1. UPPERCASE PRINT Synopsis It Is the Story of Mugur Calinescu, A

1. UPPERCASE PRINT

Synopsis It is the story of Mugur Calinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote graffiti messages of protest against the regime of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and was subsequently apprehended, interrogated, and ultimately crushed by the secret police.

Development steps Uppercase Print has at its core a well-known and appreciated theatre play bearing the same title and extensive research, so the main challenge during development was to adapt the play into a cinema script, while also keeping true to the historical events. In order to do so, the director and co-scriptwriter Radu Jude undertook an extensive research process employing multiple resources: - Firstly, the Securitate file of the student Mugur Călinescu which the original theater play was based on. With the help of co-scriptwriter Gianina Cărbunariu (one of Romania’s most acclaimed theater directors and playwriters, the author of the theater play Uppercase Print) and of historians Adrian Cioflâncă and Mihai Bumbeș (both experts on the history of Communism in Romania), the director looked to follow the original Securitate file as much as possible in his script. Through this part pf the research we gained access to the file and to other Securitate sources that helped later on in creating the universe of this film. He also worked with the actors during the long rehearsal process so that they could act the exact text in the Securitate notes. - Secondly, as the film is composed of a scripted part and numerous archival inserts, the other challenge was to find these materials in the Romanian National Film Archives and the National Television Archives. Thus, the director and editor watched hundreds of hours of materials coming from these sources in order to select the ones that made it into the final edit. This process was also difficult due to the fact that these archives are not digitized. However, we are certain that the fact that we digitized at least a part of these archives for this film, will be a small step forward in completing this very important task that the national institutions in charge are constantly delaying. Another core step in the development of the film was finding the right crew. For most of the positions we went for the usual collaborators from Radu Jude’s previous films: Marius Panduru – director of photography, Cătălin Cristuțiu – editor, Dana Bunescu – sound designer, but for production designer and costume designer we brought on board two very experienced professionals in their respective fields: Irina Moscu – an esteemed stage designer known for creating spectacular decors for theater and Dorin Negrău – one of the most acclaimed fashion designers in Romania. Irina worked on the script to find a creative solution for the few locations and created a panopticon structure where six ‘slices’ compose the closed circle of Mugur Călinescu’s life and death. This helped director of photography Marius Panduru create a very specific look of the films using simple panoramic camera movements to go from one scene to the next. The construction of the set also created a feeling of claustrophobia and a feeling that nothing one does can go unnoticed or unreported to the Securitate. The casting process was a long one and implied scouting in high schools since the main character and a couple of secondary characters are ages 17 and 18. The director and casting director saw tens of teenagers that were scouted from schools or at theater festivals aimed at high school students. Eventually, we found 18-year-old Șerban Lazarovici for the main part, who had experience in student plays and festivals and happened to be a student in the very high school where the real Mugur Călinescu studied in 1981. The shooting took place in January 2019, at Castel Studios near Bucharest, and the exterior shots were done in Bucharest during the months of December 2018 and January 2019.

Financing and marketing Since the project did not entail a very high budget and was not a natural co-production candidate as it not require shooting outside the country or foreign talent, we decided after analyzing the timing of financing opportunities that it would be more efficient to raise the entire budget from Romania, Creative Europe being the only foreign financier of the film. Thus, ‘Uppercase Print’ is a 100% Romanian co-production between microFILM, Hi Film Productions and the Romanian Television and was supported by the Romanian Film Center, Creative Europe Media and through the allocation of tax money from local private companies through the Romanian Cinema Law. Thus, the financing phase of the film consisted in applying for production funding from the Romanian Film Center. Given the granting of the development funding by Creative Europe, the quality of the submitted materials and the strong track records of both the director and the producer, the project came in first in the funding competition. The involvement of the Romanian Television was also a natural step in the development and production of the film since a good part of the film consists in archive material from the Romanian Television. They supported and assisted the director and his researchers in finding news items, television shows, interviews and programs from 1981 and in doing the selection. Given the fact that this film tells the story of some usually overlooked heroes of recent Romanian history, local private investors were attracted to the film’s potential and chose to join the project during the development phase. Some of them have been following the director and his work in the past years, so they were interested in Radu Jude’s new film. In regards to international distribution, the film was acquired by the Belgian sales agent Best Friend Forever, a newly founded company that takes on the experience and expertise of Indie Sales with whom Ada Solomon has previously collaborated for projects such as ‘One Step Behind the Seraphim’ by Daniel Sandu. We rely on their enthusiasm and experience to create a strong festival career & distribution for this film that is not entirely a classical narrative one and could prove to be difficult to distribute in other countries. In Romania, the film will premiere in cinemas in March 2020 and it will be distributed by Hi Film Productions through the same team that has previously successfully launched films such as ‘Aferim!’, ‘I do not care if we go down in history as barbarians’, ‘Child’s Pose’ or ‘Scarred Hearts’. Having this experience in dealing with arthouse auteur films, will help ensure a wide distribution for ‘Uppercase Print’ that will include besides the few cinemas left in Romania, screenings in schools and universities, in art exhibition spaces as well as other alternative spaces in smaller towns where no cinemas are left. The distribution of the film locally but also worldwide will be definitely boosted by the selection of the film in Berlinale Forum (not officially announced yet!), where Radu Jude’s films have premiered before.

