FIRST CUT+ AWARDS COMPETITION
Among the 8 selected projects, the winners of our three awards were announced on August 16th, during KVIFF Eastern Promises Awards Ceremony.
FIRST CUT+ AWARD WINNER
Three companies have joined forces again to offer the First Cut+ Award to one of the 8 selected projects, consisting in various promotional services:
The First Cut+ Award, consisting in various promotional services went to:
The Hatcher
by Grzegorz Mołda
L’Avventura Studio offers an extended digital marketing expertise for an international festival launch, with a set of concepts for the creation of social media contents and teasers.
WOLF Consultants (Laurin Dietrich & Michael Arnon) offers a consultation on how to translate the positioning of the finished film for the international press book, with a special focus on key texts including logline, synopsis, director’s note and interview.
Tiramisu offers consultancy on trailer and poster.
SUB-TI AWARD WINNER
In continuity with last editions in Trieste, the partnership with Sub-Ti is renewed with the Sub-Ti Award for Subtitling Services.
The Hatcher
by Grzegorz Mołda
*NEW* – TRT AWARD WINNER
TRT is giving this Award to the project that shows the most unique artistic approach to the story it is telling and the large international potential.
The value of the award is 5.000 euros.
A Piece of Sky
by Michael Koch
8 PROJECTS WERE IN COMPETITION
These 8 projects received consultations from our mentors, experts in cinema marketing & promotion or festival launches. They are now ready to be discovered, and were in the short list for our First Cut+ Awards competition!
A Hope
TURKEY / GERMANY / SLOVENIA
Director: Ümit Köreken
Producer: Nursen Çetin Köreken – Drama Yapım Film Medya
Coproduction: Lightburst Pictures (Germany), Perfo.d.o.o (Slovenia)
Umut, an actor, lives with his wife Asiye, a director at theatre. His mother, he hasn’t seen in 20-years, suddenly shows up in city for treatment. While Umut tries to keep his troubled past hidden from Asiye, he soon learns Asiye has been keeping an even bigger secret from him.
A Piece of Sky
SWITZERLAND / GERMANY
Director: Michael Koch
Producer: Christof Neracher – hugofilm features
Coproduction: Pandora Filmproduktion (Germany)
In a remote mountain village Anna tries to preserve her still young love with Marco against all odds. A love that in the end even outshines death.
Have you Seen This Woman? (ex- Metamorphoses)
SERBIA / CROATIA
Director: Dušan Zorić & Matija Gluščević
Producer: Čarna Vučinić – Non-Aligned Films
In the heat of the summer days, through three different life possibilities, a middle-aged woman tries to get out of her skin.
Narcosis
NETHERLANDS
Director: Martijn de Jong
Producer: Trent – OAK Motion Pictures
When their beloved husband and father disappears, his wife (Thekla Reuten), who can communicate with the spirit world, and her two children each cope with loss in their own peculiar way.
Power
SLOVAKIA / HUNGARY / CZECH REPUBLIC
Director: Mátyás Prikler
Producer: Zora Jaurová & Mátyás Prikler – MPhilms
Coproduction: Proton Cinema (Hungary), Radio and Television Slovakia & Negativ (Czech Republic)
A politician has to solve the global water crisis. Secret agent tries to solve his own life. The mortal accident on a hunt forces them both to ask the same old question: What is truth?
The Hatcher
POLAND
Director: Grzegorz Mołda
Producer: Izabela Igel – Harine Films
Coproduction: TVP SA & Polish Film Institute (Poland)
Karol lives alone in an apartment. Tracked by an ankle bracelet, Karol cannot leave and has no contact with the outside world. A woman, Marta, arrives every day help him re-adjust to normal life. But as the relationship between them deepens, Marta’s lessons grow increasingly unconventional.
Upurga
LATVIA
Director: Uģis Olte
Producer: Uldis Cekulis – VFS FILMS
Coproduction: Raitis Ābele (Latvia)
A young rafting instructor takes a film crew to shoot a commercial in the river valley, but things take a wild turn when all his clients suddenly disappear. Now, he has to delve into the forest, fighting inner demons and exterior forces, to find the missing people — and himself.
Valeria gets married
ISRAEL / UKRAINE
Director: Michal Vinik
Producer: Ayelet Kait & Amir Harel – LAMA FILMS
Coproduction: Vladimir Yatsenko – ForeFilms (Ukraine)
A young woman comes to Israel from Ukraine to get married with someone she met on the internet.
JURY
The Jury will be composed by First Cut+ advisors (Boris Pugnet, Alexis Hamaide, Laurin Dietrich & Michael Arnon), Federico Spoletti from Sub-Ti and Esra Demirkiran from TRT.
