19 writers, directors and producers are meeting again on October 16th to participate in the second and last residential workshop of this year's MIDPOINT Feature Launch.
Since June's workshop in Macedonia, the teams have been working on their scripts and project development, and are now at the second workshop taking further steps in order to get ready to present their scripts to the national funding bodies as well as to international film industry decision makers. They will work in groups as well as with their tutors individually.
The Tutors
International experts will give their individual feedback to all projects, as well as cover the wide range of film development – from European film financing and co-production, sales and festival strategies, the art of collaboration and sustainability, to project pitching and marketing strategies. The team of experts are Head of Studies Danijel Hocevar, Core Tutors Anne Gensior, Pavel Jech and Ivo Trajkov; as well as Pitching Trainer Gabriele Brunnenmeyer. We are pleased to also welcome this year's Guest Lecturers, Alessandro Gropplero (When East Meets West), Jan Naszewski (New Europe Film Sales), Christina Pelekani (Feelgood Entertainment, Start Where You Are), Katriel Schory (Israel Film Fund) and Pavel Strnad (Negativ Film Productions). Please see the full program below.
The Awards
The participants compete about various awards. We are delighted to hand out the MIDPOINT Development Award of 8.000 EURO to the best project.
4 projects will get selected to pitch at Connecting Cottbus under the banner MIDPOINT Selection 2017 this coming November.
1 producer will be handpicked to participate in Rotterdam Lab including CineMart access during International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2018.
The 9 projects
19 – writer/director Kosara Mitic, producer Kornelija Ristovska (Macedonia)
Alive in Moscow – writer/director Grigore Becket, producer Elie Aufseesser (Switzerland/Moldova)
Asunden – writer/director Petter Ringbom, producer Eliza Jones (Sweden)
Images of Love – writer Tomasz Winski, producer Radovan Sibrt (Czech Republic)
Inventory – writer/director Darko Sinko, producer Vlado Bulajic (Slovenia)
Mnk Boy – writer Sibel Altinbas, director Mete Gümürhan, producer Bas Broertjes (Netherlands/Turkey)
Night of the Whale – writer/director Kaveh Daneshmand, producer Jordi Niubo (Czech Republic)
Waterwolf – writer/director Ann-Julie Vervaeke, producer Anastassia Oudovitchenko (Belgium)
Zana – writer/director Antoneta Kastrati, producer Casey Johnson (Kosovo)
Workshop program - open lectures
Tuesday Oct 17
9.00 – 10.30: Marketing is Your Friend – by Christina Pelekani
14.00 – 15.30: Film Financing Possibilities in Europe – by Danijel Hocevar
Thursday Oct 19
9.00 – 10.30: Sales and Festival Strategies – by Jan Naszewski
Friday Oct 20
9.00 – 10.30: How to Survive in the Big Jungle of Co-Production Markets – Alessandro Gropplero
11.00 – 12.30: Filmmaking – A Collaborative Art Form – by Katriel Schory
15.00 – 16.00: Building a Sustainable Production Company – by Pavel Strnad
17.15 – 19.15: Final Pitching of Projects & Feedback of Panelists
19.30 – 20.00: Workshop Conclusions
Find out more about all the lectures here.
MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2017 is realized in collaboration with Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund, International Visegrad Fund, Macedonian Film Agency, Creative Europe MEDIA Desk CZ, APA – Audiovisual Producers' Association, COCO – Connecting Cottbus and CineMart.
Feature Launch 2018 – deadline extended!
We have extended the deadline for next year's Feature Launch till Monday October 26rd giving you 10 more days to apply! The expanded development platform runs for a whole year, from January to January with workshops and presentations in Trieste/Italy, Serbia and Karlovy Vary/Czech Republic. We welcome 1st and 2nd feature filmmakers to apply, and we are very much looking forward to reading your script.
Shorts 2018 – deadline extended!
A professional project development program open to creative teams of writers, directors and producers. Within two residential workshops the participants get to develop their script as well as prepare the production and promotional aspects of the projects. The feedback format is based on one-to-one tutoring as well as group feedback.
