First Cut+ is a program created for boosting the promotion & audience engagement strategies of European feature films.
The program was launched in 2020 through a close cooperation with two dynamic & well-established film industry platforms: Trieste’s When East Meets West and Karlovy Vary IFF’s Eastern Promises Industry Days.
First Cut+ consists in the promotion of a portfolio of 16 fiction feature films per year, at the stage of post-production, predominantly from countries with a
low production capacity (at least 75% of the films) and with a focus on Central & Eastern Europe. The range of films is large: from both debut & experienced directors, small and larger budgets.
Participating projects benefit from several days of online consultations on promotion, marketing, press, festival launch, sales strategy from various film industry consultants, followed by a Works-in-progress session open to selected decision makers (as major festivals’ programmers, buyers, international sales agents etc).
8 SELECTED PROJECTS
For its 2022 winter session, First Cut+ selected the following eight promising projects:
A Love Story
BELGIUM
Director: Mathieu Volpe
Producer: Arnaud Dufeys
Company: Replica Films
At the dawn of his 25th birthday, Sokuro, the son of Burkinabe immigrants living in Italy, marries Nassira, a young girl from his native village. For him, the marriage is the first step to a future and definitive return to Burkina Faso, but for his new wife, the wedding is a gateway to European El Dorado.
Camper
POLAND
Directors: Łukasz Suchocki & Maciej Dydyński
Producers: Łukasz Suchocki & Maciej Dydyński
Company: Splotfilm
Robert and Klaudia are a young Polish couple stuck in a rut, wondering what to do with their careers and if they should split up. When her old friend Filip shows up with the artist Wera, who is traveling across Europe in a campervan, it just might be the spark they all need to find out where they really want to go in life. (or it might be a journey that helps them all find their place in the world.) On a spontaneous road trip across Europe, four young friends re-evaluate their lives, loves and future plans.
Fucking Bornholm
POLAND
Director: Anna Kazejak
Producer: Marta Lewandowska
Company: Friends With Benefits Studio
Maja and Hubert – a couple in their 40s – go on holiday to escape from a rush of everyday life. An incident between the children, which takes place the first night of their vacation, results in
losing the control of not only a carefully planned trip, but also their relationship and lives.
Lucky Girl
UKRAINE
Director: Marysia Nikitiuk
Producers : Yanina Sokolova and Julia Sinkevych
Company : Yanina Sokolova Production
Nina is a successful TV journalist, she has everything she wants – fame, success, family. But is it enough to save her when she is suddenly diagnosed with cancer. Nina will have to reinvent her desire to live.
Mammalia
ROMANIA
Director: Sebastian Mihăilescu
Producers: Diana Păroiu & Ada Solomon
Company: microFILM
Coproducers: Ewa Puszczyńska (Extreme Emotions, Poland), Nina Frese (Pandora Film, Germany)
A man goes searching for manhood.
Men of Deeds
ROMANIA
Director: Paul Negoescu
Producer: Anamaria Antoci
Company: Tangaj Production
A village policeman in his late thirties tries to build a comfortable life for himself, but his passivity during a series of violent events makes him an accomplice to murder. Tension accumulates in the village, pressuring Ilie to make a drastic decision.
Summer to come
HUNGARY
Director: György Mór Kárpáti
Producer: Viktória Petrányi
Company: Proton Cinema
Co-producer: Café Film
Two boys and a girl in a high school summer camp – a year later, following the suicide of one of the boys, the remaining two return to the same place.
White Plastic Sky
HUNGARY / SLOVAKIA
Directors: Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó
Producers: József Fülöp and Orsolya Sipos
Company: SALTO Films
Country: Hungary
Producer: Juraj Krasnohorsky
Company: Artichoke
Co-producer: Viktória Petrányi (Proton Cinema)
In a not-too-distant future where all plants and animals are extinct and the price of human life is high, a young man tries to save his wife by rebelling against everything that allows the remaining society to survive.
ADVISORS
Advisors for the Winter session 2022 will be:
Boris Pugnet
As Marketing Specialist.
Formerly in charge of the marketing campaigns of Nanni Moretti, Hirokazu Kore Eda and Jim Jarmusch’s films for the independent French distributor Le Pacte, now Boris works as a marketing consultant and trailer editor for both independent and major companies.
Joanna Solecka
As Digital marketing specialist.
Film marketing and audience design strategist, Joanna Solecka is the Head of film marketing agency Alphapanda’s Polish branch, covering the Eastern European market.
Wendy Mitchell
As Press specialists.
Wendy Mitchell is a journalist, moderator and film festival
consultant. She is a contributing editor at Screen International, the UK and Nordic delegate for San Sebastian and a consultant for the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Zurich Film Festival. She has also been a speaker, mentor or consultant for Berlinale EFM, Cannes Marche, EAVE, First Cut Lab, The National Film and TV School and more.
Ioanna Stais
Senior executive at Heretic, the first international sales agent based in South-eastern Europe with titles like 2021 Golden Bear winner BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN by Radu Jude, Take Me Somewhere Nice by Ena Sendijarevic, Holiday by Isabella Eklöf and The Reports on Sarah and Saleem by Muayad Alayan) will be in charge of International Sales Strategy.
Ilaria Gomarasca
Former Pyramide International’s Festivals Manager, Ilaria Gomarasca handled the launch in the International Festivals’ circuit of award-winning films such as the Golden Globe winner Leviathan by Andrey Zvyagintsev, The Pearl Button by Patricio Guzman (Silver Bear at 2015 Berlinale) and three Golden Camera winners will be in charge of Festivals’ strategy.
Catalin Cristuțiu
The Romanian editor Catalin Cristuțiu, who worked on some of the most appreciated films in Romanian Cinema (directed by, among others, Radu Jude, Florin Serban, Silviu Purcarete, Anca Damian) will be advising about what excerpts to choose for the best launching of the film.
CO-ORGANIZERS
Partners:
