22/12/2023 - We take stock of the event and zoom in on the most sought-after projects at the Work In Progress, the Co-Production Village, and the Talent Village

Les Arcs Film Festival's Industry Village editorial head Lison Hervé and director of professional events Jérémy Zelnik (© Les Arcs Film Festival)

"We’ve brought together 680 professionals at the Industry Village (which took place from 16 to 19 December). This is a new record after the 600 of last year." Jérémy Zelnik and Lison Hervé, the pilots of the Industry Village, the professional section of the 15th Les Arcs Film Festival, are happy. "We’ve received great feedback about all the sections, particularly about the Work In Progress on which we’d made a real effort this year to put together a more varied selection, open to a wider variety of sales agents and festivals. We’re also very happy that all the projects in the Co-Production Village, in all their differences, have managed to garner interest."

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"The conferences and workshops were really attuned to demand, notably the one about the production of Explanation For Everything [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gábor Reisz
film profile] by Hungarian filmmaker Gábor Reisz, because it really is incredible to manage to make such a powerful film with a shooting budget of only €40,000! We also wanted to reconnect the Music Village and the Industry Village a little, so we had the idea of a conference bringing together music supervisors (Thibault Deboaisne and Laura Bell) and producers (Alexandre Gavras and Erik Glijnis), which turned out to be fascinating. Meanwhile, for the conference about Artificial Intelligence, animated by Alexandra Lebret, we decided to present the concrete uses of AI today in the cinema industry, from the pure fabrication of a film, to script analysis. A software that was presented can even determine with rather good accuracy a film’s budget based on its script!"

Work In Progress

Among the projects that registered meeting inquiries for the day after the Work in Progress (before the winners were revealed at the end of the day), at the top comes the film that later won the main WIP award (read the news) : Little Trouble Girls, the debut feature from Slovenian director Urška Djukić. The film is produced by Jožko Rutar for Spok Film) (Slovenia), with Staragara I.T. (Italy), Izazov 365 (Croatia), Nosorogi (Slovenia) and Non-Aligned Films (Serbia) as co-producers.

In second position was The doctor says I’ll be alright but I’m feeling blue (provisional title) by Germany’s Mascha Schilinski (discovered at the 2017 Berlinale 2017 with Dark Blue Girl [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). This Studio Zentral and ZDF - Das Kleine Fernsehspiel production, whose script was written by the director together with Peter Louise, sees a girl jump from a hayloft and unleashing a stream of memories from a hundred years of life on a four-sided farm in the Altmark (northern Germany).

Finally, in third place was Paradijs by Bobbie Koek from the Netherlands. Co-written by the filmmaker together with Ashgan El-Hamus, the script of this debut feature centres on 16-year-old Noah who is suddenly thrown into adulthood when his girlfriend leaves their baby with him. In complete denial, Noah gets on his motorbike to bring their son back. But this escape gradually becomes a journey to connection… A production by the Netherlands’ FIXY with Belgium’s A Private View as co-producers.

Co-Production Village

Among the 18 projects of the Co-Production Village, Basarda by Spain’s Salvador Sunyer recorded the most meeting requests. This debut fiction feature (written by the director together with Laia Soler Aragonès) is set in 1955. 18-year-old Silvana tries to save her father’s charcoal business by trafficking in black truffles. Her neighbour Liuet, 16, shows her how to find them with his boar Basarda, but buried family conflicts will soon come to the surface… The film is produced by Avalon.

In second place was The Possessed by Amsterdam-based Bosnian filmmaker Ena Sendijarević (well-known for Take Me Somewhere Nice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ena Sendijarević
film profile] and Sweet Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ena Sendijarević
film profile]) which centres on an eccentric director and her small film crew as they shoot a film about the witch hunts during the Inquisition. Of course, things don't go according to plan… The production is headed by Aventura from the Netherlands and the film has also been selected at the upcoming Cinemart of IFFR (read the news) as part of a partnership with Les Arcs.

Finally, on the podium’s third step came Shitballs by Iceland’s Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir. The story centres on a struggling Icelandic singer and activist who loves plants more than people and becomes obsessed with a dying plant species called Shitballs. But to rescue it, she needs to regrow her love for humans… The film is produced by Compass Films.

Talent Village

Among the eight projects of the Talent Village (which attracts growing attention from professionals), it was Cute by Norway’s Marlene Emilie Lyngstad (which later won the award in this selection – read the news) that recorded the highest number of meeting requests, followed by This Will Not End Well from the Netherlands’ Emma Branderhors and by Hunger (provisional title) from Germany’s Alma Buddecke.

(Translated from French)