The Jerusalem International Film Lab

The Jerusalem International
Film Lab
Book of Projects 2014
An Initiative of
The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School
Director Philippe Lacôte, winner of the Lab’s first edition on a location tour in
Ivory Coast (2013) with cinematographer Daniel Miller,
a graduate of the Sam Spiegel School.
Partners
The Sam Spiegel Estate
Supporters
The Israeli Ministry of
Foreign Affairs
Sponsors
The Jerusalem International
Film Lab
2014
An Initiative of
The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School
Advisory Board
Anthony Bregman, Producer, USA | Georges Goldenstern, Cannes Film Festival, France
Sonja Heinen, Berlin Film Festival, Germany | Jovan Marjanovic, Sarajevo Film Festival, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Savina Neirotti, Torino Film Lab, Italy | Olivier Père, ARTE France Cinéma, France
Katriel Schory, Israel Film Fund, Israel | Marit van den Elshout, Cinemart, Rotterdam Film Festival, The Netherlands
Joana Vicente, IFP, New York, USA | Alesia Weston, Los Angeles, USA
RUN
Philippe Lacôte (Ivory Coast)
Un Certain Regard, 2014 Cannes Film Festival
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©Bertrand Noël / Semaine de la Critique
THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
Nadav Lapid (Israel)
Cannes Critics’ Week , 2014 Cannes Film Festival
5
© 2014 Sundance Institute | Jemal Countess
IMPERIAL DREAMS
Malik Vitthal (USA)
Audience Award, NEXT, 2014 Sundance Film Festival
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BARASH
Michal Vinik
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In postproduction
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Greetings
Nir Barkat
Mayor of Jerusalem
Dear friends,
Welcome to the third annual Jerusalem International Film Lab, an
initiative of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School. It gives
me great pleasure to greet the jury, guests and participants who
have joined us from around the globe.
Jerusalem is a spiritual and cultural center, serving as a source
of inspiration for millions of Israelis and three billion people
of faith around the world. The unique landscape of the city,
the blend of modern and ancient, and the incredible human
diversity make Jerusalem a hub for inspiration and creativity.
Film and television production in Jerusalem are an important
part of the cultural scene in the city.
The Jerusalem International Film Lab, the third of its kind in the
world, plays a critical role in attracting talent from around the
world to Jerusalem and in establishing Jerusalem as a focal
point for the international film industry for developing content
and production. Six of the films developed in the Lab’s first year
were filmed in locations around the globe including Uruguay,
Ivory Coast, Germany, the United States and Israel. Two of
the films produced were accepted to the prestigious Cannes
Festival. I am confident that this year’s Lab will produce similar
successes.
Best of luck to all of the filmmakers, and thank you to everyone
who has contributed to this event. I look forward to hearing
about your future achievements.
Regards from Jerusalem,
Nir Barkat
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Uzi Dayan
Chairman,
Israel National
Lottery Fund
Dear friends,
Mifal Hapais, the Israel National Lottery, has been raising funds
for education to benefit society for over 60 years. Each year the
lottery builds 50 percent of the classrooms and kindergartens in
Israel, and establishes clubs and youth sports halls and libraries.
It also purchases computers for students and teachers, and
awards scholarships to thousands of students.
Mifal Hapais sees culture as complementing education and as a
form of spiritual enrichment. Therefore, last year we tripled the
Budget for culture and art and we pledge to continue to do so
over the next five years. We invest in all sectors of culture and
art with an emphasis on supporting artists, inculcating culture
for young people and contributing to the periphery. We not only
bring culture to the periphery but establish cultural centers
where creativity thrives.
True to our slogan “Good Things Start Here”, we were excited
by the establishment of the Jerusalem International Film Lab
and we decided to go beyond the periphery and invest in this
incubator of excellence for both Israelis and international
filmmakers.
It seems our enthusiasm was not misplaced – the focus of
cinematic creativity is shifting to Jerusalem and the city is
becoming a center for international filmmaking.
Wishing success and enjoyment for all filmmakers and film lovers!
Uzi Dayan
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›‫ עמית ברלוביץ‬:‫צילום‬
Greetings
Yoram Honig
Director, The Jerusalem
Film and Television Fund
Dear Friends,
On behalf of the Jerusalem Film and Television Fund at the
Jerusalem Development Authority, I’m proud to greet the
participants of the third International Film Lab taking place in
Jerusalem with a warm welcome.
During these past months you have participated in a creative
journey here in Jerusalem and did it the “Sam Spiegel way,” an
intensive and fruitful one.
To us, in the Jerusalem Development Authority and the Jerusalem
Film and Television Fund, the lab’s mission is vital, it is another
step towards turning Jerusalem into a key venue in the cinematic
discourse in Israel and overseas and this joins the revolution on
the local and international screens that the Jerusalem Film and
Television fund, the first and leading regional film fund in Israel,
has created.
Over the past five years more than 50 feature films and television
dramas were produced in Jerusalem and gained worldwide
recognition and prizes at leading film festivals around the world.
We do hope that soon, your screenplays will evolve into
significant feature films. We are proud to support the Jerusalem
International Film Lab and its important role in your professional
and artistic journey.
Best wishes,
Yoram Honig
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Renen Schorr
Founding Director
The Sam Spiegel Film &
Television School, Jerusalem
Ifat Tubi
Associate Director
The Jerusalem
International Film Lab
Dear All,
In a few short days, during the events of the 31st Jerusalem Film
Festival, the participants of the Jerusalem International Film Lab
will stand before distinguished panel of judges from across the
globe, as well as film professionals from Israel and abroad. And
their hearts will skip a beat.
Young directors and producers from a boundless world will
enthusiastically present the object of their passions: their first or
second full-length film. THE film.
They will be excited, and our hearts, too, will skip a beat, again,
as the Jerusalem International Film Lab now presents its third
edition’s finalized projects.
The idea to establish a bold, ambitious international film lab in
Jerusalem, where a group of select participants would develop
full-length films under the tutelage of first-class script editors,
came to be a reality with the participants of the first edition.
The scripts were autobiographical, social, political, or a mixture
—all driven by a palpable “special urgency.” A passion to create
distinctive, original, character-driven films, films that must be
made.
Today, we can proudly say that six of the twelve scripts that
were presented at our first pitching event in July 2012 are now
full-length feature films. Three of them where presented at the
world’s leading film festivals: Run by Philippe Lacôte (Un Certain
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Greetings
Regard, Cannes 2014), The Kindergarten Teacher (Cannes Critic’s
Week - Spotlight Screening, 2014) by Nadav Lapid and Imperial
Dreams by Malik Vitthal (Audience Award, NEXT , Sundance Film
Festival, 2014).
Three more projects are awaiting their world premiere: Mr. Kaplan
by Alvaro Brechner; We Are Young. We Are Strong by Burhan
Qurbani and Barash by Michal Vinik.
In addition to these six outstanding films, three more projects
developed in the Lab’s first edition will be shot later this year.
Nine out of twelve films that MUST BE MADE.
Since that first pitching event two years ago, we’ve seen the Lab’s
mission and international outreach continue to grow, and are
happy to announce that four screenplays from the Lab’s second
edition have received proper funding and will begin shooting in
the coming year.
As in the past two years, we didn’t make it easy on our participants.
We flew them here, hosted them, and even spoiled them a bit.
But throughout the entire experience, we demanded that they
undergo a process, under the mentorship of the diligent scripteditors Clare Downs, Jacques Akchoti and Koby Gal-Raday. We
encouraged them to develop their skills, to decipher and to break
through their minds’ boundaries – to derive the very best from
within themselves.
The thirteen scripts were written and rewritten, again and again —
face to face “up close”, and face to face via the internet. The tutors
were there, in their full benevolence, and in their full creativity.
Simultaneously, we followed the work of the producers
participating in the process, assisting them in their efforts to the
best of our abilities, to prepare the projects for the production
phase.
Finally, following six intensive months of work, we encountered
the scripts anew. Here, Once again, we savored one long,
satisfying moment. All of the scripts—and all of their writers—
had undergone an intense process of deciphering and developing
their ideas, leading to impressive changes in direction and
content. Ready at last to compete for the Film Lab’s awards and
to become actual productions.
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The prizes, which the panel of judges will award to two of the
projects, are both production grants as well as important,
esteemed acknowledgements.
Our own acknowledgement goes to many recipients. To
the International Advisory board, the scouts, the selection
committees, the participants — directors, producers, scriptwriters
— the script editors and now the panel of judges. A varied group
of individuals from 25 nations. To all of you, thank you for your
significant efforts and your faith in the value of the scripts, the
participants and the Jerusalem International Film Lab.
An additional thank you to the 20 top industry professionals
from around the world, who have honored us with their presence
and who came here especially to become partners in the Jerusalem
Film Lab’s productions.
Special thanks to the Lab’s supporters and sponsors in Israel and
abroad who believed in its vision, and certainly in our “chutzpah”
that Israel and Jerusalem should create an international center of
excellence for full-length feature films and invest in talents from
all around the world: the Beracha Foundation, the Jerusalem
Development Authority and the Jerusalem Film and Television
Fund; The Israel National Lottery Fund, Council for Arts and
Culture; The Sam Spiegel Estate; The Jerusalem Foundation; The
Israel Film Fund and The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
We hope that all thirteen projects will take off from the Jerusalem
“Airport” to film locations throughout the world, en route to the
major international cinema centers and lovers.
Our thanks to you all for your trust and generosity.
Renen Schorr & Ifat Tubi
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The Jerusalem International Film Lab
THE JERUSALEM INTERNATIONAL
FILM LAB was launched in December
2011 by The Sam Spiegel Film & Television
School, Jerusalem to foster the development
and production of full-length feature films
by some of the world’s most promising
talents.
The Jerusalem International Film Lab
became the third Film Lab of its kind
in the world, along with the Sundance
Institute (USA) and the Torino Film Lab
(Italy).
Six projects of the Lab’s first edition
(2012) have already been shot in Israel,
Ivory Coast, Germany, Uruguay and
USA.
The two winning films of the Lab’s first
edition – Run by Philippe Lacôte and
The Kindergarten Teacher by Nadav Lapid
had their world premiere at the 2014
Cannes Film Festival. Imperial Dreams by
Malik Vitthal won the Audience Award
at the 2014 Sundacne Film Festival.
Three more projects of the Lab’s first
edition will be shot in 2014.
