• SEEMAB GUL

    DIRECTOR

    Seemab is a Pakistani artist and filmmaker with an interest in social-realism. Her documentary Zahida won the Audience Award at Tasveer SAFF and was broadcast on Al Jazeera. Her films have screened at Venice, Sundance, Seattle, Uppsala, DokLeipzig and many international festivals. She attended the Locarno OD Producers Lab, Biennale College Cinema and Berlinale Talents. Seemab is a graduate of the London Film School. 

    SYNOPSIS

    Three inmates from a Pakistani asylum for women dare to venture into the outside world for a day.

    Three inmates from a Pakistani ‘Safe House’ for women dare to venture into the outside world for a day. They soon discover that their families would rather conveniently brand them lunatics than give them their rights. Leaving them with no choice but to return to the asylum to seek refuge from a society that has shunned them yet again.

     

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    A few years ago, I produced a documentary on the Edhi Foundation, which has multiple safe houses for women, mentally unwell and homeless people in Pakistan. I came across many heart-broken, rejected yet resilient women in those safe houses. Panah Khana which literally means 'safe house' is made up of the stories of these women and is inspired by their courage and strength. Haven of Hope is thus touching upon the theme of mental health and women's rights. The film will raise awareness of the plight of women in patriarchal cultures, while also telling raw yet heart-warming stories.

    En savoir plus

    ABID AZIZ MERCHANT - Sanat Initiative (Pakistan)

    PRODUCTION

    Abid Aziz Merchant is a Pakistani film producer based in Karachi, Pakistan. After 21 years as a banker, he founded Sanat Initiative in 2013, thus becoming instrumental in developing the careers of emerging visual artists from Pakistan.
    Under the banner of Sanat Initiative, Abid ventured into film production with his first feature film I'll Meet You There (Grand Jury Award Nominee SXSW 2020). His second feature film Wakhri (in development) was selected for Open Doors at Locarno Film Festival (2018) and for the Cinefondation l’Atelier Festival de Cannes (2019). Abid has also produced a number of short films including 1978 (Locarno Film Festival 2020, Pardi di domani), The End (UKAFF 2021, Ray of Hope) and Mulaqat (Sandstorm) (Venice Film Festival 2021, Orizzonti, Sundance Film Festival 2022).
    In Pakistan, the film industry is in its revival phase & Abid aims to bring original & meaningful stories through film production for an audience that clearly seeks engaging content.

    FICTION / DRAMA / COLOUR / DIGITAL

    FIRST FEATURE FILM
    Produced by

    Abid Aziz Merchant - Sanat Initiative (Pakistan)

    Language

    Urdu

    Shooting locations

    Karachi, Pakistan

    Estimated budget

    €300,000

    Funding in place

    €60,000

    Research partners

    Co-producers, sales agents, distributors.

    Actual status

    In development

    Vidéopitch

    Work Samples

    Sandstorm (2021)

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR

    Seemab Gul / seemabgulfilms@hotmail.com / +44 7951 697222/ +33 (0) 7 84 33 13 01 (cell Cannes)

    PRODUCER

    Abid Aziz Merchant / abidazizmerchant@gmail.com / + 92 300 8208108 (cell) /  + 33 (0)7 84 33 13 68  (cell Cannes)

  • LINH DAN NGUYEN PHAN

    DIRECTOR

    Dan is the first Vietnamese female cinematographer to capture a Vietnamese feature film, Secrets of the Wind, released in theatres back in 2020. She won the National Award for Best Cinematography at the Asian Academy Creative Awards. This will be her first feature and it received the ArteKino Awards at the Asian Project Market of BIFF in 2021 and was an official selection at SGIFF - SEA Film Lab.

    SYNOPSIS

    In the heat of the escalating anti-colonialism war in Vietnam, a 14-year-old boy has to help sustain his family’s travelling circus by performing a life threatening act of knife throwing with his two siblings.

    The film centers on a family run travelling circus: Ba, a 14-year-old boy holds a wooden board for his older brother, Hai, to throw knives at, while their little sister, Tu, stands in front of the cutting board as the target girl. His brother's talent and his little sister's fearless attitude draws the blueprint for a tragedy waiting to happen. The movie unveils the world inside Ba’s head, as he attempts to help his sister from the fate that he has foreseen in his dreams, under the financial pressure of their family and the political pressure of the country entering war.

     

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    Framed in the body of water of the Mekong Delta, “If wood could cry, it would cry blood” sums up the life of these children like fishes out of water, constantly holding on to their last breath. The film tries to translate the existential metaphor of one’s purpose and identity, exploring social structure through a family drama. Our protagonist, lonely even though he is always surrounded, struggles to find his place as the untalented child of a family praising art in a world controlled by money. The film questions our place as individuals within our own family, our society but also as humans within the world.  All I desire is for the film to bring out emotions from the audience, arouse in them pity and fear, and then purge them from those emotions.

    En savoir plus

    Bich Hanh Ngo - BHD. Co (Vietnam)

    PRODUCTION

    BHD is one of the first private media company in Vietnam since 1996 and started Film Production with Song of the Stork that won 'Best Feature Film' at Milano Film Festival. BHD produced The Floating Lives, the first art house film to top the box office chart in 2010. BHD also distributed many Vietnamese movies to international film festival such as Choi Voi (Venice Film Festival), Bi, don't be afraid (Cannes Critics Week) and The White Silk Dress (Busan International Film Festival, Kodak Vision Award at Fukuoka International Film Festival, Best Foreign Film at Golden Rooster).
     

    FICTION / FAMILY DRAMA / COLOUR/ DIGITAL

    FIRST FEATURE FILM
    Produced by

    Bich Hanh Ngo - BHD (Vietnam)

    Language

    Vietnamese

    Shooting locations

    Vietnam

    Estimated budget

    €872,000

    Funding in place

    €294,000

    Research partners

    Co-production, pre-sales, financiers

    Actual status

    Development, 3rd version of script, financing

    Vidéopitch

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR

    Linh Dan Nguyen Phan / nphan.linhdan@gmail.com / +84 967528372 (cell) / . +33 7 84 33 11 26 (cell Cannes)

    PRODUCER

    Bich Hanh Ngo / bichhanh.ngo@bhdvn.com / +84 28 3945 3356 / +84 903406275 (cell) / https://www.bhd.com.vn/

  • ZHANNA OZIRNA

    DIRECTOR

    Zhanna Ozirna is a Berlinale Talents 2020 and a Cinemart (IFFR) 2021 participant. Her last short fiction The Adult was presented in the special program "The State of a New Generation" within Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur. The development of her feature debut Ground Zero was supported by Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, by ScripTeast and Pustnik script workshops.
     

    SYNOPSIS

    How deep can you go down to remember who you are?

    Marina lives in Paris and writes about the Soviet monotowns - the industrial settlements built for the needs of one giant factory. To finish her research she goes back to her native Ukrainian monotown which still remembers the suicide of her father-miner 18 years ago. Her unexpected discoveries about her own roots will put in danger the identity of the whole town and become a threat for the memory of her father’s life and death. Marina faces a difficult personal choice: to restore collective memory as a scientist or to honour private memories as a daughter.

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    I’m interested in a topic of postcolonial traumas of Ukraine and the ways they can be faced and healed. In particular I explore the nature of memory and the influence of the Soviet past which still poisons the minds. People of the industrial monotowns - the main location of my story - came from different corners of the Soviet Union to build their new world on a “no-man's land” as they thought. They felt no past behind them, no roots, no historical continuity. And their grand-children inherited it. I want to show how just one fake picture can substitute the collective memory of the whole town. I put this philosophical concept in an investigative story. But the thing my heroine is looking for is actually her identity, erased by propaganda.

    En savoir plus

    DMYTRO SUKHANOV - TOY (Ukraine)

    PRODUCTION

    Founded in 2003 as a commercial production company, it started to do service production in Ukraine for long formats in 2006. While doing service projects, in 2015, it turned to production of national content. Having started with some documentaries by state order, TOY(Toy Cinema) received first financing for its own feature films in 2017.
    Today TOY is a member and co-founder of Film Industry Association of Ukraine, Production Service Network and a regular partner of Ukrainian State Film Agency. Company’s main focus is split between supporting new generation of Ukrainian auteur filmmakers and bringing quality international co-productions and service projects to Ukraine.
    Dmytro graduated from EAVE Producers Workshop in 2020.

