At the second Berlinale Co-Production Market on February 13 and 14, 2005, a total of 31 projects from 22 countries will be presented to interested co-producers and financiers.

 

This year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market has a new venue: the Berlin House of Representatives (the Preußischer Landtag/Prussian Parliament). It is located opposite the Martin Gropius Bau, where the European Film Market will take place beginning in 2006.

 

The main partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2005 - MDM (Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH, Leipzig) and MEDIA Promotion/European Commission - have been joined this year by the Berlin House of Representatives.

 

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is a meeting place for producers and financiers who are involved in international feature co-productions. It is an ideal platform for them to find what they are looking for: high quality international projects, good business contacts and innovative ideas for collaborations.

 

Out of nearly 230 submissions, 24 projects have been selected with budgets between two and ten million euros, of which at least 30 percent had to be already in place. “We’ve chosen exciting topics from around the globe and, from a cinematic perspective, interesting projects of all genres - from historical thrillers to fantasy. At the moment, coming-of-age stories seem to be particularly in vogue”, says Sonja Moerkens, head of the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

 

Three projects have also been selected for the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express that firmly established partnership with CineMart Rotterdam. With it, the two festivals want to underscore the importance of collaborating internationally to support promising art house projects.

 

The World Cinema Market section is new this year. Here four intriguing international projects will be presented - in conjunction with the World Cinema Fund which the Berlinale set up last autumn.

 

The Talent Project Market, one of the highlights of the first Berlinale Co-Production Market, again promises to be a vital component of the programme. Some 20 up-and-coming talents from the Berlinale Talent Campus will be given a chance to present their material to international producers and financiers.

 

The Berlinale Co-Production Market’s team will bring the producers of the chosen projects into contact with potential co-producers and financiers at individual prearranged meetings on February 13 and 14, 2005. Case studies on the financing and marketing of current Berlinale films will round off the programme. Within the framework of the collaboration between the Berlinale and the Frankfurt Book Fair, special attention will also be devoted to the topic of marketing films adapted from literary works.

 

A number of projects from last year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market have succeeded in making their way into this year’s Berlinale Competition. Other projects, like An Enemy Of The People (Erik Skjoldbjaerg), The Master (Piotr Trzaskalski), Unkenrufe (Robert Glinski), Short Order (Anthony Byrne) and Hidden (Antonio Hernández), are now in post-production or have already been completed.

 

 

The projects officially selected by the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2005 (alphabetized by production company) are:

 

- Carmo (Murilo Pasta), Aquafilms/ BR-3 Films UK, Argentina/ Great Britain

- The Host (Norberto López), BocaBoca Producciones, Spain

- The Velvet Road (Cathal Black), Cathal Black Films/ David P. Kelly Productions, Ireland/

Great Britain

- Prima Primavera (Janos Edelenyi), Cinema-Film/ Ipso Facto, Hungary/ Great Britain

- Krabat (Hans-Christian Schmid), Claussen+Wöbke Filmproduktion GmbH, Germany

- Mongol. The Early Years of Genghis Khan (Sergei Bodrov), CTB Film Company, Andreevsky Flag Film Company, Russia

- Three Seasons in Hell (Tomas Masin), Dawson Productions, Czech Republic

- Victor Chicken (Dean Blumberg), DV8 Films, South Africa

- My Clara (Alan Lazar), EuroArts Medien/ My Clara LLC, Germany/ USA

- Fairy Ring (Benedek Fliegauf), Inforg Studio, Hungary

- My Queen Karo (Dorothée van den Bergh), K2, Belgium

- The Cold Virgin (Raphael Vion), Les Films Du Safran, France

- Time On Two Legs (Jean Bojko), Link’s Productions, France

- The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar (Kasper Barfoed), M & M Productions, Denmark

- The Trouble With Sheldon (James Brett), MakeFilm, Great Britain

- What it Takes to Keep a Young Girl Alive (Chris Austin), Maverick Productions, South Africa

- The Climber’s Book (Leidulf Risan), Nordisk Film Norway, Norway

- Don't Cry For Me Europe (Andrej Kosak), Novi Val - NEW WAVE D.O.O., Slovenia

- Chasing the Stars (Nicholas Kendall), Orca Productions, Canada

- Then Again (Kelly Makin), Sienna Films, Canada

- The Balance of the Souls (Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani), Sintra, Italy

- Shiver (Christina Andreef), Toi-Toi Films, Australia

- The Education of a Fairy (José Luis Cuerda), Tornasol Films, Spain

- The Great Match (Gerardo Olivares), Wanda Films, Spain

 

Rotterdam-Berlinale Express:

- Hand of the Headless Man (Guillaume Malandrin), La Parti Production, Belgium

- The Miracle of Montlhery (Rana’an Alexandrowicz), Lama Films, Israel

- White Male Heart (David Mackenzie), Hepp Film/ Brocken Spectre, Sweden/ Great Britain

 

World Cinema Market:

- Waiting For an Angel (Newton I. Aduaka), Amka Films Productions/ Newton I. Aduaka, Switzerland/ Nigeria

- A Perfect Day (Khalil Joreige, Joana Hadjithomas), Mille et une Productions/ Khalil Joreige, Joana Hadjithomas, France/ Lebanon

- Barca! (Tariq Teguia), Neffa Films, Algeria

- El Otro (Ariel Rotter), Selavy Filmproduktion/ Movimento Production/ Ariel Rotter, Germany/ France/ Argentina

 

Press Office

January 17, 2005