Each year, the Jerusalem International
Film Lab brings to Jerusalem 12 talented
young director-writers who are at the
advanced stages of writing their first
or second full-length feature film. All
participants write over a seven-month
period, and are invited for two periods
of writing and discussion in Jerusalem
under the mentorship of three of the
world’s top script editors, in addition to
on-line contact throughout the entire
period of rewriting. The Lab also works
to promote the production feasibility
of the projects.
Internationally, the Film Lab reaches out
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to leading institutes and figures in film
education and industry to refer suitable
candidates. Simultaneously, the Lab’s
scouts identify promising candidates
from all around the world who meet
the qualifications for acceptance.
All candidates have directed at least two
short films or a feature film that has
inspired international attention. The
Israeli selection is open to all Israeli
film schools’ alumni.
The highly competitive selection process
for the Lab participants has resulted in
its three editions world-class projects
with unique and provocative content.
All possess that special urgency of
films that MUST BE MADE, covering
a range of social and political topics
and or autobiographical in poignant,
character-driven plots.
Finalized scripts are presented before the
Jerusalem Lab’s panel of international
judges, within the framework of the
Jerusalem Film Festival, at the beginning of
July, in an annual prestigious pitching event.
The Jerusalem International Film Lab’s
pitching event is a new international
platform to present the outstanding
projects, developed by the Lab, when the
projects are presented to a select group
of producers, sales agents, distributors
and other professionals from all over the
world.
The Lab’s jury awards production prizes
totaling $80,000, generously donated
by the Beracha Foundation.
The Jerusalem International Film Lab
wishes to create a prominent new center
for international film content in Jerusalem.
The Lab connects the wide range
of filmmakers visiting Israel—and
Jerusalem-from across the world,
transforming Jerusalem in to one
of the focal points of the world film
industry for developing content
and productions. The Lab positions
graduates of Israeli film schools at
the vanguard of promising, talented
filmmakers from across the world
and generates new international
cooperation for Israeli filmmakersdirectors, producers and writers.
The Lab is the brainchild of Renen
Schorr, the founding director of
The Sam Spiegel Film & Television
School, Jerusalem and the founder
of the Jerusalem Film and Television
Fund.
He serves as director, alongside Ifat
Tubi.
STEERING COMMITTEE, ISRAEL
Chair-Renen Schorr Sam Spiegel School
Yoram Honig Jerusalem Film & Television Fund
Dolin Melnik Israel National Lottery Fund
Eyal Sher Jerusalem Foundation
SELECTION COMMITTEE INTERNATIONAL, 2014
Shuki Ben- Naim Scriptwriter
Assaf Gavron Author
SELECTION COMMITTEEISRAEL, 2014
Eitan Green Writer and Director
Keren Margalit Writer and Director
Renen Schorr Director
The project is a cooperative venture of
the school, the Beracha Foundation,
the Jerusalem Film and Television
Fund at the Jerusalem Development
Authority, Israel National Lottery
Fund, the Sam Spiegel Estate, the
Jerusalem Foundation and the Israel
Film Fund.
Other supporting organizations
include the Israeli Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and the Goethe
Institute in Tel Aviv.
The historical building of Mishkenot Sha’ananim
– a guesthouse for artists and intellectualsthe home of the Jerusalem International Film Lab
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The Sam Spiegel School
THE SAM SPIEGEL FILM
& TELEVISION SCHOOL,
JERUSALEM
At the Vanguard of Israeli Cinema
“ In
my eyes, Israeli cinema divides
into B.S.S and A.S.S—that is, Before
Sam Spiegel School and After Sam
Spiegel School.”
New York Film Festival Director Richard
Peña, New York film schools’ Tribute to The
Sam Spiegel Film & TV School 20th anniversary
(March, 2011)
THE BIRTH OF A SCHOOL
Against the compelling background drama
of a 1988 student revolt, the Jerusalem
Film & Television School was born. Film
department students of Israel’s sole state
film school of the time had taken to rioting
in protest against the school’s alleged
preference for the theater department.
Their demand for autonomy spurred
the Education and Culture Minister to
establish a public inquiry which supported
the students’ position, thus recommending
the creation of Israel’s first independent
school for film and television.
In 1989, the Jerusalem Foundation and
the Ministry of Education and Culture
established the Jerusalem Film and
Television School as Israel’s national
independent film school. In 1996, after
receiving a contribution from his estate,
the school was renamed The Sam Spiegel
Film & Television School, Jerusalem in
honor of the legendary Academy Awardwinning producer Sam Spiegel.
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FORGING NEW STANDARDS
At the school’s inception in 1989, the
Israeli film industry was in a deep crisis
that drove away audiences. The new
Sam Spiegel Film & Television School,
Jerusalem, with director-producer Renen
Schorr at the helm, began by asking new
questions never before posed to Israeli
students: Is the film you wish to make
relevant? Is it original? Are you the only
one who can tell the story? Do you have
an obligation to tell it? Is it relevant to
your own inner world and to your personal
taste? Is it relevant to your audience?
Will its meaning traverse countries and
cultures?
This demand for relevance was met
with a resounding energy and passion
that motivated the first student body to
produce 1992 graduate films that marked
a turning point in Israeli cinema.
The school has since revolutionized
Israeli film education, introducing such
innovations as fostering the unique voice
of each student in a “personal story-telling”
school milieu; transforming the hero to the
focal point in the story and the narrative;
fighting for the acknowledgment of short
films as a genre; inviting top professionals
from the film world for master classes;
providing state of-the-art equipment;
funding student participation in numerous
international film festivals and workshops;
gaining mass exposure by marketing
school films to local and international
festivals, and promoting the broadcast of
student films on Israeli and international
television networks.
Over the past twenty-five years, the school
has won 16 Best Film School Program
awards in student film festivals; received
380 awards, including at Cannes, Berlin
and Venice; and was honored with 181
international festival retrospectives in 55
countries, including in Berlin, Rotterdam,
Clermont-Ferrand, Sarajevo, Havana and
the New York Museum of Modern Art’s
first-ever tribute to a film school.
THE SCHOOL - 2014
Currently 160 outstanding, handpicked
students study in the school’s special
“triangle” structure of curriculum:
The Full Track
The main, flagship Director’s Track features
a four-and-a-half year comprehensive
program to enable students to study and
master all aspects of filmmaking. The
curriculum includes directing, screenwriting,
cinematography, editing and production.
The Screenwriting Track
In 1999, a special two-year screenwriting
track was initiated, aimed at cultivating
screenwriters for film and television,
working to create a model for cooperation
between screenwriters and directors.
The Entrepreneurial Producers Program
In 2004, a singular three-and-a-half year
track was inaugurated for entrepreneur
producers. The first of its kind in Israel,
the program was created to cultivate
producers to initiate and lead projects in
various media, work in conjunction with
screenwriters and directors, and navigate
projects through the stages of production,
marketing and distribution in Israel and
overseas.
Each of the three tracks operates
autonomously, with students urged to
achieve a creative synergy among the tracks.
TOWARDS A SILVER JUBILEE
As we near our Silver Jubilee in 2014, we
continue to initiate projects and ongoing
leadership. These innovative projects include:
The Jerusalem International Film Lab
The Sam Spiegel School Alumni Fund
for First Feature Films
In light of the success of its graduates over
the years, the school is initiating an Alumni
Fund for First Features, while committing
to invest 50,000$ a year for one project
per year for five years. The rationale is to
accelerate further funding and ensure the
successful production of the films in a
much shorter period of time.
Tributes to Groundbreaking Israeli
Filmmakers
In 2013, the School produced Footsteps in
Jerusalem, a film tribute to David Perlov, the
forefather of modern Israeli documentary
cinema, and to his 1963 revolutionary film
In Jerusalem. The premiere of the featurelength documentary, curated by Renen
Schorr, was screened simultaneously in
41 countries.
In 2005, during the 15th anniversary of the establishment
of the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School, the Jerusalem
Municipality named the street leading to the school after
the legendary American Jewish producer-Sam Spiegel.
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Jury 2014
Michèle
Halberstadt
Chair
Producer and
Distributer
MANFRED
SCHMIDT
MDM
Film Fund
Germany
France
Michèle Halberstadt is a Sciences Po Paris
alumni and has a Master’s degree in law.
After a rich career as a journalist at “Europe
1” and “Radio 7” radio stations, she joined
the French edition of “Premiere”, where
she was in charge of Anglo-Saxon cinema.
Two years later, she was appointed as the
magazine’s editor-in-chief.
Since 1991, she acts as the head of acquisitions
at ARP Sélection. Along with Laurent Pétin,
the president of ARP, she introduced a new
wave of Chinese cinema in the nineties,
including the works of Zhang Yimou, Chen
Kaige and Wong Kar Wai.
In 1997, ARP launched its film production
division, where Michèle was highly involved
in productions of the Dardenne brothers,
Luc Besson, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Benoît
Jacquot and Alain Corneau.
ARP also co-produces international films
such as Vengeance by Johnnie To, Paolo
Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place and Ari
Folman’s The Congress.
In terms of acquisitions, Precious, Biutiful,
Animal Kingdom, Beasts of the Southern
Wild, Searching for Sugarman, Margin Call,
are among her last discoveries over the past
years.
Michèle Halberstadt is also a writer. Her
sixth novel, My American Friend has been
published by Albin Michel earlier this year.
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Manfred Schmidt is the executive director
of the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung
GmbH (MDM), one of Germany’s leading
film funds.
From 1969 to 1981 he was a member
of the Berlin “Maxim Gorki” theatre.
This followed a seven-year period of
freelance work as an author and dramatic
adviser. During this time, Schmidt took
correspondence courses at the Leipzig
Institute for Literature. In 1988, he started
working as a script analyst and author at
DEFA studios for documentary films;
from 1990 to 1992 he was the deputy chief
editor at the studio. Later, he worked as the
deputy program director of the culture and
science department at the Mitteldeutscher
Rundfunk (MDR) broadcasting station.
Since 1998, he has directed the Mitteldeutsche
Medienförderung GmbH (MDM), based
in Leipzig.
Manfred Schmidt is a member of the
European Film Academy, FFA Verwaltungsrat
(dep.), Kuratorium Förderverein Deutscher
Kinderfilm e.V., Kuratorium junger deutscher
Film, President of the GOLDEN SPARROW
foundation and board member of Cine-Regio.