    FICTION / DRAMA / COLOUR / DIGITAL

    FIRST FEATURE FILM
    Produced by

    Dmytro Sukhanov - TOY (Ukraine)

    Language

    Ukrainian, French

    Shooting locations

    Ukraine, France

    Estimated budget

    €907,000

    Funding in place

    €492,000

    Research partners

    Co-producers, sales agents, festivals

    Actual status

    Late development, financing

    Work sample

    Extract "The Adult"(2019)

    Video pitch

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR

    Zhanna Ozirna / ozzhanna@gmail.com / +380 93 510 6483/ +33 (0)7 84 33 13 01 (cell Cannes)

    PRODUCER

    Dmytro Sukhanov / sukhanov@toycinema.com.ua / +380 50 469 7216 (cell) /  + 33  (0)7 84 33 12 00 (cell Cannes) https://toypictures.com.ua

    PRODUCER AND COPRODUCER

    Producer : Iryna Kovalchuk - Radar Films (Ukraine) / info@radarfilms.pro
     

  • MARIE-CLEMENTINE DUSABEJAMBO

    DIRECTOR

    Marie-Clementine is a Rwandan director and producer. Her short films have been presented and awarded at several festivals, including the Carthage film festival where she won the Tanit de Bronze in 2012 and 2018. She is working on her 1st feature film BENIMANA, for which she participated in the following workshops and residencies: Sud Ecriture, Ouaga Film Lab, Le Groupe Ouest/LIM 2020 and Medienboard/Berlin Artist-In-Residency.
     

    SYNOPSIS

    BENIMANA is a story of the friction between collective and individual existence. Veneranda, a survivor of the Tutsi genocide who is working for reconciliation, thinks her past is behind her when her old demons resurface as she learns of her daughter’s pregnancy, under the silent eye of the grandmother, who feels the family balance wavering.

    Rwanda, 2012. The country is emerging from an era of silence after the 1994 Tutsi genocide, and people's courts are being set up with the aim of bringing justice and reconciliation. Veneranda, a survivor, is convinced of the need for these trials. Despite pressures, she organises discussion sessions between victims and the families of the executioners. Therapy for some, an act of betrayal for others, these testimonial sessions revive and reveal the traumas that each of them try to overcome, in their own way. The wounds of Veneranda's past are exposed again when she learns of her daughter's unexpected pregnancy and the identity of the father. Veneranda has to face her own contradictions and the dark parts of her past.

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    BENIMANA is about intergenerational trauma and the need to deconstruct prejudices and resentments. The film’s characters, who are mainly women, go through successive moments of happiness, chaos and darkness in which love and hate, resentment and reconciliation are intertwined.They thus portray my country, Rwanda, in its effort to rebuild itself after the Tutsi genocide of 1994.

    En savoir plus

    MARIE-CLEMENTINE DUSABEJAMBO - Ejo Cine (Rwanda)

    PRODUCTION

    Ejo-Cine Ltd is a production company based in Kigali and established in 2018. It focuses on innovative and sensitive narratives of human experience, communities, culture, for film and television.

    FICTION / DRAMA / COLOUR / HD DIGITAL

    FIRST FEATURE FILM
    Produced by

    Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, Ejo Cine (Rwanda)

    Language

    Kinyarwanda

    Shooting locations

    Rwanda

    Estimated budget

    €657,000

    Funding in place

    €110,000

    Research partners

    Co-producers (France, Norway, others), distributors, sales agents, international funds

    Actual status

    Advanced development

    Work Samples

    "A place for myself"

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR-PRODUCER

    Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo / dclemy@gmail.com / +250788520976 / + 33 7 84 33 12 40 (cell Cannes)

    PRODUCER AND COPRODUCER

    Co-executive producer: Samantha Biffot (On est ensemble Production - Côte d’Ivoire)
    Coproducer: Yoro Mbaye (Yennenga  Production – Senegal)

  • ABINASH BIKRAM SHAH

    DIRECTOR

    Abinash is National Award winning writer/director based in Nepal. An alumnus of Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Berlinale Talents and Asian Film Academy, he has written, directed and produced short films that have won at many International Film Festivals. He has also written feature films that premiered in Berlin and Venice, and were Nepal's Official Entry for Oscar in Foreign Language Film Section.

