07/06/2019 - The upcoming features by Andrei Crețulescu and Bogdan Theodor Olteanu are among the projects selected for the TPS co-production platform

Director Andrei Crețulescu, who has been selected for the TPS co-production platform with Jeux sans frontières

Divided into two sections – a workshop for first- and second-time directors from Romania and the Republic of Moldova, and a co-production platform featuring projects from countries across the region – the Transilvania Pitch Stop (TPS) is once again welcoming projects by emerging filmmakers. Eleven feature-length projects at different stages of development and financing will be presented to industry professionals at the co-production platform organised by the Transilvania International Film Festival on 7 and 8 June, in Cluj-Napoca. For the third year in a row, the co-production platform will focus on first and second features by directors from Eastern Europe and the Balkans. In detail, the 11 feature-length projects that will get the chance to take part in the co-production platform this year hail from Bulgaria, Hungary, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine and Romania. 

A weekend spent by ten lifelong friends in a remote cabin in the mountains takes an unexpected and bloody turn in Jeux sans frontières, the sophomore feature-length project by Romania’s Andrei Crețulescu. The director is following up on his debut feature, Charleston [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrei Creţulescu
film profile], which competed at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival, with a thriller story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. This year’s selection includes two further Romanian projects: Mia Misses Her Revenge [+see also:
trailer
interview: Bogdan Theodor Olteanu
film profile], the second feature by Bogdan Theodor Olteanu, tells the story of a young actress who plans to make a sex tape to get back at her jealous boyfriend; and Sarra Tsorakidis’ Ink Wash focuses on a 30-year-old PhD student who keeps postponing big life decisions. Furthermore, Bulgaria’s Nadejda Koseva is attending the TPS with her sophomore film project, Beggar, which centres on a former miner suffering from silicosis. Three Turkish features are also among the projects selected this year. Athlete, the directorial debut by Semih Gulen and Mustafa Emin Buyukcoskun, tells the story of a young female long jumper who decides to dope at the World Championships, while I Will Survive, the first feature by Ali Ercivan, follows a group of transgender women and gay men who get deported from Istanbul after the coup d’état of September 1980. The second feature by Turkey’s Selman Nacar, Between Two Dawns [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selman Nacar
film profile], tells the story of a man who is forced to make a difficult moral decision after an employee in his family business is severely injured on the job. The co-production platform will also be welcoming the debut feature by Ukraine’s Maksym Nakonechny, Spas, a drama about a female soldier who, upon returning home after being captured for two months, discovers that she is pregnant by her warden, who raped her. Also among the participating projects is the second feature by Hungary’s Mihály Schwechtje, Democracy Work in Progress, a black comedy about the encounter between a corrupt driving instructor and a young female political activist. The selection is rounded off by two debut projects by Greek filmmakers. Mignon by Sofia Georgovassili tells the story of two teenage girls who get caught shoplifting in a department store and are taken captive, while in Thanos Psichogios’ Remember, teenagers Fanny and Katia murder an old man, shaking up the conservative community on an isolated Greek island.

The participating directors and their attached producers will pitch their projects to an audience of film professionals, and they will also have a chance to book one-to-one meetings with them afterwards. Furthermore, an international jury of experts will bestow three awards upon the best projects: the €20,000 Eurimages Co-production Development Award, the €25,000 Award in Post-production Services offered by Chainsaw Europe, and a €5,000 prize offered with the support of the Romanian National Film Center.

Furthermore, four projects hailing from Romania and Moldova have been selected for the sixth edition of the TPS workshop (3-8 June). The best two projects will have a chance to win the Connecting Cottbus Award and the Villa Kult Cultural Residency Award. Carbon by Ion Borș tells the story of two Moldovan friends who, in 1992, during the armed conflict, find a carbonised corpse by the Nistru River. Set in the same year, November Dream by Gabi Virginia Sarga and Catălin Rotaru is based on the true story of two homosexual boys who are sentenced to jail. Alexandru Mavrodineanu’s A Serious Man centres on Mimi, a man who decides that it is time for him to get married and who weds a much younger woman, while Océane by Eva Pervolovici tells the tale of a young French woman who falls in love with a Romanian man and who moves to Bucharest to join him without telling him. 

The projects selected for the TPS co-production platform are as follows:

Jeux sans frontières - Andrei Crețulescu
Producer: Codruța Crețulescu - Kinosseur Productions (Romania) 

Ink Wash - Sarra Tsorakidis
Producer: Anca Puiu - Mandragora (Romania) 

Mia Misses Her Revenge - Bogdan Theodor Olteanu
Producers: Anamaria Antoci, Anda Ionescu - Tangaj Production (Romania)

Beggar - Nadejda Koseva
Producer: Vladimir Andreev - Borough Film (Bulgaria)

Athlete - Semih Gulen and Mustafa Emin Buyukcoskun
Producers: Oyku Kanli, Arda Ciltepe - Yumurta Yapim Sanat, Vigo Film (Turkey)

I Will Survive - Ali Ercivan
Producer: Engin Palabiyik - Harikulade Film (Turkey)

Between Two Dawns [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selman Nacar
film profile] - Selman Nacar
Producer: Burak Çevik - Kuyu Film (Turkey)

Spas - Maksym Nakonechny
Producer: Yelizaveta Smith - Tabor (Ukraine)

Democracy Work in Progress - Mihály Schwechtje
Producer: Genovéva Petrovits - Studio P (Hungary)

Mignon - Sofia Georgovassili
Producers: Vasilis Chrysanthopoulos, Irina Malcea - plays2place (Greece), Luna Film (Romania)

Remember - Thanos Psichogios
Producer: Nancy Kokolaki - Bad Crowd (Greece) 

The projects selected for the Transilvania Pitch Stop Workshop are as follows: 

Carbon - Ion Borș
Producer: Kantora Film Production and Youbesc Creative Institute (Moldova)

November Dream - Gabi Virginia Sarga and Catalin Rotaru
Producer: Axis Media Production (Romania)

Océane - Eva Pervolovici
Producer: Libra Films (Romania) 

A Serious Man - Alexandru Mavrodineanu
Producer: Alma Film (Romania), Luna Film (Romania)