12/03/2009

For its third edition, the two-day BUFF Financing Forum, held from March 12-14 in Malmö, during the BUFF International Film Festival for Children and Youth, has selected 25 European projects looking for co-financing, three times the amount in 2008.

For Forum coordinator Annette Brejner, the sharp rise in the number of projects is due to the growing popularity of the event as well as the Forum’s decision to open up to more countries and more formats (short films, feature films, TV series and new media). Around 90 participants are expected, as many as in 2008, including 16 international financiers who will meet the producers of the 25 selected projects in one-to-one sessions.

Financiers include US producer Don Schneider (BNB Productions), Britta Marciniak from Germany’s regional funding agency MDM, Eva Eisenloeffel from Dutch production house Lemming Film, and Tomas Eskilsson, head of Sweden’s largest film centre Film i Väst.

Among the 25 children and youth projects selected, 14 are features and six are animated films. Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany and Sweden are represented by almost an equal number of projects (4-5 each), with average budgets of €1.5-€2.5m.

Projects include Frannes Grandfather by acclaimed Danish filmmaker Anders Morgenthaler (Princess [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). The €2m feature in HD digital aimed at 9-12 year-olds is produced by Copenhagen Bombay. Norway’s Grethe Bøe is preparing Operation Arctic, her second feature film following her acclaimed The Ten Lives of Titanic the Cat [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The €2.5m coming-of-age film set in the Arctic is produced by Nordisk Film.

Katrin Laur, the Estonian/German filmmaker of the successful family film Shipwreck Rudy, is working on the final draft of Graveyard Keepers’ Daughter, the story of an eight-year-old, modern-day sister of Pippi Longstockings. The €1.5m project will be produced by Osakond in Estonia.