    SYNOPSIS

    When a young trans woman from rural Nepal disappears while patrolling wild elephants, the blame falls on the leader of her trans community, who must find her before their imminent yearly ritual.

    PIRATI is the matriarch to a group of five trans women that lives in a small village terrorized by wild elephants. They make their ends meet by performing at other people’s celebration for alms. One night, the youngest member of the group, APSARA, goes missing while patrolling the wild elephants. The blame comes to PIRATI, whose negligence could have triggered her disappearance. So, to find APSARA, PIRATI now must deal with the villagers who don’t care about them; police, with better things to do than finding a trans-woman; APSARA’s family, for whom she’s been dead since she came out; and the deep, dark forest, which holds more threat than just the wild elephants.

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    In our society, where conservative ideologies can sometimes take over humanity and empathy, people who desire what our society forbids them to desire are often marginalised. They fail in society's eyes, and are cast aside.
    Being about a similarly outcast group of five trans-women who fail to meet the standard of masculinity set up by our patriarchal society, this film deals not only with their disappearance, but also questions our society’s responsibility in their vanishing. How long were they actually ‘missing’, before they finally disappeared? Along with that, I also intend to analyse why and how a marginalised person, after fighting with the whole world to finally live their truth, would spend their entire life trying to fit in and be accepted by the same society that rejected them.

    En savoir plus

    ANUP POUDEL - Underground Talkies Nepal (Nepal)

    PRODUCTION

    Underground Talkies Nepal, established in 2013, is an independent production company based in Kathmandu. We actively partner with the new generation of filmmakers who strive to tell local stories that are bold, original and authentic. Our films resonate with domestic audiences and international viewers alike, and have been screened at Venice, Busan, Winterthur, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Locarno to name a few.

    FICTION / THRILLER / COLOUR / 4K DIGITAL

    FIRST FEATURE FILM
    Produced by

    Anup Poudel - Underground Talkies Nepal (Nepal)

    Language

    Nepalese

    Shooting locations

    Chitwan, Nepal

    Estimated budget

    €420,000

    Funding in place

    €65,000

    Research partners

    Sales Agents, Financiers, Co-Producers (French, German, Dutch, Norwegian)

    Actual status

    Late development, 4th version of the script

    Work samples

    Tattini (2018) and The Glorious face (2022)

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR

    Abinash Bikram Shah / write.abshah@gmail.com / +977-9841-855359/ + 33(0) 7 84 33 12 72 (cell Cannes)

    PRODUCER

    Anup Poudel / anoopmimosa@gmail.com / +977-11-412001 / +977-9851-328838 (cell)/ + 33 7 84 33 10 89 (cell Cannes)

  • TAVO RUIZ

    DIRECTOR

    Tavo Ruiz is a proud queer writer and director, born in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico. His short films were screened in festivals like Morelia Film Festival, OutFest L.A., Max Ophüls Filmpreis. His screenplay Acapulco Magic was finalist at Guanajuato Film Festival. The project won the film fund for development provided by IMCINE and participated at Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund in Los Cabos Film Festival.
     

    SYNOPSIS

    Acapulco Magic is about the hardships of growing up for a Mexican teenager, someone trapped in a place that seems magical, but it is also a story about the beauty of friendship, love and sacrifice.

    Ángel is a teenager who works as a prostitute on the tourist beaches of Acapulco. After meeting a military boy named Carlos, he will discover emotions and feelings that he had never experienced. This will motivate him to run away from those who led him into that kind of life, including his own mother. But the people around will prevent him from escaping, plunging him deeply into a dark net of child prostitution.

