Since Russian joined Eurimages the central and eastern region in aggregate has been the largest partner for Russia in terms of the numbers of coproductions.

The PISF Polish Projects presentations included 9 projects in various stages of development including The Night Train by acclaimed Polish director Jan Kidawa-Blonski whose film Rose won the Grand Prix at the Moscow International Film Festival in 2009. The 1.5m EUR drama/romance has already confirmed 300 000 EUR of its budget and is slated to be produced by the Warsaw based Gambit Production. PISF’s head of international relations Izabela Kiszka-Hoflik was on hand to introduce the projects.

Click HERE to see all Polish Projects at MIFF 

Another hot project was The Photographer, a thriller directed by Waldemar Krzystek set in Poland and Soviet Russia in the 1970s when a serial killer was on the lose. Based on a true story the 2.35m EUR production has already confirmed most of the financing including backing from PISF and is set to be projected by the Polish production outfit Yes to Film.

From Georgia the tragic-comedy Another Paradise an 850, 000 EUR project directed by Georgian writer and director Nana Janelidze who also recently took over the helm of the Georgian National Film Centre (GNFC) was creating buzz. The producers Cinetech of Georgia are already in negotiations with Weydeman Bros of Germany and Mact Productions, Wild Bunch and Rezo Film in France.

On the final day of the three day event participants were treated to an excursion to Russia’s largest new state-of the art all digital film studio Glavkino and lunch with the studio CEO Ilya Bachurin.   Glavkino is also a leading film production outfit and Bachurin said he was looking for good European coproduction projects and if the project was right the studios was willing to invest.

Overall more than 250 producers, directors and other film professionals participated in the event held from 24-26 June.