06/12/2012 - Frédéric Boyer, artistic director of the Les Arcs European Film Festival (December 15 to 22), explains the 2012 Work in Progress selection

At the Les Arcs European Film Festival (4th edition from December 15 to 22 - read the news), the "Work in Progress" event, launched last year, has grown from seven to 12 films. These works in post-production are to be presented on Sunday, December 16, by their producers and directors during a special event to be hosted by Frédéric Boyer, the festival’s artistic director. The latter shed light on his selection for Cineuropa.

"Work in Progress 2012 has benefited from very good word-of-mouth from the first edition, in particular thanks to the selection of Daniele Cipri’s It Was the Son for the competition in Venice and the noticed presence of Baltasar Kormakur’s The Deep in Toronto, two films whose first images we had revealed last year at Les Arcs,” Frédéric Boyer told Cineuropa. “There were therefore more candidates this year for quite an evolving selection process, as we are only presenting films that don’t yet have an international sales agent so that they can find one along the way. A Work in Progress session also has to be diverse and the 2012 selection includes experimental films, like the one by Ben Rivers and Ben Russell and the one by Lech Majewski, just as it does a comedy by Isaki Lacuesta. This diversity is also geographical, with filmmakers from Moldavia, Georgia, Iceland, Ireland, Belgium... Finally, some of my choices privileged more fragile quality films over others that needed nothing in post-production and already have access to distributors. As for the Work in Progress event, the idea is to show only two scenes each no longer than four minutes. I have insisted that participants show not trailers, but different, emblematic scenes from each film. But it’s also an opportunity to introduce producers and their companies, and to focus discussions on the fabrication process."

Work in Progress: 2012 Selection

Field of Dogs by Polish director Lech Majewski (The Mill and the Cross) - production: Freddy Olsson for Bokomotiv

Murieron por encima de sus posibilidades by Spanish director Isaki Lacuesta (who won in San Sebastian in 2011 with The Double Steps [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) - produced by Isa Campo for La Termita Films and the director himself.

A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness by American-English duo Ben Russell - Ben Rivers (French production by Julie Gayet for Rouge International).

Love Eternal (read more) by Irish director Brendan Muldowney (Savage [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) - production: Conor Barry for Sp Films and Macdara Kelleher for Fastnet Films

Concrete Night by Finnish director Pirjo Honkasalo (whose previous films, fictions and documentaries, notably went to Cannes, Locarno, Sundance, and Venice) – production: Mark Lwoff for Bufo.

Esto es lo que Hay by Léa Rinaldi (France - Aléa Film).

Ossuaires by Belgian director Bjorn Schmelzer (production: Tomas Leyer for Minds Meet).

September by Greek director Penny Panayotopoulou (awarded in Locarno in 2002 for her feature debut Hard Goodbyes: My Father) - production: Karathanos Thanassis for Twentytwenty Vision.

The Unsaved by Moldavian director Igor Cobileanski (Romanian production by Daniel Burlac for Saga Film)

Le jour du mineur by Gaël Mocaër (France - Xénia Maingot for Eaux Vives Productions).

Long Bright Days by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross - a France-Georgia-Germany co-production - Guillaume de Seille for Arizona Films with Polare Films and Indiz.

XL by Icelandic director Marteinn Thorsson (who competed at Sundance in 2004 with One Point One, and was rewarded at the 2011 Eddas for Stormland) - production: Tenderlee.

(Translated from French)