22/10/2014 - A selected group of international projects and producers in search of concrete opportunities for development and funding

The 9^th New Cinema Network (NCN), the International Project Workshop of the Rome Film Festival coordinated by Alexia De Vito, has proven to be an agile and efficient market platform where a selected group of international projects and producers can find concrete opportunities for development and funding. In 2014 NCN counted over 150 professionals in the field from 37 countries and organized more than 1,000 meetings in the space of three days for its 27 selected projects. For New Cinema Network, the ninth edition was also an opportunity to consolidate its collaboration with its most solid and important partners with an eye to future editions, including the Sundance Institute, the Cinéfondation Atelier and Residence of Cannes, Film London, all of whom sent their own representatives to actively participate in the NCN.

One of the new features of this edition of NCN was "Le Grandi Bellezze" (i.e. the Great Beauties). Conceived and supported by director Marco Müller, and dedicated to film projects "Le Grandi Bellezze" aims to highlight Italy's potential as an excellent production partner, underlining the importance of the Mediterranean country as both an ideal location and also as a territory able to take a central role in supporting production and funding. The showcase presents a collection of 8 projects from 6 countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Italy, Luxembourg, United States. Joe Dante was there as a special guest with his new project Ombra Amore (United States); with his usual sense of humour, his love for cinema and horror films in particular, he presented a love story between a vampire and a werewolf set in the Roman catacombs, populated by strange creatures.

For the sixth year in a row, recognizing New Cinema Network as one of the three most important and successful European co-production markets, and confirming the award for future editions, Eurimages, the European Fund of the Council of Europe - entrusted the jury of NCN 2014, composed of Marie-Pierre Duhamel, Sandra Hebron, and Elena Kotova, with the task of selecting the winner of the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award: a cash prize of 30,000 euro for the development of the project that most specifically reflects the criteria of collaboration and co-production that inspire Eurimages.

The Jury awarded the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award to 9 Fingers by F.J. Ossang produced by Catherine Dussart, with the following motivation: "a project that combines philosophical and narrative qualities in a decidedly original manner". Furthermore, a special mention was awarded to two projects: 1313 - Dante's Emperor by Bady Minck, produced by Alexander Dumreicher-Ivancenau and Menocchio by Alberto Fasulo produced by Nadia Trevisan.

One of the most important new features in the 2014 edition was the UNICEF Italia Special Mention, on the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Adolescent. The Italian Commission for UNICEF awarded the Special Mention to White Shadows by Fabio Mollo for having addressed a story of abuse and violation of children's rights effectively yet with great delicacy.

Andrea Paris of Ascent Film was awarded the Cubix Award as best emerging European producer, winning a cash prize of 5,000 euro allocated by Cubix International to support a quality production in the delicate phase of project development.

Like last year, the work of ICE - Italian Trade Agency for the Rome Film Festival this year was quite intense. Thanks to the efforts of its network of foreign offices, they were able to bring to The Business Street and New Cinema Network fifty of the most important international operators. Equally significant were the gatherings organized by ICE - Italian Trade Agency in collaboration with ANICA and the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, for the Focus on Argentina, Brazil and China.

These are the markets on which ICE will increasingly orient its promotional work to begin a programme of co-production and direct distribution of Italian film products. Latin America, in particular, has already experimented a preliminary version of this distribution formula, when last September it released the Director's Cut of Nuovo Cinema Paradiso in a large number of movie theatres in Buenos Aires and other Argentinian cities. This operational approach will be extended by ICE and Anica to other countries in this area, first and foremost to Brazil. This is an innovative type of operation compared to past efforts, and fits perfectly into the sphere of activities programmed for the year of Italy in Latin America which will be celebrated in 2015, and whose most significant event will be Italy's participation as the Guest of Honor Country at the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico.

Many extremely important and significant contacts were made with giants of the Chinese film industry during China Day, organized by ICE - Italian Trade Agency in collaboration with Anica. The president of ICE, Riccardo Monti, took part in the opening of this event, announcing the opening of audiovisual "antennas" in the ICE offices in China, the objective of which is to reinforce and accelerate the growing process of collaboration between the film industries of the two countries.

NCN - New Cinema Network
27 selected projects
including 7 Italian projects
over 150 professionals in the field
from 37 countries
30 directors
from 18 countries
over 1,000 meetings