TFL Extended 2018
TFL Extended 2018 Over the years, TorinoFilmLab has TFL EXTENDED been contacted by organizations and individual professionals looking for customized workshops or immediate consultation in various areas: from fiction feature script to TV series development, from story editing to audience design and etc. We understood that it was necessary to create a new activity to complement our programmes offering punctual support combined with a flexible structure, able to cover the new areas and changing necessities of the industry. This is the seed that blossoms today as TFL Extended. In 2018, we have officially launched TFL Extended: a selection of intensive workshops addressed to teams of international professionals, who are willing to develop their skills through concrete work, under the guidance of high profile tutors. We have held four intensive residential workshops dedicated to TV Series, Script Development (two editions) and Creative Production respectively, with 59 projects and 83 participants from 35 countries. All workshops combined masterclasses, one to one meetings with international experts and group sessions, where participants can brainstorm with their colleagues and engage themselves in discussions. With TFL Extended we want to expand our network, create new partnerships and give the chance to more professionals to benefit on our pedagogical support. We hope you will enjoy reading the projects.
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3 INDEX 6 TFL Extended 22 TFL Extended – TV Series – Script APRIL 2018 Development JUNE 2018 8 Canvas City Daria Keršić 24 12 Days and Nights George Ktistakis 9 Catapult Benny Drechsel 25 After the Brexit Peter Dörfler Laila Alina Reischer
10 Eutropia 26 CORA: Irene De Lucas Ramón The Saints of Boyacá Camilo Martín-Flórez 11 Ioan Ursuț Carla Fotea 27 Dolores Chico Teixeira 12 Lights Out Sabina Anzuategui David Rocchio
28 Double Happiness 13 Mapped Sebastian Mihăilescu Rachel Tillotson Andrei Epure
14 Megaplex 29 I Wish I Could Hibernate Hayk Matevosyan Zoljargal Purevdash
15 My Place in the World 30 Luna Park Mattia Temponi Florenc Papas Paolo Ferrara Dritan Huqi
16 Play Me 31 My Mad Madonna Slobodan Karajlovic Cinzia Bomoll Josella Porto 17 Purgatoria Dana Nechustan 32 Paris Syndrome Edward Stelder Kimie Tanaka Erina Suto 18 So You Better Run Yashar Alishenas 33 Slaughterman Rafael Antonaccio 19 The Origin Bernardo Antonaccio of Another World Selin Karli 34 The Blunder Alessandra Cardone 20 The Panda Daniel Carsenty 35 The Carjacker Oman Dhas 21 The Scheme Filippo Mazzotti
4 TFL EXTENDED 36 The Fertile Island 50 Letters to Strangers 64 TFL Extended Veronica Mengoli Valerie Wolf Gang Giulia Forcolini Ognjen Obradovi – Creative Production 37 The Promised Land 51 Marie NOVEMBER 2018 Shirin Rashidian Sidharth Mathawan 66 Don’t Gaze Long 38 The Return 52 No Man’s Land Into the Abyss José Hurtarte Arthur Ian Mohammadreza Farzad Karel Poupě 39 The Sea Needs to Heave 53 Open Sky Zain Duraie Ferran Mendoza Soler 67 Love Lowercase Javier Loarte Willy Biondani 40 The Sweet Bitterness Denise Gomes of Ripe Pomegranates 54 Pearl Tears Andrej Volkashin Lévon Minasian 68 Rotten Apples Ester Mann Tom Haines 41 True Love Anna Griffin Cristina Gómez 55 Road to Livramento Giuliana Monteiro 69 Son of the Ashes Beatriz Monteiro Dado Amaral Bruno Bettati 42 TFL Extended 56 Star Kristian Sejrbo Lidegaard – Script 70 The Deleted Development Maria Møller Kjeldgaard Sidharth Mathawan SEPTEMBER 2018 Gagan Mathawan 57 Stoning the Jasmine Zaina Deeb 44 Bleeding Time 71 The Penultimate Lucas Camargo de Barros Jonas Kærup Hjort 58 The 7th Day Rikke Tambo Andersen Julie Benegmos 45 Count to Ten Oleksandra Brovchenko 59 The Foreign Agent 72 The Quest Igor Savychenko Don Barak Natasha Markou JoAnn Hess 46 Dark Side of The Moon 60 The Invisible Mona Deeley Jan Van Dyck 73 You Can’t Stop the Sea Rowland E. Jobson 47 East of Death 61 Three Weeks Tansi Inayat Tommaso Mottola Under the Sea Martin Kuba 48 In a Pool of Ella Caroline Ingvarsson 62 Woman Without a Past Olivier Guerpillon Arman T. Riahi
49 In Our Image David Steiner
5 TFL Extended – TV Series TFL Extended – TV Series April 2018 Canvas City
A drama series inspired by real events that tells the story of a survival on your own. It is 1943. The Nazis are Daria Keršić getting closer and a 16-year- old Sofija is one of the Writer/director • Croatia Yugoslavian refugees who have to flee. Her life is already Daria Keršić earned a Master’s degree in unbearable, with a secret Management, but she has been working as a pregnancy, a strict family and writer for 10 years. She is currently a student at an arranged engagement to the Master’s programme in Screenwriting at the the man she does not love. Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. They are going to El Shatt, Her fantasy Young Adult novel YA has been a camp in Egypt. There published in Croatia, and she is currently writing are many obstacles: poor the sequels, as well as adapting the story into a TV hygiene, disease epidemics, series. lack of food, foreign She worked as an editorial assistant, content writer, languages, and religions, a film critic, actress, script supervisor, and st1 AD for set of wartime rules. Nobody major Croatian production companies. is on her side. What is Sofija Daria attended numerous filmmaking and willing to do to survive? screenwriting workshops and schools, participated Whatever it takes. in many Young Cinephiles programmes at several film festivals, and she acted as a member of Young INTENTION Jury at the Pula Film Festival in 2017. She wrote and I have Croatian producers directed two short films and she is currently in pre- from Drugi Plan company, production for her next two short films. and we are looking for She is also in the early stage of developing a co-producers. feature script.
CONTACT INFORMATION Daria Keršić [email protected] M +385 989113468
8 TFL EXTENDED Catapult Benny Drechsel Producer • Germany The King of Germany’s biggest amusement park Benny grew up in Munich where he did not finish his goes bankrupt. He sees education as a sculptor and stonemason. Afterward he was opportunities in Latin America working for the Bavarian State Opera and in a nice little but ends up in jail, turning cinema which showed only Italian and French films from the the family apart. 50s to late 70s that nobody wanted to see (apart from him and a bunch of people who today all work in the cinema industry). A true but bigger than In 1997 Benny came to Berlin to work as a post-production life story. supervisor and as an associate producer for documentary films and feature films. In 2002 he left Berlin for Barcelona, INTENTION but he came back to found Rohfilm Productions with his former colleague and friend Karsten Stöter in 2005. The project is in development, and we are looking for Since 2016 Benny is the sole owner and producer at Rohfilm. partners.
Peter Dörfler Writer/director • Italy
Peter attended the Ulm School of Design in Offenbach am Main, where he graduated in 1995 in Camera and Directing. He worked as DoP on several documentaries, feature films, and more than 60 music videos. In 2006 Peter had his debut in directing with the TV documentary film Der Panzerknacker, and in 2009 he directed his second documentary Catapult, which premiered in Perspektive Deutsches Kino at Berlinale 2009. His following work The Big Eden had its world premiere at Berlinale’s Panorama 2011 and was nominated for the German Film Prize Lola 2012. Peter Dörfler lives and works in Berlin.
CONTACT INFORMATION Benny Drechsel Peter Dörfler [email protected] [email protected] M +49 1729488294 M +49 304408067
TFL EXTENDED – TV SERIES • APRIL 2018 9 Eutropia
Paris, 2068. Massive suicide waves and sick leaves unfolded the worst crisis ever witnessed. Facing collapse, a costly scheme Irene De Lucas Ramón was implemented: Eutropia, Writer/director • Spain/France a crane system, monthly relocates every building in the Born in Valencia, Irene moved to Paris in 2005 city to create the illusion of for her doctoral thesis on early cinema’s pioneer change for hopeless citizens. Alice Guy. Her film training includes labs and Shifts only made things masterclasses in scriptwriting (Fernando Castets), worse. Human contact grows directing (Luis García Berlanga), and special effects rare, severe depression (Reyes Abades). still an endemic threat. Member of the EWA – European Women’s Antidepressants now Audiovisual Network and the CIMA – Spanish mandatory, citizens’ mood Association of Women Cineastes, she has written tracked and surveilled. and directed most of her works in France, such as Le Happiness becomes Jeu de Dames (Special Jury Award at Viña del Mar oppression. DIFF 2010, Best Short Film at Medina del Campo FF In the midst of despair, a 2009, Best Script at Luna de Islantilla FF 2009) and sheer community rises in La Marelle (Best Short Film on Civil & Political Rights rebellion with one purpose: at Valencia’s Justice Foundation 2012). Skip the Shifts. True change She has published a book on Buñuel’s film Los only comes from within. Olvidados (“Los Olvidados. La Violencia de los Excluidos”) and collaborates regularly with INTENTION publications on film analysis in newspapers and Bible of the series and first magazines. She is currently working on her second episode’s screenplay is book while developing scripts for a social sci-fi available. series and a drama feature. We are seeking producers.
CONTACT INFORMATION Irene De Lucas Ramón [email protected] M +33 684995542
10 TFL EXTENDED Ioan Ursuț
A Romanian artist tries to follow the life and crimes of a famous criminal through Romania, Italy and Sweden while getting caught up in a Carla Fotea web of political conspiracies Producer • Romania and mind games.
Carla is a young producer working for Hi Film INTENTION Productions and Micro Film with Romanian Ioan Ursuț is in early producer Ada Solomon. development and we While studying for her MA in Film Production, are currently looking for she worked with renowned filmmakers such as broadcasters and co- Cristian Mungiu and Nae Caranfil on their latest producers to join the project films. She also has four years of experience working as early on as possible. in film festivals and two years of experience as a copywriter. Carla is a graduate of Talents Sarajevo 2016, IDFA Academy 2017 and was nominated in the Young Hope Category of the Romanian Film Industry Awards in 2017. Projects Carla is currently involved in include Radu Jude’s next fiction and documentary films, Ivana Mladenovic’s next feature, as well as multiple other documentary and fiction features.
CONTACT INFORMATION Carla Fotea [email protected] M +40 754090595
TFL EXTENDED – TV SERIES • APRIL 2018 11 Lights Out
Bill Wilkens loves chairing the select board in New Valletta – a farm town surrounded by majestic mountains. When a solar flare not only makes David Rocchio the lights go out, but kills Writer/director & Producer • USA the ability of people to use electricity everywhere and In 2013 David founded Stowe Story Labs, a nonprofit maybe forever, Bill must step dedicated to helping emerging screenwriters, up to lead his friends and filmmakers, and creative producers hone their craft neighbors as they are forced and learn skills and tools to get work made and seen. to confront, comprehend, He wrote, directed and produced the short films and cope with epic change. The Brothers (Best of Capalbio International Short The series follows the diverse Film Festival 2011) and The Meeting (Finalist Best and disparate people of New Screenplay, Los Angeles Independent Film Awards Valletta as they struggle to 2016). He finished as a quarterfinalist or higher in comprehend and adjust to life several screenwriting competitions including the after “the event”. Academy Nicholl Fellowships, PAGE, CineStory, San Francisco IndieFest, and Table Read My Screenplay, INTENTION among others. Lights Out will be set in a He conceived and co-produced the UK Channel 4 remote community that documentary The Gun Shop, which aired to rave could – with hard work – be reviews and was a finalist for the AIBs Awards 2017. self-sustaining if the rest of the world fell away. We are interested in developing the project in a European or UK location (such as agricultural towns hemmed in by mountains or fishing/farm communities on an island). We would love to talk with local creative producers/ CONTACT INFORMATION writers that might want to David Rocchio explore the world we are [email protected] creating. M +1 8022791258
12 TFL EXTENDED Mapped
Mapped is a sci-fi TV series that follows with the day-to- day personal and professional crises of “Mappers” and their clients at Pontem, a Mapping Rachel Tillotson Company in Cambridge. Writer/director • United Kingdom Mappers are highly skilled and work with cutting-edge Rachel is a UK-based BAFTA award-winning technology. Pontem harvests filmmaker with an extensive short film and TV a deceased person’s visual directing experience. She trained as an actress and and aural data, translating directed theatre at Bretton Hall College (Leeds it into a unique code. This University) before completing a MA in Film Direction code appears to transform at the Royal College of Art. a Mapper into the deceased She directed nine shorts, financed by a range of person so that from the funders such as LFVDA, UKFC, Film Four and Anglia grieving relatives and friends TV. She sold her shorts internationally to many (clients) perspectives they can TV stations winning numerous awards. She attended meet and talk with loved ones the Cannes’ Cinéfondation screenwriting residency they’ve lost. in Paris and attended the Guiding Lights programme. Mapping is a unique fusion Rachel was on the BFI scheme Think, Shoot, between human and machine Distribute, alongside Andrew Haigh (45 Years). with Mappers guiding each interaction. Everyone knows its role-play, but it’s popular and has taken off.
