23/11/2016 - The Tallinn-based international gathering held its latest edition from 18-20 November, welcoming talents from all over Europe

Miguel Llansó pitches his project Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway at the European Genre Forum (© BNFF)

From 18-20 November, the 20^th Black Nights Film Festival’s Industry@Tallinn section hosted another edition of the European Genre Forum. The event, a European training programme that aims to help the projects of future players in the continent’s genre-film industry by means of training activities, panels and pitching sessions, this year welcomed the talent behind nine projects in their early stages.

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As a highlight this year, the organisers of the forum reminded those present about the two-year grant awarded by Creative Europe’s MEDIA sub-programme; for this reason, from 2017, the forum will feature three distinct labs for directors, producers, and marketing and packaging. The labs will take place at the festivals that co-organise the forum: Amsterdam’s Imagine Film Festival, the Fantastic Zagreb Film Festival and, of course, the Black Nights Film Festival.

Organisers Chris Oosterom (Imagine Film Festival), Annick Mahnert (Screen Division), Sten-Kristian Saluveer (Industry@Tallinn) and Stjepan Hundic (Fantastic Zagreb Film Festival) introduced this edition’s programme, which included a case study on the Finnish slasher hit Bodom [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a focus on the Russian big-business genre industry, with case studies of The Duellist and Ice, as well as workshops on scoring, story and project expansion through transmedia and multi-platforms.

The talent participating in the forum included filmmakers such as Spain’s Miguel Llansó (whose latest film, Crumbs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], was a surprise festival hit, boasting a highly original idea and concept), who is returning to shoot in Ethiopia with the equally bonkers project Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway, this time a co-production between Lanzadera Films (Spain), Alasti Kino (Estonia) and Bira Biro Films (Ethiopia). Serbian filmmaker Milan Todorovic is also preparing a new zombie flick, following the success of Zone of the Dead: Wrath of the Dead will walk a similar path, backed by his own production company, Taking Wolf Productions (Serbia). Meanwhile, France’s Romain Basset (Horsehead [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) will also try his luck with his new title, Miss Bunny, labelled as a transgenre movie mixing comedy, thriller and horror.

Also present at the forum were the projects The Dating Game (Estonia/Poland), presented by Mika Pajunen and Vesa Vainio, and revolving around the true story of convicted rapist and serial killer Rodney James Alcala; Ever Eden, a co-production between Sweden and Estonia directed by Swedish filmmaker Uta Arning; The Heart of Tursas (Estonia/Russia), directed by Russian filmmaker Olga Twighlight; Maas Murder by Dutch filmmaker Ruben Broekhuis; and the Lithuanian short film When the Lights Go Out, presented by Jonas Trukanas and Edvardas Mikalauskas.

The mentors and experts participating this year included Alexandre Philippe (Exhibit A Pictures, USA), Jon Hegel (composer, USA), Tom Davia (Cinemaven, USA), Julian Richards (Jinga Films, USA), Aleksi Hyvärinen (Don Films, Finland), Taneli Mustonen (Don Films, Finland) and John Heinsen (Bunnygraph Entertainment, USA).