51TH THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
December 3 –12, 2010
AGORA / MARKET: CROSSROADS & WORKS IN PROGRESS
PRESS RELEASE
15 PROJECTS AT THE 6th CROSSROADS CO-PRODUCTION FORUM
AGORA / MARKET (December 4 –11, 2010) is an international industry event taking place as part of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, offering networking opportunities for the global film industry in an informal, hospitable and professional atmosphere. AGORA / MARKET is comprised of the following industry activities:
• The Balkan Fund- TIFF’s Script Development Fund.
• The Crossroads – TIFF’s Co-Production Forum.
• The Works in Progress - screening of films in post-production from Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
• Film Market with a Digital Video Library
• Salonica Studio, the Film Student Workshop.
CROSSROADS, the Co-Production Forum headed by Marie-Pierre Macia, has selected 15 feature film projects linked to the Mediterranean and Balkan regions. The producers of the projects will be introduced to professionals such as distributors, sales agents and consultants, with an aim to secure financing and complete their projects.
The selected projects come from Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, FYROM, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Palestine, Romania, Turkey and USA.
Crossroads is a MEDIA supported program and its partners include the Producer’s Network of Cannes Film Festival, the Sofia Meetings of the International Sofia Film Festival, the Mediterranean Film Institute Script 2 Film Workshops as well as for the first time this year KODAK Cinelabs Greece, which will now support the winning project in its film production with materials and services up to 10.000 euros.
The winning producer will gain free accreditation for the Producer’s Network in the Cannes IFF 2011; the winning project will be presented at the Sofia Meetings in March. The MFI will give a scholarship for its Script 2 Film Workshops to one of the projects.
The 2010 Crossroads jury is:
Claire Launay, ARTE France Cinema & ARTE Cofinova – Coordinator, France
Gabor Greiner, Films Boutique – Head of Acquisitions, France / Germany
Dionyssis Samiotis, Film in Mind – Producer, Greece
This year’s Crossroads projects are the following:
1. Beyond the Hill, Director: Emin Alper, Producer: Enis Kostepen, Bulut Films, Turkey
2. My Brother Lazarus, Director / Producer: Svetozar Ristovski, FYROM
3. Cajon, Director: Dimitris Bavellas, Producer: Yannis Exintaris, N-Orasis Audiovisual Productions, Greece
4. Downpour, Director: Mori Li-Dar, Producer: Yoav Roeh & Aurit Zamir, Gum Films, Israel
5. Echo Hotel, Directors: Menotti & Marco Marchionni, Italy MFI Project
6. Gated, Director / Producer: Aslihan Unaldi, Turkey
7. Home Sweet Home, Director/Producer: Kyriacos Tofarides, Avra Productions, Cyprus
8. The Japanese Dog, Director: Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, Producer: Bogdan Craciun, Libra Film Productions, Romania
9. Luton, Director: Michael Konstantatos, Producer: Yorgos Tsourgiannis, Horsefly Productions, Greece
10. Music for Strangers Director: Eric Nazarian, Producer: Guillaume de Seille, Fresco Films/ Arizona Films, Armenia / France - Sofia Meetings Project
11. Quiet People, Director: Ognjen Svilicic, Producers: Damir Teresak, Janja Kralj, Maxima Film / KinoElektron, Croatia / France
12. Sleeping on Stones, Director: Nicole Ballivian, Producers: Nagham Osman, Nicole Ballivian / Osama Bawardi, Bint Film, USA / Palestine
13. Weekend, Director: Aron Matyassy, Producers: Tamas Joo, Gergely Fodor, Budapest Film Production, Hungary
14. The Women of my Life, Director: Antoniy Donchev, Producer: Ivan Tonev, Ars LTD, Bulgaria
15. Youth, Director: Tom Shoval, Producer: Gal Greenspan, Greenproductions, Israel
11 FILMS AT WORKS IN PROGRESS
Works in Progress is an Agora/Market activity that provides the opportunity to sales agents, distributors and festival programmers to discover films in the stage before completion from the Mediterranean and Balkan regions. The eligible countries are: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia – Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, FYROM, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
For the first time, Graal S.A & Kodak Cinelabs Greece, a leading Greek post-production house, will award one of the Works in Progress films with in-kind services up to 70.000 euros. It is the only post-production house in Greece that offers complete Digital Intermediate (DI), performing high quality image processing in any medium and format.
