16/12/2011

The co-production forum When East Meets West today announced the 18 projects (divided equally between fiction features and documentaries) that will take part in its second edition, to be held from January 19-21, 2012 during the Trieste Film Festival. The selection includes 13 countries ― from Eastern Europe, Italy and the Nordic countries, special guests at this edition ― and stands out on account of its strength and variety, both in fiction and documentary, from social drama to animation, comedy and docu-fiction.

Standing out among the selected projects, which will be presented at the forum by their producers, are names like Slovenia’s Jan Cvitkovič [pictured] and Hungary’s Gyorgy Palfi (who will both direct sections of the collective film The Loss of Innocence), Iceland’s Fridrik Thor Fridriksson (Horsemen) and the production companies Colorado Film (Italy, which is taking part with Sworn Virgin) and Zentropa (Denmark, The Quatraro Mystery).

“182 applications from 29 countries is an impressive result which confirms that WHEN EAST MEETS WEST covers a real need of the European film market by linking the right people in the right place at the right time”, commented Paolo Vidali, head of the FVG Audiovisual Fund, which is organising the event with the Trieste Film Festival, in collaboration with EAVE, Eurimages, Cineregio, CEI - Central European Initiative, Antenna Media Turin and Cineuropa.

The selected projects are of a very high standard, as Danijel Hocevar, of EAVE European Producers Workshop, emphasised: “One of the most typical risks in any co-production forum is to disappoint rejected producers, but in this case I am sure everyone will reckon the quality of these 18 projects”.

Owing to the large number of projects submitted, When East Meets West will this year present a new section called Warm-Up & Follow-Up, which will host projects that are either in an excessively early stage of development but look very promising or have already taken part in the main European co-production markets. The projects selected in this category will be announced later on.

Full list of selected projects:

3xTonino (Documentary – Produced by Klara Bjoerk for Filmkreatoerna – Sweden)
All That Remains (Documentary – Produced by Dorino Minigutti for Agherose – Italy)
Bosnia Express (Documentary – Produced by Massimo D'Orzi for Il Gigante – Italy)
Brides (Fiction feature – Produced by Tinatin Kajrishvili for Gemini – Georgia)
By the Pool (Fiction feature – Produced by Gosia Sandecka for Neseser – Poland)
Circle (Fiction feature – Produced by Derya Tarim for Lacivert Film – Turkey)
Diana's List (Documentary – Produced by Dana Budisavljevic for Hulahop – Croatia)
Granny's Dancing on the Table (Fiction feature – Produced by Helene Granquist for Good World – Sweden)
Heartsnatcher (Fiction feature – Produced by Andrea Taschler for Mirage Film Studio – Hungary)
Heralds from the Big World (Documentary – Produced by Vladislav Ketkovich for Ethnogeographic Research Foundation – Russia)
Horsemen (Fiction feature – Produced by Gudrun Edde for Spellbound Production – Iceland)
Love and Engineering (Documentary – Produced by Kaarle Aho for Making Movies – Finland)
My World Is Upsidedown (Documentary – Produced by Petra Seliskar for Petra Pan – Slovenia)
Sworn Virgin (Fiction feature – Produced by Alessandro Usai for Colorado Film – Italy)
The Loss of Innocence (Fiction feature – Produced by Miha Cernec for Staragara – Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Austria, Hungary)
The Quatraro Mystery (Documentary – Produced by Peter Engel for Zentropa Real – Denmark)
The Undertaker (Documentary – Produced by Jovana Nikolic for Prababa Production – Serbia)
Whorebus (Fiction feature – Produced by Leila Lytikaeinen for Kinoproduction – Finland)

(Translated from Spanish)