Impact of the MEDIA support on the creative development As highlighted above, the MEDIA support was extremely valuable for the creative development of ‘Uppercase Print’. Firstly, this allowed the acquisition of the adaptation rights of the theater play with the same title, written and directed by Gianina Cărbunariu who also became one of the films co-writers. Secondly, the project entailed a great deal of archive research: the director Radu Jude and historians Mihai Bumbeș and Adrian Cioflâncă worked intensely on the historical and factual accuracy of the script, as the director and the two scriptwriters wanted to remain as true as possible to the real events that happened in 1981 in the city of Botoșani in Romania. With the financing we were granted from MEDIA we were able to hire researchers to explore the written and photographic archives in Bucharest and Botoșani (the city where the real events took place). The main source was the National Center for Studying the Archive of the Securitate (Secret Police) where we found the file of Mugur Călinescu which was the primary source of inspiration for the script and for the theater play. The archive work was also very useful for creating the production design concept and for the accuracy of the props used in the film. We worked with archives and researchers to find the exact type of listening devices, recorders and earphones that the Securitate officers used in 1981. We also bought and used newspapers from the dates of the events – October through December 1981 and January 1982. Thirdly, the MEDIA support helped us find and digitize a big amount of video materials that we found both in the National Film Archive and the National Television Archive. Having development support in place before we applied for production support from the National Film Center also helped in beginning the casting process. Since there are no schools in Romania for actors as young as our main character was, we started a long casting period about 8 months before the shooting in order to give us time to go through high schools, amateur theater competitions and other sources. We hired an experienced casting director and an assistant director to do scouting, multiple casting sessions and rehearsals with teenagers. This resulted in finding a very talented new-comer: Șerban Lazarovici, a very promising young actor who was just 18 at the time of the shooting and who became in the meantime an acting student.

Impact of the MEDIA support on the production, financing, research and marketing The main financing source of the film was the production support from the Romanian Film Center. Having Creative Europe was a great advantage when applying for funding. Being supported by MEDIA was also a big asset when attracting the rest of the partners of the film: from main creative positions all the way to sales agents, who look for high quality projects and are more likely to give attention to projects that have been previously recognized as such. The Romanian Television also took this financing element when joining the project as co-producer, as they contributed mainly with archive rights and grating access to the materials. Moreover, since the project was done on a relatively low budget, having enough time and funding to properly prepare was decisive for the production of the film. After such a long preparation period, we managed to successfully complete the shooting in 10 days, which is drastically lower than the average duration of a shooting for a fiction feature film. This financial back up allowed both the production team and the director and co-scriptwriters to dig deeper into all aspects of the shooting (such as research, rehearsals, production design plans, costume creation and overall planning) which was a recipe for success given the short time and the low costs that followed. As previously mentioned, research played a crucial part in the development of ‘Uppercase Print’. To be very specific, 50% of the film is made out of archive footage and the other 50% is based on reports coming from the national Securitate archive and have we not had the financial means to sustain such a long and intense period of research of written and visual materials, this film would have been impossible to make.

2. DOUBLE HAPPINESS

Synopsis Camil wakes up one night without his penis. The nightmare continues when his partner, too, disappears after meeting a former lover. He sets out looking for her and, wearing women’s clothes, reaches a secret community dedicated to fertility, somewhere in the mountains. There he finds something far more disturbing.

Development steps When we applied for the MEDIA slate, for Double Happiness (then called Facing China) we had a first draft and a belief in a strong debut feature of a talented director with a modern vision, Sebastian Mihailescu. Since then, the idea of the film evolved drastically, it matured together with the director, as he gained new insights and personal and professional experiences. An important factor that facilitated the evolution of the script was definitely the fact that the project has participated in and has grown with the help of the EAVE Ties That Bind Asia-Europe Co-production Workshop and the Torino Film Lab Extended Script Development Workshop. At the EAVE Ties That Bind workshop, which took place in Udine, Italy and in Singapore, throughout 2017, producer Diana Paroiu discussed the script in depth with workshop tutors, participants and guest experts and feedbacked to and from on the script with Sebastian Mihailescu and Andrei Epure (the two writers). The first draft was subsequently revised, improved, growing into a strong piece of work. The feedback helped the writer-director and co-writer, both at the beginning of their careers, to polish the script. Moreover, at that point in time, the story was mostly taking place in China. However, while the project was being discussed at the EAVE Ties That Bind workshop, it was becoming clear that China was not feasible, and that collaborating with Chinese partners could be problematic for such a daring project, mostly due to the censorship existent in the country and also given the lack of local financial support for outspoken independent arthouse films. Therefore, various countries in Asia were explored as possible shooting locations and, in the end, Taiwan was chosen as a more viable option that could also comfort the visual aesthetic that the director was looking for in his film. In 2017, the Torino Film Lab followed, and the two scriptwriters participated in the event. This was a unique opportunity for them to discuss the story and approach at length with experienced consultants. The discussions have been pivotal towards the development of the script and, with the feedback received from the workshop they have managed to develop a new script version – the 4th one. Also, during the workshop and, consequently, after working on applying the feedback received on the 4th draft version of the script, Ada Solomon, Diana Paroiu, Sebastian Mihailescu and Andrei Epure have jointly decided that a script consultant would be of great help in attaining the level of complexity that would be needed for the project. Shortly after, experienced script consultant Pierre Hodgson, former Torino Film Lab tutor and current Less is More tutor, has joined the project as a script advisor. Through various meetings with Sebastian and Andrei, both in Romania and France, over the course of 9 months, the script has evolved. Together, they have managed to eliminate certain parts of the story which were not bringing anything truly significant to the ideas that Sebastian wanted in the film, a more clear dramaturgical structure was constructed and the characters obtained more depth. There have been changes in the needs, wants and motivations of the lead character (Camil). As a new dramaturgical journey of Camil was taking form, the idea of the character taking a trip abroad, to Taiwan, as a form of escape from his situation back home, was reassessed and taken out of the script. Thus, the 5th draft of the script emerged following this 9 month collaboration with Pierre Hodgson. At this point in time, we are starting to move forward with developing the other creative parts of the project as we are confident that the scriptwriting process will soon reach its final stage.

Financing and marketing After receiving the MEDIA slate support, we focused on planning a financial strategy that would fit the necessities of the project. We managed to obtain funding from the Romanian CNC for production, where the film was top of the list for the debut section of the competition. This was added to the already obtained Romanian CNC development funding. Moreover, we pitched the project to a number of sponsors and some of them decided to give the project sponsorship, in conformity to the Romanian cinema law. At the time when the story of the film was still happening in locations from Taiwan and following the participation with DOUBLE HAPPINESS in the EAVE Ties that Bind Asia-Europe Co-production Workshop, Diana Paroiu was in direct contact with Taiwanese producers, connections made possible by the EAVE network: discussing artistic elements (looking for local script advisor to work on the final touches of the characters, the dialogues and the ways in which our locations were to be depicted) and getting insights into the funding and costs in the market. Even though the script changed and the shooting in Taiwan was no longer needed, the connections that we made with Taiwanese production houses will definitely be useful for other possible projects in the future. We are now working on putting together a European co-production that would help finance the film. Firstly, through our experiences of working with talents from abroad, we have seen the value of cross-national collaborations. We want to involve our European coproducers in view of head of departments, actors and key services, and be able to curate the best crew and facilities for the film. We are in talks with German and French producers with an interest in Eastern European cinema and Romanian cinema in particular. Also, we are in talks with Eastern European producers, as a prospective 3rd coproducer of the film. Given the system and funding resources in Romania, it is impossible to gather the whole funding for a project of this complexity - solely from our home country. The European coproducers are essential for the financing of the film. In addition, we will of course apply to Eurimages, as we believe the originality of the discourse on the middle-class young men reaching adulthood and the film’s mix of realism and hyperreality are elements that make DOUBLE HAPPINESS a unique and relevant film for today’s cinema. We have also applied to Trieste When East Meets West Co-production Market and to the Berlinale Co-production Market, where we hope to increase the project’s visibility and meet new possible partners.

