EAVE November News 2009

In development/pre-production

- LIMBO by Yesim Ustaoglu, producer: EAVE 2009 participant Serkan Cakerer, has received funding from the Hubert Bals Fund and is supported by MEDIA Development. LIMBO was also one of the selected projects for the Pusan Promotion Plan in South Korea this year.
www.plus90film.com

MDM funding decisions
- EAVE 2006 project LORE, producer: EAVE 2006 graduate Paul Weksh, co-producer: EAVE 2006 graduate Karsten Stöter, was awarded 500.000 Euro production support.
- EAVE 2007 project TONY TEN, produced by EAVE 2007 graduate Marleen Slot (Lemming Film, NL) in co-production with EAVE 1995 graduate Heino Deckert (MA.JA.DE, D) has been granted 500.000 Euro production support.
- ZWANGSARBEIT – ZEIT DER VERSOEHNUNG, produced by EAVE 2000 graduate Simone Baumann, has received 90.000 Euro.
- EAVE 2004 project FLY AWAY has been granted 400.000 Euro.
www.mdm-online.de

- EAVE 2006 project LORE by Cate Shortland, producer: EAVE 2006 graduate Paul Welsh, co-producer: EAVE 2006 graduate Karsten Stöter, has received 350,000 Euro production support by the German Film Funding Agency FFA. Production companies: Rohfilm (GER), Edge City Films (UK), Porchlight Films (AUS). The film’s budget is 3.5 Mio. Euro.
www.rohfilm.de

- EAVE 2008 graduate Tudor Giurgiu and his company Librafilm (RO) have two new features in their development slate: THE LIFE AFTER, directed and produced by Tudor Giurgiu. The film is about the last 30 days in the life of a young prosecutor who is sent to investigate dirty local corruption affairs. ONE LAST TANGO by Alexander Nanau is currently developed in co-production with Lichtblick Film (EAVE 1991 graduate Joachim Ortmanns). The film depicts the attempts of the Romanian Dictator Ceausescu to assassinate his last opponents, a handful of dissidents exiled in Germany and France.
www.librafilm.net

- DISTANT NEIGHBORHOOD by Sam Garbarski is currently in development. Producers are EAVE 1994 graduate and group leader Diana Elbaum, EAVE 2003 graduate Sébastien Delloye, EAVE 1992 graduate and President Jani Thiltges. Executive production: Entre Chien et Loup / Samsa Film (LUX) / Archipel 35 (FR – former EAVE group leader Denis Freyd); co-production: Pallas Film (DE) / Ateliers de Baere (BE). The film is supported by the Ministry of the French Community of Belgium, RTBF, Wallimage, Eurimages (Council of Europe), Canal+, CineCinéma, Luxembourg Film Fund, Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, Banque Populaire Image 10, MDM, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
www.entrechienetloup.be

- BLACK IRON DAYS by Wang Bing, co-producer: EAVE 1994 graduate and group leader Diana Elbaum. The story is based on real facts. Forty years ago, in West China, 3000 political prisoners were deported to labour camps thousands of miles away from their families. These men perished in the face of food shortages, harsh work conditions and a hostile environment. BLACK IRON DAYS recounts the daily life of a few survivors in the last weeks of a labour camp. Executive producers: Les Films de l'Etranger (FR), WIL Productions (China).
www.entrechienetloup.be

- FROM LOVE WITH BEST INTENTIONS by Adrian Situ is in preparation. The Film that follows the experiences of a young man, who is facing the unexpected illness of his mother, is produced by EAVE 2007 graduate and Romanian National Coordinator Ada Solomon (Hi Film). Co-producers are MPM Film from France and Romania’s 4Proof Film. They are in search for other foreign co-producers to complete the financing for the film with a 650.000 Euro budget.
www.hifilm.ro

