The well-established international script and development programme MIDPOINT has announced the project selection for its Feature Launch 2018. Aimed primarily at emerging film professionals, the programme, which for the first time is running for a whole year, has revealed nine new feature-film projects that are being represented by teams of writers, directors and producers.

Starting in January 2018 with the first workshop at the Trieste Film Festival's When East Meets West (21-23 January) and during Eastweek, MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2018 will be a year-round experience, with another major stop being the second workshop in late April in Serbia, in partnership with Film Center Serbia, while the showcasing of the projects will coincide with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in July. Feature Launch 2018 will conclude in January 2019, returning to Trieste for a spotlight on the projects.

Kristýna Plhoňová, programme coordinator of Feature Launch, gave Cineuropa a deeper insight into the selected projects: “The nine selected feature-film projects clearly show that we have managed to capture filmmakers from our focus region. The selection is very diverse; we have projects from Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. Not only is it a great message to us as a training platform, but also to the international industry – there are plenty of strong projects and young talents to discover.”

MIDPOINT has succeeded in becoming the leading training platform in Central and Eastern Europe, and the diversification of the selected projects and genres is evident from the selection. Among the participants is Polish filmmaker Jan P Matuszynski (The Last Family [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dawid Ogrodnik
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Here is a list of the selected projects:

Balaur – Octav Chelaru (writer/director)
Producer: Livia Radulescu (Romania)

Brazil – Thelyia Petraki
Producer: Kostas Tagalakis (Greece)

Clouds on Leashes – Gunel Eva
Producer: Maria Ibrahimova (Azerbaijan)

Homeward [+lee también:
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Producer: Vladimir Yatsenko (Ukraine)

Leave No Traces – Jan P Matuszynski
Producer: Leszek Bodzak (Poland)

Sex, Wire, Rock'n'Roll – Gabor Fabricius
Producers: Patricia D'Intino, Viki Reka Kiss (Hungary)

The Last Balkan Film About the War – Lee Filipovski
Producer: Adi Dizdarevic (Serbia)

The Ugly Mandarine – Piaoyu Xie
Producer: Veronika Kuhrova (Czech Republic)

Sirin [+lee también:
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Producer: Velisa Popovic (Montenegro)

MIDPOINT Feature Launch is realised in partnership with the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Czech Film Fund, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Trieste Film Festival, When East Meets West, the Film Center Serbia, COCO – connecting cottbus and CineMart.

In parallel with the Trieste event, MIDPOINT is launching MIDPOINT Shorts, a special workshop programme dedicated to short fiction films in development. Four projects from Hungary, Croatia, Denmark and Turkey will take part. For the full list, click here.