INTENTION Mapped seeks a strong TV producer and writer to help develop it from the treatment. My goal is to find funding for the pilot with a strong writer. Writer Stacy Gregg has shown interest in writing an episode, CONTACT INFORMATION Rachel Tillotson and scriptwriters Alice Nutter www.racheltillotson.com and Simon Beaufoy both [email protected] praised Mapped as an idea. M +44 7810627855
TFL EXTENDED – TV SERIES • APRIL 2018 13 Megaplex
Megaplex is set in the heart of San Fernando Valley, and it follows three roommates with vastly different personalities who work in a second-run Hayk Matevosyan movie theatre to support Writer/director • Armenia themselves while trying to make their dreams become Born and raised in Armenia, Hayk Matevosyan is reality. part of the generation that grew up in the depriving The show tackles the issue times of the Nagorno-Karabakh War between 1988 of “how does one end up and 1994. working in this place” while Hayk immigrated to the U.S. with his family at the giving a humorous look at age of 17. After graduating from UCLA’s School of what goes on behind the Theatre, Film, and Television in Los Angeles, Hayk scenes of a local movie directed several music videos and short films under theatre. It explores friendship, the guidance of his mentor Mardik Martin, whose love, heartbreak, dreams, screenplays have brought to life some of Martin the day-to-day work Scorsese’s most iconic films such as New York, New environment, dramas, and York, Raging Bull, and Mean Streets. Hayk’s films funny moments between the were screened in over 20 film festivals in the U.S. characters and the situations and internationally. He directed the Grammy they are put in throughout Award-winning musician Daron Malakian’s latest each episode. music video. Hayk has been selected by the Black Factory Cinema INTENTION mentorship programme thanks to which he will I am looking for co-producers travel to Peru in May 2018 to direct a short film under and funding. the guidance of Werner Herzog.
CONTACT INFORMATION Hayk Matevosyan [email protected] M +0 18184451922
14 TFL EXTENDED My Place in the World Mattia Temponi Writer/director & Producer • Italy 1946. Italy votes, for the first time since the rise of Fascism Born in 1984, Mattia Temponi started his career directing and for the first time with and producing short films and video clips. After authoring universal suffrage. Italian for documentary films, he worked as a director for a short women are called to take film project funded by Italian Ministry of Education and shot part in the political process inside Torino’s jailhouse, with a crew formed by real inmates. of the country. Besides his own independent production, he also worked as an editor and director for corporate videos and as In the year before the executive producer for several short films and TV shows. Liberation, most of them Lately, he worked as a scriptwriter for Mediaset’s re- fought as partisans against enactment show Il Terzo Indizio. Nazi and, of course, against other Italians loyal to the regime as well. From all the political sides, democratic women gained the role that was for too long denied to them.
Paolo Ferrara INTENTION Scriptwriter • Italy The series completed its Born in 1977, Paolo attended the Master in Narration development stage and is Techniques at Scuola Holden in Torino. currently seeking producers. He wrote the short film Apartment 15, the comic book Evo-Z, and the horror short novels Il Candidato Ideale (Epika Edizioni – Italy) and L’Orrore Numero 91 (La Strada per Babilonia – Italy). He also wrote the children’s books Blu, il Pulcino Covato dal Frigo (Milena Edizioni – Italy) and Taht Al Ghitaa (The Monster and the Blankets, Kalimat Group – United Arab Emirates), and he co-wrote the videogames Blind and Omen: Exitio Plague for Tiny Bull Studios. Paolo currently works as a writer and as a speaker for a weekly Italian online radio show, Sono Cose Serie.
CONTACT INFORMATION Mattia Temponi Paolo Ferrara [email protected] [email protected] M +39 3397804154 M +39 3346160589
TFL EXTENDED – TV SERIES • APRIL 2018 15 Play Me
The marriage of a powerful banker and his wife is falling apart since their four-year- old daughter inexplicably died in her sleep. While the Slobodan Karajlovic wife is trying to find comfort Director & Producer • Germany/Croatia with her alienated sisters and to continue with life, he, Slobodan Karajlovic produced several short films. unable to overcome the loss, The last one, Easter Eggs, which he also directed, is on a sure course of self- was screened at several international film festivals, destruction. including Tribeca Film Festival, LA Shorts Fest, When he suddenly disappears, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Short Shorts the tragedy of a family Film Festival & Asia, and many more. becomes a tragedy of the He co-produced Edi Muzina’s short film The Fire, whole community. And soon which attended NISI MASA’s European Short it becomes clear that their Pitch 2013, in Luxemburg. Slobodan also daughter did not die of a completed all three modules of MAIA Workshops, natural cause. an advanced training programme for emerging This is a story about people European producers. who are going through their He has several projects in development as director path of redemption, but bad and producer. things are hard to erase.
INTENTION We have a new, significantly improved draft of the pilot and we are working on the rewrite of the rest of episodes and the series bible at the moment. We are looking for development funding and co-producers, from the region and international. CONTACT INFORMATION Slobodan Karajlovic [email protected] M +44 7769515380
16 TFL EXTENDED Purgatoria Dana Nechustan Writer/director • Netherlands What would you do when discovering that your father and Dana Nechushtan is an acclaimed Dutch director, mostly the family business are responsible known for her feature films Nachtrit (selected as Best for the suicide of your sister? Dutch Film by Dutch Film Critics in 2006), Dunya & Desie After 10 years of absence, Dr. (Variety Critics’ Choice: Europe Now! at KVIFF 2008, Dutch Michelle Crous returns home for candidate for Best Foreign Language Film at Oscars 2008, the wedding of her brother. When Cifej Prize of the World Academy for Quality Films at Tel her father gets shot, against Aviv Filmfestival for Children 2008), the TV film Offers and all odds, she is able to save the TV drama series Annie M.G. (2010), Overspel (Golden him. The police warn the strict Calf for Best TV Drama 2012) and Hollands Hoop (Golden Roman Catholic family that the Calf for Best TV Drama 2014). perpetrators will come back and that the whole family should fear for its life. Michelle can not leave her wounded father and reluctantly regains contact with him, only to find out that he wants to plead guilty in a big upcoming lawsuit and thus ruin the family company. Edward Stelder She helps him to abolish his sins, Scriptwriter • Netherlands but when the police investigation reveals that he was part of a Edward Stelder is a Dutch scriptwriter and actor who has cover-up in which thousands of worked on both feature films and TV series. He wrote the people – including Michelle’s TV series Westenwind, IC, Bellicher, Black Tulip, Kicken! sister – committed suicide and Bitches (Golden Beelden for Best Comedy 2004), and due to the side effects of an the feature films A 1000 Kisses by Willem van de Sande antidepressant drug her father’s Bakhuyzen and Heaven on Earth by Pieter Kuijpers. Edward company produced, Michelle is currently working on different feature films and TV series does not trust her father anymore such as The Affair, Albert and Soof: A New Beginning. and takes over. Michelle wants to free all the company’s patents and give away the company’s medicine for free. Will she succeed, or will she be crucified?
INTENTION
CONTACT INFORMATION A Dutch broadcaster is Dana Nechushtan Edward Stelder already attached. [email protected] [email protected] M +31 203032494 M +31 654602424 We are looking for international financing and co-producers.
TFL EXTENDED – TV SERIES • APRIL 2018 17 So You Better Run
A failed comedian tries to regain a sense of purpose in his new life as a substitute teacher, but goes too far when he starts hiding a Yashar Alishenas refugee child at his school. Scriptwriter • Sweden We are invited to witness the painful, funny and strange Yashar was born in Tehran and grew up in ways in which the best Stockholm. He has produced, written and acted in of intentions unwittingly numerous shorts films shot in Sweden, France, and produce an avalanche of the UK, most recently SOAP, an English-language chaos and self-destruction. comedy set in Paris, as well as the feature Elegy for Yashar, which has been screened nationwide in Iran. INTENTION Before attending TorinoFilmLab, his TV series So You The project is currently in Better Run was developed at a talent programme at development. Sweden’s national broadcaster SVT. The obsession with films and series was preceded by teaching languages – he speaks five of them – and studying philosophy, social sciences, and literature in Heidelberg and Oxford.
CONTACT INFORMATION Yashar Alishenas [email protected] M +46 765892785
18 TFL EXTENDED The Origin of Another World
With a curiosity for eroticism, Halil Serif’s eagerness to spend family wealth with the artists quickly gains him a reputation in the art world Selin Karli of the 19th century Paris. A Producer • Turkey young diplomat turns into an art collector. His conservative Born in Istanbul, Selin received her BA in Ottoman lifestyle turns into a Communications from Pepperdine University in bohemian escapade. Malibu, California and her MFA in Producing from He has only a few years the American Film Institute Conservatory (AFI). before his adventures of the Since 2014, she has been managing a project called free world come to an end. New Turkish Films, which aims to promote Turkish Cinema around the most important international INTENTION film festivals for the Film Producer’s Association of Turkey (Se-Yap). The project is currently in development. In May 2017, Selin founded Catco Film to develop independent features and TV Series that are dynamic We are looking for producing and thought-provoking. Catco Film productions partners from France and intend to intrigue the curiosity of global audiences international co-producers. with local stories and aims to challenge their thinking with fresh perspectives on social themes.
CONTACT INFORMATION Selin Karli [email protected] M +90 5322777352
TFL EXTENDED – TV SERIES • APRIL 2018 19 The Panda
What would have happened if War World II was finished in 1944 with a peace agreement between Nazi-Germany and Daniel Carsenty the Allies? The Panda follows a Gestapo Writer/director • Germany officer investigating a murder during the Olympic Games of Daniel Carsenty was born in 1982 in Frankfurt. Münich 1972 that leads him He graduated in 2014 from the Filmuniversity Konrad to a conspiracy going back to Wolf in Potsdam with his first feature film After Spring early of Hitler’s rise to power. Comes Fall, which premiered in New Voices at the Gothenburg International Film Festival 2015 and Mixing elements of fictional was awarded Best Feature at the Vilmos Szigmond storytelling in the style of Festival 2017. what-would-have-happened- if with modern-day research, The rough-cut of his second film The Devil’s Driver, the series sheds light on one a documentary realized in collaboration with ARTE of Europe’s darkest moments. about a group of Beduin smugglers, has been screened at the Palestinian Showcase of Docs-In- INTENTION Progress at Cannes 2018, and will have its world premiere in 2019. The Panda is currently in the stage of concept Currently, he is developing the TV crime-series development. Hades together with the Munich-based production company NEUESUPER and the family drama-series I am looking for producers The Silence of Money with ZDF Digital. as well as co-producers, world sales, distributors and commissioning editors from TV broadcasters and streaming platforms interested in joining me in this early stage of creation.