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    This is a fiction film drama that is created from diverse anecdotes of people living this harsh reality. It talks about something that few dare to expose on any media but that is well known as one of the most serious problems in my country. Child prostitution. Which is latent and uncomfortable. A complicated taboo subject in our society. That is why I want to take the viewer to an Acapulco that many do not dare to see, highlighting the loss of innocence in a crude way.
    I can relate to this, because I grew up in the slums of Mexico City and the hardships I overcame, were in some parts similar to the ones of my characters. I am passionate to tell this story now because of what sexual abuse represents to me and to my mother; and a small part of acting against it, it’s through my art.

    En savoir plus

    RODRIGO ALVAREZ FLORES, Luz Azul (Mexico)

    PRODUCTION

    Rodrigo Alvarez founded Cine Al Norte, a production and post-production company, originally created with the purpose to self finance its personal projects. After having produced mainly shortfilms, in 2019, he ventured with a first feature titled Niña Sola (Girl Alone), a documentary about women and the violence they live in Mexico, the film screened at the IDFA Internacional Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and premiered in cinemas in 2022.
    In 2021, he wrote, directed and co-produced his feature film debut titled Soy lo que nunca fui (Broken borders). He created, alongside with Sarahí Castro and Miguel Urías, Luz Azul, a production company focusing on producing first feature films. Their next projects include #Rats by director Carlos Trujano, currently in post-production, Valentina y la serenidad (Valentina and the Serenity) by renowned actress and director Ángeles Cruz and Acapulco Magic by Tavo Ruíz, both projects are currently in development.

    FICTION / DRAMA / COLOUR / HD DIGITAL

    FIRST FEATURE FILM
    Produced by

    Rodrigo Alvarez Flores - Luz Azul (Mexico)

    Language

    Spanish

    Shooting locations

    Acapulco, Mexico

    Estimated budget

    €589,000

    Funding in place

    €82,000

    Research partners

    International funds, European co producers (Germany, France, The Netherlands)

    Actual status

    In development, 4th draft

    Videopitch

    Work Samples

    "Portraits of my mother" (2019) -"Line 9" (2016)-Juan Gabriel is dead" (2018)

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR

    Tavo Ruiz / tavruiz@gmail.com / +49 157 3280 1287 / +33 7 84 33 28 89 (cell Cannes)

    PRODUCER

    Rodrigo Alvarez Flores / ro.alvarezflores@gmail.com / +52 664 681 2751 / +52 664 306 55 44 (portable) / + 33 7 84 33 29 00 (cell Cannes) Website under construction

    COPRODUCERS

    Miguel Urias & Sarahí Castro ( Luz Azul – Mexico)
    Luisa Gomez de Silva (G8 Entertainment – Mexico)
     

  • JOSÉ PABLO ESCAMILLA

    DIRECTOR

    José Pablo Escamilla is a director, screenwriter and editor, a founding member of Colectivo Colmena. He is known for his shortfilms Phantom Pain and Firefly (Berlinale 67th). Editor for Beach by Francisco Borrajo (Berlinale 68th) and Sol de Llano by Manuela Irene (Clermont Ferrand).
    His first feature film MOSTRO had its World premiere during Locarno 74th, winner of the Boccalino d’Oro awarded by the independent critics.

    SYNOPSIS

    A bourgeois kid discovers that his father has another family. He tracks a rebellious boy who turns out to be his brother. They plan to escape together but their respective environments have already written their paths. 

    A bourgeois teen discovers that his father keeps a lover on the outskirts of town. His investigation leads him to contact a rebellious factory boy who turns out to be his brother. His raging obsession with him will transform into a friendship, as they develop a strange symbiosis. They plan to escape together but their neighborhoods have already written their paths.

     

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    Godspeed Satan is a brotherly love story, a thriller filled with intense moments of intimacy, guided by the ambiguous and profound inner search of the main character. Without knowing, he’s looking for a deeper truth, a meaning that his current life doesn’t seem to have. The film presents a duality and speaks about the encounter with one self through others.  Little by little I realized that the main topic on it is the toxic masculinity, its echoes and the consequences of capitalist heteropatriarchy. The resolution of the story deals with the topic of forced disappearances, one that I find extremely important in Mexico. It’s a coming of age that portraits and is directed to centennial teenagers, the ones still looking for their ideals and preferences.

