Crossroads Co-production Forum announces its selection
We are happy to announce the Crossroads CoPro Forum selection of projects from Southeastern Europe, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean region, which will take place online, during the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (November 5-15, 2020).
Seventeen (17) projects will be pitched during Crossroads. Despite adversities in the cultural sector, we were happy to receive a larger number of high-quality projects, which made the selection process harder but also very rewarding.
Strong female characters of all ages are a common theme in this year’s Crossroads selection and we are happy to announce that half of the projects are by women directors. Phone scams, patriarchy, ecology, identity, gender issues, belonging, family, monsters, a giant and the first feature film from Libya since 1986 make up this year’s Crossroads selection.
Debut feature films are presented alongside films of established directors, such as Stephan Komandarev, whose new project HELLO - part of his trilogy (Directions & Rounds) - is selected through our partnership with Sofia Meetings. Another partnership is with MFI Script2Film Workshop from which we have selected the project BIRTHDAY by first time director Lara Zeidan.
For the first time we are introducing the COCO&CROSS project: Connecting Cottbus (November 4-6) of the Film Festival Cottbus and Crossroads Co-production Forum (November 10-13) of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. After actively supporting films from our common territories of Southeastern Europe and the Black Sea, this year we have decided to present one project in common to our industry professionals, thus giving it an opportunity for back-to-back exposure. The project VACUUM by award winning director Yelizaveta Smith was presented with the CoCo Award at the KVIFF Eastern Promises for Projects in Development and is also selected by Crossroads Co-production Forum via our partnership with MIDPOINT Institute.
We are also very proud of past participants Azra Deniz Okyay, Ameen Nayfeh and May Odeh for having had their film premieres GHOSTS (Turkey, France, Qatar) and 200 METERS (Palestine, Jordan, Italy, Qatar, Sweden) during the Venice Film Festival and for winning the Grand Prize at Settimana Internazionale della Critica and the People’s Choice Award at Venice Days, respectively.
The projects are:
20,000 SPECIES OF BEES
Director: Estibaliz Urresola, Producer: Lara Izagirre – Gariza Films, Spain
ANNA!
Director: Marco Amenta, Producer: Simonetta Amenta – Eurofilm, Co-producer: Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre - Mact Productions, Italy | France
AS GOD WILLS
Director: Mari Gulbiani, Producer: Kate Kalandarishvili – Midifilm, Georgia
BIRTHDAY
Director: Lara Zeidan, Producers: Séverine Tibi, Anaïs Calmels - Sevana Films, Lebanon | France. In collaboration with the Mediterranean Film Institute
HELLO
Director: Stephan Komandarev, Producers: Stephan Komandarev, Katya Trichkova - Argo Film, Co-producers: Eike Goreczka - 42film, Elie Meirovitz - EZ Films, Bulgaria | France | Germany. In collaboration with Sofia Meetings
I’M HERE, I’M FINE
Director: Emine Emel Balci, Producer: Dilek Aydin – Heimatlos Films, Turkey
KRIEGSAUSGABE
Director: Tarık Aktaş, Producer: Güneş Şekeroğlu – Hay Film, Turkey
KYUKA - JOURNEYING TO THE MOON THROUGH THE ENDLESS SEA
Director: Kostis Charamountanis, Producer: Danae Spathara – Heretic, Greece
MEDIUM
Director: Christina Ioakeimidi, Producer: Louizos Aslanidis – EKSO Productions, Greece
NALA AND STELLA
Director: Tonia Mishiali, Producers: Tonia Mishiali, Anna Różalska, Stelana Kliris - Bark Like A Cat Films, Co-production: Match&Spark, Cyprus | Poland
ONCE UPON A TIME IN TRIPOLI
Director: Abdullah Al-Ghaly, Producer: Miftah Saeid - Cyrene Productions / Hassala Films, Libya | Egypt
PATTY IS SUCH A GIRLY NAME
Director: Giorgos Georgopoulos, Producers: Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Fenia Cossovitsa, Fani Skartouli - Faliro House Productions - Blonde Audiovisual Productions, Greece
RETIRO
Director: Elina Fessa, Production: Vasilis Chrysanthopoulos - PLAYS2PLACE, Greece
THE SUMMER WITH CARMEN
Director: Zacharias Mavroeidis, Producer: Panos Papahadzis, Dimitris Tsakaleas (Associate Producer) – Argonauts Productions, Greece
TAKOTSUBO
Director: Miki Polonski, Producer: Shira Hochman - MINA Films, Co-producer: Janja Kralj - Kinoelektron, Israel | France
THEY COME OUT OF MARGO
Director: Alexandros Voulgaris, Producer: Eleni Bertes – LOGLINE, Greece
VACUUM
Director: Yelizaveta Smith, Producer: Aleksandra Kostina - Bosonfilm, Ukraine In collaboration with MIDPOINT Institute
The Crossroads Co-production Forum Awards include: The Two Thirty-Five (2|35 Inc) main prize of a co-production award (image and sound) to the winning project in post-production services. The CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’ image animée) Award of 8.000 euro for script development. The ARTE Kino International Prize of 6.000 euro. Finos Film will offer to a Greek project 3.000 euro cash prize. The Producers Network of the Cannes Film Festival - free accreditation for the 2021 edition. Project selection at Sofia Meetings 2021 of the Sofia FF. The Mediterranean Film Institute Script2Film Workshops scholarship for 2021. The THESSALONIKI EAVE Marketing Workshop Scholarship for its 2021 Marketing Lab. Asterisk* will offer Packaging and Project Marketing Strategy to one project. Initiative Film is offering script consultancy in one Greek project. CINEMED will include at least one Greek project in the Development Grant selection according to its state of development and follow the films from Crossroads and Works in Progress in regards to its program selection.