CONTACT INFORMATION Daniel Carsenty [email protected] M +49 1731868683
20 TFL EXTENDED The Scheme
The Scheme narrates the 9 months of rise and fall of Carlo “Charles” Ponzi and his “Scheme”. From the moment Carlo sets his fraud in motion, Filippo Mazzotti through its unexpected Scriptwriter • Italy and sudden spread like wild fire, up to its apex and the Filippo Mazzotti was born on the 3rd of March in resounding fall by the hand Lugo (Ravenna, Italy), on the same date and in the of his enemy Richard Grozier, same village as Carlo “Charles” Ponzi. These two publisher of the Boston Post. coincidences led him through the development The TV series reveals the of a biopic (Meet Mr. Ponzi) and a TV series (The dark side of the “American Scheme) about the life of of the world-famous Dream” in the “Roaring Italian swindler. Twenties”. Grozier is ready In 2015 Filippo completed a first draft of a treatment to unmask the charismatic for the feature film Meet Mr. Ponzi. In 2016 Filippo Italian swindler at the cost attended a professional course on Screenwriting of ruining his newspaper, for Cinema hosted by Francesca Serafini at Scuola and is prepared to face his Belleville in Milan, Italy. newsroom and the city of He is currently co-writing the TV series The Scheme Boston which are acclaiming with writer Paolo Bernardelli. “the man who discovered dollars”. The Scheme is arena-driven. We explore all of the stories, reasons, dreams and illusions of the victims of the “bubble” created by the “Ponzi Scheme”. Each episode deals with possible answers to a sole question: ”Hope, is not it a lie itself?”.
INTENTION
CONTACT INFORMATION We are in the development Filippo Mazzotti stage, and are looking for [email protected] producers. M +39 3451835724
TFL EXTENDED – TV SERIES • APRIL 2018 21 TFL Extended – Script Development TFL Extended – Script Development June 2018 12 Days and Nights
Greece, in the midst of World War II. Seven men and two women travel by fishing boat from Athens to the island of Crete, each one for George Ktistakis different reasons. During their Writer/director • Greece voyage, they discover that the occupying forces are not their Born in Crete, Greece, George Ktistakis received only enemy. his BA in Film & TV studies from the University of After making it to the island, Greenwich. the now seven companions After his first short film Half-Board Heaven, have to go through one more which premiered at the Drama International hurdle before reaching their Short Film Festival 2012, he has directed several final destination. other short films, which circulated at national and international film festivals such as Athens INTENTION IFF and WorldFest-Houston International The project is currently Film & Video Festival. in development stage. George is currently working on a TV series project I am looking for a producer, as a co-director, as well as developing his first Greek or international, feature 12 Days and Nights with the support of the to share my vision and bring Greek Film Centre. He also works as an editor. it to the big screen.
CONTACT INFORMATION George Ktistakis [email protected] M +30 6946242103
24 TFL EXTENDED After the Brexit
The Brexit has plunged the European Union into a crisis. Austria, Germany and Italy have built transit centers on their peripheries while France Laila Alina Reischer discusses its exit from the Writer/director • Austria/Egypt Union. All migrants with no citizenship are collected and As the daughter of a Catholic Austrian woman and brought to the centers, before a rebelling Arabian father, Laila Alina Reischer brings being deported to a no-man’s a strong contrastive background with her. Living land on the Arabian Peninsula. through different cultures and settings gave her the In the transit center on the ability to tell stories from an inside perspective. Austrian-German border, the She studied at RADA and at London Film School, refugee Amal falls in love with developing strong skills in filmmaking and acting. the center attendant Marteen, She was awarded Best Supporting Actress for her who escaped with her brother role in 22:43 by Markus Hautz at the New York Bassam 15 years ago. The City International Film Festival 2010, and she was situation escalates when selected for Berlinale Talents 2011 with her feature Bassam sees Amal being film project Anatomy Of A Separation. kissed by Marteen and he In 2013 she received the Arthur Haidl Prize for her injures another attendant. achievements in the Austrian film industry. Her Bassam is brought away while projects have also been selected for scriptFORUM Amal feels guilty and is more Vienna and Diverse Geschichten. and more torn in between her possible new life and the faith to Bassam.
INTENTION After the Brexit is a dystopia reflecting the current happenings in Europe and their possible impact. It is a treatise about a radical migration policy told through the eyes of
CONTACT INFORMATION an exceptional woman. Laila Alina Reischer It is an Austrian production [email protected] looking for co-producers T +43 6642827268 from Germany, the Balkan Region and the Arabian Peninsula.
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • JUNE 2018 25 CORA: The Saints of Boyacá
Cora’s beloved husband Miguel is obsessed with becoming the first saint of Colombia. Miguel loves Cora with the same intensity with Camilo Martín-Flórez which he loves his religion. He Writer/director • Colombia/Canada believes that their marriage is blessed with a child of God. Camilo Martín-Flórez is a filmmaker and a Waiting to receive news of film-researcher with a BFA and an MA in Film Studies their consecration from the from Concordia University (CA), as well as an MFA in church, their only connection Documentary Filmmaking from the University to the outside world is Panfilo, of Barcelona. Miguel’s brother. His works include the documentary films At Panfilo reveals Miguel and Work (2008), which follows gypsy kids and their Cora’s intentions to the media, experiences at school in the gypsy communities trying to convince Cora to in Barcelona; The Portrait of a Blue Dog (2010), leave Miguel. The news goes focused on a South American immigrant artist in viral and the Church initiates Catalunya; and the film triptych The Interrupted their beatification. Chilean (2014), which has been selected and screened at several film festivals around the world. In the spotlight, five months pregnant, Cora needs to Camilo is currently in the post-production phase make a choice. of his second documentary film triptych and in the developing phase of his first feature fiction film, INTENTION while he pursues a Ph.D degree in Film Studies at the University of Bologna. I am looking for a producer, and I am entitled to apply for development, production and post-productions grants from the Canadian and the Colombian film funds.
CONTACT INFORMATION Camilo Martín-Flórez [email protected] M +39 3488839795
26 TFL EXTENDED Dolores Chico Teixeira Writer/director • Brazil Dolores is turning 60 and she wants to make her dream Chico Teixeira has a strong background as a documentarist come true: to gamble at and he has been able to transport the natural look an actual casino. She saved and veracity of acting into his fiction films. His work is money to travel to Argentina recognized for his special talent with the actors, and his with her daughter Débora (38) films have a sensitive look at the feelings hidden in everyday life, in family and intimate relationships. and her granddaughter Duda (17), where casinos are legal. In 2007, his debut feature Alice’s House premiered in Panorama at Berlinale, and it won several awards such as Débora is unemployed and Best First Work at Havana FF, the Gold Plaque at Chicago IFF, wishes to be rich. She dreams the Grand Prix and the E-Changer Award at Fribourg IFF, the on opening a pizza delivery FIPRESCI Prize and the Special Jury Award at Guadalajara IFF. service with her daughter. But His latest feature Absence was selected at Berlinale Co- Duda has other dreams on her Production Market in 2012 and had its world premiere mind: she wants to become a in Panorama 2015. In the same year, it won 4 Golden Kikitos police officer. at Gramado FF, as well as Best Brazilian Film, Best Actor and the Special Jury Prize at Rio de Janeiro IFF. The plot thickens when Duda and Dolores find out that Débora is in debt up to her neck, and she is threatened by an aggressive loan shark. Dolores and Duda fight to hold on to their dreams, while helping Débora dealing with Sabina Anzuategui reality. Scriptwriter • Brazil INTENTION Sabina Anzuategui co-wrote Absence by Chico Teixeira and 5 other multi-awarded feature films. In Brazil, Dolores will be produced by Bossa Nova She wrote the novels Panties on Clothesline (2005) and Affection (2011), and she is the author of the comics series Films, one of the most Lost Pearls (2018). prominent production companies in the region. She also created the Youtube channel on Creative Writing Exercícios de Criação Literária. We are currently looking for co-producers and a sales agent. CONTACT INFORMATION Chico Teixeira Sabina Anzuategui [email protected] [email protected] T +55 11981490933 T +55 1125749667
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • JUNE 2018 27 Double Happiness Sebastian Mihăilescu Writer/director • Romania When Camil, a 33-year-old Romanian copywriter, learns Sebastian has a BA and an MA in Film Directing from the that his long-term girlfriend National University of Theatre & Film in Bucharest, and he is Diana is infertile, he shifts a Talents Sarajevo alumnus. his fatherhood obsession to His latest short film – Old, Luxurious Flat, Located in Ultra- Rebecca, a Taiwanese woman central, Desirable Neighborhood – premiered in the Leopards he met at a corporate party a of Tomorrow Short Film Competition at Locarno 2016, and it few days earlier. was screened at MoMA and at Film Society of Lincoln Center in NY, among others. In 2015 he has worked as an AD for He goes to Taipei with a work- Radu Jude’s Berlinale-winner Aferim! and Radu Muntean’s related project hoping to relive One Floor Below, which premiered at Un Certain Regard. the fling they had in Bucharest. He is currently in financing with his debut feature and in But while Camil tries to seduce pre-production with his next short. Rebecca, Diana has good news: she is pregnant. After an unsatisfying encounter with Rebecca, he returns home in celebration. His whole family seems happy. Even the wilted flowers from around the house have fully Andrei Epure blossomed in his absence. Scriptwriter • Romania INTENTION Andrei has a BA in Audiovisual Communication followed by an MA in Screenwriting at the National University of The project is produced Theatre & Film in Bucharest, where he also worked as an by Ada Solomon and Diana Assistant Professor in Screenwriting. Paroiu (Hi Film Productions Since university, he has co-written four feature films and – Romania). various short films such as Old, Luxurious Flat, Located We are looking for in Ultra-central, Desirable Neighborhood by Sebastian Mihăilescu, among others. co-producers, sales agent, distributors and film festival He was selected for Berlinale Talents and Sarajevo Talents, representatives from Taiwan and he is currently in development with two features and two short films. and Europe. We aim at working with the Taiwanese co-producer CONTACT INFORMATION Sebastian Mihăilescu Andrei Epure towards sourcing local [email protected] [email protected] funding, planning the local T +40 765704052 T +40 758567718 shooting and developing the script regarding the realistic depiction of Taipei and the Taiwanese characters.
28 TFL EXTENDED I Wish I Could Hibernate
Bat (15) is the oldest of five children living with their single mother in the poverty- stricken yurt districts of Zoljargal Purevdash Ulaanbaatar. He is determined to win an Writer/director • Mongolia academic Olympiad for a scholarship to enter a private Zoljargal Purevdash studied Filmmaking at University school, but his alcoholic of Obirin, Tokyo, Japan. Her first short film Over the mother loses her job in the City, Under the Sky won the Cinema Club Award middle of winter and leaves at West Tokyo City Film Festival 2010. After her him with his younger siblings. graduation, she came back to Mongolia and worked on several local films as a st1 AD. Bat is held back by his fierce pride and his refusal to ask for She directed the experimental short films Burgundy help to make ends meet. The (Special Screening at the Altan Khalis Independent other children struggle to find Film Festival 2013) and Outliers (Special Screening at something to burn to heat the Altan Khalis Independent Film Festival 2017). their home every night, while She is currently developing her first feature film Bat dreams of winning the I Wish I Could Hibernate, which was selected for National Olympiad. Talents Tokyo 2017 winning the Talents Tokyo Award. INTENTION Recently, Zoljargal has been selected for the Asian I Wish I Could Hibernate is at Film Academy 2018. script development stage. I am looking for producers. The budget proposed is € 250.000.
CONTACT INFORMATION Zoljargal Purevdash [email protected] M +976 88128134
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • JUNE 2018 29 Luna Park Florenc Papas Writer/director • Albania In Albania’s post-communist landscape of 1997, a lonely Florenc studied Film Directing at Academy of Film & mother, Mira, and her Multimedia Marubi in Tirana. After graduation, he developed his troubled teenage son, Toni, craft working in numerous short and feature films, promotional struggle through an outbreak videos, television series and broadcast documentaries. of civil violence that tears His diploma short film If… (2013) has been screened in their country apart. numerous international film festivals, and his debut feature Open Door, an Albanian-Kosovan-Italian-Macedonian co- Like many Albanians, Mira’s production is now in post-production. immigrant husband, Arben, Florenc is an alumnus of Sarajevo Talents 2015, Berlinale has managed to survive Talents 2016 and First Films First 2017. Luna Park is his by working illegally in second feature film project in development. neighboring Greece for the past four years. As the financial crisis overwhelms Albania, Mira decides to take Toni illegally across the dangerous border by herself to find Arben.
