It's Just Movies

At the eighth Berlinale Co-Production Market (Feb. 13 to 15), the producers and directors of 38 selected film projects from 25 countries worldwide will meet with 450 potential co-production and financing partners. For each of these projects, the Berlinale Co-Production Market team will arrange numerous one-on-one meetings with interested potential partners. The schedule for the over 1000 meetings in two days will be tailored to the concrete individual needs and wishes of the participants, and the priorities of the projects.

Besides these individual project meetings, there will be a “Company Matching” event at this year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market for the first time. At it three prestigious production companies will be presented that have already created extensive networks around the world. These companies are all open to establishing further connections and keen on new partnerships. “In the exact same way as with their projects, participants can request meetings with the selected production companies. Yet these meetings will not revolve around concrete projects but around becoming acquainted with each other’s companies so as to find structural similarities and possibly open up perspectives for future collaborations,” says project director Sonja Heinen. The participants selected for “Company Matching” will be announced in late January.

In 2011, the official selection of projects for the Berlinale Co-Production Market includes 24 exciting new feature film projects (chosen from a total of 352 entries). They will be presented by internationally experienced producers who already have at least 30% of their financing in place. The projects all have budgets between one and twelve million euros.

Among these are projects by well-known, award-winning directors such as Lucía Puenzo (XXY and recently The Fish Child – Panorama 2009), Eran Riklis (The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree), Urszula Antoniak (Nothing Personal) and Seyfi Teoman, whose film Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz (Our Grand Despair) has just been completed and will screen in this year’s Competition.

In conjunction with CineMart Rotterdam, three other projects have been chosen for the “Rotterdam-Berlinale Express”; they will participate in both the CineMart and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
In cooperation with the Berlinale Talent Campus, eleven projects by newcomers have been selected from 270 additional entries for the “Talent Project Market”.

At least two films from previous Berlinale Co-Production Markets will be presented at this year’s Berlinale: Israeli director Nir Bergman’s Intimate Grammar, which has already won awards at festivals in Jerusalem and Tokyo, will be screening in Generation Kplus. Rosario Garcia-Montero met her co-producers from Barry Films, Germany, while taking part in the “Talent Project Market” in 2007. Her film Las Malas Intenciones/The Bad Intentions, which has just been completed, was backed by the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund and is now returning to Berlin to celebrate its world premiere in Generation Kplus.

Overall, the success rate of the Berlinale Co-Production Market is impressive: 40 percent of the projects selected in the past (more than 100 films) have been realised.

In addition to the pre-arranged individual meetings, there will be many other networking opportunities at the Berlinale Co-Production Market on Feb. 13 and 14, as well as an up-to-date programme of information on the latest trends in film financing, marketing and international co-productions. According to the participants’ individual timetables during the Berlinale, they can put together their own personal programme out of the many events offered, one that suits both their needs and interests.

On Feb. 15, everything will revolve around film rights for literary adaptations for the sixth time. At “Breakfast & Books” — which is organised in cooperation with the Frankfurt Book Fair — 10 selected bestsellers and top new releases will be presented that provide producers with potentially interesting material for the screen.

The main partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market are MDM – Mittel-deutsche Medienförderung and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market. The Berlin House of Representatives – directly across from the European Film Market in the Martin-Gropius-Bau – will again be the Co-Production Market’s cooperation partner and venue.

The official selection of projects for the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2011 (listed alphabetically by production company):

Love Isreal (dir: Julia von Heinz), 2Pilots Filmproduction, Germany

They Are All Dead (dir: Beatriz Sanchis), Avalon P.C., Spain

Saints (dir: Seyfi Teoman), Bulut Film, Turkey

Darkness by Day (dir: Martin Desalvo), Doménica Films, Argentina

The Woman Who Feared the Sun (dir: Javier Fuentes-León), Dynamo Producciones, Columbia; Neue Cameo Film, Germany & Elcalvo Films, Peru/USA

The Intriguing Art of Secrets (dir: Andy De Emmony), Element Pictures, Ireland

The Killing of Henry James (dir: Sylvain Archambault), Filmarto/BBR, Canada

Tove and the Mermaid (dir: Miikko Oikkonen), Fisher King Production, Finland

Wakolda (dir: Lucía Puenzo), Historias Cinematográficas, Argentina

The Way Home / La strada per casa (Dir: Bruno Oliviero), Invisibile Film, Italy

Balaton Submarine (dir: Orsi Nagypál), KMH Film, Hungary

A Green and Quiet River (dir: Alain Choquart), Le Bureau, France

Aurore (dir: Stéphane Vuillet), Les Films Du Présent, France

Headhunter (dir: Bastian Günther), Lichtblick Media & Lichtblick Film, Germany

The 90 Minute War (dir: Eyal Halfon), Norma Productions, Israel

The Devil’s Pool (dir: James Lapine), Open City Films, USA & K5 Film, Germany

The Flying Man (dir: Kornél Mundruczó), Proton Cinema, Hungary

Broken (dir: Miika Soini), Public Films & Helsinki Filmi, Finland

Still Life (dir: Uberto Pasolini), Red Wave Films, United Kingdom

Watchtower (dir:: Pelin Esmer), Sinefilm, Turkey

Remainder (dir: Omer Fast), Tigerlily Films, United Kingdom

The Spider in the Web (dir: Eran Riklis), Topia Communications, Israel

Life According to Nino (dir: Urszula Antoniak), Waterland Film & Family Affair Films, Netherlands

2 Kidnappings (dir: Marcos Jorge), Zencrane Filmes & Migdal Filmes, Brazil

Rotterdam-Berlinale Express:

Loud (dir: Aneta Lesnikovska), AKA Film, Macedonia

We Are Dead (dir: Tobias Nölle), Hugofilm Productions, Switzerland

The Cyclops (dir: Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää), Kinotar, Finland

Talent Project Market (listed alphabetically by Talent):

Challatt of Tunis (prod: Habib Attia), Tunisia

Preservation (dir/prod: Nicole Brending), USA

The Babadook (prod: Kristina Ceyton), Australia/Germany

Youth (prod: Gal Greenspan), Israel

Brian (dir: Angela How), Singapore/USA

The Find (prod: Dimitri Klepatski), Russia

Greicekelly (dir: Rafael Lessa), Brazil

The South Is Nothing/Il Sud è niente (dir: Fabio Mollo), Italy

Woman of the Father (prod: Aletéia Selonk), Brazil

Bad Stock (dir: Rachel Tillotson), United Kingdom

The Here After (prod: Mariusz Wlodarski and dir: Magnus von Horn), Poland/Sweden

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