Helsinki Filmi is currently working on its biggest TV project ever: the adaptation of Kjell Westö's best-selling novel WHERE ONCE WE WALKED featuring the Finnish civil war and its effects on generations of Finns. Producer is EAVE 2002 graduate and Finnish National Coordinator Aleksi Bardy. It won the Finlandia Prize in 2006 and its author Kjell Westö is one of the most acclaimed contemporary Swedish speaking Finnish novelists. The TV series - the biggest ever for Helsinki Film - will be adapted for the screen by Jimmy Karlsson for filmmaker Peter Lindholm, who previously filmed another Westö novel, “Kites Over Helsinki”. Bardy has secured financing from the Finnish and Swedish public broadcasters YLE and SVT and is looking for other partners in Europe.
www.helsinkifilmi.fi 

EAVE 2005 graduate Patrice Nezan and his company lesfilmsduprésent is granted a slate funding development by Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region in France for the 3 followings projects:
- Feature documentary SOUTH NORTH WATER TRANSFER by Antoine Boutet
- Creative documentary NATURAL WINE FOR A HAPPY LIFE by Philippe Gasnier.
- Feature documentary CHARLOTTE RAMPLING - THE LOOK by Angelina Maccarone
www.lesfilmsdupresent.fr

EAVE 2007 graduate Sinisha Juricic (Nukleus, HR) is currently developing several projects:
- Documentary film THE CLASS by Vesna Cudic has successfully finished the year with EURODOC training programme
http://www.eurodoc-net.com/medias/originaux/rdv_178_news_participants_2009.jpg
- Documentary film HUNTING BEARS by Marko Prpic and Marko Rukavina was pitched at the final pitching forum of exOriente training programme in Jihlava on November 2
http://www.docuinter.net/en/activities.php?kategorie=2&id=101&sid=238&rok=2009
- Documentary film SUCH A GAME by Renato Giugliano was selected to be part of the 2nd Neighbouring Coproduction Meeting (NCM) in Ljubljana, in November 2009, as part of the Ljubljana Film Festivals programme.
All three projects have been supported by HAVC (Croatian Audiovisual Centre) and City of Zagreb council for culture – department for international co-operation.

In production

- Dome Karukoski’s fourth feature film, LAPLAND ODYSSEY, is currently shooting in Finnish Lapland for producer and EAVE 2002 graduate and Finnish National Coordinator Aleksi Bardy (Helsinki Filmi). Co-production partners on the €2m film are Anagram Film in Sweden and Ripple World Pictures in Ireland. Among Helsinki Filmi’s other recent productions, Toni Laine’s feature debut PLAYGROUND, starring Germany’s Sibel Kekilli, was released on Finnish screens in October and garnered 9,000 admissions from 16 screens. Meanwhile, Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää’s feature debut THE VISITOR premiered in Germany at Cologne's KunstFilmBiennale has reached German cinemas earlier this month.
www.helsinkifilmi.fi

- Writer/Director John Michael McDonagh has begun a six-week shoot on location for THE GUARD in Connemara, Spiddal, Barna and County Wicklow, Ireland. Co-producer is EAVE 1991 graduate Edward Michael Guiney. The film is about an unorthodox Irish policeman who joins forces with a straitlaced FBI agent to take on an international drug-smuggling gang.
www.elementpictures.ie

- EAVE 2008 graduate Tudor Giurgiu is currently shooting his new production SOMEWHERE IN PALILULA. The debut of director Silviu Purcarete is a dark comedy about life under communism. The film has a budget of 1.6 million Euro and is supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. SOMEWHERE IN PALILULA won the Balkan Fund Award at Thessaloniki IFF in 2005.
www.librafilm.net

- THE RUNWAY, co-producer: EAVE 2004 graduate Macdara Kelleher of Fastnet Films (IRL) along with Brendan McDonald and Bernard Michaux of Lucil Films (L) with financing from the Irish Film Board, the Luxembourg Film Fund and Film I Vast. The film is loosely inspired by the true events of a South American pilot who crashed his airplane in a field near Mallow in Cork in 1983. The people of a small town came together to build a runway, fix a plane and get the pilot home.
www.fastnetfilms.com

- Feature Documentary PYJAMA GIRLS directed by Maya Derrington and produced by EAVE 2008 graduate Nicky Gogan (Still Films, UK) is in production.  Over the course of a year, PYJAMA GIRLS follows the lives of a group of teenage girls who wear pyjamas as daywear, all day, every day.
http://www.stillfilms.org/pages/ff_pyjama.html

In post-production

- Lithuanian director Saulius Drunga is in the post-production with his feature film debut, ANARCHY IN ZIRMUNAI, planned for completion by March 2010 and spring distribution in Lithuania. The 140,000 euro film is produced by EAVE 2007 graduate Ieva Norviliene for her company Tremora. The film was funded with a 20,000 Euro development grant from the EU MEDIA programme, and with 20.000 Euro for development and a further 100.000 Euro for production from the Lithuanian Cultural Support Foundation, with the funding raised over a three year period. The grant was one of the largest ever given by the foundation. Drunga came to international attention at Cannes in 2007, when his script for the film won the Media Talent New Award. Acme Film has distribution rights for the Baltic territories.
www.tremora.com

- Director Harald Sicheritz has finished shooting the second instalment of the adventures of Lilly, young German viewers’ favourite witch. This follows the success of LILLY THE WITCH: The Dragon and the Magic Book, by Vienna-born Stefan Ruzowitzky, which was released in February and showed the little magician learning her spells. The films are based on Knister’s popular „Lilly The Witch“ children’s novels which, before being brought to the big screen, drew 500,000 viewers as a TV series. The second instalment, HEXE LILLI 2: Die Reise nach Mandolan, is written by Bettine and Achim von Borries. Shooting started in mid-August on a sumptuous Indian set created at Babelsberg Studios, before relocating, at the end of September, to India. Lilly The Witch 2 is produced for almost €10m by Blue Eyes Fiction and Trixter, in co-production with EAVE 1992 graduate and group leader Danny Krausz (DOR Film, Austria) and Spain, and with backing from Eurimages. Disney Studios Motion Pictures Germany will launch the film on German screens on January 27, 2011.
www.dor-film.com

- EAVE 2008 project LAPP HAT (FJELLFINNHUA), produced by EAVE 2008 graduate Guro S. Bjerk from Norway is in the editing process and will be completed during November 2009.
www.nfi.no/english/norwegianfilms/show.html?id=1109

- RIALTO TWIRLERS directed by Anne Maree Barry, produced by EAVE 2008 graduate Nicky Gogan (Still Films, UK) is currently in postproduction. In a swirl of pom poms, twirling batons, sparkle and feathers, Rialto Twirlers captures a secret moment of unity and beauty as five girls and one boy rehearse their routine for the final time before a national majorette competition.
http://www.stillfilms.org/pages/s_twirlers.html
Also produced by Nicky Gogan and company Still Films is THE ROOMS directed by Paul Rowley and Tim Blue - Shot in Berlin, Los Angeles, New York and Athens. The Rooms is a long-form experimental film composed of a series of thematically linked sections, each having their own distinctive yet connected aesthetic.
http://www.stillfilms.org/pages/ff_rooms.html
And two more Still Films’ productions are in post: (THE TREMBLING VEIL OF) BONES directed by Matthew Talbot-Kelly (Glimpse Digital). It is the story of an anachronistic clockmaker whose stagnant life is thrown into disarray when a centaur postman robot delivers a package from an unforgotten love of thirty years ago.
http://www.stillfilms.org/pages/bones_onesheet02.pdf
THREE DOVES directed by Conor McCormack - After a drunken evening a teenager must decide what is of real importance in her life as old bonds threaten to unravel.
http://www.stillfilms.org/pages/s_3doves.html

The Romanian project OUTSKIRTS by Cristian Mungiu and Ioana Uricaru, produced by Saga Film (producer: EAVE 2009 participant Alex Teodorescu, EAVE 2006 graduate Dan Burlac) is also in postproduction.
www.sagafilm.ro

Festivals