Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’or in 2014 for his film Winter Sleep, will compete this year with The Wild Pear Tree / Ahlat Agaci. The film is a coproduction between Zeyno Film (Turkey), Detail (Germany), RFF International (Bulgaria), 2006 D.O.O. (BiH) and Sisters & Brother Mitevski (Macedonia), and The Chimney Pot in Sweden as well as Qatar.

Bulgarian producer and Sofia Film Festival helmer Stefan Kitanov is the producer on the Bulgarian side.

From partners in the CEE region the film was supported by the Bulgarian National Film Centre, the Macedonian Film Agency and the Sarajevo Film Fund, as well as Eurimages. The film was also produced in partnership with Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia.

Ayka by the Russian Sergey Dvortsevoy, who directed Tulpan, winner of the Prize Un Certain Regard in 2008, is a coproduction between Russia, Germany and Otter Films in Poland and was supported by the Polish Film Institute.

Knife Plus Heart / Un Couteau Dans Le Coeur by French director Yann Gonzalez and starring Vanessa Paradis completes the lineup.