The 2023 edition of When East Meets West (WEMW) is all set to kick off, running from 22-25 January. After unveiling all of the projects, works in progress, professionals and companies that have been selected in its different sections, WEMW has also confirmed the four juries along with all of the awards set to be handed out, as well as the complete programme of panels, lectures and case studies.

The 23 selected projects that will be participating in the WEMW Co-production Pitching Forum were announced back in December (see the news), and now the members of the international jury have also been confirmed. Ukrainian producer Darya Bassel (Moon Man), Pierre Dallois (head of the Creation Unit at Ciclic Centre Val de Loire), festival programmer Elma Tataragic (Sarajevo IFF) and Gordan Matić (director of Film Center Serbia) will be deciding on the winners of this section. The jury will hand out three cash prizes valued at €5,000 each: the Film Center Serbia Development Award, the Ciclic WEMW Award (granted by the French Centre Val de Loire region) and the ArteVideo Co-production Award. Moreover, all selected projects will be eligible for the EWA Network’s I HAVE A DREAM Award for Equality & Inclusion, to the tune of €1,000. In addition to these cash prizes, the Co-Production Forum will also feature a series of other major awards, including the EAVE Producers Workshop scholarship, the Marché du Film Producers Network badges, the Pop Up Film Residency Award, the DAE Talent Development Prize (in cooperation with the EFM) and the #DocsConnect Taskovski Training Award.

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Earlier this month, the selection for Last Stop Trieste was announced (see the news), and the jury features Martina Droandi (Autlook Film Sales), Tereza Keilová (HBO Europe) and Freddy Olsson (Göteborg IFF), who will pick the winner of the HBO Europe Award, valued at €1,000 in cash. The This is IT jury comprises Remi Bigot (Cannes Critics’ Week), Vincenzo Bugno (Berlinale World Cinema Fund/TFL), Wouter Jansen (Square Eyes) and Giancarlo Chetta (Laser Film), who will pick the laureate of the LASER FILM Award, which consists of €4,000 in colour grading and an additional 40% discount on post-production facilities. Finally, the First Cut+ jury, consisting of Esra Demirkiran (TRT), Stefan Ivančić (Locarno Film Festival) and Daniel Vadocky (Pluto Film), will award the TRT Prize, worth €5,000.

As for the talks, the 2023 WEMW opens with the conversational keynote “The Role of Cinema as an Identity Marker and a Means of Cultural Reproduction”, which will highlight the concept of national identity and discuss whether cinema is an art form that can shape, influence or promote related value sets. In the panel “Digital Campaign for Your Film Premiere”, First Cut+ offers hands-on tips on how to use digital tools for a meaningful campaign. EAVE is hosting the session “The Secret Life of a Producer”, where Polish producers Joanna Szymanska and Krystyna Kantor (Shipsboy) will discuss their strategies. The MIDPOINT Institute is organising the lecture “The State of Global Scripted Productions”, which aims to explore the current opportunities for, and challenges facing, local-language scripted series. ACE Producers is orchestrating the “ACE Interview With Volodymyr Yatsenko”, the founder of Ukrainian production company ForeFilms. Finally, ESoDoc will give a comprehensive overview of how Think-Film works all across Europe in the panel “Accelerate IMPACT: Bring Impactful Films to the Right Audiences”. In MEDICI - The Film Funding Journey (organised by FOCAL), Tamara Tatishvili, in conversation with fund representatives and producers, will explore the funding landscape in Armenia, Moldova and Georgia in this panel dedicated to the 2023 East Spotlight Territories.

The new WEMW ecosystem will include a record number of different industry activities running simultaneously over four intense days. Thanks to the close partnership with more than 15 European and international training programmes and funding bodies, WEMW will feature six Inspirational Labs, the EAVE Slate programme, the First Cut Lab for films in the editing phase, the EAVE Impact Think Tank on anti-racism, the EWA Mentoring Programme, DAE Confidential chats about documentary film financing and distribution, the Circle Women Doc Accelerator breakfast sessions, thematic panels on the 2023 spotlight countries and a series of enlightening lectures, to be live-streamed on Cineuropa and accessible on Festival Scope Pro after the market, as well as being available to more than 500 on-site and 200 online WEMW-registered participants and the whole European film industry.