    En savoir plus

    DIANDRA ARRIAGA - Colectivo Colmena (Mexico)

    PRODUCTION

    Colectivo Colmena is a film collective from Mexico, founded in 2015, by a group of independent filmmakers who have worked together for the last ten years. Because of our need to tell stories, we constantly explore and experiment with collaborative forms of financing, producing and distributing films, by using our own monetary and creative resources and with the support of a net of trusted collaborators we have built over the years. Our main objective is to ignite conversations about the situations that currently afflict Mexican society. Our films have been shown in festivals like Berlinale, Mar del Plata, Locarno, Toulouse, Biarritz, Gijón, La Habana, FICMorelia, FICGuadalajara, NYFF, Los Cabos, among others.

    FICTION / COMING OF AGE/ COLOUR / DIGITAL 4K- 16 mm

    DEUXIEME LONG-METRAGE
    Produced by

    Diandra Arriaga - Colectivo Colmena (Mexico)

    Language

    Spanish

    Shooting locations

    State of Mexico, Mexico

    Estimated budget

    € 725,900

    Funding in place

    €150,000

    Research partners

    Coproducers, distributors, sales agents

    Actual status

    Financing

    Vidéopitch

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR

    José Pablo Escamilla / jp@colmena.tv / +52 1 553 4885299 / +33 (0) 7 84 33 35 28 (por Cannes)

    PRODUCER

    Diandra Arriaga / diandra@colmena.tv / +52 1 55 45 053578/ +33(0) 7 84 33 29 23 (port Cannes )

    COPRODUCERS

    Daniel Loustaunau / Colectivo Colmena  (Mexico)
    David Hurst / Dublin Films (France)

  • GOURAB KUMAR MULLICK

    DIRECTOR

    Training himself in visual arts before making a shift to filmmaking, Gourab Kumar Mullick uses different mediums of art to construct purposeful and relevant narratives. His main areas of interest lie in the exploration of gender politics, sexuality and body studies in cinema. He has edited and co-directed Kalsubai (grand prize at International Short Film Festival Oberhausen) while Whom the Owls Knew is currently under post-production.
     

    SYNOPSIS

    Salim and Vishnu are lovers who are separated when Vishnu leaves for Dubai. In this tale of the 1990s India, a story of love and a search for self-identity unfolds while the eventual doom of the Bombay blasts looms behind.

    In the western coast of India, Salim, a small-time gangster is left heartbroken when Vishnu leaves the village for a job. Years later, he comes back with Dhanvi whom people mistake to be his wife. When Vishnu leaves the village again, but this time for Dubai, Salim struggles to find a way into a heterosexual intimacy with Dhanvi, in the name of revenge for the love he once lost.

    Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous nineties in Bombay, Starfruits is an exploration of the conflict between masculinity and homosexuality in a realm where communal ideals and reality confront to construct and deconstruct the social being.

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    Starfruits is a reflection of a country in decadence; a country where love must result in a societal knot between a man and a woman. Some of the dilemmas and struggles in the film are derived from my own close experiences. I wanted to explore the idea of relationships in the backdrop of a rapidly changing India. I believe, sexuality is primarily a matter of choice, a choice that is usurped from the individual.

    The film’s focus is not only on two men, Salim and Vishnu, from different religions but also highlights the political and sexual repression of women of that period.

     In contrast to the archetypical image of the 'gangster' fighting the system. Through Salim I want to explore a figure of the gangster who is fighting with the hyper-masculinity imposed on him. Yet Starfruits remains a universal story of friendship, love, deceit and revenge. A story of the basic driving forces of life invaded by more powerful forces that ask – what are choices?

    En savoir plus

    UMESH VINAYAK KULKARNI - Arbhaat Films (Inde)

    PRODUCTION

    Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni founded Arbhaat Films along with Girish Kulkarni, a production company focusing on unique stories and promoting upcoming talents. Since its inception Arbhaat Films has produced some landmark films of Marathi cinema, which have been loved by both critics and audiences. Films produced by Arbhaat have been screened at major international festivals including Berlin, Rotterdam, Busan, Karlovy Vary and have won several National Film Awards.
     