MENTORS
Michael Arnon
Born and raised in San Francisco, CA, Michael studied political science, French literature, media and culture in Berkeley and Paris. Michael worked for Paris based sales agents Celluloid Dreams, Le Pacte and Coproduction Office before partnering with Gordon Spragg and Laurin Dietrich at WOLF. Launched in early 2010, WOLF is a Berlin based boutique PR and Marketing firm specialised in helping filmmakers effectively communicate and achieve their vision. WOLF’s approach encompasses the entire production cycle: from overcoming initial obstacles to getting a new project noticed to preparing completed films for launch at major international film festivals.
Laurin Dietrich
Laurin Dietrich studied Cultural Anthropology, Literature and Communication in Berlin and Paris and worked for Paris based International Sales Agent Celluloid Dreams in Sales and Acquisitions before partnering with Gordon Spragg and Michael Arnon at WOLF. Launched in early 2010, WOLF is a Berlin based boutique PR and Marketing firm specialised in helping filmmakers effectively communicate and achieve their vision. WOLF’s approach encompasses the entire production cycle: from overcoming initial obstacles to getting a new project noticed to preparing completed films for launch at major international film festivals.
Catalin Cristuțiu
Born in Bucharest, in 1979, Catalin Cristuțiu has been working as an editor on some of the most appreciated films in Romanian Cinema. He has a long time collaboration with director Radu Jude, starting with Radu’s first widely acclaimed THE TUBE WITH A HAT and continuing for all his later projects to date, including AFERIM! (2015 Silver Bear for Best Direction in Berlinale). Among his many credits: IF I WANT TO WHISTLE, I WHISTLE (directed by Florin Serban, awarded at Berlinale 2009 with The Alfred Bauer Prize and Jury Grand Prix), SOMEWHERE IN PALILULA (by Silviu Purcarete), the animated documentary CRULIC – THE PATH TO BEYOND (by Anca Damian, awarded in Locarno, CPH:DOX, Annecy and Jihlava IFF), the documentaries APOCALYPSE ON WHEELS and COLD WAVES (both by Alexandru Solomon) and SOLDIERS. STORY FROM FERENTARI (by Ivana Mladenovic, world premiere at TIFF 2017).
Ilaria Gomarasca
Ilaria is head of First Cut+, supported by Creative Europe’s MEDIA, specializing on promotion of feature films in post-production. Following a Master’s degree specialized in Cinema, Literature and Arts in Milan, Ilaria began her career at the Louvre museum. In 2009 she became Festivals manager for WIDE and later Head of the Festivals department in 2011. Ilaria joined Pyramide International as Festivals and Markets manager in 2013. For seven years, Ilaria was in charge of strategy for Pyramide’s Festivals division and managed the launch campaigns for new films on the international festival circuit. Since 2017 she is consultant for “De Rome à Paris,” an Italian film festival held in Paris, as both a part of the selection committee and the chief organizer of the marketplace.
Alexis Hamaide
Alexis Hamaide worked as Marketing Manager for the Paris-based international sales agency Playtime (ex-Films Distribution) between 2012 and 2019. He supervised the international marketing strategies for A-list festival films such as François Ozon’s “By the Grace of God”, “120 BPM” (Robin Campillo) and “Son of Saul” (Laszlo Nemes) among others. In October 2019, Alexis teamed up with Viviana Andriani and Gabriele De Bortoli to set up L’Avventura Studio, a digital creative agency specialized in arthouse films. Alexis holds a Master’s degree in Cultural Management from Paris-Dauphine (2018), a Story Development certificate from UCLA and a Master of Arts in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths (London).
Ioanna Stais
After working in the coordination of the Festival de Cannes accreditation department for two consecutive years, Ioanna moved to Wide international sales ending up as coordinator of the Eye on Films label, dedicated to the promotion and distribution of debut feature films. She then joined forces with the Greek production company Heretic in 2014 to launch Heretic Outreach, the first international sales agent based in Southeastern Europe designed to encourage innovative films and talented filmmakers to reach out to the rest of the world. As manager of Heretic Outreach, she has internationally represented award-winning films such as Take Me Somewhere Nice by Ena Sendijarevic, Holiday by Isabella Eklöf, The Reports on Sarah and Saleem by Muayad Alayan, and Meteors by Gürcan Keltek.
Boris Pugnet
When I was a student I ran a small art house cinema near Paris for Village Roadshow, and then started to work in a multiplex for Pathé. After that I worked for an independent distribution company as head of theatrical sales, then for 3 years in the marketing department of SND (Twilight, The hurt locker etc). I worked 5 years as the head of marketing of Le pacte, an independent distributor (Moretti, Kore Eda, Jarmusch etc). And since 2017 I work as a marketing consultant and trailer editor for both independent and major companies, such as Art-House, Condor, Rouge Distribution, Fox, Pathé etc. I also run masterclasses and marketing workshops for Esis, Ina, Femis, Eave (Luxemburg), CEEA Trebon animation film festival (Czech Republic), and the Namur international film festival (Belgium).
PARTNERS
MEDIA
Fred Film Radio is the Media Partner of the First Cut+ sessions.
FUNDERS
Partners:
