22 film projects from 14 countries will be presented at the ninth edition of When East Meets West, the Italian co-production forum taking place on January 20-22, 2019 in the frame of the Trieste Film Festival. This year WEMW will bring together more than 450 industry professionals from over 35 countries, particularly from the 2019 East & West spotlight territories: Central Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine) and Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands).
The 22 projects in development – 11 long feature documentaries and 11 fiction features – were selected out of 299 submissions from 49 different countries. The final selection will include several debut features such as Methusalem by Floor van der Meulen (9 Days – From My Window in Aleppo, Best European Short Film Award at the 29th European Film Awards) and Victim by Michal Blasko (Atlantis, 2003, premiered at Cinéfondation competition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival) but also upcoming films by Vuk Ršumović (Best Film at Venice Critics’ Week 2014 with No One’s Child) and Federica Di Giacomo (Liberami, Best Film at Venice Orizzonti 2016). “Once again we would like to thank all applicants who shared their stories with us. And now, like in all past editions, we will do our best to carefully help our selected projects to find the right partners amongst all our invited guests”, remarks Alessandro Gropplero, head of WEMW.
Along with the Film Center Serbia Development Award (cash prize of 5.000 EUR), the EAVE European Producers Workshop scholarship, the Cannes Producers Network Prize and the Flow Postproduction Award (15.000 EUR in post-production facilities), all fiction projects will compete for one brand new prize: the Pop Up Film Residency Award, a 3-week residency with the guidance of international mentors. Finally, we are pleased to continue the partnership with EWA so to offer once again the European Women’s Audiovisual Network Award, a cash prize for the best female director.
In addition to the 22 projects selected for the pitching forum, WEMW will invite two additional guest projects previously presented at Baltic Event and DOCSP Brazil.
Together with the showcase of projects in development, the programme of When East Meets West 2019 will include the work in progress section for documentaries Last Stop Trieste, the workshop for long feature fiction films in editing phase First Cut Lab, the work in progress section for films produced or co-produced by Italian companies This is IT and a rich programme dedicated to the co-production opportunities with the 2019 spotlight territories.
The 22 projects selected for WEMW 2019 are:
ALL-IN by Volkan Uce – Cassette for timescapes (Belgium)
BIGGER THAN TRAUMA by Vedrana Pribačić – Metar60 & Slavica Film (Croatia)
BLACK SALT by Marjoleine Boonstra – Volya Films (Netherlands)
BROTHERHOOD by Francesco Montagner – nutprodukce (Czech Republic)
DANIELS INFERNO by Egil Håskjold Larsen – Yellow Log (Norway)
HER/HIS by Anna Kazejak – Lava Films (Poland)
JUMP OUT by Nika Šaravanja – Playtime films (Belgium)
LE PARADIS C’EST ICI by Giovanni Troilo – Bright Frame (Italy)
LIVING by Vuk Ršumović – BaBoon Production, Art&Popcorn (Serbia)
METHUSALEM by Floor van der Meulen – Keplerfilm (Netherlands)
ONE OF US by Ergys Meta – Erafilm (Albania)
PRISON MAMA by Attila Till – Laokoon Filmgroup (Hungary)
PURE UNKNOWN by Mattia Colombo, Valentina Cicogna – Jump Cut (Italy)
THE LAST NOMAD by Petar Glomazić – Wake Up Films (Serbia), CUT UP (Montenegro)
THE MIRACLE by Bartłomiej Żmuda – Projekcja Identyfikacja (Poland)
THE PALACE by Federica Di Giacomo – Dugong (Italy)
THE SILENT TREATMENT by Caroline Strubbe – Minds Meet (Belgium)
THE ZIMOV HYPOTHESIS by Denis Sneg – Ethnofund (Russia)
VICTIM by Michal Blasko – nutprodukcia (Slovakia)
WHAT WILL THE TITLE BE? by Kata Oláh – Makabor Studio (Hungary)
WHO DO YOU LOVE THE MOST, BABY? by Tonia Noyabrova – ESSE Production House (Ukraine)
YEAR OF A WIDOW by Veronika Liskova – Artcam Films (Czech Republic)
The 2 guest projects are:
MY GRANDPA MADE PORN by Julio Adamor – Oka Comunicações (Brazil)
(N)OSTALGIA by Vicki Thornton – a_BAHN (Luxembourg)