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The 2010 Works in Progress Jury is:
Juliette Schrameck, MK2 Head of Acquisitions, France
Karel Och, Program Director, Karlovy Vary Intl Film Festival
Konstantina Stavrianou, producer, Graal, Greece
This year’s Works in Progress projects are the following:
1. Adalbert’s Dream, 2010, Director / Producer: Gabriel Achim, Green Film, Romania
Adalbert’s Dream participated in the 2009 Crossroads Co-production Forum
2. Amnesty, 2010, Director: Bujar Alimani, Producers: Bujar Alimani / 90 Production, Thanos Anastopoulos / Fantasia Audiovisual, Guillaum De Seille / Arizona Films, Albania/Greece/France
Amnesty participated in the 2008 Crossroads Co-Production Forum and was also presented in the Greece: Generation Next event, an initiative of the Greek department with the collaboration of Agora / Market. The project found French co-producer Arizona Films during the event.
3. Do Not Forget Me Istanbul, 2010, Directors: Hany Abu Assad, Stefan Arsenijevic, Aida Begic, Josefina Markarian, Eric Nazarian, Stergios Niziris, Omar Shargawi, Producers: Huseyin Karabey, Sevil Demirci, Emre Yeksan / Unutma Beni Istanbul Ltd., Turkey/Greece
4. The Enemy, 2010, Director: Dejna Zecevic, Producer: Nikolina Vucetic / Biberche Productions, Co-Producers: Tihomir Stanic / Balkan Film, Damir Teresak / Maxima Film, Denez Szekeres/ Tivoli Film, Serbia/Bosnia & Herzegovina/Croatia/Hungary
5. In the Fifth Heaven, 2010, Director: Dina Zvi Riklis, Producer: Yifat Prestelnik / Yifat Prestelnik Films, Israel
6. J.A.C.E, 2010, Director / Producer: Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Co-producers: Pandora Da Cunhan Telles / UKBar Filmes, Zoran Risteski / Geyzer Ltd., Ceyda Tufan / Pi Films, Mete Gumurhan / Kaliber Films, Greece/Portugal/FYROM/Turkey/Netherlands
J.A.C.E was presented in Thessaloniki’s Balkan Script Development Fund in 2005.
7. Man In The Sea, 2010, Director: Constantine Giannaris, Producer: Yorgos Lykiardopoulos / Highway Productions, Greece
The film won an award at Thessaloniki’s 2006 Balkan Script Development Fund and participated in the Crossroads Co-production Forum in 2007.
8. Off- White Lies, 2010, Director: Maya Kenig, Producers: Yoav Roeh & Aurit Zamir / Gum Films, Co- Producer: Janja Kralj / KinoElektron, Israel/France
Off-White Lies participated in Thessaloniki’s Crossroads Co-production Forum in 2009.
9. Punk’s Not Dead, 2010, Director: Vladimir Blazevski, Producer: Darko Popov / Pank Film, Co-Producer: Zarko Dragojevic / Vitagraf, FYROM/Serbia
10. Unfair World, 2010, Director: Filippos Tsitos, Producer: Alexandra Boussiou, Co-Producer: Gian – Piero Ringel / Neue Road Movies, Greece/Germany
11. Wasted Youth, 2010, Directors: Argyris Papadimitropoulos, Jan Vogel, Producer: Argyris Papadimitropoulos / Oxymoron Film, Co-Producers: Federico Pietra, Yorgos Karnavas / Stefi Productions, Greece