Katriel
Schory
The Israel
Film Fund
Israel
Katriel Schory is one of the leading
architects of the renaissance of Israeli
cinema.
He studied at the New York University Film
School and returned to Israel in 1973 to
join Kastel Films, at that time the leading
production company in Israel.
In 1984, Schory formed his own company,
BELFILMS LTD, and produced over 120
films including award winning feature
films, documentaries, T.V dramas, and
international co-productions.
In 1999 he assumed the role of Executive
Director of the Israel Film Fund, the
leading fund in Israel, which supports
and promotes Israeli feature films. In this
position he authorized the support of more
than 200 new Israeli feature films.
Charles
Tesson
Cannes Critics’
Week
France
Charles Tesson is the Artistic Director of
Critics’ Week at Cannes Film Festival since
2012. He is also a film critic in Cahiers du
Cinéma where he began in 1979, and former
editor of the magazine (1998-2003). He is also
an professor in cinema, history and esthetics,
at la Sorbonne nouvelle (University of Paris
III).
Tesson wrote several books and essays
on cinema, as Satyajit Ray (1992), Luis
Bunuel (1995), El from Luis Bunuel (1996),
Photogénie de la Série B (1997), Théâtre et
cinéma (2007) and Akira Kurosawa (2008).
He wrote few special issues for Cahiers du
cinema, as Made in Hong Kong (1984) with
Olivier Assayas, Made in China (1999) and
co-authored the book L’Asie à Hollywood
(2001).
Schory under took voluntary public
activities, among them: chairman of Israel’s
Film and Television Producers’ Association
(1989–1994); member of the National
Committee for the Advancement of
Television and Films (1989-1999); lectures
at the Tel Aviv University - Department
of Film and Television since 1985.
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Jury 2014
Rémi Burah
ARTE France
Cinéma
France
Sonja Heinen
Berlinale
Co-Production
Market
Germany
After working as a banker in the audiovisual
sector in London and Paris, Remi Burah
joined Haut et Court as a partner, managing
director, and director of the communication
agency, working there for 8 years.
Burah joined ARTE France Cinéma, the
film branch of the European TV channel, in
2001.
Burah has collaborated in features films
coproductions of well-known filmmakers:
Wim Wenders, Lars Von Trier, Wong Karwai, Alain Cavalier, Michael Haneke,
Patrice Chereau, Aki Kaurismaki, Mathieu
Amalric, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Luc and JeanPierre Dardenne, Bertrand Bonello, Marjane
Satrapi, Valerie Donzelli, Maiwenn, among
others.
He also participated in the development
of animation feature film as an associate
producer (Persepolis, A Monster in Paris).
Since 2004 he is also CEO of a finance
company that he has initiated in partnership
with SOFICA French tax system.
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After studying languages and economics
in Cologne, Sonja Heinen started her career
in the film industry in 1991 at Filmstiftung
NRW in Duesseldorf.
Until 2001 she was Assistant to Executive
Director Dieter Kosslick and especially
responsible for International Contacts.
During this time she organised CoProduction Meetings with almost all
European countries as well as international
producers’ delegations and developed
the International Co-Production Market
Cologne which took place in 2000 for the
first time.
From March 2001 until July 2003 she
has been working as Producer and Project
Coordinator for Gemini Film and
International West Pictures in Cologne.
Since 2003 she works at the Berlin
International Film Festival, as Head of the
Berlinale Co-Production Market, and since
August 2004, she is additionally Programme
Manager of the Berlinale World Cinema
Fund.
Pia Marais
Director
Germany
Of Swedish/South African parents, Pia
Marais grew up in both countries.
Having studied art at Chelsea School
of Art (London), The Rietveld Akademie
(Amsterdam) and KunstAkademie
(Duesseldorf), she went on to study film at
the Deutsche Film- und Fernseh-Akademie
(DFFB) in Berlin, where she is still based.
After several engagements in the film
industry in Germany as a casting director,
assistant director and writer, she made her
feature debut with The Unpolished, which
won various prizes, including Rotterdam’s
Tiger Award in 2007.
Her second feature film At Ellen’s Age, was
developed at the Cannes Résidence and
premiered at the International Competition
in Locarno Film Festival in 2010, followed
by many other international festivals,
including: Toronto, London, Thessaloniki,
Bafici, MoMA New Directors/ New Films.
Besides other awards, she received for the
second time the Crossing Europe Award
and Jeanne Balibar won Best Actress
Award in Buenos Aires for her outstanding
performance in the film.
Layla Fourie, her third feature film,
premiered at the 2013 Berlinale Competition.
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Script Editors
Clare
Downs
Jacques
Akchoti
UK
France
Clare Downs began her career in the film
business as co-director of the Association
of Independent Producers (1978-1980), and
Director of International Creative Affairs for
the Ladd Company/Warner Bros (1981-1983).
She produced the BAFTA award winning
short, The Dress (1985); the feature
High Season (best screenplay at the San
Sebastian Film Festival, 1987), and coproduced the Greek film Borderline, (Best
Director, Thessaloniki Film Festival) in
1993. Her other production work in this
period was as associate producer on
Richard Eyre’s Beggar’s Opera, and she
developed the award winning screenplay
A World Apart (BAFTA, Cannes).
In 1989 she set up, and was director of
First Film Europe, which selects and
funds first feature screenplays in each of
the EU member countries. That year, she
also joined the EU’s MEDIA producer
training program, EAVE, as a founder
member of the script analysis team.
Since then she has tutored and taught
in top European and international script
developing labs for producers and writers
and in leading UK schools.
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After his studies at the NYU film school,
Jacques Akchoti has worked in different
areas of film production with directors
such as R.Bresson, JJ. Beineix, L. Von Trier. He then became a screenwriter, script
consultant, and headed the development
of many French and international films
for cinema and television, which obtained
selections and awards at major film
festivals. Most recently, A Screaming
Man by Haroun Mahamat Saleh, recipient
of many awards, notably the Jury Prize at
the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
He has directed a feature film for television
and written several screenplays. His latest
script, Don’t Look Back, a film by Marina
De Van featuring Sophie Marceau and
Monica Bellucci was part of the Official
Selection of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Jacques has been teaching writing and
directing at the Femis (National French
Film school) since 1988 and has facilitated
many international screenwriting and
development workshops, including EAVE,
Sud Ecriture, DV8 films, Vision Cinema,
Ekran, Interchange, etc.
KOBY
GAL-RADAY
Israel
Koby Gal-Raday serves as head of Drama,
Documentary and Cinema Department –
Reshet, Channel 2 – the major commercial
broadcast channel in Israel.
Prior to joining Reshet, Gal-Raday served
in several executive positions such as head
of the Screenwriting Department, Sam
Spiegel Film & Television School, Jerusalem;
director of Greenhouse – a Mediterranean
Development Project for feature-length
documentaries, funded by the EU; founding
co-manager of July-August Productions,
where his producer and script editor
credits include numerous award winning
and internationally acclaimed cinema and
television titles, such as The Band’s Visit
and The Champagne Spy.
Gal-Raday graduated with outstanding
distinction from The Sam Spiegel Film &
Television School, Jerusalem and won over
20 personal prizes and awards over the last
ten years.
Gal-Raday is a member of the European
and Israeli Film and Television academies.
17
Scouts
Isabelle
FAUVEL
Matthieu
Darras
France
France
After six years spent working at Flach
Film where she co-produced several films,
including Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Leolo
which entered into the 1992 Cannes Film
Festival, Isabelle Fauvel founded Initiative
Film in 1993.
Fauvel is the privileged interlocutor of
writers, directors and producers, French
and international, working along with them
on a short-term or long-term scale.
Furthermore, with the team she
established, Fauvel often scouts subjects.
Taking advantage of a large database
(newspapers extracts, web research, books),
she provides ideas and conducts tailored
researches making her a key partner for
literary adaptation.
Her activities also include lessons,
tutoring, conferences and creating ties
between cinema and literature. She has
contributed to the following programs
as an expert : Thessaloniki’s Crossroad,
Sofia’s Meeting, Istanbul’s Meetings on
the bridge, Namur Coproduction Forum.
She is a regular trainer at La Sorbonne and
acted as a consultant for the French National
Center of Cinema (CNC), the International
Office of French Publishers (BIEF) and ACE.
She is also a partner of the Torino Film
Lab for the Adapt Film Lab, which she cofounded.
18
Founder of NISI MASA, the European network
of young cinema, Matthieu Darras created and
managed dozens of international workshops
related to scriptwriting, filmmaking, and film
criticism from 2001 to 2012.
Critic for the film magazine Positif since
1999, Darras was a regular member of
Cannes Critics’ Week selection committee
from 2005 to 2011. He assumed the artistic
direction of Alba Film Festival in Italy, and of
the IFF Bratislava in Slovakia.
Darras has been working for the Torino Film
Lab since its inception in 2008, currently as
Head of Programs. He is also the delegate of
the San Sebastian Film Festival, in charge of
Central and Eastern Europe.
Participants & Projects 2014
19
20
21
Burning Birds
Synopsis
1989. A small village in eastern Sri Lanka. After her husband
is abducted, tortured and murdered by the state army,
Kusum has to fight to look after her eight children and
mother-in-law all by herself. After a series of unsuccessful
odd jobs, where she was constantly abused physically
and sexually, Kusum falls to prostitution. Soon, the police
arrest her in a brothel. When the school hears about their
mother’s misadventure, the children are thrown out. From
there, the whole family will try to survive the tragedy.
Director’s Note
When I was nine years old, state army killed my
mathematics teacher and burnt on tires. That was in 1989. I
cannot forget how the whole school, including the teachers
and students, was aghast and worried.
A year later, when I was 10, army forced my young uncle
out and shot him in the head against the rear wall of the
house. That death impoverished his family, leaving them in
distraught.
A year later, my father died suddenly. I was just 11. My
mother, seven sisters and brothers and I were left alone. My
mother took all the trouble to raise us. Sometimes, there
were days we spent in hunger. I still wonder at times how
my mother managed to feed us after all.
Burning Birds is a film that came out scratching my
heart. It is a microscopic look at myself, my mother and
my country.
22
ANTONIN
DEDET
Producer
SANJEEWA
PUSHPAKUMARA
Director
France
Sri Lanka
Born in 1977 Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
is a Sri Lankan film director. He has studied
cinema in South Korea.
In 2011, Sanjeewa made his first feature
film, Flying Fish, which was supported by
the Hubert Bals Fund.
The film was screened in twenty-eight
film festivals across the world, including
the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
The film has won awards in many
of them: Best Director Award at St.Pertersburg
International Film Festival, Best Asian
Cinematographer at Asian Film Festival.
Burning Birds will be Sanjeewa’s second
feature film.
Born in 1972 in France, Antonin Dedet
founded his production company in 2002.
Specializing in international coproduction
(the company has co-produced with 15
countries), he has produced and co-produced
13 features films, more than 50 shorts and 4
documentaries. The films produced by the
company have been selected in the most
famous international film festivals: Cannes,
Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Locarno, Rotterdam
and more.
His producing credits include Circumstances
by Maryam Keshavarz (2011 Sundance Jury’s
Prize), Yema by Djamila Sahraoui selected
by more than 75 festivals (Venice 2012), Heat
Wave by Jean-Jacques Jauffret (Cannes 2011)
and Journey to the West by Tsaï Ming-Liang
(Berlin 2013).
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Neon Productions
33 Boulevard Longchamps
13001 Marseille
T +33 491 082 171
Production Budget
Sapushpa Expressions
100, 13th Mile post, Thambalagamuwa,
Kanthale, Sri Lanka
M +94 712 042 095
T +82 10-8050 4083
€ 530.000 23
Drifting Snows
Synopsis
Saadat (38), lives in downtown Bishkek with her teenage
daughter and an ambitious husband, Daniyar. Despite the
comfortable and outwardly stable family life, Saadat is
faced with a growing sense of ennui.
One day, the stale family routine is interrupted by
the arrival of a 19-year old relative of Daniyar from the
countryside, Aman, who is hoping to find a job and a place
to stay in the city. His short-term lodging at the house
leads to the passionate romance between him and Saadat.
Soon Saadat realizes that she is pregnant by Aman, who
is ready to confront Daniyar with the truth about their
romance.
Trapped in his conformism, Daniyar chooses to accept
the child as his own and to sustain the marriage by getting
rid of the main obstacle in the way, Aman. Aware of her
husband’s undiscovered crime, Saadat still decides on
preserving her marriage and her face.
Director’s Note
I am drawn to tell the story of a woman searching for
meaning in her life as she approaches her late 30’s. The
story is set in modern Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan,
which has achieved a fragile independence since the
collapse of the Soviet Union. It is a traditional society, with
a muted but present Muslim character, in which the young
generation is pursuing western aspirations of prosperity
and consumer acquisition, while retaining older values
concerning women, fertility, family, and sexuality.
My heroine, Saadat, married traditionally early,
and now, after 17 years of marriage, is faced with a
disintegrating family and a growing sense of ennui. For the
first time in her life she tries to be true to herself, while her
path is obscured by cultural and social roles and masks.
Apart from being a personal portrayal of Saadat, this
story is a portrayal of the modern Kyrgyz society with its
controversial and distorted set of values. Compromises
that the characters of my film have to make to sustain
their marriage remind me of the deadly compromises our
society is built on.
24
Aygul
Bakanova
Director
Kyrgyzstan
Aygul Bakanova was born in 1982 and grew
up in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. In 2011 she
received her MA from the London Film
School.
For her graduation project, Aygul wrote,
directed and co-produced a short film the
Song of The Rain set in rural Kyrgyzstan.
The film was has been screened at various
film festivals around the world, including
Locarno Film Festival and ClermontFerrand.
Aygul’s latest short, Void, that she codirected within the Nordic Factory project,
had its premiere at the Director’s Fortnight
in Cannes 2014.
Drifting Snows will be Aygul’s first
fearture film. The project has also been
selected for the Résidence of the Cannes
Film Festival in Paris.
Altynai
KoichumanovA
Producer
Kyrgyzstan
Altynai Koichumanova graduated in
Economics from American University in
Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan).
Since 2004 she has been working as a
managing director and producer at Oy Art
Film Production Company. The filmography
of Oy Art is of 11 short and full-length films,
including the award-winning feature The
Light Thief by Aktan Arym Kubat (Cannes
Director’s Fortnight 2010).
Besides film production, Altynai has been
working on the development of Kyrgyz
cinema by organizing film screenings in
remote areas, running various educational
projects for local filmmakers and establishing
the Arthouse Film Festival at the Issyk-Kul
lake, Kyrgyzstan.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Production Budget
Oy Art
1, Dinara Asanova st, 720030, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
T +996 775 983090
F +996 312 344812
altynaiko@yandex.ru € 500.000 25
Echoes
Synopsis
Avner (45) suspects his wife Ella (40) has a lover.
Being a man of reason, logic and facts, he looks for proof.
Instead of talking to her, he decides to record her phone
conversations, turning into a spy in his own house.
But before he confronts Ella, she dies in a car accident,
leaving him with many unanswered questions. That, and
her voice as recorded on tape.
Obsessively listening to those conversations, between his
wife and her lover, Avner tries to find clues that will lead
him to this man. Only the lover can answer his unsolved
questions.
But while searching for one thing, he discovers another:
The woman he listens to is a stranger to him, so very
different from the one he thought he knew. He tries to
understand that woman, to decode their relationship, and
most of all he needs to know: Why?
Director’s Note
Echoes is a film about voice: This mysterious quality that
all of us have, but none of us can see, or touch. It comes
from our insides and enables us to express ourselves, but
at the same time it betrays us. Our voice is never enough;
it is only an echo of our internal world, our intimate self.
For us, Avner’s journey is an attempt to listen, and not only
hear, to feel without knowing, to grasp what’s no longer
there.
Although disguised under a detective-like plot and
suspense atmosphere, Echoes is love story. It is the
inherent lack in our own relationships that fascinates us the compromises and sacrifices we must make, if we want
to really be with our loved ones.
26
KEREN
MICHAEL
Producer
Amikam
Kovner
Co-Director
& Co-writer
Israel
Israel
Amikam Kovner graduated with honors from
Tel Aviv University’s Film Department. His
short film Scar was screened in dozens of film
festivals, sold to the PBS network in the US,
and won the“Kodak” award for excellence. His diploma film The Home Leave was
screened at numerous festivals and won
awards and honorable mentions.
His feature for television film Cease Fire
was screened at the 2013 Haifa Film
Festival.
Echoes will be Amikam’s first feature film.
Assaf
Snir
Co-Director
& Co-Writer
Israel
Assaf was born in Jerusalem in 1980.
He graduated the Sam Spiegel Film and
Television School, Jerusalem in 2011. During his studies, Assaf wrote and
directed 3 short films, which had been
screened in local and international film
festivals.
In 2009 Assaf was selected as a participant
of “Breaking Boundaries”, an international
short film project funded by the Goethe
institute and EVZ Stiftung.
Echoes will be Assaf’s first feature
film, participated in “Script Station” –
the Berlinale Talent Campus’s script
development workshop.
Keren is one of the founders of The
Mouth Agape Productions (2006), which
created short films.
Her recent credits include, Self Made by
Shira Geffen (Cannes Critics’ Week 2014).
In 2011 she founded her own company
Handsome Serge Productions. Her recent
credits include Self Made and The Wanderer
by Avishay Sivan (Cannes Director’s
Fortnight 2010).
Since 2013, she has also handled the talent
scouting, developing and financing of scripts
for the international feature film division at
Dori Media Paran group.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Handsome Serge Productions
9 Haneviem st, Tel Aviv 6435611
M+ 972.544.811.007
Kerenmich@gmail.com
Co-Producer - Germany
Andreas Eicher
Cine Plus IThe Media Group
www.cine-plus.de
Production Budget
€ 754.000 27
Fig Tree
Synopsis
It is high noon in January 1991, during the latter part
of the Ethiopian Civil War. Mina (14), is standing on the
banks of River Awash and fighting to untie a rope from the
neck of a legless soldier, hanging from an ancient fig tree.
Not far from Mina’s house flows a stream whose matted
vegetation banks are occasionally visited by people who
wish to end their lives. Despite the despair felt at the
raging war, and the frequent kidnapping of boys her
age on “collection days”, Mina becomes accustomed to
zigzaging between the demands of reality during war
time and her desire to live and breathe her days of youth.
Rata (19), Mina’s brother, who has returned from
the battlefield without his right arm, continues to
demonstrate forced loyalty as a soldier in the municipal
civic service but is dreaming to implement a right
reserved only for Jews; the right to leave, move away
from the war, and immigrate to the land of Israel.
Mina, concerned with the fate awaiting her best
friend Eli the son of her Christian neighbor that lives under
a constant threat of being kidnapped by the army, begins
to weave her own plans: she will make love to Eli and
force her family to accept him as her husband in order to
preserve her honor, thus enabling him to come with them
to Israel.
But in times of war plans often go wrong.
Director’s Note
Even though there were rumors about the coming war, my
last days in Ethiopia, which I wasn’t even aware of being
the last days, were conducted in quite an ordinary manner.
I wish to go back there and tell the story of the “Shola”
(Fig) neighborhood. The war, which is constantly present
in the background, will ultimately generate the dramatic
turning point of the story but the heart and the focus of
the film will be the description of Mina’s daily life. Through
her, I wish to describe the surreal situation in which people
miraculously manage to build a normal life during war
time.
28
Alamork
Marsha
Director
Israel
Born in 1980 in Awash, Ethiopia, Alamork
moved to Israel in 1991. Following a
documentary research job, Alamork was
caught under the spell of cinema. She
began her studies at the Tel Hai College
and later continued to the prestigious
Sam Spiegel Film School, graduating in
2012.
Alamork directed three short films: Mulu
2007, Korki 2007 and Cleaning Time 2012,
all dealing the experiences of Ethiopian
immigrants to Israel.
Fig Tree will be Alamork’s debut feature.
Saar
Yogev
Producer
Israel
Naomi
Levari
Producer
Israel
Saar Yogev, EAVE alumni and B.F.A
from Tel Aviv University’s film department,
and Naomi Levari, a graduate Summa Cum
Laude from the Sam Spiegel Film School,
founded Black Sheep Film Productions in
2010. Through its documentary and fiction
films, the company directs a spotlight on the
overlooked and forgotten corners of society.
Among their works: Hanna’s Journey,
Farewell Herr Schwarz, Ameer Got His
Gun, Teacher Irena, You Can’t Choose Your
Family, Life Isn’t Everything.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Production Budget
Black Sheep Film Productions Ltd.
T +972-74-7039009
18 Levontin Street, Tel Aviv 65112 Israel
info@bsheepfilms.com
www.bsheepfilms.com
€ 1.350.000 29
Lignite
Synopsis
Kosmas (18) races a motocross bike. Speeding alone, among
the vast landscapes of the lignite mines nearby his village, it
is the only time he feels free, alive. His dream is racing away
from this gloomy area and his father, Apostolis, who sees
him as a consistent disappointment. But now everything is
different.
Apostolis dies one night, quietly, after a typical argument
with Kosmas. Alone with his cherished brother, Panayiotis
(11), Kosmas faces a wall of responsibility. He takes a job at
the mines and begins a life of compromise. A fragile love affair
with his teenage cousin, Rania (16), his only ally, develops. Yet
her presence in their house and Panayiotis’ infatuation with
her, pressures Kosmas. Shadowed by the need for his dead
father’s acceptance, Kosmas juggles, unprepared, with all the
roles he is called to fulfill. Kosmas needs to break free. To find
a life of his own. And he feels the world owes him that.
Director’s Note
Kosmas grows up in one of Europe’s most polluted
areas, the lignite mines of Northern Greece, in an
economically dilapidated country. Against all odds, he has
dreams. That is until his father’s death crumbles them.
In order to save everything he once took for granted,
Kosmas needs to change who he is and what he hoped for. Through the use of close-ups, point of view shots and lowkey photography, the world of Lignite is that of Kosmas’
subjective reality. I want the audience to be submerged into
his world, his need for affection, his hype when riding his
motorbike, his frustration and anger struggling with his
loss, his need to experience life. Following Kosmas, Lignite
becomes a film about people all around Greece, struggling
to live rather than simply survive. It is an angry film about
angry times.
30
MARIA
TSIGKA
Producer
GREGORY
RENTIS
Director
Co-Writer
Greece
Greece
Gregory Rentis holds an MFA in Film
Directing from California Institute of the
Arts.
His short films have screened in festivals
including Rotterdam, Amiens, Thessaloniki,
Washington, Rio de Janeiro. His film,
Sundown, premiered in Rotterdam (2010,
Finalist NPS New Arrivals) and You Asked
Me To Wait, received an Honorary Mention
(2007, Drama Film Festival).
He has directed for the theater, branded
content and music videos that have stood
out in the Greek film industry winning two
Music Video of the Year awards.
Lignite will be Gregory’s first feature.
Co- writer: EFFI GAVRILOU (Greece)
Maria Tsigka holds a masters of
Communication and Mass Media from the
University of Athens.
She started working in film production
and 2000. Maria is part of Argonauts
Productions, an Athens based production
company, as a partner since 2010.
Her producer feature filmography includes,
In The Woods by Angelos Frantzis (2010,
associate producer), wich premiered at
the Rotterdam Film Festival, Eteron Imisi
by Vangelis Seitanidis (2010, producer),
and the omnibus film, Do Not Forget Me
Istanbul, (2011, Co-Producer), directed by
Hany Abu-Assad, Stefan Arsenijevic, Aida
Begic, Josefina Markarian, Eric Nazarian,
Stergios Niziris, Omar Shargawi.
Maria graduated EAVE in 2010.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Co-Producer
Production Budget
Argonauts Productions S.A.
27 Zaimi str., 10682- Athens, Greece
T +30.210.82.57.177
mtsiga@argonautsproductions.gr
www.argonautsproductions.gr
Markus Halberschmidt
Busse & Halberschmidt-Germany
markus@bussehalberschmidt.de
www.bussehalberschmidt.de
€ 830.000 31
Photograph
Synopsis
The Gateway was built by the British in 1911 to welcome
the Queen to Bombay, the Queen never showed up but to
this day, millions of tourists do. Rafi is a photographer at
the Gateway. When his mother in the village pressurizes him to get
married, Rafi goes through his camera card. There he finds
the photograph of a girl standing in front of the Gateway,
smiling. He dispatches the photograph to his mother, he
names this imaginary girlfriend - Noorie. Soon enough his
mother announces that she is boarding a train to Bombay
to meet Noorie in person.
The girl in the‘Photograph’ is Miloni, a top ranking student
in the national chartered accountancy exam. She is a citizen
of another Bombay, the Bombay of the aspirational middle
class. In Photograph, these lives intersect - a migrant worker
who toils in the big city, and a young girl who toils in the
country’s best universities. What starts out as a love story,
reveals itself as a journey into India’s deep class divide with
all its sadness and humor.
Director’s Note
The Indian condition is to be torn between tradition and
modernity. I became intrigued by these two characters
because they are both afflicted by the Indian condition,
they are preparing for the future and living in the past. But
they are also outsiders in their own worlds. Photograph is
the story of these two characters. Both outsiders in their
own worlds, who step out and fall into India’s deep class
divide. The story and the characters have given me a chance
to explore that class divide, and all the humor, sadness,
dignity, and corruption that lies in it. In the end dreamers will become realists and realists will
become dreamers. 32
Ritesh
Batra
Director
Seher
Latif
Producer
India
India
Ritesh Batra was born and raised in
Mumbai.
Seher Latif is an independent producer
and casting director based in Mumbai.
His short films have been exhibited at
various international film festivals and fine
arts venues.
As a casting director she has worked on
a variety of international films like Eat,
Pray, Love, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark
Thirty, Fox Searchlight’s hit The Best Exotic
Marigold Hotel among others and Indian
films like Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox that
premiered at the Cannes International
Film Festival 2013 to rave reviews.
He was a fellow at the Sundance Writer’s
and Director’s Labs.
His feature debut The Lunchbox was
supported by the Torino Film Lab and
premiered at the Cannes Critics’ Week
(2013) and has since screened at Telluride,
Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals to
rave reviews. She currently has two projects under
development with director Ritesh Batra
under their company PoetiLicense Motion
Pictures.
The Lunchbox was acquired by Sony
Picture Classics and has had a successful
run in theatres across the world.
Photograph will be Ritesh’s second feature
film.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Production Budget
PoeticLicense Motion Pictures Pvt. Ltd.
3A Mandar Building, B Wing, Plot 193, TPS III, Turner Road
Bandra West, Mumbai – 400050, INDIA
T +91-2239113530 T +91-9820830475
seherlatifm@gmail.com
€ 2.200.000 33
Shadow Land
Synopsis
In a small town in the south of France, Saïd (18) lives
with his obese and sickly mother. If it weren’t for Mayor
Santini taking Saïd under his wing after his father died,
Saïd would probably be making his living stealing cars like
his best friend Jaco. Now he’s got his mind set on a career
in the town hall.
As the summer festival draws nearer, Santini’s daughter
Alaïs comes back to town after three years in an English
boarding school. She has grown from a shy little girl into a
beautiful young woman. Saïd immediately falls in love with
her. Soon, Saïd finds himself torn between his impossible
love for the mayor’s daughter and his responsibilities
towards Jaco who is drawn to trouble like a moth to a
flame. In the midst of this turmoil, Saïd stumbles upon a
dark secret that will change the way he looks on this town
and Santini forever.
In this world, the young are doomed to reap the poisonous
harvest of their predecessors. But even if it’s too late to
save yourself, you might be able to save the one you love.
If you’re willing to pay the price. Director’s Note
I visualize a dark romantic drama set during the suffocating
heat of high summer. The dust, dirt and ugliness are
almost tangible. We can feel the dried up skin of the town’s
inhabitants, cracking in the endless drought in a land
baked by the sun, where the acid fingers of buried toxic
waste work their way up through the parched earth. It is a
place that reeks of death, where no one is truly innocent.
I am attracted to the way the young generation fights
against social and class discrimination, predestination and
prejudice. Trapped in a small town, they are suffering from
the actions of the previous generation. A generation who
achieved power and wealth through corruption and greed.
I am interested in the themes of corruption and
environmental issues and the world we are preparing for
the next generation.
I will use an expressionist style and adopt metaphors and
symbols to set up the story in a slightly fantasized reality,
balancing the surrealism by capturing authentic actors’
performances.
34
Gaëlle
Denis
Director
Co-writer
Nathalie
Algazi
Producer
France
France
Graduated of London’s Royal College
of Art in 2000, Gaëlle Denis won a BAFTA
and a Cinefondation Cannes selection in
2003 for Fish Never Sleep. In 2004, her short
City Paradise was nominated for a BAFTA
and won over 50 international awards. Her
latest short Crocodile won the best short
award in Cannes (Critics’ Week 2014).
Her feature projects have been in
development with Le Groupe Ouest and
Creative England’s CCFL.
Shadow Land is inspired by an Italian novel.
Gaëlle first began to adapt the book at
Torino’s Film Lab in 2012.
Nathalie began as a production coordinator
for French companies such as Les Films de
la Croisade, Aeternam Films and Bonne
Pioche.
In 2005, she created La Voie Lactée with
Marie Sonne-Jensen and François Drouot,
upon the idea of gathering European
artists and technicians on film projects
and creating a network of European CoProducers. She produced 12 shorts by
either French or foreign directors. This
European approach was rewarded twice at
Clermont-Ferrand’s Euro Connection coproduction market (2009 and 2013).
Shadow Land will be Gaëlle’s first feature
film.
Co-Writer: Jakob Beckman, Sweden
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Production Budget
La Voie Lactée
39 rue de Torcy, 75018 Paris, France
T +33 6 22 05 49 35
nathalie@lavoielacteeproductions.com
http://www.lavoielacteeproductions.com
€ 2.200.000 35
Sweet Home Tennessee
Synopsis
Irene works as a live-in domestic in a large Southern
mansion. She is an immigrant from Poland: educated,
irreverent but frail. She loves American music and dreams
of swimming in a big blue pool.
To shield her teenage daughter from her servile role, Irene
puts 16-year-old Agnieszka in the care Joe and Susan
Gorski. Things spiral out of control when Joe -- consumed
by obsession -- tries to take legal possession of Agnieszka.
Desperate, Irene kidnaps Agnieszka, bringing her to
the mansion where her worst nightmare comes true –
Agnieszka is turned into a titillating diversion for party
guests when the host asks her to dive into the pool…
Mother-daughter, daughter-mother. Their identities merge
as Irene tries to live her dream vicariously through her
daughter, while Agnieszka is unknowingly stepping into
the shoes of her increasingly untethered mother.
Director’s Note
In Sweet Home I want to break away from the
oversimplified portrayal of the immigrant experience with
a focus on honorable folks struggling for survival in a
tough world. The world is tough, more so – it is cruel. And
the struggle to stand your own ground is not only hard,
but deeply confusing.
It is this confusion, and the profound crisis of identity that
flows from it, that are my primary interest and the focus
of the story I tell.
Up-rooted, belonging to a different world where she once
held a higher status, Irene experiences a crushing assault
on her identity: as a woman, a person, and most powerfully
a mother, which pushes her dangerously close to the edge
of her sanity.
In my immigrant experience, the true trial of displacement
is emerging from it with any sense of self intact.
36
Sara
Murphy
Producer
Joanna
Jurewicz
Director
USA
USA / Poland
Born in Poland and now residing in the
US, Joanna Jurewicz graduated from
the NYU – Tisch School of the Arts
Graduate Film Program.
Her first short, Shave, was a regional finalist
at the Student Academy Awards in 2004.
Her second short, Goyta, was selected for
the Cinefondation competition at the 2007
Cannes Film Festival, aired on ARTE and
TVP Kultura, and has won several awards.
Her most recent film, Rooms, starring
Oscar nominated Marianne Jean-Baptiste,
was made as a participant in AFI’s
Directing Workshop for Women and won
the Student Visionary Award at the 2011
Tribeca Film Festival.
Sara Murphy produced Land Ho!,
premiered at the 2014 Sundance Festival
and will be released by Sony Pictures
Classics in the summer of 2014.
She co-produced John Slattery’s directorial
debut God’s Pocket which also premiered
at Sundance and was released by IFC.
She was an associate producer on Philip
Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut Jack
Goes Boating.
Sara has been the head of development for
Mr. Hoffman’s company, Cooper’s Town
for the past six years.
Jessica
Caldwell
Producer
USA
Sweet Home Tennessee will be Joanna’s
first full- length feature film.
Jessica Caldwell’s film credits include
Rebecca Thomas’s Electrick Children which
premiered at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival.
She is also in post-production on Stephen
Elliott’s Happy Baby.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Co-Production Comapny
Production Budget
Sara Murphy
T +1-646-226-8456
sara.murphy@mac.com
Lukasz Dzieciol
Opus Films
ul. Łąkowa 29, 90-554 Łódź, Poland
T +48 42 634 55 49
lukasz@opusfilm.com
€ 1.000.000 37
The Tattooist
Synopsis
Maro, the inker, is released from prison where he has
spent the last years of his life.
He has long since lost faith in himself and the world into
which he is now to return. Too much has changed too fast.
Tattoos, which in Maro’s days symbolised nonconformity
and rebellion, have come to be a mass phenomenon.
Maro reopens his old tattoo parlour. Business is
relatively slow, at least until Maro is approached by his
brash 17-year-old son, Rafo, who is looking to reconnect
with his estranged father. Life has offered Maro a second
chance to be a parent to his child.
However, instead of seizing the opportunity, he embroils
Rafo in his plan to execute revenge for past grievances. It
is not until the entire situation gets out of hand that Maro
realises how much his son means to him…
Director’s Note
www.pixus.at
38
Every ink tells a story. What is the story of Maro - the
Inker? All his life, people have been coming to him and
voluntarily subjecting themselves to great pain, all so as
to get engraved, so as to get a personal memento for the
rest of their days? Like many valuable things in life, inking
is painful. And it leaves a scar on the soul. Maro´s entire
life is apparently engraved on his body, but while he has
“told” thousands of other people’s stories with his ink gun,
he keeps his own story buried deep under his skin. I am
compelled to confront Maro - a withdrawn, solitary man with his son, whom he has not seen for 12 years. His entire
life, the Inker has only cared about tattoos.
Inking is all he can do. What needs to happen for Maro to
finally learn to trust people and thus be able to come to
terms with himself and his past? Is this even possible?
The symbolism and social perception of tattoos have
changed significantly over the past 25 years. In times of
great insecurity the tattoo business is flourishing, tattoos
come to symbolize permanence and stability. An ink is a
charm which no one can ever take away from you
Martin
Repka
Director
co-writer
Zuzana
Mistríková
Producer
Slovakia
Slovakia / Austria
Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1975,
Martin Repka graduated from the Film &
Television Academy VSMU in Bratislava,
and lives with his family in Vienna.
He directed several internationally
successful short films such as Swimming,
The Last Supper and Thieves, which
have been presented in hundreds of film
festivals such as: Cannes, Oberhausen,
Clermont-Ferrand, Munich, New York,
Toronto and were awarded with number
of prizes, among them 2 Diploma of Merits
(IFF Tampere) and the first prize of the Jury
(Short Cuts Cologne).
His full length feature film debut Return
of the Storks was the Slovak National entry
for the 80th Academy Awards won the
Hessian Screenplay Award and received 5
National Award Nominees in Slovakia.
The Tattooist will be Martin’s second
full-length feature film.
Zuzana Mistríková is the Executive
Director of PubRes - Creative Industries
Consultancy and Film Production &
Distribution Company. She co-produced
the Czech and Slovak box office hit Identity
Card (2010) and the drama As Never Before
(2013).
She produced Martin Repka’s latest
short film Tiger Fight (2013) and is currently
in production of the feature length film
Places (2014) and the documentary Wave
Against the Shore.
Zuzana is the president of the Slovak
Independent Producers Association, has
been the head of the Slovak film funding
program AudioVision (2003-2006) and VicePresident of Slovak Film and Television
Academy (2007 – 2013).
She was a key player in reforming the
Slovak film funding system.
Co-Writer: Agda Bavi
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Co-Production Comapny
Production Budget
PubRes
Grösslinova 63
811 09 Bratislava, Slovakia
pubres@pubres.sk
www.pubres.sk
Bionaut
Dělnická 47, 170 00 Praha 7
Czech Republic
info@ bionaut.cz
www.bionaut.cz
€ 1.000.000 39
Territoria
Synopsis
Alain, a Swiss engineer in his fifties, is eagerly awaited
in the brand new airport of Nagorno-Karabakh, a selfproclaimed republic, unrecognized by any state. He has to
supervise the final preparations for the arrival of the first
airplane scheduled for the following week.
During his short stay, he is supposed to give Manu,
a 13-year-old girl, an envelope from her father. Alain
unwittingly becomes the mediator between father and
daughter – the envelope contains the money that would
allow Manu to buy a ticket for the first plane taking off
from there.
The days pass, and the arrival of the airplane is pushed
back from one week to the next. The arrival of the airplane,
the most trivial thing for an airport, becomes utopian in
this paradoxical place.
Director’s Note
It all started with getting to know the place, this territory
whose name varies on different maps. The towns and
villages carry Russian, Armenian or Turkish names based
on the iconographic sources. This self-proclaimed republic
is still not recognized by any state, close or far. It’s a kind
of a non-place for the rest of the world.
The film is constructed on the canvas principle,
considering the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh as a basis
on which I weave the stories of my main and secondary
characters.
First, we discover the geographic territory through
the eyes of a foreigner. Alain, a man in his fifties, is trapped
in this delimited geography.
Then we face the physical territory, following the
wanderings of Edgar, a child from a local village. Through
his walking around, he domesticates the large expanses.
Finally, we come to the political territory through
the torments of the personal story of Manu, the girl who
will be uprooted to join her father abroad.
40
Nora
Martirosyan
Director
Dan
Burlac
Producer
Armenia / France
Nora Martirosyan is an artist and a film
director.
She has directed several award-winning
short films, awarded at International
Belfort Festival (2003), Cinematexas (2004),
Fid Marseille (2007) among others.
She is a resident in Villa Medicis, French
Academy in Rome for the period of 20132014.
Romania
Dan Burlac is one of the leading Romanian
film producers. His career best includes
Cannes’ Camera d’Or 2006 for 12:08 East
of Bucharest and Palm d’Or 2007 for 4
Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
His latest project was co-producing Historia
de la Meva Mort that had recently been
awarded the Gold Leopard Prize at the 2013
Locarno International Film Festival.
JEFF
KALOUSDIAN
Co-Producer
Territoria will be Nora’s first feature film.
It received the ARTE International Prize in
Cannes’ Atelier (2014).
Armenia
In 2010, Kalousdian co-produced Here, the
first foreign feature film shot entirely on
location in Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh.
In 2011, Kalousdian establish 20 Years Later
Productions in Armenia with the mission
of bringing innovative local fiction and
documentary stories from the Caucasus
and beyond to the world.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Co-Production Companies
Production Budget
Heolfilms, France
42 rue Adam de Craponne
34000 Montpellier (France)
danburlac@heolfilms.fr
T +0033763199123
0040746242635
www.heolfilms.fr
20 Years Later Productions, Armenia
27/25 Nalbandyan Street, Apt 7
Yerevan, Armenia
T +37 498 852 080
Email: jkalousd@yahoo.com
€ 689.000 Niko Films, Germany
T +49 30 27 58 28 36
info@nikofilm.de
http://www.nikofilm.de
41
The Black Pin
Synopsis
Father Peter is afraid that the universe is indifferent. God
no longer intervenes. His wife abandoned him. His son
rebels against him. And his mother seldom recognizes him
thanks to Alzheimer’s.
When Peter becomes an obstacle to a large property sale in
his parish, the group of colorful, but also vengeful villagers
decide to chase him away. Their creative ways made the
entire superstitious village believe that Peter is the cause
of all troubles on the peninsula.
Their clash escalates at a funeral of a supposed witch that
they turn into surreal mayhem. Peter’s faith in people
completely vanishes, but his enemies may show kindness
when he needs it the most.
Director’s Note
Two years ago I almost became a misanthrope. After living
and studying abroad, I returned home to Montenegro.
My aim was to cinematically explore this unique part of
the Mediterranean. However, I found myself struggling
to accept the reality of life there. The landscape of my
childhood had changed drastically. While for the first time,
I could fully perceive the mentality of the people in all of
its glory.
It was unbearable.
Then I heard an anecdote about an unpopular priest
who was ridiculed at a funeral he conducted. Somehow,
this incident gave my feelings a purpose, so the sad and
comic story of The Black Pin was born. The process became
a search for love and kindness towards people who, with
all of their flaws, still have a charming and a noble side to
them. I hope to capture their unique spirit truthfully.
