08-11-2021

FNE at connecting cottbus 2021: Projects from FNE Partner Countries at coco WIP

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    Air Blue Silk by Irine Jordania Air Blue Silk by Irine Jordania

    COTTBUS: Five projects from FNE partner countries were among the six coco Works In Progress projects showcased at the 23rd edition of connecting cottbus (coco), the East-West coproduction market at FilmFestival Cottbus, held in a hybrid format 3-5 November 2021.

    FNE Partner Countries Projects at coco VIP:

    Air Blue Silk (Georgia)
    Directed by Irine Jordania
    Produced by Parachute Films
    Coproduced by Studio Kedari
    Supported by the Georgian National Film Center,  Millimeter StudioJaga Grip , the Georgian Public Broadcaster
    Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Eka is a successful TV presenter in Tbilisi, whose life spins out of control when the immigrant relative she usually pushed aside goes missing. Lado shuts himself off from the world until he witnesses a construction worker fall to his death. Eka and Lado meet only once, but impact each other’s lives unknowingly. Irine Jordania penned the script.

    The budget is 210,000 EUR, of which 73,000 EUR are still to be secured.

    The project is looking for financing and postproduction partners, sales and distribution.

    Irine Jordania‘s first short film, 12 K Marx Street (2019), premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival, went on to screen at Tallinn, Uppsala, Glasgow and Jerusalem, and was nominated for Best Short Film at the European Film Awards in 2020.

    Liuben (Spain, Bulgaria)
    Directed by Venci Kostov
    Produced by Malas Compañías
    Coproduced by Portokal, Balance Media
    Supported by the Bulgarian National Film Center
    Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Having grown up in Spain, Victor (27) returns to his birthplace for the summer. While he confronts his roots in the dying Bulgarian mountain village, he’s also drawn into an unexpected and doomed romance with a local Roma boy. Venci Kostov wrote the script.

    The budget is 350,000 EUR with a gap of 40,000 EUR.

    In Cottbus the producers looked for postproduction partners, sales, distribution outside of Spain and Bulgaria, as well as festivals.

    Venci Kostov’s first short film The Son (2012) received the Best Short Film Award at LesgaiCineMad and the FRAMES Award at FCM-PNR, both in Madrid.

    M (North Macedonia, Croatia, Kosovo, France)
    Directed by Vardan Tozija
    Produced by Focus Pocus Films
    Coproduced by 4 Film, In My Country Post Productions, Les Contes Modernes
    Supported by the North Macedonia Film Agency, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), the Kosovo Film Center
    Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Marko (8) lives in fantasies, isolated in the wilderness and deprived of love from the only man he knows, his paranoid father. After his father’s death, Marko sets off on a journey to find the Fairy from his picture book, in a grim world overtaken by a deadly virus. Vardan Tozija and Darijan Pejovski penned the script.

    The budget is 650,000 EUR with a gap of 80,000 EUR.

    The producers are looking for financing and postproduction partners, sales, distribution, TV or streaming platform, as well as festivals.

    Vardan Tozija’s feature film debut Amok (2016, produced by North Macedonia’s Dream Factory Macedonia in coproduction with Albania’s Red Hellicopter Films) premiered at the Chicago IFF, won a FIPRESCI Prize in Pristina and went on to screen at festivals in Shanghai, Göteborg, Guadalajara, St. Petersburg, Durban, and others.

    The Art of Falling (Bulgaria)
    Directed by Orlin Milchev
    Produced by Geopoly
    Supported by the Bulgarian National Film Center
    Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Bori (17) refuses to be harassed by the boys. Her artistic but unsteady mother doesn’t offer her the support she needs. Her caring grandfather enrolls her in a judo class. It’s there she realises that, before beating others, one must win the battles within oneself. Neda Filcheva and Marin Damianov penned the script.

    The budget is 330,302 EUR with a gap of 39,673 EUR.

    The project is looking for financing and postproduction partners (final picture edit, colour grading, DCP, etc.).

    Milchev’s short film Dobry (2017) was nominated for Best Short Film in the Jameson Short Film Competition at Sofia, won Best Bulgarian Short at the Early Bird Sofia Student FF and screened at the Aesthetica Short FF in the UK and the VGIK International Student Festival in Moscow.

    The Word (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia)
    Directed by Beata Parkanová
    Produced by love.FRAME
    Coproduced by Kijora, AZYL Production
    Supported by the Czech Film Fund, Pardubice region, Vysočina region, RTVS
    Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    A small town in Czechoslovakia. Věra and Václav protect their relationship and family with all the power of their love. But what if the world were to change so dramatically that leading ordinary lives becomes impossible? This is what happens in the summer of 1968, with the invasion of the Soviet Army. Beata Parkanová penned the script.

    The budget is 1,039,541 EUR with a gap of 30,000 EUR.

    The producers are looking for postproduction partners, sales and festivals.

    Parkanova’s debut feature Moments (2018, produced by Heaven's GateFog'n'Desire Films in coproduction with KFS Production and the Czech Television), screened in the East of the West competition at Karlovy Vary in 2018, was nominated for Best Director at the San Francisco IFF, and won Best Actress at the Czech Lions in 2019.