21/08/2006

Twelve young European directors will be able to meet potential investors for their second films during the first edition of the Rome Film Festival (October 13-21).

A section entitled New Cinema Network will offer an efficient support system for new cinema, in keeping with the international network of festivals that backs independent films, from Rotterdam to Berlin to Cannes, passing through Hong Kong and Pusan.

The 12 European projects that will participate in the initiative have been chosen by a jury made up of the Oscar-winning producer Cédomir Kolar (No Man's Land), Oscar-winning producer and international distributor Simon de Santiago (The Sea Inside [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Italian producer Rosanna Seregni.

These are: Argentina’s Santiago Amigorena (director of Quelques jours en septembre [+see also:
trailer
film profile] with Juliette Binoche); screenwriter-designer-UK director Dave McKean (Mirror Mask [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the title of his first film, made with the renowned comic strip writer Neil Gaiman)’ Matthias Luthardt, director of Pingpong [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matthias Luthardt
interview: Sebastian Urzendowsky
film profile]; Spanish filmmakers Santiago Tabernero (Vida y color, a Goya Award nominee) and Inaki Arteta (Trece entre mil); Italy’s Luciano Melchionna (Gas) and Giorgio Diritti (Il vento fa il suo giro); as well as Icelandic director Arni Oli Asgeirsson, Macedonia’s Sergej Stanojkoski, Polish filmmaker Anna Jadowska, Sweden’s Joachim Heden and Dutch director Marc De Cloe. Their first films will be screened at Rome for general audiences and film professionals alike.

Along with the 40 producers that will be invited to Rome for the New Cinema Network, international production and distribution experts will also be onhand to further discuss exigencies, film trends, financing sources and resources, project marketing and film budgeting. Oscar=winning director Gabriele Salvatores will be the special guest of the New Cinema Network, as a point of reference for the 12 directors at work on their second films, to discuss artistic choices, development problems and everything else that precedes the making of a film.

Established directors will participate in New International Projects, to meet with distributors, financiers, producers and directors in New International Projects, a "sister" section created in collaboration with HAF (Hong Kong Film Financing Forum) and the UNIDEA Foundation for Asian and African projects, respectively, and in collaboration with the Atelier du Festival of Cannes.

(Translated from Italian)