing the projects and preparing them for their presentation to the industry.
The second session will offer participants further consultations on script, as well as sales and distribution, and will culminate in a final pitch and 1:1 meetings with international professionals: the Coproduction Forum is expected to take place in a hybrid format on 6-8 February 2022 in partnership with Festival Travelling in Rennes.
