12/05/2015 - Both countries will have new films on the table at the Film Market, with Slovakia also presenting some promising projects in the pipeline

The Slovakian project Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: György Kristóf
film profile], the fiction feature debut by young director György Kristóf, was picked as one of the 15 most promising projects from around the world for the Cinéfondation Atelier. The programme helps a new generation of filmmakers to gain access to and fast-track the production process. Slovakian company Sentimentalfilm (Marek Urban) is producing the project as an international co-production (with Hungary, France, the Czech Republic and Latvia). The absurdist drama follows the 50-year-old protagonist on an odyssey across Eastern Europe after he loses his steady job. The budget of the project is estimated at €1.2 million, with €660,000 already secured.

The Czech student film Retriever, directed by Tomáš Klein and Tomáš Merta, will be competing for one of the three prizes in the Cinéfondation Sélection. The short film was selected from 1,600 works submitted by film schools. It also marks the return of FAMU students to the Croisette, following Matúš Vizár’s participation in 2013 with his animated short Pandas, which won third prize (sharing it with Tudor Cristian Jurgiu). Based on a short story by Ondřej Štindl, Retriever is about a divorced man trying to retain the last remaining memory of his happy family – his retriever, Goldy.

The fiction feature debut by Slovakian documentarian Ivan Ostrochovský, who has already picked up awards for Koza [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile], and another Slovakian-Czech co-produced project, Wilson City (see the news), which has just been finished a few days away from the Cannes Film Festival, are on both countries’ slates for the Film Market. Furthermore, the Czech Republic will also be offering the Silver Bear-awarded historical drama Aferim! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile], the found-footage thriller Ghoul [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the dramedy The Snake Brothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan Prušinovský
film profile], and two projects co-produced with Macedonia and Slovenia: Honey Night [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Šiška Deluxe. Besides fiction features, domestic documentary works will be presented at market screenings in the Doc Corner section of the Film Market: these include Miro Remo’s portrait of two recidivists in Comeback, Jaro Vojtek’s focus on autism in So Far, So Near, Martin Štrba’s collective portrait of photographers from the Slovak New Wave in wave vs shore and the Czech-Slovak-Polish omnibus documentary Gottland.

The Producers Network will welcome the Slovakian filmmaker who works under the moniker Aramisova, who won this opportunity at the Baltic Event 2014 and will be presenting his feature debut in development, Kids from the East (see the news). Slovakian production company MPhilms is also due to attend the platform with its next project, Power [+see also:
film review
film profile], a fiction feature set to be directed by Mátyás Prikler and written by Marek Leščák. Finally, Martin Repka, Agda Bavi Pain and Matej Mináč will take part in the training programme for experienced scriptwriters from Central and Eastern Europe with their projects The Tattooist and Never Give Up!, which are currently being developed.