Dritan Huqi INTENTION Producer • Albania We are at an early stage of Dritan graduated from the Albanian Economic University development, and we are and the University of Law. He is the President of the looking for co-producers. Albanian Producers and Filmmakers Association, and member of the European Film Academy. In 2008 he founded On Film, which produced the feature films The Albanian by Johannes Naber, Distant Angels by Gjergj Xhuvani, the TV series Alarm für Cobra 11, and more than 30 shorts and documentaries films, among others. In 2011 he was selected for Cannes’ «Producers On The Move» by European Film Promotion. My Lake, supported by ANCC and Eurimages, is the next feature film project in production.
CONTACT INFORMATION Florenc Papas Dritan Huqi [email protected] [email protected] M +355 699337607 M +355 692056175
30 TFL EXTENDED My Mad Madonna Cinzia Bomoll Writer/director • Italy Kim meets Carmen in a Toronto Museum. Carmen Born in Bologna, she worked for Rai as an author and a looks like a Renaissance director from 2000 to 2007. She attended scriptwriting Madonna and Kim is obsessed classes at Rai-Script (2000), Mediatrade Fiction School with Italian art. Both are (2001) and Scuola Holden’s Enzimi (2002). orphans and lonely. It is easy Since 2000, Cinzia has directed several short films, and in to fall in love. 2007 she wrote, directed and produced her first feature Rahil’s Secret, which was distributed in USA and Canada Vito, Carmen’s “dead” father and on Netflix. Her second feature Balla con Noi – Let’s calls her. He wants her back Dance, a musical, was produced by Rai Cinema in 2011. in Italy. Kim leaves with her. With her company Amarcord, she produces features and In Sicily, they end up involved documentaries by Italian and international authors focusing in a tragic plot of police on stories with strong and provocative topics and plots. stories and mafia. Carmen gets more and more under her father’s influence and rejects Kim. Kim is hurt; she finds out that Vito is planning a terrorist attack and she fears that her “mad Josella Porto Madonna” will collaborate. Scriptwriter • Italy Carmen’s final redemption will dissolve all Kim’s Born in Catania, she graduated from the Italian National suspicions. Film School in 2006 and at Rai-Script in 2009.
Since 2004, Josella wrote several award-winning shorts, INTENTION documentaries and features such as Fabio Mollo’s debut film Il Sud è Niente, developed within TorinoFilmLab’s FrameWork The project has already two 2010 and supported with a TFL Production Award, which had Italians producers – Far its world premiere in Discovery at TIFF 2013. Out Films and Amarcord – She also co-wrote Il Bambino di Vetro by Federico Cruciani attached and we are looking and Fabio Mollo’s second feature There Is a Light. for an Italian distributor. We are looking for Canadian and Swiss co-producers (and/or distributors) and an CONTACT INFORMATION international sales agent, who Cinzia Bomoll Josella Porto could also be one of the two [email protected] [email protected] co-producers in case. M +39 335369379
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • JUNE 2018 31 Paris Syndrome Kimie Tanaka Writer/director • Japan Sayo, a 32-year-old Japanese woman arrives in Paris with Born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, Kimie held an MFA from high expectations. But she New York Tisch School of the Arts Asia and a BA in Economics immediately discovers that from the University of Tokyo. Starting as a business analyst in work is many steps backward India, she moved to Chile, New York and Singapore, and she in her career. With more time pursued a career in filmmaking along the way. on her hands, but without Her debut short film To Us won the Best Short Award in anyone to share it with, Sayo Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2013. In 2015, her latest short film Hide & Seek premiered in Toronto and won the feels alone more than ever. Best Short Award in Sguardi Altrove Film Festival. Both films One day she meets another received nominations in various international film festivals. Japanese woman Mariko, Kimie is based in Paris. who declares to sacrifice her life entirely to her French fiancé. However, as Sayo gets closer to Mariko, she finds out that Mariko is having sex for money with unknown men. Meeting these men one by one out of curiosity, Sayo Erina Suto also starts to have sexual Co-writer • Japan affairs, looking for an instant connection. Will she come Born in Osaka and raised in Kenya, Japan and the United to terms with herself and find States, Erina held a BA degree from Tufts University with a the validation of her existence double major in Clinical Psychology and Japanese. After working with photography, music, and designer products that she longs for? in Tokyo, she became active as a researcher for foreign media. INTENTION She met Kimie in early 2018, and she started to collaborate We are working on a second as a co-writer for Paris Syndrome, venturing outside of draft of the script. working behind the scenes. We are looking for a French Currently based in Paris, Erina has been involved in projects producer interested in sharing for outlets such as Vice Media, Arte, The Japan Times, Kyoto Journal and Knopf Doubleday Publishing. his/her views on real faces of Paris, and eventually a Japanese co-producer who is CONTACT INFORMATION keen on telling a story about a Kimie Tanaka Erina Suto modern Japanese woman. [email protected] [email protected] M +33 641354173
32 TFL EXTENDED Slaughterman Rafael Antonaccio Writer/director • Uruguay José arrives in Uruguay from a post-war poverty-stricken Rafael wrote and directed the short films The Visit Spanish family when he is only (2006) and The Monster (2010), which were selected at 15 years old. His parents have several international film festivals, including FESAALP and sent him because they can not Kinoforum. With his brother Bernardo, he co-directed the feed him, and he becomes a videoclip of Revólveres y Rosas by Socio, awarded Best Video at Graffiti Awards 2017. butcher’s employee. They are currently developing their debut feature project He feels abandoned, but he In the Quarry (LABEX, FICViña WIP 2017, Usina del Sur and has to suppress his emotions Puentes Uruguay, EAVE, MVD Audiovisual Post Production to move on. He becomes a Fund) and Slaughterman, winner of the MVD Desarrolla 2017. father and a husband. In 2018, Slaughterman was also selected for Bolivia Lab In 1968, when a ban of beef and IBERMEDIA. is decreed, a black market of meat comes up. José focuses so hard on being the lead of the black market to be a good provider to his family that he loses the most important thing: the confidence of his teenage daughter, Rosita. Bernardo Antonaccio
Writer/director • Uruguay INTENTION
Bernardo wrote and directed the short film Extracorpus, The total budget is € 750.000, which won the Bronze Skull at the Morbido Film Festival and we have secured 2012. national funds including Alongside with In the Quarry and Slaughterman, he is ICAU Development Fund, also developing the feature film Collapse, which won the Montevideo Development IBERMEDIA Development Fund 2016 and it has currently Fund and ICAU International been selected in two categories at the Oaxaca FilmFest Positioning. 2017 (Best Thriller Script and Best Global Script Challenge) and at the Blood Window Pitch at Ventana Sur 2017.
CONTACT INFORMATION Rafael Antonaccio Bernardo Antonaccio [email protected] [email protected] M +598 99684182 M +598 99062670
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • JUNE 2018 33 The Blunder
When the actor Johnny Depp arrives in Otranto for a shooting and starts attending Nicola’s restaurant, they become friends. Before his Alessandra Cardone departure, Depp promises Writer/director • Italy Nicola he will bring him and his daughter Aqua to L.A., to Alessandra worked for big advertising agencies as a run his restaurant as a partner. copywriter. Her love for movies pushed her to study Nicola, totally seduced by screenwriting. Waiting for Hollywood was her first the star, starts dressing like short film, which was selected by many festivals. Johnny and preparing their She co-wrote Boxing Paradise by Stefano Quaglia, new life. He shares the dream which won a Special Mention for Best Screenplay at with Aqua, who is also a good the Silver Ribbons 2008. cook and longs to leave. She went on shooting commercials and short films Months go by and still no screened at various festivals such as Charity (2010), words from Depp. Aqua loses Chapeau! (2011), A Question of Label (2012) and her hope and tries to bring her My Friend Johnny, which was selected at the Venice naïf and foolish father reason, Days 2012. She directed the documentary film In but he does not stop dreaming Love With Shakespeare (Filmmaker FF 2014), which of Johnny’s promise. was screened at the London Italian Institute and purchased by Sky Classica. Yet, are dreams just dreams? She is currently working on her first feature film INTENTION Reflections, for which she obtained the Development Fund by MiBACT/CNC and Liguria Film Commission, The idea for this dramedy and the Production Fund by FVG Film Commission. comes from my documentary In 2018, her latest short film The Madeleine and the film My Friend Johnny. Stranger won the Audience Award – Dolomia for Best I am looking for a producer Short Film at Cortinametraggio, the Southern Short who can involve the real Awards and the Golden Oyster at the Kinookus FF. Johnny Depp to play himself, It has been selected in the Panorama of the Tirana or another iconic actor. IFF and and it has been purchased by Rai Cinema. I will search for a good comic actor from Puglia as a CONTACT INFORMATION protagonist, like Sergio Rubini, Alessandra Cardone Emilio Solfrizzi or Checco [email protected] Zalone. M +39 3392530120 We have been invited to the Co-production Forum by Apulia Film Commission.
34 TFL EXTENDED The Carjacker
Siva, a 38-year-old taxi driver, left home 26 years ago after partaking in a violent incident. In the process, he abandoned his younger brother, Nanda, Oman Dhas now 32. Writer/director • Malaysia Siva learns Nanda is captured for owing money to Samy, Oman is an experienced filmmaker from Malaysia a local mafia boss. Hit by and based in Singapore. He has developed, guilt, Siva tries to reason with produced and directed a wide range of fiction and Samy but fails. He accepts a non-fiction contents such as Asia’s Underworld, a carjacking job to pay the debt gritty crime documentary which garnered him Best while Nanda is held ransom Director at the Asian Television Award 2013. at gunpoint. Oman’s first feature film Hotel De Sade premiered During the hijack, Siva meets in the Official Selection at the New York City Kali, 25, his victim, with whom International Film Festival 2013. Among others, he develops an unlikely bond. Oman’s recent work as a director includes Haunt With time constraint to deliver Me, a supernatural drama pilot for the VOD the stolen car, Siva’s past and platform HOOQ. present will collide and he will risks losing his brother, once again.
INTENTION The project is at treatment stage and I am seeking a creative co-producer to develop further and secure finances for the international market.
CONTACT INFORMATION Oman Dhas [email protected] M +65 94741597
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • JUNE 2018 35 The Fertile Island Veronica Mengoli Writer/director • Italy Is a human tale about what the society considers Veronica literally feels at home everywhere. She moved connatural, against nature, to London when she was 18, working as a waitress, a hair such as Maria, a woman stylist and a window designer. that can’t give life, and The Back to Italy, she left the university to follow a mentor and Doctor, a man that loves men. being introduced to Milan’s advertising market. There she learned what was worth knowing to be respected as a 1940. Mussolini by mistake good 1st AD and, later, as a director. gifted the Italian History of the She recently directed the documentary StarS, co-produced first case of gay community. by Rai Cinema, and which was selected in Documentary’s He deported a bunch of category at Donatello’s David 2018. homosexuals on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. Tremiti Islands, Puglia, south of Italy. Maria is Antonio’s wife, a simple woman. Antonio is the Carabiniere encharged to maintain the gap between deported and common Giulia Forcolini people, a small community Scriptwriter • Italy living in San Nicola. Maria will be the only one crossing Born in 1980, Giulia graduated in History from Milan that line to meet the doctor. University, and in Cinema Communication and Promotion This step will take her to a from Catholic University of Milan. new level to understand her After her studies, she worked for Magnolia as a production position through a different assistant and editorial staff. In 2008, she moved to Rome point of view. and took her first steps as assistant director. She worked with several film production companies and assisted various directors. At the same time, she cooperated with INTENTION book editors and writers in content development. The project is at development In 2014, she attended a Screenwriting Masterclass at Tracce and financing stage. It will in Rome. In 2015, she moved back to Milan, where she be shot at Tremiti Island and continues to work on movies and commercials set as well Apulia. as to write her own scripts. With our production company, Revoler (Rome), CONTACT INFORMATION we are looking for European Veronica Mengoli Giulia Forcolini and/or North American [email protected] [email protected] co-producers, as well as for M +39 3387129079 international distributors, casting, and post-production facilities.