    FICTION / DRAMA / COLOUR /DIGITAL

    FIRST FEATURE FILM
    Produced by

    Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni - Arbhaat Films (India)

    Language

    Hindi

    Shooting locations

    India

    Estimated budget

    €490,000

    Funding in place

    €180,000

    Research partners

    European coproducers, funds, financiers and international sales agents.

    Actual status

    In Development, 3rd draft, casting and scouting

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR

    Gourab Kumar Mullick / gourabmullick@gmail.com / +91 7278 589549 (cell) / + 33 7 84 33 08 10 (cell Cannes)

    PRODUCER

    Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni / aantarik@yahoo.com / + 919 4223 22754 (cell) / + 33 7 84 33 13 92 (cell Cannes)

    COPRODUCER

    Samir Sarkar  - Magic Hour Films (Inde)

    Work sample

    "Whom the Owls Knew"(short)

  • MORAD MOSTAFA

    Morad Mostafa is an Egyptian Filmmaker, born in Cairo. He has worked in several independent films and collaborated as Executive director in the feature film Souad by Ayten Amin, - official selection in Cannes Film Festival 2020 and Berlinale, Panorama section. He wrote and directed three short films, all of them selected in Clermont-Ferrand in three consecutive years and won more than 35 international awards.
     

    SYNOPSIS

    Aisha, a Somali carer for elderly patients lives in an Egyptian neighborhood witnessing the underworld of African society where there is tension between the groups. Stuck in a loveless relationship, routine and pressure of dreary work lead her into an impasse.

    Aisha, a Somali young woman of 26-years-old who works as a health carer for elderly patients, lives in Ain-Shams a neighborhood in the heart of Cairo where she witnesses the underworld of growing African migrants’ society and the tension between the different groups. Routine, pressure of dreary work and being stuck in a loveless relationship with an Egyptian cook; while being involved with an Egyptian gang that controls her neighborhood and blackmails her to steal apartments' keys from the old patients, makes her dreams and violent nightmares cross to her reality and leads her into an impasse

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    The story I’m telling takes place where I spent my childhood and early teenage years. When I returned after years, an African community had emerged within the heart of Cairo. They came from different countries looking for work, peace or asylum away from war and starvation. They formed their own world with their own terms and rules. Some worked hard in under-paid jobs for a living but others rebelled against their inevitable fate of acquiescence and became outlaws, but for both sides and their families just surviving the day is considered heroic.

    While riding a microbus there, an African girl with a tired face sat beside me and slept; she woke up frightened and went into hysterical crying. I wondered a lot about that girl’s background. Then my character, Aisha, started to answer my questions; a lonely girl trapped between the two survival mechanisms of her society facing the same social pressure from a bigger universe which is the Egyptian society, and despite living among people who resembles her in color. This is not enough to make her feel belonging but it is enough to make her feel alienated; like the ostrich, a bird that can’t live with them and can’t fly one meter above the earth's surface

    This is what I want to show in this film by following Aisha's life and capturing the slow effervescence under the surface of her calmness till the point of despair then explosion.

    En savoir plus

    SAWSAN YUSUF - Bonanza Films (Egypt)

    PRODUCTION

    Bonanza Films, a Cairo-based production company established in 2019, is aiming to help in developing film industry by co-producing or producing shorts and feature films for directors in their 1st or 2nd project that can be presented internationally, its productions created in collaboration with international production and distribution companies that share enthusiasm for cinema. It has produced two shorts Henet Ward and Khadiga which were both selected in Clermont Ferrand international competition and won more than 35 international awards. Aisha Can't Fly away Anymore was selected at Rotterdam Lab IFFR and received the awards support for the development from El Gouna Film Festival and Cinemed.

