Competition for one of the coco Pitch or coco WiP slots was tough. coco WiP’s four projects were selected from 50 submissions from 25 countries.The coco Pitch selection of ten projects was made from over 125 submissions from 32 countries.
 
The ten coco Pitch projects will compete for another four coco awards: The €1,500 coco Best Pitch Award sponsored by Berliner Synchron and No Limits Media plus a Cannes Producers Network accreditation will go to the producer of the awarded best pitch. A jury of three industry representatives will award the €25,000 coco Post Pitch Award, an in-kind award donated by the German post-production house The Post Republic. The Midpoint Scholarship Award will enable one cocoLab project to develop its script by participating in our sponsor's Midpoint Feature Launch.
 
The Polish German Co-Production Roundtable will be continuing this year. connecting cottbus is joining forces with Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienstiftung, the Polish Film Institute and the German Federal Film Board (Filmförderungsanstalt - FFA) to invite producers from Poland and Germany to discuss the situation of co-production between the neighbouring countries.
 
We are very happy to welcome Serbia as coco’s country focus this year. In cooperation with the Film Center Serbia Focus Serbia will present Serbian co-production possibilities as well as projects and case studies.
 
This year will see connecting cottbus starting a network initiative focusing on gender equality. The coco Female Producers Roundtable will be inviting leading as well as upcoming female producers to a think tank to devise and develop new collaborative strategies that can benefit the industry in terms of gender diversity.
 
As a novelty this year, four projects have been selected at the Midpoint Feature Launch 2017 to pitch under the banner MIDPOINT SELECTION:
            - INVENTORY / director Darko Sinko, producer Vlado Bulajic (Slovenia)
            - MNKBOY / director Mete Gümürhan, producer Bas Broertjes (Netherlands/Turkey)
            - WATERWOLF / director Ann-Julie Vervaeke, producer Anastassia Oudovitchenko (Belgium)
            - ZANA / director Antoneta Kastrati, producer Casey Johnson (Kosovo)
 
connecting cottbus is supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Creative Europe/MEDIA and MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung.
 
More information about connecting cottbus can be found online at www.connecting-cottbus.de/ or on facebook www.facebook.com/connecting.cottbus.