Impact of the MEDIA support on the creative development The whole journey of writing the script has been deeply influenced by the feedback received at the EAVE Ties That Bind Asia-Europe Co-production Workshop and in the Torino Film Lab Extended Script Development Workshop, workshops at which the film project team members would have not had the possibility of participating without the support of Creative Europe MEDIA. Moreover, the collaboration with Pierre Hodgson was a very important step, both as his experience and ideas about the script have been very useful, but also because he helped Andrei and Sebastian with tips of how to create a more productive workflow among them. All the costs needed for the participation in these two workshops and for the collaboration with Pierre Hodgson couldn’t have been covered if it hadn’t been for the Creative Europe MEDIA development grant. Moreover, the project evolved creatively through the feedback that we have received from industry professionals (producers, international sales agents, etc) with whom we have met on different occasions such as at the Cannes International Film Festival, Berlinale, etc. We pitched DOUBLE HAPPINESS in various festivals and markets, maintaining the visibility of the project and creating a desire to receive more information about it. As such, with the help of the Creative Europe MEDIA grant, we had the possibility of working on developing the project book, the script, the moodboard and translating all these documents, so that we could send them along to possible interested partners and keeping the discussions going throughout the development of the story and the concept.

Impact of the MEDIA support on the production, financing, research and marketing Through the participation in the two workshops, which was only possible through the development funding obtained from Creative Europe MEDIA, a few important advancements were made in terms of the co- production and financing strategy. Firstly, these offered a favourable environment of meeting and connecting with possible co-producers, international sales agents, festival programmers and distributors. Secondly, through discussions in EAVE Ties That Bind and our presence in festivals, we were able to better grasp the international appeal of the project. We look forward to building this strong international coproduction also in order to maximise the international distribution outreach. Due to the way that the story of the film was received in these workshops, it has become clear that different unique selling points of the film can be identified and exploited in different territories, depending on local cultural aspects and trends. Thus, we have become confident of the film’s potential to access global markets, as it will arise interest through its local cultural specificity (the city of Bucharest with its people, lifestyles, mentalities), while exploring a universal aspect (the challenges that middle-class young adults, and specifically young men, face when reaching maturity). The international coproduction will allow us to reach a wider array of territories and audiences. The producers’ promotional efforts paired with those of an international sales agent will maximise its distribution. We see the film having good circulation in festivals worldwide. We are currently in contact with a few European producers with whom we are discussing possible collaborations, such as Milan Stojanović (SENSE Production, Serbia), Radovan Sibrt (PINK, Czech Republic) and Nina Frese (Pandora Film, Germany). The project has also attracted a few international sales agents who are now following the project and waiting to see future developments, such as Playtime (France), XYZ Films (US), Picture Tree International (Germany), Pluto Film (Germany) and Film Constellation (UK). Moreover, the endorsement by Creative Europe MEDIA made the project stand out, thus attracting more interest towards it.

3. THE AMAZING AFTERLIFE OF ARSENIE BOCA

Synopsis At the heart of our frustrations, the hypnotic gaze of a dead 30-year-old monk promises us a better world. A deranged society, which has lost faith in everything, expects from this holy future the miracle of change that has never happened before. The myth of Arsenie Boca - because it is about him - fills the gap left by the disappointments of the last 30 years. How was the cult of Arsenie Boca born, who was the real character from which it started and how is the Romanian society seen in the luster of this icon?

