WHEN EAST MEETS WEST
(Trieste, January 19-21, 2020)
Trieste - December 20, 2019 – 22 film projects from 17 countries will be presented at the special 10th anniversary edition of When East Meets West, the Italian Co-Production Forum taking place from January 19-21, 2020 in the frame of the Trieste Film Festival. This year WEMW will bring together more than 500 industry professionals from over 40 countries, particularly from the 2020 East & West spotlight territories: Hungary, Moldova and Romania and Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
The 22 projects in development - 10 long feature documentaries and 12 fiction features - were selected out of 338 submissions from 55 different countries. The final selection will include several debut features such as Double Happiness by Sebastian Mihailescu (Old Luxurious Flat Located In An Ultra-Central, Desirable Neighborhood, Locarno Film Festival 2016) and Larry by Szilárd Bernáth (Pay Day, Clermont-Ferrand 2016) but also upcoming films by Ann-Kristin Reyels (Berlinale Forum 2012 with Formentera), Lieven Corthouts (Little Heaven, IDFA 2011) and Elina Psykou (The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas, Berlinale Forum 2013). Furthermore, thanks to the brand new cooperation with IFFR's CineMart the WEMW final line-up will also feature the Bulgarian title Women Do Cry and directors Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova (Cat in the Wall, Locarno Film Festival 2019) will have the chance to present their upcoming project in these different but complementary events to further enhance its market opportunities.
“The record number of applications received this year shows once more the great drive of so many filmmakers from all over the world and we are proud to celebrate 10 years of WEMW with the beautiful stories they will share. This is going to be a special edition because we are also expanding our network of partners to offer a tailor made follow-up to our selected projects: we are very happy to launch the new collaboration with IFFR's CineMart and we are also making the first steps to launch a new partnership in Cannes with the Marché du Film.”, remarks Alessandro Gropplero, head of WEMW.
Also this year all 22 projects will compete for the Film Center Serbia Development Award, the EAVE European Producers Workshop scholarship, the Cannes Producers Network Prize and the Flow Postproduction Award. Moreover, all selected fiction projects will compete for the Pop Up Film Residency Award, whereas all female directors will be eligible for the EWA Network Best Woman Director Award.
In addition to the 22 projects selected for the pitching forum, WEMW will invite two additional guest projects previously presented at DOCMONTEVIDEO and DOCSP Brazil.
Together with the Co-Production Forum, the programme of WEMW 2020 will be as rich as ever and include all its now established side events: the fine cut section for creative documentaries Last Stop Trieste, the workshop for long feature fiction films in editing phase First Cut Lab and the work in progress section for films produced or co-produced by Italian companies This is IT. But there will also be room for some new fresh initiatives, such as the TV series mini lab MIDPOINT Cold Open, the project showcase of short films developed at MIDPOINT Shorts and the international Work-in-Progress presentation of the First Cut + curated portfolio of 8 fiction features.
It is still possible to request an online accreditation to participate in the coproduction forum. All detailed information about the programme and the confirmed participants are on www.wemw.it
The 22 projects selected for WEMW 2020 are:
1970 by Darko Lungulov - Papa Films (Serbia)
A SAD AND VULGAR LONER by Efthymia Zymvragaki, Xavier Domènech - Grismedio (Spain)
BLIND PIT by Federico Schiavi, Giorgio Bianchi - Nacne (Italy)
DOUBLE HAPPINESS by Sebastian Mihailescu - Microfilm (Romania)
ELECTING MISS SANTA by Raisa Razmerita - Niste Filme (Moldova)
GIRLS & GODS by Verena Soltiz, Arash T. Riahi - Golden Girls Filmproduktion (Austria)
IRENE'S WORLD by Mery Aghakhanyan - Hoshkee Film (Armenia)
LARRY by Szilárd Bernáth - Focusfox Studio (Hungary)
LILI by Sylwia Rosak - Haka Films (Poland)
NOT A WORD by Hanna Slak - Volte (Germany)
ORDINARY FAILURES by Cristina Groșan - Xova Film (Czech Republic)
SANDBAG DAM by Čejen Černić - Kinorama (Croatia)
STRANDZHA by Pepa Hristova - Fünferfilm (Germany)
STRAY BODIES by Elina Psykou - Contrast Film (Switzerland)
THE LAST MISFITS BY THE GOLDEN RIVER by Juho-Pekka Tanskanen - Danish Bear Productions (Finland)
THE MAN WITHOUT GUILT by Ivan Gergolet - Transmedia production (Italy)
THE MONKEY AND THE GIRL by Ann-Kristin Reyels - Unafilm (Germany)
THE WHITE CLUB by Michele Pennetta - Beauvoir Films (Switzerland)
THIS IS MY MOMENT by Lieven Corthouts - Cassette for timescapes (Belgium)
TOO CLOSE by Botond Pusok - Luna Film (Romania)
VALLEY OF MONUMENTS by Srdan Vuletic - Artikulacija Film (Montenegro)
WOMEN DO CRY by Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova - Activist38 (Bulgaria)
The 2 guest projects are:
AMAZON, A NEW MINAMATA? by Jorge Bodansky – Ocean Films (Brazil)
MOTOCYCLE by Gastón Sahajdacny – Ana Apontes (Argentina)
