Cottbus, October 12, 2015 – The East-West co-production market connecting cottbus goes into its 17th edition, as usual within the context of the 25. FilmFestival Cottbus. For the first time under the leadership of its new director Rebekka Garrido on November 5 and 6, the successful film industry forum will provide an opportunity to its roughly 150 participants to present new feature film ideas, initiate co-productions between Estern and Western Europe and discuss current trends in the European film industry.
Among the highlights of the rich program will be the presentation of #FEEDback, a new sector think tank in cooperation with the Transilvania International Film Festival and When East Meets West under led by Simon Perry that will address topics such as digital single market territories, VOD platforms or the use of new social media. As in previous years, connecting cottbus will also cover audience design in workshops organized with Torino Filmlab and Maia Workshops.
The Netherlands as the focus country of globalEAST at the FilmFestival Cottbus will also take center stage at coco. In collaboration with Nederlands Filmfonds, Dutch producers will join in the sear for partners in Eastern Europe in Cottbus.
The coco pitch projects 2015 in detail
In the pitching on November 5, ten feature film projects from ten countries will be presented to potential European co-production partners. The winner of the coco Award at the Transilvania Pitch Stop at the Transilvania International Film Festival, the project 1985 by Romanian director Bogdan Muresanu and producer Irina-Andreea Malcea (Adcelerate) about the destruction of Bukarests in the Ceaușescu years will join the race. As a coco selection, the Israeli horror thriller THE SWAMP by Evgeny Ruman also had a starting position already.
The nomination by the Netherlands as this year’s guest country, WHEN FUCKING SPRING IS IN THE AIR by diretor Danyael Sugawara and producer Trent fett, weil Name (Oak Motion Pictures) will participate in the pitching. The project will be presented at coco in a completely new version after an intensive research phase last year.
The coco industry jury selected an additional seven projects from the more than 75 applications. In spite of the wide formal range of the projects from drama and genre to satire, the interaction with concrete places and their influence on identities stands out as one of the leit motifs. THE SON by Ines Tanovic from Bosnia Herzegovina deals with growing up in divided Sarajevo. In the Georgian VENICE by Rusudan Chkonia the inhabitants of an unfinished new apartment block have the chance to readdress their issues after seven years.
Another new development is the location of Radoslav Pavkovic and Christina Hadjicharalambous‘ Serbian project DOMINO EFFECT: When a contract killer confuses two identical prefabricated buildings and kills the wrong man, he stirs up the whole neighbourhood. In the Slovakian project THE DISCIPLE by Ivan Ostrochovský, a seminary in Slovakia in 1980 becomes a place of divided loyalties as two aspiring priests discover the full extent of the collaboration with the communist regime. In a very different manner, TANK by Max Ksondja describes local knowledge as a culmination point of a personal development when a 12-year-old boy finds a World War II tank in the Ukrainian forests. Igor Ivanov from Macedonia veers into more surreal territory with SUGAR KID: Motivated by his love for his wife, the confectioner Marko creates a boy made of sugar who turns into a superhero. In MENOPAUSE by the Cypriot director Tonia Mishiali, a married woman increasingly loses herself in revenge fantasies after a life of rejection by her husband.
In a remarkable affirmation of women’s creative potential, four of the ten pitch projects or almost half of the total were created by female directors.
The ten projects are competing for the following awards: the „coco Post Pitch Award“, sponsored for the fourth year in a row by The Post Republic, confers services in the value of EUR 25.000.
The „coco Best Pitch Award“, a cash prize of EUR 1.500, will be selected by all coco participants for the best pitch presentation. Its sponsor is Eurotape Media Services from Berlin. Additionally, one project will be honored with the „coco Producers Network Award“ and will be accredited at the Producers Network at the next Marché du Film in Cannes.
coco supporters and partners
connecting cottbus is supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH, the Creative Europe/MEDIA Program of the European Union and MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH. Supporting partners of connecting cottbus are CineLink Sarajevo, EAVE, Maia Workshops, Meetings on the Bridge Istanbul, Moscow Business Square, Odessa International Film Festival, Midpoint and Producers Network.
The coco Post Pitch Award 2015 is sponsored by The Post Republic.
The coco Best Pitch Award 2015 is sponsored by Eurotape Media Services Berlin.
The coco Producers Network Award 2015 is sponsored by Producers Network.
Further information and application forms are available at www.connecting-cottbus.de
