Jan 09, 2023
20 Year Anniversary of a Continuing Treasure Trove for Tomorrow’s Film Hits: At the Berlinale Co-Production Market, 33 Film Projects Will Meet International Co-producers

For the 20th Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 18 to 22), 33 film projects from 26 countries have been selected to find partners, in order to secure their financing and get produced as international co-productions in the next few years. 17 of the 33 projects are directed by women.
The official project selection consists of 17 fiction feature projects with budgets between 600,000 and five million Euros being chosen from among 302 submissions. Leonie Krippendorff, Natalia Smirnoff, Ioana Uricaru, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, Muayad Alayan and Gustavo Pizzi are just some of the names in directing that should arouse film lovers’ curiosity about their upcoming films.

In the Berlinale Directors section, there are an additional three projects in the early stages of financing, whose directors – Caru Alves de Souza, Maria Solrun, Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha – have already shown successful films at the festival. Two film projects are looking for partners at both CineMart Rotterdam and the Berlinale Co-Production Market as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express.
New in 2023 is the World Cinema Market section: in cooperation with the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, the WCF-funded project Los Ángeles by the two directors and visual artists Joaquin Cociña and Cristóbal León from Chile will be presented here.

In the Talent Project Market, which is organised in cooperation with Berlinale Talents, ten producers from all over the world who are still in the first decade of their careers will present their latest projects, having been selected from 166 submissions. They are also looking for international partners. In addition to feature films, there is also a documentary film project by the Swedish directing duo Lia Hietala and Hannah Reinikainen, who presented Always Amber in the Panorama section in 2020.

The companies in the Company Matching programme come from Chile, Estonia, the Philippines, Ukraine, Austria and Luxembourg, and participants can request individual meetings with them to exchange ideas on a structural level, or on the basis of project slates.

“Rebellion, not allowing oneself to be marginalised, or consciously setting oneself apart from the norm; the empowerment of minorities in the face of war, colonialism and conservatism, and dealing with gentrification and climate change ― we have read many, often courageous projects whose bold approaches address such topics. Things will certainly be colourful and varied at our 20th anniversary: coming-of-age at all ages, film noir, horror, absurd comedies and wild genre mixes on queer topics, as well as a powerful dose of feminism are included in the selection, and we hope to contribute successfully to these new films being seen in cinemas soon,” in the words of the Berlinale Co-Production Market director, Martina Bleis.

In the coming weeks, the Berlinale Co-Production Market team will organise more than 1,500 individual meetings during the Berlinale, where the producers of the selected projects and companies will meet potential international co-producers, world sales agents, representatives of broadcasters, funding bodies, streaming platforms, film distributors and other financing partners from all over the world.

In the 20 years since it began, over 340 films have already been made from the projects of the highly successful Berlinale Co-Production Market. Among others, the last two winners of the Golden Bear, Alcarràs (2022) and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021), looked for partners here before shooting, in order to secure their realisation. Oscar winners such as A Fantastic Woman by Sebastián Lelio and Jojo Rabbit by Taika Waititi are among the former projects, just like Quo Vadis, Aida? by Jasmila Žbanić, Force Majeure by Ruben Östlund and The Babadook by Jennifer Kent.

Already, three films that were presented as projects at the Berlinale Co-Production Market and have been realised together with international co-production partners, have been confirmed in the programme of the Berlinale 2023: the animated film La Sirène (The Siren) by Sepideh Farsi in the Panorama section, as well as Tomorrow is a Long Time by Jow Zhi Wei and Sea Sparkle by Domien Huyghe, both screening in Generation.

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

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

Official Selection of Projects, Berlinale Co-Production Market 2023 (in alphabetical order of production companies):

• The Blindsight (director: Ruslan Batytskyi), 2Brave Productions, Ukraine
• Amoeba (director: Siyou Tan), Akanga Film Asia, Singapore
• Roger on the Loose (director: Natalia Smirnoff), Año Cero, Argentina
• Iván & Hadoum (director: Ian de la Rosa), Avalon PC, Spain
• God Bless You (director: Gustavo Pizzi), Bubbles Project, Brazil & Baleia Filmes, Brazil
• Hasse (director: Jan Matthys), Bulletproof Cupid, Belgium
• Peeled Skin (director: Leonie Krippendorff), Kineo Filmproduktion, Germany
• Pastoral Pathways (director: Ahmet Necdet Çupur), Les Films du Poisson, France & NiKo Film, Germany & Liman Film, Turkey
• Butterfly (director: Itonje Søimer Guttormsen), Mer Film, Norway
• Skiff (director: Cecilia Verheyden), Mirage, Belgium
• Tales from the Golden Age 3 (director: Ioana Uricaru), Mobra Films, Romania & 42 Film, Germany
• Ivy (director: Catarina Mourão), O Som e a Fúria, Portugal
• O Little Town of Bethlehem (director: Muayad Alayan), PalCine Productions, Palestine
• I'll Be Gone in June (director: Katharina Rivilis), Road Movies, Germany
• Cheaper Than Stealing (director: Pedro Collantes), Sideral Cinema (Elamedia Studios), Spain & Mizar Films, France
• Mārama (director: Taratoa Stappard), Sweetshop & Green, New Zealand
• Everything That's Wrong with You (director: Urša Menart), Vertigo, Slovenia

Berlinale Directors Projects:

• Buran (director: Maryam Moghaddam, Behtash Sanaeeha), Hobab, Sweden
• Lonely Hearts (director: Caru Alves de Souza), Manjericão Filmes, Brazil
• Night Sweat (director: Maria Solrun), Wunderlust, Germany

World Cinema Market Projects:

• Los Ángeles (director: Joaquin Cociña & Cristóbal León), Globo Rojo Films, Chile & Autentika Films, Germany

Rotterdam-Berlinale Express:

• The Burning Giants (director: Phuttiphong Aroonpheng), Diversion, Thailand & 13 Little Pictures, Singapore
• Brace Yourself (director: Thati Pele), Urucu, South Africa

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

• Yen and Allie (director: Tom Shu-Yu Lin), Bering Pictures (producer: Clifford Miu), Taiwan
• God and the Devil's Cumbia (director: Carlos Lenin), Colectivo Colmena (producer: Daniel Loustaunau), Mexico
• Bekes (director: Mahsum Taskin), Gataki Films (producer: Vildan Ersen), Turkey
• Baby (director: Nikos Kyritsis), Homemade Films (producer: Kyveli Short), Greece
• Burning Kingdom (director: Catalina Arroyave Restrepo), Rara Cine (producer: Jaime Guerrero Naudin), Colombia
• Our Love (director: Lia Hietala & Hannah Reinikainen), Story AB (producer: Melissa Lindgren), Sweden
• The Love Pill (director: Naures Sager), The Uneven (producer: Michael Detlef Petersen), Sweden
• Animal (director: Milada Těšitelová), Unit and Sofa (producer: Julie Žáčková), Czech Republic
• Cost of Living (director: Moara Passoni), Uvaia Filmes (producer: Sofia Geld), Brazil
• Hooped (director: Adolf El Assal), Wady Films (producer: Adolf El Assal), Luxembourg

Company Matching Programme:
Amour Fou Vienna/ Luxembourg, Austria/Luxembourg
Amrion Production, Estonia
Epicmedia, the Philippines
ForeFilms, Ukraine
Quijote Films, Chile

Press Office
January 9, 2023