Jan 09, 2024
A Home for International Co-Productions: 34 Film Projects to Meet International Partners at Berlinale Co-Production Market

34 film projects from 27 countries have been selected for the 21st Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 17-21). Their producers will be looking for partners to help co-finance and realise their projects as international co-productions in the next few years. 17 of the 34 projects are directed by women. There were 318 submissions in total, a slight increase from the previous year.

As part of the official project selection, 18 already partly financed feature film projects with budgets between 600,000 and five million euros will be presented by well-known international production companies. Among the multiple award-winning directors whose new works are sure to spark interest are Kateryna Gornostai (Crystal Bear for Stop-Zemlia in 2021) and Antonio Lukich (most recently, Luxembourg, Luxembourg in Venice 2022) from Ukraine, Andrea Pallaoro from Italy, director and actor Mirjana Karanović from Serbia, and the Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.

The Berlinale Directors section features three brand-new projects in the early funding stages, their directors are no strangers to the festival: Sally Potter has shown four of her films in the Berlinale Competition, while both Mira Fornay (The Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the Best Film for She - Hero) and Babatunde Apalowo (TEDDY AWARD for All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White) won prizes at the Berlinale just last year with their recent works.
Two other feature film projects by Andreas Fontana (last represented in Encounters 2021 with Azor), and Fradique, whose Air Conditioner premiered in Rotterdam in 2020, will be looking for partners as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express at both CineMart Rotterdam and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
A hybrid project combining documentary and fiction film, Zone | Myths by Daria Yurkevich, will be presented in the World Cinema Market section in cooperation with the Berlinale World Cinema Fund.

“Powerfully, and on a new level, these projects echo the issues that currently occupy people’s minds: home and migration, parenthood and the fear of commitment, political and social conflicts – many topics are reflected in a number of projects with diverse approaches. Current political conflicts are sometimes examined through the lens of the past or alternatively, in visions of the future,” says Martina Bleis, head of the Berlinale Co-Production Market. “In addition to arthouse dramas and thrillers, the selection includes plenty of warmth and humour, and topics such as competition from artificial intelligence, the unexpected effects of climate change, intrigue in diplomatic circles, and hand-tight family conflict are viewed from unusual perspectives. It will be extremely rewarding to see this material brought to the big screen.”

In the Talent Project Market, organised in cooperation with Berlinale Talents, ten producers still in the first decade of their careers are also looking for international partners for their latest projects. Here, the participants were chosen from 171 further submissions. Several of these projects look at the subject of queer life under difficult social, family or political conditions. But the selection also includes a mystical horror story and an animation project, where some of the communication is in sign language.

This time, the five companies in the Company Matching programme are from France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden and Singapore; participants can request individual meetings with these companies in order to discuss structural ideas, or work on the basis of project slates.

The next stage involves the Berlinale Co-Production Market team organising over 1,500 one-on-one meetings during the Berlinale, enabling the selected projects’ producers and companies to meet with potential international co-producers, representatives of world sales companies, TV broadcasters, funding organisations, streaming platforms, film distributors and other financing partners from all over the world.

To date, over 360 films have emerged from Berlinale Co-Production Market projects, including the following Bear winners: 20,000 Species of Bees (2023), Alcarràs (2022), and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021). Last year saw the successful festival and cinema premieres of The Siren by Sepideh Farsi, Puan by Benjamín Naishtat and María Alché, Holly by Fien Troch, Toll by Carolina Markowicz, Shame on Dry Land by Axel Petersén, Imago by Olga Chajdas, Oasis of Now by Chia Chee Sum, Levante by Lilla Hallah, In Flames by Zarrar Kahn, and Lost Country by Vladimir Perišić, among others.

Girls Will Be Girls by Shuchi Talati and Handling the Undead by Thea Hvistendahl will screen at Sundance at the end of January. Comme le feu by Canadian director Philippe Lesage, which was presented as a project at the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2020 and has since been realised together with international co-production partners, has now been confirmed in the Generation programme at the 2024 Berlinale.

Ten new series projects for the pitch event Co-Pro Series, also curated by the Berlinale Co-Production Market, as well as ten literary adaptations for Books at Berlinale will be announced in the coming week.