36 TFL EXTENDED The Promised Land
Lelia is a Parisian girl in her late 30s who drinks too much and has meaningless love affairs until she finds out she Shirin Rashidian is two months pregnant. It is her wake-up call: she Scriptwriter • France/Iran has to quit drinking. So Lelia decides to spend the summer After graduating in 2005 from EM Lyon Business in Tehran, in the apartment School and a career at iTunes as an editorial of her estranged grandfather, programmer, Shirin decided she wanted to tell stories. the former general of the She attended online courses at UCLA Extension and royal ground army before the a summer scriptwriting programme for TV Pilots at 1979 Revolution. Columbia University. She won the Audience Award In Iran, she meets Ali. and the Jury Prize at the Valence Script Festival 2016 He speaks French and knows for her feature film The Promised Land. about Western culture. Shirin is currently co-writing the short animated film They hit it off right away, but Noon, which was presented at MIFA Annecy 2018, what she does not know is and she is developing her first web series A Numbers that the Iranian police has Game, planned to be shot in October 2018. recruited Ali to spy on her... She speaks French, English, Persian, Italian and Spanish, and she writes her scripts in French INTENTION and English. I am looking for a director, a French producer and a co-producer. The film will be shot in France and also in another location that could pass for Iran.
CONTACT INFORMATION Shirin Rashidian [email protected] M +33 783242790
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • JUNE 2018 37 The Return
André and Costa have shared a cell for two years, and they are released around the same period of time. When they meet again, a mutual attraction José Hurtarte seems to lie between them, Writer/director • Spain but it remains unspoken. After their encounter, they go Since 2013, José Hurtarte (Guatemala, 1994) has separate ways, and back to contributed to numerous audiovisual projects as an their new lives. assistant director, editor and camera operator. Months later, André finds In 2016, he wrote, directed and produced his first Costa looking for his help. short film Today. Soon, the two men begin to After not finding his way through film school, he spend time together in the decided to pursue a career in Literary Translation way they used to. in Brussels, where he continues to work on various As they both drift away from screenplays. the lives they were building, their past relationship comes back to the surface, and eventually takes them too far.
INTENTION I am currently looking for producers willing to lead a European co-production, which I believe should at least include a French company as well as one from Spain, preferably based in Galicia, where the story is set.
CONTACT INFORMATION José Hurtarte [email protected] M +34 609205091 M +32 470931018
38 TFL EXTENDED The Sea Needs to Heave
Nadia and Jalal are on the verge of a divorce, but their life takes an unexpected turn when their eldest son attempts suicide, causing Zain Duraie immediate disruption and Writer/director • Jordan emotional shock in the family. Under such extreme Zain Duraie graduated in 2009 from the Toronto pressures, Nadia and Jalal Film School, where she directed two short films must come to terms with their as a part of her graduation project. In 2010, she son’s illness, which naturally began to work as a trainee at Philistine Films with puts their relationship to the the prestigious filmmaker Annemarie Jacir and the test, all within a codified and acclaimed producer Ossama Bawardi. judgmental society. She worked on the feature films When I Saw You (2012) and Wajib (2017) by Annemarie Jacir, as well INTENTION as on Thank You for Bombing by Barbara Eder (2015) I am looking for funding for and The Rendezvous by Amin Matalqa (2016). the further development of Philistine Films also produced Zain’s short film the script, and a possible co- Horizon, which premiered as Best of the Fest selects production support. at Palm Springs Int. Shorts FF 2013, where it won the Audience Award. Horizon was also screened at the Montreal World Film Fest and the Cannes Short Corner, among others. In 2017, Zain was selected to work with the acclaimed Bosnian filmmaker Aida Begić on her latest film Never Leave Me. The script of Zain’s debut feature film project The Sea Needs to Heave was selected to be developed with the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Academy and at Meditalents Residence.
CONTACT INFORMATION Zain Duraie [email protected] T +962 795868003
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • JUNE 2018 39 The Sweet Bitterness of Ripe Pomegranates
After the death of her younger sister, the life of the Macedonian housewife Dora (46) revolves around her demented mother, her Andrej Volkashin teenage son and her husband, Writer/director • Macedonia who is the town’s mayor. Everything changes when Andrej graduated in Film Directing at NATFA in Sofia, he brings home a refugee Bulgaria. woman, Lilith (29), who lost His first short documentary Nothing in the Air her memory. premiered at Sofia Int. FF 2008, and his graduation A strong bond quickly film Kinder Surprise won the Audience Award at the develops between the Sofia Int. IFF 2011. two women leading to a His medium length musical comedy Shhh… Sing passionate sexual encounter. To Me premiered at the Vilnius Int. FF 2014 and Unable to handle the was theatrically distributed in Bulgaria. His two surfacing feelings Dora has latest short films Koliva and Ficus had their world struggled to keep buried premieres throughout her life, she at the Huesca Int. Short FF 2018 and at Sarajevo Int. slowly starts losing her mind. FF 2018 respectively. As a writer and director he is developing two INTENTION feature film projects, both supported with the The project won a script development grants by the Macedonian scriptwriting grant by the Film Agency. His new short film Snake is currently Macedonian Film Agency and in pre-production. it already has a Macedonian producer. We are planning to submit it at the MFA’s first call in 2019 and to present it to European co-production forums and markets.
CONTACT INFORMATION Andrej Volkashin [email protected] T +389 78437710
40 TFL EXTENDED True Love
Naila turns 30 and her life falls apart. Paralyzed by the situation, she feels the call to make her dream come true: to be a celebrity. She tried Cristina Gómez eight years ago and she got Writer/director • Spain in the dating reality show True Love, but she dropped Cristina Gómez was awarded a scholarship to study because of her boyfriend. screenwriting at the International Film Television She believes people will Foundation (FIA). Before graduation, she was invited remember her, but not even to be a contributing writer for the TV comedy show Coraline, the host of the AutoINdefinits, broadcasted by Canal 9. show, does. Coraline is a TV She continued to work as a writer for several Star who wishes to become daily and prime time weekly series such as Bon an intellectual journalist, but día, Bonica or Altra Oportunitat, while directing the network prevents her from children’s TV shows. After creating and directing her doing it whilst they negotiate own show Rubia en Apuros, she sold her TV series an injection of funds. project Mourners, Inc. to an American network. Naila stalks Coraline, both Cristina has also edited and post-produced several online and in real life, with international films, and she worked as a copywriter barely results. Things start for many advertising agencies. She currently writes flipping upside down after a and performs as a stand-up comic. social media scandal explodes and Naila and Coraline ally themselves to fight for their dreams.
INTENTION The project is at development stage. We are looking for co-producers interested in telling a contemporary story leaded by complex women. CONTACT INFORMATION Cristina Gómez [email protected] M +34 616596085
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • JUNE 2018 41 TFL Extended – Script Development TFL Extended – Script Development September 2018 Bleeding Time
Bleeding Time is an exam that measures how long a wound takes to heal and Angela, a 47-year-old doctor, is plunged into a post-traumatic Lucas Camargo de Barros amnesia grief that spreads Writer/director • Brazil like a hemorrhage after the shadowy death of her son. Barros’ first short film Credit (2009) was highlighted Trying to deal with her loss by Revista Cinética as “the most acute portrayals and her son’s secretive of the lower class in Brazil so far”. He was selected homosexuality, she moves into for Talents Buenos Aires 2012 with his short film a house of “orphan-mothers” A Few Deaths, and his productions as writer, with hunting remorses. editor and producer were screened in film festivals Through psychographic such as IFFR Rotterdam, Visions du Réel and rituals, they experience a Tiradentes FF. collective hysteria where the His debut feature Petit Mal premiered at FIDMarseille bodies of their disincarnated 2018 and opened the new competition for children revives. avant-garde films at Brasilia FF 2018. Among hallucinations and bleeding dreams, Angela will realize she is the only one with the power to never let her child die again.
INTENTION Bleeding Time is a low-budget art-house film, which is currently in the scriptwriting stage, and it seeks international co-producers.
CONTACT INFORMATION Lucas Camargo de Barros [email protected] M +55 11999706659
44 TFL EXTENDED Count to Ten Oleksandra Brovchenko Writer/director • Ukraine Max Sheffard works as psychologist in a private clinic Oleksandra Brovchenko was born in 1989 in Kiev. In 2008 while being autistic, and his she graduated in Film and Television Directing from the stepfather works with him. Kiev National Ivan Karpenko-Kary University of Theater, Max accidentally realizes that Film and Television, where she also earned a BA in 2012. he is not only a doctor in the clinic, but also a patient. It is humiliating and he struggles, but suddenly his stepfather dies. Max loses any support. He starts to learn how to live like Igor Savychenko he never knew. He hides from the world, which falls upon Producer • Ukraine him with accusations Igor Savychenko graduated in Mathematics from the Taras on his “diagnosis”. Shevchenko National University of Kiev. In 2003 he moved Only Max’s patient Anna will into the audiovisual industry, becoming an internationally become his salvation and love. recognized film producer. He has developed a talent for creative films at a very early INTENTION stage and has more than 14 years of experience in the film industry, producing 10 feature films, over 40 shorts, We have second draft of the documentaries, TV films, mini-series and animated films. script and we had a script session with script consultant Franz Rodenkirchen. We already have a co-producer from Norway. We are looking for third country co-producer, pre-sales, selectors for script development programmes and festivals.
CONTACT INFORMATION Oleksandra Brovchenko Igor Savychenko [email protected] [email protected] T +380 937035878 T +380 503304471
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • SEPTEMBER 2018 45 Dark Side of The Moon
Set in the 2040s, the film follows Dounia’s transformation from power broker to rebel leader and 21st century icon. It opens Mona Deeley with Dounia’s flamboyant Writer/director • United Kingdom/Lebanon 30th birthday party on the eve of reluctantly joining Mona Deeley has worked at the BBC since President Jibara’s office at the 2012, where she has selected approximately NeoBeirut Corporation – one 500 international short films for broadcast, and of the several corporate cities produced/directed 200 episodes of the Alternative that have replaced the failed Cinema weekly programme as well as seven nation states of the Middle documentaries, with several more in production. East, pushing their inhabitants She has been involved in films for 15 years, to non-citizen zones. programming for festivals at the BFI and at BAFTA. Dounia does this to placate her powerful aunt Aida, while fearing to alienate her brother Faisal who is a dissident artist. She tries to stir a middle course that keeps her family together, but it backfires when her brother goes missing.
INTENTION We are looking for co-producers and funding for one of the first futurist films from the Arab region, sounding the alarm on its dystopian trajectory, and putting a secular woman at the heart of its fight back.
CONTACT INFORMATION Mona Deeley [email protected] T +44 7816842411
46 TFL EXTENDED East of Death
1874. William, a young British journalist, leaves from London to Sakhalin, the infamous Island of the deportees, to collect the remains of his Tommaso Mottola father, who died in prison. Writer/director • Italy Upon arrival, he is accused of a murder and thrown in jail. Educated as an architect, Tommaso Mottola started His life is not worth a ruble his film career as assistant to Miloš Forman and when he is freed by a gang of Marco Ferreri. In the mid-80’s, he established weird outlaws. At the end of Spectre Film which produced award-winning a breathtaking experience of documentaries, directed TV series, and wrote several brutality, humor and beauty, screenplays. William will learn the meaning His debut feature film is The Floating Island (1992). of compassion, and will Tommaso is one of the founders, and for 20 years become a better man. director of Capalbio International Film Festival, Inspired by Anton Chekhov’s as well as EFA Board Member since 2011. He has journey to Sakhalin, this recently directed the award-winning film Karenina & “reversed Western” is I (2017), starring Gørild Mauseth and Liam Neeson. populated by exiles, writers, lost bounty killers and billions of mosquitoes.
