JAN 10, 2014:
NEW FEATURE FILM PROJECTS ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS AT THE BERLINALE CO-PRODUCTION MARKET
39 new feature film projects from 30 countries will be presented at the 11th Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 9 - 11, 2014). In addition, five internationally renowned production companies have been selected without a concrete project for the exclusive Company Matching programme. TheBerlinale Co-Production Market gives all of these producers the opportunity to come together for pre-scheduled individual meetings with 450 potential co-production and financial partners.
Chosen from 328 entries, the official selection includes 20 new feature film projects from around the world. All of them will be realised by experienced producers and already have 30 % of their financing in place. The budgets of the projects range from 700,000 to 6.5 million euros.
In conjunction with CineMart Rotterdam, three more projects have been picked for the “Rotterdam-Berlinale Express”. They will participate in both the CineMart and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
Among directors whose earlier works were also presented at previous Berlinale Co-Production Markets prior to being filmed are Christos Georgiou from Cyprus, whose 2009 box-office hit, Small Crime, was presented there in 2006, Norwegian filmmaker Erik Skjoldbjaerg (Pioneer), and Israeli director Nir Bergman (Intimate Grammar). New projects this year are also from multi-award-winning directors Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Pernille Fischer Christensen (A Soap; A Family), Oliver Schmitz (Life, Above All; Turkish for Beginners), and Eran Kolirin (The Band’s Visit).
Also on board are the 2013 Berlinale Residency participants – all prize-winning filmmakers: Emir Baigazin, Alistair Banks Griffin, Bence Fliegauf, Sebastián Lelio, Elina Psykou and José Luis Valle will present their new projects - which they developed further during their three-month Berlinale Residency - for the first time to potential partners at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
At the “Talent Project Market” - co-organised as usual with Berlinale Talents - ten new producers and directors will be primed for the international market. Their projects have been selected out of an additional 216 entries. Here, co-production partners also have the opportunity to discover promising projects each year and many of them have been successful on the festival circuit: for instance, Ritesh Batra’s debut hit The Lunchbox received much acclaim last year. And this year, one “Talent Project Market” film has already been announced to screen in the Generation programme at the Berlinale 2014: Il Sud è Niente (South Is Nothing) by Italian filmmaker Fabio Mollo.
The Berlinale Co-Production Market can now look back at almost 170 films that have been realised (a success rate of over 40 %). The Co-Production Market’s strict structural and content-related selection criteria ensure that the participating producers, world sales agents, TV broadcasters, distributors, funders, and financiers can meet reliable partners with marketable projects whose chances of being realised are particularly high.
The five production companies presenting themselves within the scope of this year’s Company Matching programme are from Germany, Denmark, Canada, the USA and India. Here it is not about specific projects, but about extensive exchange on a structural level that is meant to foster medium- and long-term international partnerships.
The main partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market are MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the European Union’s MEDIA Programme.
The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market.
The Berlin House of Representatives – situated directly across from the European Film Market in the Martin-Gropius-Bau – will again be the Co-Production Market’s co-partner and venue.