More information can be found on the website of the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is a Berlinale Pro* initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival and It is supported by MDM - Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union, as well as the FFA - German Federal Film Board. Another cooperation partner and main venue is the Berlin House of Representatives.

Official Selection of Projects, Berlinale Co-Production Market 2024
(in alphabetical order of the presenting production companies):

• The Side Effects of Trusting Life (director: Ahmad Ghossein), Abbout Productions, Lebanon
• A Woman Builds (directors: Huang Ji & Ryuji Otsuka), Akanga Film Asia, Singapore & YGP-Film, Japan & Island X Pictures, Taiwan
• Next Apparition (director: Julieta Amalric), Cimarrón Cine, Argentina / Uruguay
• My Hands (director: Eoin Heaney), Feline Films Limited, Ireland
• Screaming Girl (director: Antonio Lukich), ForeFilms, Ukraine
• To the Wedding (director: Andrea Pallaoro), Good Question Media, Canada
• Idda’s Breath (director: Irene Dionisio), Kino Produzioni, Italy
• Divorce During the War (director: Andrius Blaževičius), M-Films, Lithuania
• Last Trip (director: Ziad Kalthoum), Mayana Films, Germany
• Antonivka (director: Kateryna Gornostai), Moon Man, Ukraine & Just a Moment, Lithuania
• Marriage by Abduction (director: Sophia Mocorrea), NiKo Film, Germany
• Ich bin Marika (director: Hajni Kis), Proton Cinema, Hungary
• To Die on Your Feet (director: María Paz González), Quijote Films, Chile
• Remains of Life (director: Sevda Shishmanova), Red Carpet, Bulgaria
• Folk Play (director: Mirjana Karanović), This and That Productions, Serbia
• Fragments of This Beauty (director: Burak Çevik), Vayka Film, Turkey & Fol Films, Turkey
• Burnings (director: Jerry Carlsson), Verket Produktion, Sweden
• The Girl with the Leica (director: Alina Marazzi), Vivo Film, Italy

Berlinale Directors Projects:

• Alma (director: Sally Potter), Adventure Pictures, United Kingdom & Sixteen Films, United Kingdom
• Twist the Rabbit (director: Mira Fornay), Cineart, Czech Republic & Mirafox, Slovak Republic
• Londoner (director: Babatunde Apalowo), Polymath Pictures, Nigeria, Cato Street Productions, United Kingdom & Sixteen Films, United Kingdom

World Cinema Market Project:

• Zone | Myths (director: Daria Yurkevich), Doppelplusultra Filmproduktion, Germany

Rotterdam-Berlinale Express:

• The Diplomats (director: Andreas Fontana), Alina film, Switzerland
• Hold Time for Me (director: Fradique), Seera Films, Germany

Talent Project Market Projects and Selected Producer Talents
(in alphabetical order of production companies):

• Eau de Colony (director: Veronica Spedicati), Alcor (producer: Giorgio Gucci), Italy
• So the Lovers Could Come Out Again (director: George Peter Barbari), Btrswt Pictures (producer: Christelle Younes), Lebanon
• Silence Sometimes (director: Álvaro Robles), Cartuna (producer: Mireia Vilanova), USA & Spain
• Bad Gays (director: Loïc Hobi), Cloud Fog Haze Pictures (producer: Michael Graf), Switzerland
• Pogana (director: David Kapac), Eclectica (producer: Rea Rajčić), Croatia
• The Numbered Days (director: Agustina San Martín), Mil Monos (producer: Maximiliano Monzon), Argentina & Spain
• Uptight Ass (director: Matija Gluščević), Naked (producer: Čarna Vučinić), Serbia
• Astana Internet Stars (director: Assel Aushakimova), Risk Pictures (producer: Assel Aushakimova), Kazakhstan
• More than a Hug (director: Christian Zetterberg), Snowcloud (producer: Liselotte Persson), Sweden
• Little Lying Wild (director: Samantha Aldana), Valerie Steinberg Productions (producer: Valerie Steinberg), USA & Belize

Company Matching Programme:
Hobab, Sweden
Momo Film Co, Singapore
Paradise City, United Kingdom & France
Special Touch Studios, France
Ukbar Filmes, Portugal

Press Office
January 9, 2024