INTENTION East of Death is an Arctic Western with a touch of the Golden Age of Russian Literature, and it is set in a world never portrayed before. After years of researches, it is currently at the treatment stage with a Norwegian Producer attached. I am looking for European/ CONTACT INFORMATION Tommaso Mottola North-American co- [email protected] producers to finance the T +39 3289853150 script and the pre-sales packaging.
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • SEPTEMBER 2018 47 In a Pool of Ella Caroline Ingvarsson Writer/director • Sweden Tom is Australian; Ella is Swedish. They met down Caroline Ingvarsson is from Malmö, Sweden. She earned an under and it was love at first MA in Broadcast Journalism from City University London, sight. Ella feels at home in UK, and a Diploma in Screen Studies from Sydney Film Australia, but when she gets School, Australia. a unique job opportunity Her short Beneath the Spaceship won the After Bergman back home, in Sweden, the Script Award in 2014, and premiered at TIFF in 2015. couple decides to move there Her latest short We Were Three premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2018 and has been screened on Swedish TV. temporarily. Ingvarsson is a Berlinale Talents and IDFA Academy alumna. Tom is eager to try his chances “up north”, while Ella feels more reluctant to move so close to her family. But the reality will be much different, as Ella thrives amongst her friends and relatives, while Tom slowly diminishes in Olivier Guerpillon the new country, without a proper job or social network. Writer • Sweden Tom’s self-esteem plummets Olivier Guerpillon is a French-born Swedish filmmaker. as a result of being totally He has written and directed several short films and dependent on Ella. co-written the Swedish feature While We Live (2016) with Dani Kouyaté, which was nominated to the African Movie INTENTION Academy Award for Best Script 2017. He has produced several Award-winning feature films, We are working on a first such as Broken Hill Blues by Sofia Norlin (Berlinale and draft of the script. Tribeca FF 2014), and Sound of Noise by Ola Simonsson & The film will be produced Johannes Stjärne Nilsson (Cannes FF 2010). in Sweden, and we are currently looking for European and/or Australian co-producers, as well as distributors and sales agent.
CONTACT INFORMATION Caroline Ingvarsson Olivier Guerpillon [email protected] [email protected] T +46 768298229 [email protected] T +46 709740097
48 TFL EXTENDED In Our Image
Faced with the imminent death of their only son, a divorced neurologist and his ex-wife fight over whether to replicate their son’s brain digitally in a David Steiner computer, to give him a new Writer/director & Producer • France/USA type of existence freed from biological limitations. David Steiner lives between Paris and Los Angeles. Certain of the righteousness of He produced Katie Says Goodbye by Wayne Roberts, his cause and hoping to get his which premiered at TIFF 2016 and had its theatrical ex-wife’s love back, he forces release on April 2018. it and triggers fundamental His shorts were selected at HollyShorts FF, questions about human Cinequest FF, Leiden IFF, Miami FF, Worldfest- existence neither society nor Houston, San Jose ISFF, Richmond IFF, and religion have faced before. Minneapolis Saint Paul IFF, among others. His latest screenplay In Our Image is shortlisted for INTENTION Sundance’s Development Track programme 2019. The project has a treatment, several key scenes written, and a 5-minutes proof-of- concept short screenplay. Investors in my previous feature productions pledged equity pending full financing and cast. I am looking for a producer.
CONTACT INFORMATION David Steiner [email protected] T +33 687333247
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • SEPTEMBER 2018 49 Letters to Strangers Valerie Wolf Gang Director • Slovenia The shy 16-year-old Ana starts to work as a cleaning Valerie graduated in Directing from University of Nova lady in an apartment house Gorica and FAMU Prague. Her short films have been in Ljubljana. When the dog screened at various international festivals and received of the old tenant disappears, numerous international grants and awards. Her short film Ana sends him an anonymous Distant Memory (2014) received a Vesna National Film Award for Best Student Film. letter claiming the dog is alive to cheer him up. Currently, Valerie is working on her first feature film together with scriptwriter Ognjen Obradovi and producer Seeing this simple intervention Miha Černec (Staragara). was effective, Ana starts sending letters to other tenants to help them with their problems. Her actions open a Pandora box of lies and secrets in the building. Ana starts enjoying controlling other people’s lives. Ognjen Obradovi Realizing that everything has Scriptwriter • Serbia gone too far, Ana tries to stop the avalanche she created, but Ognjen earned a BA and an MA in Dramaturgy from the that is not possible anymore. Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade, under the mentorship of professor Srđan Koljevi. INTENTION In 2013, he wrote his first theatre play Sunday: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, which was staged in Belgrade Drama The script is being developed Theater. Later on, he cooperated with various theater, radio and we are seeking co- and film productions as a scriptwriter. producers who are interested in creating an exciting but complex film that reflects the secrets of human interactions. Young Ana experiences (virtual) reality and it changes her perspective on life. Can she handle the power of manipulation? CONTACT INFORMATION Valerie Wolf Gang Ognjen Obradović [email protected] [email protected] T +386 51322750
50 TFL EXTENDED Marie
Marie, a socially awkward young woman living in Paris, having had enough of perfect parents, friends in love and blissful existence of strangers Sidharth Mathawan on social media, decides to Writer/director • India end her seemingly miserable life giving herself 48 hours Born in Kashmir, Sidharth studied Architecture at the to say goodbye to friends School of Planning and Architecture, India. He has and family and live out her over 10 years of experience in the art department last weekend. with directors such as Wong Kar-wai, Emmanuel After her decision, Marie is led Lubezki, and he is a Berlinale Talents 2010 alumnus. into a journey of self-discovery He attended Producers Workshop at Cannes 2017. as she finds how a simple shift His latest short À La Carte, set in Paris, is in post- in perspective can reveal an production. His feature script The Deleted, set in entirely new world, when a Berlin, was finalist at MFI Script 2 Film Workshop series of events send her down 2017. He works across India and Europe. the rabbit hole again. It is a story of a young woman’s internal mental struggle while the world around her falls apart.
INTENTION The project is in development and in final round for CineMart 2019. We are looking for European producers, co-producers, post-production partners specially from France, as well as a Chinese co-producer for a main cast and International sales and CONTACT INFORMATION distribution agents for our Sidharth Mathawan Indo-European projects. [email protected] T +91 8800526669
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • SEPTEMBER 2018 51 No Man’s Land
In the final days of the war in the Caucasus, a truce is established between Armenians and Azeris. Murad and Edward, two soldiers from Arthur Ian different sides, turn out to be Writer/director • Armenia/USA childhood friends from the same village prior to the war. Arthur Ian was born in the former Soviet Union. Murad invites his Armenian In 2006 he directed his first feature documentary, friend, Edward, to come to Looking for Romeo, which documents the his son’s wedding behind gruesome world of child-trafficking, prostitution and the front line. He leaves his child abuse in several countries of Western Europe brother with the Armenian and North America. soldiers to guarantee Edward’s In 2013 he began working on his first feature film safe return. Crossing, which tells the story of a Soviet family At the wedding Edward meets lost between its present and past, having survived Anna, a girl he loved prior to the end of the Cold War and the Great Recession the war, who is married to of 2007-2009. Murad. Suddenly, warning shots from both sides escalate into artillery fire as the truce breaks down. As the two parties run to each other, a shell explosion marks the tragic ending.
INTENTION We are looking for co-producers and additional funding for the project. The shooting will take place in Armenia and Georgia and the budget is initially estimated at € 300.000.
CONTACT INFORMATION Arthur Ian [email protected] T +1 2136755050
52 TFL EXTENDED Open Sky Ferran Mendoza Soler Writer/director • Spain Due to flawed Spanish laws, two families are forced to Ferran Mendoza is a fiction and documentary filmmaker fight for an apartment: a born in Barcelona and based in Brooklyn. Spanish working class family, His short fiction films have been selected at numerous the rightful owners, and a festivals, such as Valladolid IFF, Florida FF, and Festival Moroccan immigrant family de Cine de Alcalá de Henares, amongst others. On the who rented the house from documentary side, his series Like Art (2017) is currently a shady organization that at streaming at Vice.com. He has developed two documentary series: Bridging US, currently seeking convinced them it was empty. distribution, and Orthodoxy in Alaska, for National PBS. After an attempt to re-occupy Open Sky will be his first fiction feature film. the apartment ends up with the Moroccan daughter in hospital, the feeble ties that kept the families together start to unravel. While both fathers wage war on each other, endangering the people they wanted to Javier Loarte protect in the first place, Writer/director • Spain other family members try to find a peaceful solution Javier Loarte is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker born in before it’s too late. Madrid. After participating in Berlinale Talents, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Columbia INTENTION University, where he earned an MFA in Film in May 2015. His films have been screened at Telluride FF, Montreal We are currently looking World FF, Zinebi – Bilbao Int. Festival of Documentary and for producers and/or Short Film, Valencia Cinema Jove IFF, Uppsala ISFF, and co-producers, as well as at several museums of contemporary art, including the financing. Pompidou Centre and Tate Modern, as well as broadcasted on television. Open Sky will be his first fiction feature film.
CONTACT INFORMATION Ferran Mendoza Soler Javier Loarte [email protected] [email protected] T +1 3473667202 T +1 3474861481
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • SEPTEMBER 2018 53 Pearl Tears Lévon Minasian Writer/director • Armenia/France The talented 16-year-old musician Mariam lives with Born in Armenia, Lévon Minasian, nourished by Soviet her mother and brother in cinema and Russian literature, wished to make movies from Armenia, which has been an early age. Being an actor in Armenia, a writer in France, hit hard by economic crisis and a stage director in Russia, his determination has never where no future exists for faltered. Beyond the languages and cultures that meet within him, he is driven by a passion for beautiful stories. young people. While her mother, stricken with cancer, After some award-winning short films, he directed the high concept feature musical black comedy Bravo Virtuoso leaves for Russia to undergo (2017), an Armenian-French-Belgian co-production. treatment, and her brother is mobilized on the border, where young soldiers lose their lives to enemy fire every day, Mariam remains alone. After an ephemeral flirt with a young man passing through town, Mariam discovers she is Ester Mann pregnant. Refusing to believe Writer • France what is happening to her, she denies her pregnancy Doctor in Literature, Ester Mann is a professor, scriptwriter to protect herself in this and author. Her books have been published by Reflets so-called “traditional” but d’Ailleurs, Cipango, and L’Harmattan, among others. Her hostile society. latest novel The Angel’s Thread will be released in Oct 2018 by Vents d’Ailleurs. INTENTION In collaboration with Lévon Minasian, she is the co- author of award winning short and feature films, including The project is at Moskvitch, My Love (2015), a Franco-Armenian feature development/financing stage. by Aram Shabazyan, which won several awards in various It is scheduled to be shot in international festivals. Armenia, and post-produced in Europe. The film is produced by Agat Films & Cie (France) and AnEva (Armenia), and it received financial support
CONTACT INFORMATION from Normandy Region. Lévon Minasian Ester Mann We are looking for [email protected] [email protected] co-producers, sales agent, T+33 661997325 T +33 612354613 distributors, financial partners in Europe and worldwide.
54 TFL EXTENDED Road to Livramento Giuliana Monteiro Writer/director • Brazil In a collapsed Brazil, two brothers meet after ten years. Giuliana started her career working as a producer. After João (45), a forsaken truck obtaining her MFA in Film Production from the New driver, returns home and York University, she has written and directed eight short stumbles into an ecological films and is currently in post-production with her first disaster. The dam of a mining documentary feature film Bento. company crumbled, burying Her films have been screened and awarded at film festivals his family house. such as Berlinale, Havana FF, Slamdance IFF, Chicago IFF, and San Sebastían IFF, among others. Learning about the tragedy Giuliana has co-founded and is currently working through the news, Martin at Elefanti Films. (35), a deadbeat man, decides to return driven by his own interests. In order to get compensated for their loss, Martin and João need the signature of their younger brother Lucas (30) who, from what they know, is living in the Beatriz Monteiro deep South of the Country. Scriptwriter & Producer • Brazil Martin convinces João to go on a journey in search of Beatriz’s latest work includes the documentary films Lucas, causing their paths to The Prologue by Gabriel Marinho (2013) and Yoani Travels cross one more time. by Raphael Bottino & Peppe Siffredi (2015). She wrote and developed original series for channels like National Geographic, Discovery, A&E, History, Vice and HBO. INTENTION The projects she recently produced were selected The project is in late at Berlinale Co-Production Market, San Sebastían development and financing Co-Production Forum and Cannes Producers Network. stage. We are looking for a Beatriz Monteiro has co-founded Elefanti Films with South American co-producer Giuliana. – since 25% of the film will be shot in Uruguay – and an European co-producer. We are also looking for a sales agent to bring the film to CONTACT INFORMATION the attention of international Giuliana Monteiro Beatriz Monteiro audiences and markets. [email protected] [email protected] T +55 11974252525 T +55 1130792308
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • SEPTEMBER 2018 55 Star Kristian Sejrbo Lidegaard Writer/director • Denmark Star is a Faustian tale in a minimalistic thriller; a Born in 1989, Kristian graduated from the independent combination of poetic film school Super16 in 2016 as a director. Additionally he relation-based scenes and earned a BA in History with electives in Philosophy and heavy beats, of Antonio- Literature, and he spent a semester in Paris. aesthetics and eclectic internet He has written and directed five short films including imagery. The film takes place Emmafilmemma, which won the Daniel Award at in a hotel where Star/Daisy Castellinaria 2014, and Sombra, which received a Special Mention at Angers European First FF 2016. tries to regain strength after turning silent on stage at a His debut feature Songs in the Sun premiered at massive stadium concert. Slamdance FF 2017 and was awarded Best Feature Narrative Film at Amsterdam IFF 2018. Her life is hard work and excessive loneliness. Endless days with her entourage in over-the-top decor. Daisy is lonely and invites a writer to the hotel. But a dark energy visits her at night and as Daisy reaches new Maria Møller Kjeldgaard personal heights, her dreams turn into a nightmare. Producer • Denmark
Born in 1989, Maria graduated from Super16 in 2016 as a INTENTION producer. Additionally she earned a Master in Film Studies Star is in early development. and spent a semester in London. In 2013 Maria established her production company, Manna Film. We will have a first draft at the end of 2018 and we will apply Maria also works as a line-producer, and she has been for TFL ScriptLab. The budget a part of Young Nordic Producers Club, ACE Producers Training Days and MAIA Workshops. She worked with is €1.200.000. Kristian on their first feature film Songs in the Sun. Star will have an international cast and it will be in English, Danish and French. We are looking for French and European co-producers, sales agents and distributors. CONTACT INFORMATION Kristian Sejrbo Lidegaard Maria Møller Kjeldgaard [email protected] [email protected] T +45 30369995 T +45 61462682
56 TFL EXTENDED Stoning the Jasmine
In the midst of the Syrian war, Sa’ad, a Jordanian fighter pilot crashes over an ISIS controlled zone. Considered an infidel, he is interrogated, tortured Zaina Deeb and sentenced to death. Scriptwriter • Jordan Awaiting execution, Sa’ad finds hope in the kindness Born and raised in Amman, Zaina Deeb earned a BA of Reda, a young boy who is in English Literature from Jordan University, plus a forced to work in ISIS prisons. 10-year experience in web design and management. An unexpected turn-of-events A self-taught screenwriter, her yearning to tell-a- presents a miraculous escape tale is inspired by the amount of untold stories in the opportunity, where he ends Middle East: a place that is richly controversial yet up in the house of an old indulgingly harmonious. man and his granddaughter In 2017, Zaina reawakened her passion for writing Hind, with whom he kindles a with Stoning the Jasmine. Since then, she has unique connection. attended several workshops including Rawi Longing to go back home, Screenwriters Lab and ScreenBuzz. Sa’ad embarks on a quite dangerous journey, one that forces him to face a very harsh reality.
INTENTION Stoning the Jasmine is at an early development stage. With producer René Bastian of Belladonna NY, and Jordanian co-producer Cindy Le Templier on board, we are looking for co-producers, funding, partners, and people to join our amazing team to bring this beautiful story to CONTACT INFORMATION the screens. Zaina Deeb [email protected] T +962 777429822
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • SEPTEMBER 2018 57 The 7th Day
In a neighborhood of immigrants on a hill of Jerusalem, the old Haïm died and left his small community of outsiders. Together, the Julie Benegmos inhabitants will have to fight Writer/director • France against the government to keep their homes. Julie Benegmos studied Architecture in Paris. She Slowly overwhelmed by directed her first documentary short film during doubts, fears and racism they her exchange study at the Academy of Arts in will finally lose their land. Jerusalem. After her studies, she went to India and met a set designer for movies who employed her on INTENTION a project. The 7th Day is a black comedy In 2010 her first short feature filmAnaïs was selected full of colours at the stage at Paris Court Devant Festival 2015 and bought of treatment. by TV5 World. The script of her debut feature film The 7th Day was selected at Le Groupe Ouest and I am looking for French The Gan Fondation in 2017. and Israeli producers to get involved in the project. I am not excluding any other international production to co-produce the film.
CONTACT INFORMATION Julie Benegmos [email protected] T +33 662840478
58 TFL EXTENDED The Foreign Agent
An all-nighter neo-noir psychological thriller. Terrorist attacks hit France. Ethan (33) – a former Israeli Don Barak interrogator hiding in Paris under fatwa – is recruited by Writer/director • Israel the DGSI to foil the imminent attack, and in return get his Don Barak holds a BFA from TAU Tisch Film School. fatwa in revoked. He has produced, directed and written several short films, including Elevation (2013), which But as he finds strange he produced and was theatrically released & TV things about their mysterious broadcasted in Israel. suspect, he becomes more and more entangled in a Don held management and consulting roles in web of intrigue and personal various editions of Tel Aviv International Student demons. Film Festival, and also worked as a film critic. In 2015, he edited The Short Screenplay Book (TAU), When the doors close on him, and he is now writing a book on storytelling and suddenly becoming a suspect, a short-story collection. he must flee the city. But with threats from all sides and He has worked in production and consulting roles every corner, and he stands on Israeli TV & film productions. He also works as alone before the nightmarish a script doctor and is developing a TV series. city maze. Will he even survive the night?
INTENTION We have an interest from an American production company, and we are looking for producers and financing.
CONTACT INFORMATION Don Barak [email protected] +972 548146683
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • SEPTEMBER 2018 59 The Invisible
When Sara, a single mum in her early 40’s, learns that her son Micky was hit by a car and instantly died, her world collapses. Meanwhile, she Jan Van Dyck cannot cry and the severe Writer/director • Belgium eczema from which she suffered slowly goes away. Jan directed the short films Until It Hits You (2013) This troubles her severely. and Homeful Bliss (2015), and he is now developing She reaches out to Théo, her The Nipple Whisperer, a short dark fairytale about son’s 30-year-old boyfriend. overcoming grief and loosing fear, and N’Oubliez He reveals that Micky led a Jamais, a documentary series about 6 charismatic secret life. Sara discovers she 70-year-old women. did not know her son at all He is also co-writing Kawasaki, a feature film and that she does not know directed by Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, and The how to love properly. Expectation, a feature film by Noud Heerkens, The year after Micky’s dead about an all-consuming love. is a year in which Sara transforms from a mother into the woman she did not allow herself to be, and she will be able to mourn.
INTENTION This film about learning to mourn and to love is produced by Nino Lombardo (Prime Time) and received development support from the Flemish Audiovisual Fund. Part of the story (a summer holiday) will be set in France. So we are currently looking for European co-producers CONTACT INFORMATION and distributors. Jan Van Dyck [email protected] T +32 496890498
60 TFL EXTENDED Three Weeks Under the Sea
Misha (24) returns to the border town for his father’s funeral, only to find out that it is all been faked. He starts drowning in his Russian father’s Martin Kuba past, lured into small-town Writer/director • Czech Republic crimes by his old friends from local Russian mafia, but also Martin Kuba studies Film Direction at FAMU Prague, falls for two very different girls. developing his debut feature film Three Weeks Too late he discovers he is Under the Sea there. His professional experience here to play a vital role in include assistant for HBO original series Wasteland events much bigger than he (2016) and intern dramaturgy at Black Camel can carry, when he finally Pictures, Glasgow. traces down the shadow His recent short films The Celebration, The Lion, of his father, presumed the Antelope and the Beautiful Blonde, and Kill Me military attaché at the If I Fall Asleep have been screened internationally, withdrawal of Red army from including at Warsaw IFF 2015 and Montreal World FF Czechoslovakia. 2016. Misha may, however, not be able to resurface anymore, burdened by past crimes, now even of his own.
INTENTION A gangster film story of Three Weeks Under the Sea brings together surreal imagery, intimate themes and the troubled history of the region, lightened up by comedic lens. Produced by Moloko Film, Prague, the project is in the late stage of development, and we are now looking for CONTACT INFORMATION international co-production Martin Kuba partners. [email protected] T +420 776198998
TFL EXTENDED – SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT • SEPTEMBER 2018 61 Woman Without a Past
When Maryam wakes up in a hospital, she has no memory of her past. Soon she is confronted with a husband she does not love, children Arman T. Riahi she cannot remember, and a Writer/director • Austria very religious and unfamiliar life inside the Muslim Arman T. Riahi was born in Iran and grew up community of a central in Vienna. His first documentary Schwarzkopf European city. premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival 2011. While trying to be the proper His second documentary and cross-media project Muslim woman everybody Everyday Rebellion, co-directed with his brother expects her to be, Maryam Arash, was Austria’s most successful film at festivals meets the inspiring and in 2014, and his latest documentary Kinders won the outgoing Elsa, who has left Special Jury Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival 2017. her abusive husband. And as His first feature film, the black comedy Maryam’s memory returns The Migrumpies (2017), was among the three most little by little, she understands successful Austrian films at the box office. there is someone in her life she has to be afraid of: her former self. In the end, Maryam has to decide between liberating herself or liberating her family.
INTENTION Woman Without a Past is a social drama with a whodunnit twist; a suspenseful examination of identity, character and social peer-group pressure. Renowned Austrian production company Golden CONTACT INFORMATION Girls Film is producing, but we Arman T. Riahi are looking for an European [email protected] co-production and looking T +43 69912291026 for world sales.
62 TFL EXTENDED 63 TFL Extended – Creative Production TFL Extended – Creative Production November 2018 Don’t Gaze Long Into the Abyss Mohammadreza Farzad Writer/director • Iran Don’t Gaze Long Into the Abyss is an incredible tale, yet Born in 1978, Mohammadreza Farzad graduated from based on a true story, about Teheran University of Fine Art in Theatre Studies. His first two Jiří Polák, a forgotten Czech short films Into Thin Air and Blames & Flames premiered in documentary filmmaker and Forum Expanded at Berlinale 2011 and 2012 respectively. painter. The story is set at He also co-wrote the short Revolutionary Memories of Bahman Who Loved Leila by Farahnaz Sharifi (2013). Hormoz, a primitive remote island at the Persian Gulf, His third short The Forget-Me-Not Egg premiered at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2013 and won the during Polák’s self-exiled stay Sepanta Award for Best Short Documentary at the in 1971-1978. Iranian Film Festival 2013. His latest film Wedding: A Film A genius caught between two premiered at DOK Leipzig 2015. historical limbos – Prague Spring in 1968 and Islamic Revolution in 1978. A sultry visual essay stumbling between fiction and documentary. A meditative long gaze into the abyss of love, freedom, faith and destiny. Karel Poupě Producer • Czech Republic INTENTION We are looking for co- Karel’s main interest is in cross-media projects and feature producers, especially from documentary films. He has developed and produced the France (part of the film is set feature film Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie (2018) and the documentary film When the War Comes by Jan Gebert in France as the second main (2018), as well as several multimedia exhibitions such as character is of French origin), Memory of Nations, which focuses on periods and events as well as post-production that had shaped the modern history of the Czech nation support. forming its memory. We would like to talk to sales agents, distributors and TV commissioning editors.