Development steps While writing and researching the proposed topic on DUST IN BUCHAREST, the director Alexandru Solomon has come to a point where he realized that the stories that he has been able to collect were not gathering into a strong narrative. Meanwhile, he started to become interested in the subject of the cult of a new saint, Father Arsenie, that seemed to embody a global feeling of uncertainty and the denial of our rational, science-oriented civilization. His interest was due to a growing media frenzy about this religious figure, and he felt that the public was being „assaulted” through both social and traditional media by stories related to the cult of Arsenie Boca. At that point, he decided to put DUST IN BUCHAREST on hold for the time being and switched to what seemed to him and to us as a much broader and provocative issue, regarding the religious fervor in our post- communist societies their need for miracles. This is how the project THE AMAZING AFTERLIFE OF ARSENIE BOCA was born In the past one year and a half, we have managed to advance in the creative development of this project. The director has participated in pilgrimages, in order to understand and be accepted by the followers of this religious movement and to scout the places related to Father Arsenie which has helped him identify potential characters. He has filmed these experiences with a small, non-intrusive camera, both for research and for testing the reactions of the pilgrims to the filming process. Then, the material has been edited in a 15 minutes teaser which will also be the basis for making a 3-minute trailer. In terms of research, we have also contacted people that are part of or close to the church and the sanctification process and we managed to get an interview of the chief of the Transylvanian church, who is a key figure in the promotion of Father Arsenie. Moreover, Alexandru Solomon has studied a big part of the writings that are dedicated to the future saint. He has also dedicated a lot of time to the study of the former secret police (Securitate) files on Father Arsenie and managed to copy the most relevant documents. These include beautiful and valuable scans of the photos of Arsenie, made since the 1940’s, some by the agents who were secretly following him. He has also researched the Romanian film archives and found relevant newsreel materials shot in the monasteries where the main character lived and worked or that describe other religious processions from his times. At this moment, we are in the process of receiving the digital copies of these newsreels. In the next period, we will focus on aiding Alexandru Solomon in developing his relationship with the pilgrims, the high priests and the businessman that registered the brand Father Arsenie. The director wants to start testing their willingness to work on the reenactments and how/where we could start developing such scenes. These scenes may need to be rewritten depending on the interaction with the real characters and the real locations where these could be filmed. Alexandru Solomon intends to travel on a few more trips to the region where Father Arsenie preached and to talk to some additional characters – the shopkeepers, the flower sellers, the gendarmes, etc. Meanwhile, he will continue to collect and organize a catalogue of online pictures and representations linked to Father Arsenie which will be used in collage-like compositions and in a template video composition (which will give the look of the film) to illustrate the huge echo of Arsenie’s cult. We estimate that the next 10 to 12 months or so, until the start of the actual production, are sufficient to undergo all these actions.

Financing and marketing The first basic steps have been taken or are under way: applying at the Romanian Film Board and finding the best coproducers for the film and other partners. In terms of creating a co-production strategy, we have explored the possible directions that would best fit the ambitions of the project. We think that France is the suitable country for coproducing this project, since it has the appropriate funders and – subject-wise – has a cultural sensitivity for the mixture of religion and the church into the political and social life. Thus, we have been in touch with Serge Lalou, from Les Films d’Ici in France – who has expressed interest in getting on board. Serge Lalou has coproduced or produced a couple of Alexandru’s projects and has been working with Ada Solomon on several other fiction projects. Many films directed by Alexandru Solomon have been co-financed and distributed in France, with Aide au Cinemas du Monde or with Arte. We also intend to explore another venue, in Luxembourg, with our friends and partners at Paul Thiltges Distribution. PTD has coproduced and distributed another film of Alexandru Solomon and they are willing to try financing this new project through the Luxembourg Film Fund.

Impact of the MEDIA support on the creative development Partly being a type of observational documentary film, THE AMAZING AFTERLIFE OF ARSENIE BOCA is highly based on grounded, field research work, as well as archive material. Therefore, in order for the creative development of the project to take place, Alexandru Solomon has attended numerous pilgrimages and religious events, has interviewed religious figures and has viewed hours of archive materials related to the subject of the film. In order to be able to do so, the MEDIA support has been the main means of covering the costs of the research process. Without it, he would not have been able to travel and follow the supporters of Arsenie Boca and gain new and relevant insights into their lifestyles and spiritual views. During these trips, he has met various individuals who are linked to the Father Arsenie movement and whom he convinced after many discussions to be characters in his film. Naturally, all these direct interactions with the worshipers and their rituals have been reshaping the structure that the film will have and have resulted in relevant concepts which were previously overlooked, giving the film more in-depth dimensions.