    FICTION / DRAMA / COULOUR /DIGITAL

    FIRST FEATURE FILM
    Produced by

    Sawsan Yusuf - Bonanza Films (Egypt)

    Language

    Arabe

    Shooting locations

    Egypt, Cairo

    Estimated budget

    402 000 €

    Funding in place

    110 000 €

    Research partners

    Coproducers (France, Germany, Holland), sales agents, international funds

    Actual status

    In Development, 3rd draft,

    Vidéo pitch

    Work sample "Henet Ward"

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR

    Morad Mostafa / Moradmostafafilm@gmail.com / + 20 114 997 3779 / +33 7 84 33 08 22 (portable Cannes)

    PRODUCER

    Sawsan Yusuf / Sawsan.yusuf@gmail.com / +20 1279 877 803 / + 33 7 84 33 08 46 (portable Cannes)

    COPRODUCER

    Mohamed Hefzy - Film Clinic (Egypte)

  • BOUBACAR SANGARÉ

    DIRECTOR

    Une révolution africaine, les dix jours qui ont fait chuter Blaise Compaoré, the first documentary co-directed by Boubacar Sangaré, sold more than 10,000 tickets in Burkina Faso and was selected in more than forty festivals around the world. Or de vie, the first feature film he will direct alone, has just been awarded the 'Aide aux cinémas du monde’ and will soon be in post-production. Djéliya, memory of Manding follows the same cinematographic approach, with a poetic narrative that celebrates Africa and its youth.

    SYNOPSIS

    Sékou, a young griot, guardian of memory, embarks on an initiatory road movie on the roads of the legendary Mandingo empire, in a West Africa shaken by modernity, in search of its common memory.

    Sékou Timité has one ambition: to follow in his late father's footsteps and become a "Djeli", a griot, guardian of the oral memory in West Africa. The only one of his siblings to take an interest in the obsolete art of the griot, he leaves his family behind and sets off to confront the modern world on the roads of the legendary Mandingo Empire. Despite his doubts and the many obstacles of a sometimes chaotic present, he crosses paths with the greatest griots of the region or with simple individuals in contact with daily life. His initiatory journey becomes a poetic portrait of a West Africa in turmoil, in search of its common memory.

     

    En savoir plus

    DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

    Sékou Timité comes from an old family of the "Djeli" caste, guardians of memory and customs in the ancient Mandingo Empire, which, in the 13th century, covered the current territories of Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast...

    In this globalised world ravaged by colonisation and its subsidies and confronted to perpetual ethnic conflicts, storytellers and their unifying role are neglected.

    Sékou, the only one in his family wanting to take up his parent’s torch, wants to rediscover the essence of the griot and adapt it to our world. He goes across countries to follow the griot's path and to get spiritually closer to this unknown father.

    The film takes the form of an eminently poetic initiatory road-movie in West Africa, carried by the ever imaginative words of the griots. This intimate film about Sékou opens up the possibility of a subtle and poetic portrait of shared memory and life in West Africa from the perspective of these storytellers.

    En savoir plus

    MAMOUNATA NIKIEMA - Pilumpiku Production (Burkina Faso)

    PRODUCTION

    Pilumpiku Production covers the fields of documentary and fiction film production, the organisation of writing and production training courses. Pilumpiku Production was created to support the film and audiovisual projects of Burkinabe and African screenwriters-directors. It has produced several documentary films, documentary series and fictions, most of them co-produced with foreign production companies.

    DOCUMENTARY/ COLOUR / DIGITAL

    SECOND FEATURE FILM
    Produced by

    Mamounata Nikiema - Pilumpiku Production (Burkina Faso)

    Language

    Malinke, Bambara, Dioula

    Shooting locations

    Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sénégal

    Estimated budget

    €610,000

    Funding in place

    €69,000

    Research partners

    Co-producers (France, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Belgium, Germany) , Distributors, international sales agents, broadcasters, international, regional, and national funding

    Actual status

    Advanced development, seeking funding

    Vidéopitch

    CONTACT

    DIRECTOR

    Boubacar Sangaré / elsaidfils6@yahoo.fr / + 33 7 55 82 96 78

    PRODUCER

    Mamounata Nikiéma / pilumpikuproduction@gmail.com / + 226 78701232 / + 33 7 84 33 13 44 (cell Cannes) https://www.facebook.com/pilumpikuproduction

    COPRODUCER

    Souleymane Kébé / Sunuy Films (Sénégal)

Official partners

And contribution of