CONTACT INFORMATION Mohammadreza Farzad Karel Poupě [email protected] [email protected] T +98 9366435650 T +42 0734762866
66 TFL EXTENDED Love Lowercase Willy Biondani Director • Brazil Samuel is an almost 40-year- old German literature Willy Biondani started his career as a still photographer. professor who lives alone in He spent 6 years living in Paris where he started working an apartment. He is a man as a film director. who has great difficulty in He directed the short films Nocaute (1993) and White Nights socializing but also has a great on a Saturday of Glory (2000), as well as an award-winning fear of dying alone. adaptation of Brazilian João Guimarães Rosa’s classic novel Grande Sertão: Veredas (2008). Samuel’s life begins to Since 2005, he is a partner and director at Bossa Nova Films. undergo a revolution the day Overman (2018) is his debut feature film. he wakes up with a small cat in his bed. Committing to get rid of the little intruder, he is obligated to relate to a cycle of people and things that will lead him to encounter love and regain the meaning of his life. Denise Gomes INTENTION Producer • Brazil The project is in the Denise is a partner and manager of Bossa Nova Films. development stage, and we Her credits include the feature films Violeta Parra Went to are seeking co-producers in Heaven by Andrés Wood (Dramatic World Cinema Jury other territories. Prize at the Sundance Film Festival 2012), Absence by Chico Teixeira (Berlinale Panorama 2015) and A Sort of Family by Diego Lerman (Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at San Sebastián 2017). Denise also produced series and documentaries for TV broadcasters such as GNT/TV Globo, HBO, Discovery Channel, Fox and National Geographic.
CONTACT INFORMATION Willy Biondani Denise Gomes [email protected] [email protected] T +55 1138112000 T +55 1138112000
TFL EXTENDED – CREATIVE PRODUCTION • NOVEMBER 2018 67 Rotten Apples Tom Haines Writer/director • United Kingdom An idyllic summer at a wealthy Kent apple farm is brutally Tom has won acclaim for his narrative music videos and interrupted by a murder- documentary works for BBC, Channel 4 and Tate. His suicide. evocative storytelling has led him to work with brands such as Google and Expedia. The teenage boy Neil and Tom is passionate about storytelling, creating worlds and his single mother Jenny are characters through writing and directing dramatic films, starting over, working for the including the coming of age short Night of the Foxes (IFFR farming family who live next 2013, BFI London Film Festival 2013), and more recently to the tragedy. Neil is trying The Mission, which premiered at LA Shorts Fest 2018. to reform his delinquent ways and he finds a father figure in Miles, the patriarchal farmer. And when Miles takes Neil under his wing, we realize how his life, and that of his family, is intertwined with the victims, exposing blame, infidelity, crop Anna Griffin failure and potential danger. Producer • United Kingdom INTENTION Anna is an indie producer working in documentary and fiction with Wellington Films and Griffin Pictures. Her Rotten Apples is currently credits include the debut feature documentary Paa Joe & at treatment stage, and we The Lion (2016) by Benjamin Wigley, Hope Dickson Leach’s are looking for development critically acclaimed The Levelling (2016) and, most recently, support to take the project Matt Palmer’s Netflix thriller Calibre (2018). to script and begin to start In 2017 Anna set up her own company, Griffin Pictures, packaging ready for market. and she is currently developing The Tunnel by BAFTA nominated Arash Ashtiani. We very much welcome the input from other producers Anna is one of 2018 Screen’s Stars of Tomorrow. and we are very open to exploring the possibility of a co-production.
CONTACT INFORMATION Tom Haines Anna Griffin [email protected] [email protected] T +44 7591908674 T +44 7979807316
68 TFL EXTENDED Son of the Ashes Dado Amaral Writer/director • Brazil Brazil, 1963. At a small village, a circus burns down killing Dado Amaral was born in Rio de Janeiro where he 120 people. followed his studies in Journalism, Literature and Theatre. He began his professional career working as an actor in A truck driver, deeply touched theatre and TV. by this tragedy, has a divine He has now written and directed eight short films, among revelation entrusting him them two documentaries about the Prophet Gentileza, a a mission: to rebuild the world well-known character in Brazil, whose story has inspired starting with the ruins of the screenplay of Son of the Ashes. the circus. He then leaves his wife, his children and his work to dedicate four years of his life to planting there the “Bird’s Heavenly Garden”.
INTENTION Bruno Bettati This is the first feature film of Producer • Chile the director targeting at the Bruno is the General Manager of Jirafa Films, a production international market. We are company set in Valdivia with 16 feature films premiered strengthening the characters, internationally. Bruno is also a distributor of Chilean films structure and dialogues of the on the domestic market since 2011. first script draft. For 10 years he has lectured for audiovisual producers We are also consolidating the from all around Chile and Latin America at workshops held Chile-Brazil co-production in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, France, Switzerland, relation, and exploring other Hungary, Czech Republic and Germany. He is also a co-producers. consultant on creative economy, public television, cinema and media.
CONTACT INFORMATION Dado Amaral Izabella Faya [email protected] [email protected] T +33 658351150 T +55 21993246847 Bruno Bettati [email protected] T +56 998211708
TFL EXTENDED – CREATIVE PRODUCTION • NOVEMBER 2018 69 The Deleted Sidharth Mathawan Writer/director • India 2018, Berlin. A visit to a former GDR prison triggers a series Born in Kashmir, Sidharth studied Architecture at the of hallucinations for Konrad, School of Planning and Architecture, India. He has over 10 a recluse, leading to a murky years of experience in the art department with directors world of lies and conspiracies such as Wong Kar-wai and Emmanuel Lubezki. of the notorious Stasi, the East He is a Berlinale Talents 2010 alumnus and attended the German secret police. Producers Workshop at the Cannes Film Market 2017. His latest short À La Carte, set in Paris, is in post-production, Konrad’s only respite comes and his feature script The Deleted, set in Berlin, was finalist from his bohemian neighbor, at the MFI Script 2 Film Workshop 2017. Lotte, whom he secretly He works across India and Europe. fantasies. His constant paranoia causes him to lose his job, his friends and drives away his daughter. With no sleep and a never- ending struggle to unravel the mystery, he ends on a downward spiral with Gagan Mathawan evidences that incriminate himself. Producer • India He must confront his past or Gagan Mathawan is an entrepreneur, involved in creating risk losing his sanity and his businesses throughout the Asia Pacific region for 25 years. estranged daughter. He founded Electric Monk Motion Pictures in 2017 and attended the Producers Workshop at the Cannes Film INTENTION Market 2017 with a slate of projects in development. Since then, he has produced Sidharth’s short films The Desire For The project is in development. Desires (Chicago South Asian Film Festival Competition We are looking for European 2018) and À La Carte. producers, co-producers, Gagan is a member of the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ post-production partners Association (IMPAA). especially from Germany. Furthermore, we are interested in meeting international sales and distribution agents for our CONTACT INFORMATION Indo-European projects. Sidharth Mathawan Gagan Mathawan [email protected] [email protected] T +91 8800526669 T +91 9818286731
70 TFL EXTENDED The Penultimate Jonas Kærup Hjort Writer/director • Denmark One fatal day, The Water Inspector enters a building in a Jonas Kærup Hjort is a Danish film director based in desolated area. Soon he finds Copenhagen. He has a background as a theatre director himself trapped inside facing and graduated from the National Film School of Denmark. an “Alice in Wonderland”-like His graduation short film In a Month won the Talent Award maze of obstacles, set in at the Odense International Film Festival 2017. motion by The Angel, who is Jonas is now developing his first feature film The on a quest to decide whether Penultimate with development funding from the Danish or not to become human. Film Institute. Pushed around and tested, The Water Inspector loses track of himself and his humanity. The Angel loses faith in him after he commits murder and banishes him to the basement. As The Water Inspector is Rikke Tambo Andersen locked away, we see that this Producer • Denmark is not the first time The Angel lost faith. In the darkness of Rikke Tambo Andersen is a producer from Copenhagen, the basement, a sea of water who has been working in the industry for more than 10 inspectors are confined. years. She works with both fiction and documentary and has produced several feature documentaries and short INTENTION films, including the NORDIC:DOX Award 2018 winner Lykkelænder by Lasse Lau. The Penultimate is in late Rikke was selected for Euro Connection in 2015 and for development. We hope Emerging Producers at Jihlava International Documentary to go into production in FF in 2017. the Summer of 2019 and Since 2018 she is a member of EAVE. complete the film in January 2020. We are seeking co-producers, sales agents, funding, broadcasters and festival representatives.
CONTACT INFORMATION Jonas Kærup Hjort Rikke Tambo Andersen [email protected] [email protected] T +45 61651604 T +45 40373031
TFL EXTENDED – CREATIVE PRODUCTION • NOVEMBER 2018 71 The Quest Natasha Markou Writer/director • United Kingdom Daria, a woman with a hidden past, is taken in by her sister Natasha combines writing, directing and producing in her Clara, who suddenly goes skillset and has a global outlook to film and media. This missing. Daria is accused of explains her international activities and the completion of murder when blood is found two feature films in 2018, as an Executive and Associate on her clothing. She struggles Producer: Killbird, in a cross-border collaboration with Canadian partners; and Crystal Swan, a Belarusian, USA to find her sister, against the and UK co-production which is preparing for its Oscar relentless dark visions that nomination screening in the Foreign Film category. come with a warning – “they Natasha is working on her next film, a cross-border are coming to get you”. collaboration between the UK, USA and Greece. Daria discovers the truth surrounding Clara’s disappearance as well as her mother’s intentions. She rushes to her childhood home, where everything began. Surrounded by police, Daria knows there is only one way JoAnn Hess she can unravel the mystery of Scriptwriter • USA her origins and discover who she really is. JoAnn Hess is a multi-award winning, optioned and hired scriptwriter who has written several scripts in Crime To live, she must first die… Drama, Thriller and Action/Thriller genres. INTENTION JoAnn’s scripts were finalist at the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, 2nd Rounder of the Austin FF, and We are looking for 3rd Place of the London Film Awards, among others. international co-producers, Her credits include Framer and The Devil’s Dandruff by broadcasters and sales Peter Field (World War Z, Edge of Tomorrow), both in pre- agents. production, and Fakers, directed by Tom Delmar (Snatch).
CONTACT INFORMATION Natasha Markou JoAnn Hess [email protected] [email protected] T +44 7415872531 T +1 3306870208
72 TFL EXTENDED You Can’t Stop the Sea Rowland E. Jobson Writer/director • United Kingdom A troubled homeless illegal immigrant boy, surviving Rowland has a background in advertising, documentary, on the streets of the Côte and films for cinema. He has worked for major brands and d’Azur, finds solace and safety broadcasters including Samsung, Sony PlayStation, Mazda, when taken in by Celine, a Channel 4, ZDF and ITV. young French/English female His works received one D&AD Award and two IVCA Clarion photographer. Awards, and his short film GirlLikeMe premiered at Venice Film Festival 2009, going on to win four international awards. Forsaking her boho lover she Rowland developed his first feature film Into the Light with adopts him. Ten years on, the the inaugural Biennale College – Cinema in 2012. boy and his adoptive mother have become lovers as he struggles to find himself and his identity. Celine’s ex-lover re-enters their lives, and discovered their tryst. He exacts revenge by promising to catapult the boy Tansi Inayat to fame, on the condition that Producer • United Kingdom he abandons Celine.
Tansi has an established record in both UK and INTENTION international productions with over 20 years’ experience spanning documentary, drama and across all broadcast The project is currently in media platforms. development seeking funding, national and international Having worked as a director and producer, her skills range across editorial and production. She recently produced co-producers. We would a short VR film and a feature-length fiction film for also like to meet sales agents theatrical release. to discuss the possibilities Tansi is currently collaborating with writer/directors with of potential markets for this several feature scripts in development. unique film.
CONTACT INFORMATION Rowland E. Jobson Tansi Inayat [email protected] [email protected] T +44 7970344132 T +44 7971883038
TFL EXTENDED – CREATIVE PRODUCTION • NOVEMBER 2018 73 TorinoFilmLab via Cagliari 42 10153 Torino – Italy T +39 011 2379221 [email protected] www.torinofilmlab.it www.torinofilmlab.it