Impact of the MEDIA support on the production, financing, research and marketing At this point, we have developed our financing strategy and we are working on constructing the most fitting financial partnerships for the project. In order to be able to present our project to possible partners, whether we are talking about co-producers or international sales agents and VoD platform representatives (who might show interest in acquiring the distribution rights for the film in the future), we have worked on all the presentation materials needed for our efforts. Besides translating the materials in English and designing the project book, we have also edited a 15-minute teaser compiled from the material that Alexandru Solomon has filmed during the pilgrimages that he has attended. The teaser has been especially effective in showing the intentions of the director and giving a glimpse of the look and feel that the film will have and has definitely played an important role in maintaining interest for the project. The work and resources needed in order to execute these materials has been covered from the MEDIA support and would not have been possible otherwise. Moreover, being backed up by a European funding body was a big advantage in our efforts to position the project on the market. The support from MEDIA is definitely seen as a seal of quality attached to a project, which is why it gave us a fair advantage when convincing our possible partners about the potential of the project.

4. MAN AND DOG

Synopsis DORU (45) returns to Romania after having worked in Sweden. While he makes all the preparations as a godfather for his best friend’s child, he is also leading a secret inquiry. He pursues, along with his mother’s dog, the possibility of his wife’s infidelity.

Development steps We are now ending the development stage and we are going to start the preproduction at the beginning of next year and we are happy that we managed to cover a number of important artistic steps of the project thus far. From the moment we have obtained the support of Creative Europe MEDIA, the work on all areas of artistic development of the project has intensified. Firstly, Andrei Epure, together with Stefan Constantinescu and, later on, with Jorgen Andersson, have worked through a number of script drafts (we are now at draft no. 8.5), reshaping the dramaturgical structure of the script, as well as the dialogues. The fact that Andrei and Stefan also worked together, doing research about Romanian work immigrants in Sweden and respectively for Stefan, digging also in his own experience and how this affected his life, has also been a strong influence on the story of the film and has helped them create a very strong collaborative bond between them. The script writing process was also aided by the participation of the project in the development workshop First Films First, where the three scriptwriters and producer Diana Paroiu participated in script development sessions, which put them in contact with renowned film professionals who gave extensive feedback on the script work. Moreover, during this workshop, they have participated in sessions regarding working with actors and cinematography. Besides working on the script, we have managed to put together most of the team who works on the project; among our head of departments we name: Alexandru Solomon – director of photography, Catalin Cristutiu – editor, Alma Ungureanu – production designer and costume designer. This progress allowed us to increase the research regarding locations, and location scoutings have been organized in Constanta – Romania (the first one in autumn 2018 and others followed during the course of 2019) in order to explore different location options. The director, together with the director of photography and the production designer, chose locations that translate the director’s vision about using the space in the film to mirror the internal struggles of the characters. At this moment we have a number of options for each important location from the film (such as the Del Mar restaurant, Doru’s apartment building, etc) and we will finalize the scouting process during preproduction. Also, we have organized casting sessions where Stefan Constantinescu has viewed tens of talented actors and actresses. A rotation mechanism was employed, allowing the actors and actresses to play out various different roles of the film, which meant that Stefan could see not only the way each actor/ actress interpreted the roles, but also their chemistry together. At this moment, we have attached to the project the main actors: Iulian Postelnicu (Doru), Ofelia Popii (Nicoleta) and Cosmina Stratan (Georgiana). Other actors/ actresses have been shortlisted for some of the other roles and we have also done a casting for the role of the dog, for which we have some options. Due to the fact that we managed to decide on some of the most important aspects of the project, we also developed a draft shooting schedule taking into account all the variables. The shooting is planned to start at the end of May.