The story of father Peter can speak to all of us. Sooner
or later we all face situations in which we lose our illusions.
Those moments that question our life expectations set up
by society, religion and culture.
42
Ivan
MarinoviĆ
Director
Montenegro
Ivan was born in 1984 in Kotor, Montenegro.
He graduated FAMU Film and Television
Academy in Prague (MgA degree in film
directing) in 2011. He shot several short films, as well as a
noted documentary Praise the Sea, Stick to
the Shore. He was a co-writer and directing
assistant on Ivo Trajkov’s feature film 90
Minutes - The Berlin Project, which was
selected for Cameraimage in Poland, and
Manaki Brothers in Bitola. The Black Pin is his first full-length feature.
The project has won the national film
concourse in Montenegro and has been
presented at the Berlinale and Sarajevo
film festivals in 2013.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Adriatic Western
Montenegro
T+382 69 469 314
adriatic.western@gmail.com
www.adriaticwestern.com
Co-Production Comapny
Serbia
Mina Đukić,
Kiselo Dete
minaminina@gmail.com
www.kiselodete.com
Macedonia
Robert Jazadžiski
Kaval Film
robert@kavalfilm.com.mk
www.kavalfilm.com.mk
Mina
ĐukiĆ
Co-Producer
Serbia
Mina Đukić was born in Sombor, in 1982.
In 2008 she co-founded the film company
Kiselo Dete. Their first full-length film Tilva
Roš premiered on Locarno Film Festival,
and won awards at dozens of other
festivals worldwide, including Sarajevo
Film Festival.
She produced and directed short films
awarded at national and international
film festivals. Her first feature film The
Disobedient, had it’s world premiere at
the Sundance Film Festival (2014).
Jelena
MiŜeljiĆ
Co-Producer
Croatia
USA
Born in 1987 in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Graduated from Faculty of Drama Arts in
Montenegro. She worked on several film
projects in Montenegro since 2008. In 2013,
she started a film production company
Cut-Up.
Production Budget
€ 600.000 43
The Current Love of My Life
Synopsis
The Current Love of My Life is a contemporary
interpretation of the novel “My First Romance” by Sholem
Aleichem, the iconic Yiddish author, transferring the plot from
19th century Eastern Europe to present-day United States.
Bini is a young Israeli musician living in New York, who is
left without a home after the immigration authorities raid
the apartment he has been sharing with his unsuccessful
band members. Penniless, he pretends to be religious and
finds shelter in the home of an ultra-orthodox family in
Brooklyn, teaching Hebrew to the youngest son who
is about to marry the daughter of a prominent religious
family from Jerusalem.
Bini quickly realizes that the student couldn’t care less
about studying Hebrew and would much rather use his
Israeli teacher as a personal assistant. Among other chores,
the boy makes him reply to the emails of his Israeli fiancé
under his name. Bini then finds himself in the midst of a
romantic letter exchange and falls desperately in love with
his student’s betrothed.
Director’s Note
“My First Romance” highlights the gap between social
classes typical to the 19th century. Transforming the story
to revolve around an Israeli immigrant in modern day New
York allows me to address similar gaps that are relevant
to our time, as well as additional contemporary issues.
For example, the immediacy of the internet vs. the slow
communication channels back then, which we associate
with old fashioned romance that many are longing for; or
the illusive interplay between Israeli and non-Israeli Jews,
who feel so close and connected despite their emotional
and cultural differences. Sholem Aleichem’s writings somehow remind me of
Woody Allen’s films. Whereas the cultural contexts are very
different, both artists provide a humorous, compassionate
look at their Jewish communities, while uncovering their
ludicrous aspects. In this spirit, I aspire to create an IsraeliBrooklynian comedy film that brings together Shalom
Aleichem and Woody Allen, the Israeli and Jewish, the
secular and religious, laughter and yearning.
44
Talya
Lavie
Director
Israel
Talya Lavie studied animation at the
Bezalel Art Academy and graduated
Summa Cum Laude from the Sam
Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem.
Her short film Sliding Flora was
screened at New York City’s MoMA
and in over 40 film festivals worldwide,
among them the Berlinale. Her diploma
film, The Substitute, received dozens
international awards, notably the
Audience Award at the Berlinale, the
first prize at the Munich International
Short Film Festival, and the first prize
at the Melbourne International Film
Festival.
Eitan
Mansuri
Producer
Israel
Eitan Mansuri was born in Jerusalem, a
graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film School.
Through his rich career, he filled a variety
of production positions in local and
international films. Among his productions
as producer are The Congress by Ari Folman
(Cannes 2013) and The Cutoff Man by Idan
Hubel (Venice 2012).
In 2013, Eitan established Spiro Films.
Her first feature film, Zero Motivation,
premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film
Festival’s main competition and won
Best Film Award and the femme-centric
Nora Ephron Prize.
The film opened last month in Israel to
rave reviews.
The Current Love of My Life will be
Talya’s second feature film.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Production Budget
Spiro Films LTD
96 Alenby st. Tel Aviv, 6581303
T +972-3-522-3539 M +972-52-8605360
eitanmansuri@gmail.com
spirofilmsil@gmail.com
€ 1.600.000 45
The Swan
Synopsis
The world is contemporary rural Iceland. For Sól (9)
things have been better. Her father is gone, and when her
mother has a nervous breakdown, Sól is sent away to live
with distant relatives deep in the middle of nowhere. The
only person Sól connects to is the mysterious farmhand
Jón (33). By day he works like a horse and by night he
writes ferociously in his journals. “Words are loyal, unlike
people” he tells Sól, making her feel that finally, here is
someone worth being loyal to. But Sól has competition.
The farmers’ daughter Ásta (23) has a claim on Jón as
well, and an angry one. Sól is convinced that Jón is her
soulmate, but his behaviour towards her is becoming
increasingly transgressive. And when it’s revealed that
Ásta is pregnant with Jón’s child and that they’ve been
romantically involved since Ásta was a young teenager
and Jón 10 years older, Sól has found herself in the middle
of a drama she can hardly grasp.
Director’s Note
The Swan is a novel that has haunted me for years. When
I first read it I had the uncanny feeling that the book was
reading me and not the other way around. That it was
somehow written about – or for –my darkest fears and
dreams. In retrospect it was the experience of reading
this book that made me want to make films. This film, in
particular.
The Swan is the story of a young person discovering the
fluctuating border between cruelty and love, and the
capacity for both within us all. It’s a story about human
beings lost, and found, in the nature around as well as their
own heart’s nature. Rural Iceland is a place where you feel
constantly at risk of disappearing in the vastness. Our
guide? A vulnerable 9-year old from the sea.
When I myself was nine, my life as I knew it fell apart. I
know where Sól is coming from and where she has to go.
It can be blissful to forget the things that hurt, Sól’s mother
tells her, but what Sól learns is that willful forgetting can
make a monster of you. We have to remember, we have to
keep our eyes open. There’s an angel and a monster in us
all, and we need them both to survive.
46
Ása
Hjörleifsdóttir
Director
Iceland
Born in Reykjavík in 1984, Ása
Hjörleifsdóttir is a graduate of the Columbia
University Film MFA program. Before
going to film school, Ása studied English
and French Literature at the University of
Iceland and La Sorbonne - Paris IV.
Ása has written and directed a number
of short films, most notably her awardwinning diploma film Ástarsaga, which has
screened at almost 40 festivals including
Clermont Ferrand, and was a finalist for
the 2013 Student Academy Awards.
The Swan will be Ása’s first feature film.
It has received script funding from the
Iceland Film Centre, and was selected for
the 2014 Berlinale Talent Project Market,
where it received one of three VFF Talent
Highlight Pitch Awards.
Hlin
Birgitta
Producer
Producer
Johannesdottir Bjornsdottir
Iceland
Iceland
Vintage Pictures was established in
2011 by producers Hlin Johannesdottir
and Birgitta Bjornsdottir. Hlin worked for
11 years at Zik Zak Filmworks (Iceland)
where she produced, line produced and
coordinated projects such as Dagur Kari’s
Noi Albinoi, The Good Heart and Runar
Runarsson’s Volcano. Birgitta graduated as
producer with distinction from the London
Film School in 2010, and after graduation
worked at Zik Zak on various productions.
Vintage recently completed Land Ho!
(Sundance 2014 premiere, sold to Sony
Pictures Classics) as Co-Producers; This is
Sanlitun by Robert Douglas (premiered at
TIFF 2013).
Vintage Pictures has produced several
award-winning short films, including
Ástarsaga by Ása Hjörleifsdottir.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Production Comapny
Co-Production
Vintage Pictures
Rauðagerði 61
108 Reykjavík
vp@vintagepictures.is
http://vintagepictures.is
Unafilm
Bozener Straße 13-14
D – 10825 Berlin
kreyenberg@unafilm.de
www.unafilm.de
Production Budget
Surprise Alley
29 rue Meslay
75003 Paris
ormieres@surprisealley.com
http://surprisealley.com
€ 1.354.000 47
Pitching 2014
Gabriele
Brunnenmeyer
Dorit
Rabinyan
Pitching
Coach
Pitching
Moderator
Germany
Israel
Having worked as a journalist and film
critic, Gabriele Brunnenmeyer has act as
an artistic adviser for the Edinburgh based
training for writers and directors Moonstone
International.
Rabinyan’s two novels Persian Brides
(Canongate, 1997) and Strand Of A Thousand
Pearls (Random House, 2002) were both
international bestsellers and translated into
15 languages.
She has developed the East-WestCoproduction Market Connecting Cottbus
at the FilmFestival Cottbus, which she was
running as Artistic Director till the end
of 2010.
In addition, Rabinyan wrote a children’s
book and a television script for Israel
commercial television, Shuli’s Fiancé, which
won the Israeli Film Academy Award.
Since 2005 she has worked for the
Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film, a
funding body for first and second films by
German young talents, as free lanced project
and script advisor.
Furthermore, she workes as a consultant
for script development, packaging and
project presentation for Berlinale and
Sarajevo Talents, Robert Bosch Coproduction
Prize and others.
Currently, she is managing the BLS Südtirol
Alto Adige coproduction event.
Since May 2013, she is the Head of Studies
for the MEDIA supported training program
for emerging producers, the Italy based
Maia workshops.
48
She has been awarded the Yitzhak Vinner
Prize (1996), The Jewish Wingate Quarterly
Award (1999), the Prime Minister`s Prize
(2000) and The Literary Acum Award (2008).
