The third edition of the Pustnik Screenwriters Residency took place from 2-10 September at Port Cultural Cetate, a secluded spot on the Romanian shore of the Danube. In this isolated, quiet place (pustnic means “hermit” in Romanian), the eight directors spent one week polishing the screenplays for their first features, and one weekend meeting producers.

Eight projects were selected from among 55 applications from 26 European countries. The selected projects were Luca Zuberbühler’s Evolution (Switzerland), Octav Chelaru’s Balaur (Romania), Simona Sava’s A Good Day to Die (Romania), Caroline Ingvarsson’s Fear (Sweden), Deben Van Dam’s You’ll Be on Your Knees (Belgium), Fanni Szántó’s It’s Not the End of the World (Hungary), Ioana Ţurcan’s The Giving Sun (Romania) and Iris Pakulla’s Gobi Paradise (France).

Romanian screenwriter-director Andreea Borţun, the founder of the Pustnik Residency together with British writer-director Bryn Chainey, told Cineuropa that her team had made efforts to invite producers from the directors’ countries of origin, which they expected to increase the chances of these projects starting production as soon as possible. The invited producers were Julie Billy, Haut et Court (France); Dora Nedeczky, Moviebar Productions (Hungary); Giacun Caduff, Caduff Entertainment (Switzerland); Jurgen Willocx, Early Birds (Belgium); Oana Giurgiu, Libra Film (Romania); Gabriela Suciu, Dropia Film (Romania); and Ana Maria Gheorghe, Saga Film (Romania).

Besides meeting producers, the directors attended a screenwriting master class with French screenwriter Laurence Coriat, a long-time writing partner of Michael Winterbottom’s. The master class was followed by one-to-one sessions. 

During the residency, two of the young directors learned that they had received production support from their respective countries.