Financing and marketing Since we obtained the help of Creative Europe MEDIA, we have managed to put together a truly European co- production jointly with Klas Film from Bulgaria, Doppelganger from Sweden and Pandora Film from Germany. Jorgen Andersson from Doppelganger has followed the project since the first script written by Andrei Epure and, subsequently, has decided to become a coproducer, securing the support of Film I Vast, but also use his script consultancy experience to be a cowriter. The other two coproducers have come to know the project during the mid-development. With Rossitsa Valkanova from Klas Film we have had a long standing and successful collaboration in the past. We discussed this project with her on a number of occasions and we decided to apply to the Bulgarian Centre Fund, application through which we managed to secure funding for the production of the film. Nina Frese from Pandora Film had been closely following Stefan’s work for years. We talked to her about the project in various festivals, she followed the development of the script and, when we were ready with the script, we applied and obtained funding from Film & Medienstiftung NRW. Moreover, during the development stage, we have focused on both creating visibility for the project, but also getting professional feedback in terms of its artistic dimensions and in terms of our business strategy regarding the possibilities of promoting and distributing the film once it is completed. MAN AND DOG has been selected in First Films First project development workshop in 2017 and in the Les Arcs Coproduction Village 2017. During these workshops and several other markets such as EFM or Marche du Film, the project was discussed with producers, distributors and sales companies and we were encouraged by the very positive feedback on both the story and the cinematography of the film, which managed to attract professionals from various corners of the world. What is more, it helped us develop a distribution and marketing strategy, following the feedback that we have received and to connect with potential distributors who showed interest in the project. We are very proud that the project has raised the interest of Films Boutique (Germany), Beta Cinema (Germany), Charades (France), Heretic Outreach (Greece), Luxbox (France), Premium Films (France), and Picture Tree (Germany) for the international sales. All these international sales agents have first encountered the project during the workshop pitches and coproduction markets or festivals which we have attended.

Impact of the MEDIA support on the creative development The project Man and Dog has gone from a mere idea to a full-blown project and this could not have been achieved with such promising results without the help of Creative Europe MEDIA. In terms of the creative development, the slate received from the MEDIA programme has opened the doors to workshops and other similar opportunities, which helped the project grow. The fact that our team attended the First Films First workshop has helped Stefan Constantinescu solidify his directing style for this debut film. He gained new and fresh insights into how to best work with his actors/ actresses (both during the casting process and rehearsals, as well as on set), he received custom feedback on the script from film professionals which helped him further develop his story (together with the other two scriptwriters) and he obtained guidance on determining the cinematography style of the film and how to achieve it (he is now looking at using old, recycled lenses in the second part of the film, in order to depict the psychological degradation of the characters). Moreover, the slate helped us organize the location scouting and the casting sessions necessary to move forward with the film. These also had a great impact on the script development, as Stefan Constantinescu let himself be inspired by the locations he viewed in Constanta and by the acting experience of the actors/ actresses that he has seen at casting. For example, during his visits in Constanta and Gothenburg, Stefan Constantinescu has taken photographs and video materials of places that inspire him and has constantly viewed and reviewed them in order to gain further understanding on how the surroundings, architecture and vibe of these places can complement the story. His film is strikingly human and for him, the whole development stage of the project, helped to better visualise his own ideas and recalibrate them in a creative way to the real world and environment, with the help of the film team and cast. Thus, the MEDIA slate has been a lever that not only stimulated the development of the project in terms of production, but also helped foster an artistic experience for the director and the whole creative team which gave new, more nuanced dimensions to the film project.

Impact of the MEDIA support on the production, financing, research and marketing Among the benefits of the MEDIA slate, we believe that one of the most important ones is the distinctive status that a project supported by Creative Europe MEDIA has in the film industry. For us, the Creative Europe support has definitely opened a lot of doors for the project and has facilitated the process of finding the right partners. Naturally, the slate offered us the possibility to apply to and participate in different co-production markets and workshops, where we met most of the international sales agents who are now following the project, but also has allowed us to apply to certain national, regional and European funds by covering the costs of translating documents and other administrative costs. We have applied to and obtained financing from the Bulgarian National Film Centre, the Romanian Film Centre, Film I Vast from Sweden, and the NRW fund from Germany, and, more recently, we applied for Eurimages and for the Romanian tax incentive scheme, from where we are still awaiting the results. In terms of marketing the project, the MEDIA slate has also aided the project through the different industry events that the producers and the director have participated in. The film project has already caught the attention of film festival programmers, which is a first step into positioning the film within the industry. Moreover, we have gained great insights in what audiences to target and how to promote certain aspects of the film to engage those audiences. For example, an important part of the feedback that we received from film professionals was in regard to the idea of labour force migration and how this film could be of great interest to families who have been affected by this phenomenon.