Borderlife, Rabinyan’s third novel was
recently published in Israel to rave reviews.
She writes a weekly column in the Haaretz
Newspaper Literary Supplement and lives
in Tel-Aviv.
Program
Friday, July11, Mishkenot Sha’ananim
Moderator: Ms. Dorit Rabinyan
10:00-10:30 Greetings
Noa Regev Director, Jerusalem Film Festival
Yair stern Counsel for Arts and Culture, Israel National Lottery Fund
Renen Schorr Founding Director, Sam Spiegel School
10:30-13:00
Projects Presentation
13:00-14:00
Lunch Break
14:00-14:30
Dancing Arabs in Jerusalem
Eran Riklis, Director and Sayed Kashua, Writer
Yoram Honig Director of the Jerusalem Film and Television Fund
14:30-16:00
Projects Presentation
Saturday, July 12
9:00-14:00 Speed Dating in Mishkenot Sha’ananim
for the Lab participants and guests:
producers, world sales agents and distributers.
19:30
Closing and Award Ceremony
St. Andrews Scottish Guesthouse
(by invitation only)
49
Decision Makers
Michael Eckelt
Caroline Banjo
and Carole Scotta
Riva Films, Germany
www.rivafilm.de
hamburg@rivafilm.de
Haut et Court, France caroline.benjo@hautetcourt.com
carole.scotta@hautetcourt.com
www.hautetcourt.com
Ilan Girard
Marc Baschet Frank Hoeve
ASAP Films, France
marcbaschet@gmail.com
Baldr Film, The Netherlands
frank@baldrfilm.nl
http://baldrfilm.nl
Sebastian Beffa
Cedomir Kolar
Film Distribution, France
lila@filmsdistribution.com
www.filmsdistribution.com
ASAP Films, France
ckolar@noos.fr
Antoine de
Clermont Tonnerre
Titus Kreyenberg
MACT Productions, France
act@mactprod.com
wwww.mactproductions.com
50
Arsam International, France
ilann.girard@arsam.biz
Unafilm, Germany
kreyenberg@unafilm.de
www.unafilm.de
Elie Meirovitz
Michael Weber
EZ Films, France
www.ez-films.com
elie@ez-films.com
The Match Factory, Germany
michael.weber@matchfactory.de
www.the-match-factory.com
Ewa Puszczynska
Riina Spørring Zachariassen
Opus Film, Poland
ewa@opusfilm.com
http://opusfilm.com
Windelov/Lassen ApS, Denmark
riina@windelovlassen.com
www.windelovlassen.com
Jean- Christophe Simon
Films Boutique , Germany/ France
www.filmsboutique.com
simon@filmsboutique.com
Members of the 2013 Jury
51
Pitching Events 2012, 2013
Participant Iddo Soskolne and producer Misha
Jaari (Israel - Finland)
Jury member Christian Jeune (France)
Participant Laszlo Nemes and producer Gabor
Sipos (Hungary) with decision maker Felix Eisel
(Germany)
Participant Diego Mondaca (Bolivia) with
decision maker Oliver Naumann (Austria)
52
Participant Morgan Simon and producer
Guillaume Dreyfus (France)
Participant Maximiliano Schonfeld and producer
Barbara Francisco (Argentine) with decision
maker Eli Meirovitz
Speed Dating session in Mishkenot Sha’ananim
Participant Junfeng Boo and producer Raymond
Phathanavirangoon (Singapore)
Jury member Vibeke Windeløv (Denmark)
Participant Yehonatan Indursky and producer
Talia Kleinhendler (Israel)
Participant Shimon Shai and producer
Gal Greenspan (Israel)
Participant Dani Rosenberg and producer Eilon
Ratzkovsky (Israel)
Participant Malik Vitthal (USA)
Participant Laszlo Nemes and producer Gabor
Sipos (Hungary)
53
Award Ceremony 2012
Members of the 2012 Jury
Nadav Lapid and producers Talia Kleinhendler
and Osnat Handelsman- Keren (Israel) receive
the 2012 Beracha Foundation Award of $30,000
for The Kindergarten Teacher
Philippe Lacôte (Ivory Coast) and producer
Claire Gadea (France) receive the 2012 Beracha
Foundation Award of $50,000 for Run
54
Participant Malik Vitthal speaks on behalf of the
2012 edition participants
Chaim Elbaum receives the Jerusalem Film Fund
Prize (2012)
Award Ceremony 2013
Veronica Kedar (Israel) receives the Beracha
Foundation Award of $50,000 for Family. With
the Chair of the 2013 Jury, Paulo Branco
Dani Rosenberg and producer Eilon Ratzkovsky
(Israel) receive the 2013 Beracha Foundation
Award of $30,000 for The Vanishing Soldier
55
Directors
Renen Schorr
Founding
Director
Renen Schorr has been a key figure in the
Israeli film arena since the late 70’s as a
film director, educator and Israeli film
activist.
Nearly two decades ago, Schorr founded
the internationally acclaimed Sam Spiegel
Film & Television School, Jerusalem and has
been its director ever since.
Under his leadership, the school has
become a catalyst in the renaissance
of Israeli cinema, winning the world’s
Best Film School Award 16 times, and
boasting some 180 retrospectives in such
international film festivals and museums
as MOMA (1996) and Berlin (2004).
Schorr was chosen by his colleagues as
President of GEECT, the association of
70 European film schools (2000-2004) and
led to the entry of Israel to the European
Film Acadamy.
Schorr has pioneered major developments
in the Israeli public film funds as one
of the three initiators and founders of
The Israel Film Fund (1978) and the
initiator of the New Fund for Film &
Television (NFCT, 1993). In 2008, Schorr
created The Jerusalem Film and Television
Fund- Israel’s first regional fund, serving
as its first chairman. In that year he
also initiated the opening of two new
cinematheques south and north of Tel
Aviv – in Holon and Herzliya.
56
In 2013 Schoor was the creator and curator
of a full-length feature documentary
Footsteps in Jerusalem – a tribute film by
the Sam Spiegel School to David Perlov –
forefather of Israeli documentary cinema
and his revolutionary film In Jerusalem, 50
years after the film’s debut.
The film was screened simultaneously
in 50 locations worldwide including
cinematheques, museums and film schools
in 41 countries.
Schorr is a director-producer whose
critically acclaimed full-length feature
Late Summer Blues (1987), won the Israeli
Academy Award for Best Film of the Year
and became one of the most successful
Israeli cult movies of all times.
His second feature-length film as a
director, The Loners (2007) was nominated
for 11 Israeli academy awards. It won
the Best Actor award and participated in
numerous international film festivals.
Ifat Tubi
Associate
Director
Born in 1974, Ifat Tubi is a graduate of the
Tel Aviv University, where she majored in
Social Science and Communication Studies.
The directors would especially like
to thank Dov Baharav, Chairman
of the school’s board of directors, for
his support and to Avishay David
Kahana, the school’s graduate who
took part in creating the Lab from its
very inception.
Between 2004 and 2011, Tubi was the
director of the International Relations
& Resource Development Department
at the Cameri Theatre, the municipal
theatre of Tel Aviv and the biggest theatre
in Israel, with an overall responsibility for
the theatre’s foreign relations, including
company touring and guest performances.
During her work at the Cameri, Tubi
produced the Tel Aviv International
Theatre Festival, the first international
theatre festival in the country, hosting
major theatre companies from all around
the world.
Together with her work at the theatre, she
produced the annual event organized by
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
Hanoch Levin Institute of Israeli Drama,
IsraDrama 2007 and IsraDrama 2008 –
which brought Israeli drama to hundreds
major theatres and festival directors.
Since November 2011, she has been the
Associate Director of the Jerusalem
International Film Lab.
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Our Thanks
The Jerusalem International Film Lab thanks the following
organizations and individuals for their generosity and support
Jerusalem Municipality
Mayor Nir Barkat, Nava Disenchik
Michal Shalem
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Rafi Gamzou, Ofra Ben Yaakov,
Uri Amitai, Vered Heller
Jerusalem Development Authority
Moty Hazan, Anat Tzur, Udi Ben Dror
The Goethe Institute in Tel Aviv
Dr. Wolf Iro, Amos Dolav, Drorit Zilberberg
The Jerusalem Film & Television Fund
Yoram Honig, Galia Altaratz
The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School
Dov Baharav, Yaki Har-Tal, Rami Shemesh,
Keren Ben Ari, First Year Production Track
Students
Special thanks to Ariel Richter
National Lottery Fund
Uzi Dayan, Dolin Melnik, Yigal Molad
Hayo, Yair Stern, Judith Guetta
The Beracha Foundation
Dr. Tali Yariv-Mashal, Nomi Dror
The Sam Spiegel Foundation, New York
Judge Raya S. Dreben, David Bottoms,
Adam Spiegel, Michael Freedman
The Jerusalem Foundation
Mark Soser, Ruth Cheshin, Eyal Sher,
Danny Mimran
Mishkenot Sha’ananim
Moti Schwartz, Rita Kramer,
Raya Koval-Umansky
Mona and Machneyuda Restaurants
Asaf Granit
Colony Restaurant
Noam Rizi
St. Andrew’s Scottish Guesthouse
Jerusalem Film Festival
Noa Regev, Elad Samorzik, Elad
Goldman, Eti Tsicko, Miri Capiluto
The Israel Film Fund
Katriel Schory, David Lipkind
58
Special thanks to Violeta Bava, Georges
Goldenstern, Olivier Père, Anthony
Bergman
Lab’s Staff
Producer Raya Shuster
Webmaster Ariel Richter
The Sam Spiegel
Film & Television School,
Jerusalem
Head of Finance Rami Shemesh
International Relations Roberta Breiter
July’s Events
Producers Tamar Kay, Gal Tveryai
Production Assistants Shira Florentin, Maya Kessel
Performance Gaya Feldheim – Schorr Quintet
The Jerusalem Lab’s Book of Projects
Chief Editors Renen Schorr, Ifat Tubi
Graphic Design Adraba (Sivan Oppenheim & Shiraz Wolman)
Photography Yossi Zwecker, Juan Ferrari, Talya Lavie,
Ása Hjörleifsdóttir, Yoshi Heimrath, Itiel Zion, Vardi Kahana
Proofreading Ariel Richter
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The Jerusalem International Film Lab
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