Searching for Co-Production Partners: 39 New Film Projects at the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2012

At the ninth Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 12 to 14, 2012), the producers and directors of 39 selected film projects from 30 countries will meet with 450 potential co-production and financing partners. For each of these projects, the Berlinale Co-Production Market team will arrange approximately 25 meetings with interested partners. This means carefully scheduling more than 1000 meetings in two days according to the individual wishes of the participants and the priorities of the projects.

The official selection of projects for the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2012 includes 25 exciting new feature film projects (chosen out of 311 entries). They will be presented by their producers, who have international experience and at least 30% of their financing already in place. The projects all have budgets between one and seven million euros.

Three more projects have been selected in cooperation with the CineMart Rotterdam for the “Rotterdam-Berlinale Express”. These projects will participate in both the CineMart as well as the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

A large number of the projects selected for 2012 are by directors who have presented films in the past at the Berlinale: Gustavo Taretto (Medianeras, Panorama), Giulio Manfredonia (Qualunquemente/Whatsoeverly, Panorama) and Marcela Said (El Mocito, Forum) all screened their last films at the Berlinale 2011. Also Taika Waititi, Hans Petter Moland, Alexei Popogrebsky, Petri Kotwica, Ruben Östlund, Ineke Houtman, Tudor Giurgiu and Chico Teixeira are well known for their earlier works shown at the Festival. Awaited with great suspense as well are new projects by “WCF director” Ciro Guerra (The Wind Journeys); a directorial debut by Stéphanie Weber Biron, known for her camera work on Xavier Dolan’s films; and the first Indian project in the official selection, Bobby Bedi’s Kutch.

“Comedies and art-house films are not a contradiction for us this year,” comments Sonja Heinen, head of the Berlinale Co-Production Market: “Among the entries, we had a particularly large amount of humorous projects, among which were some truly great comedies that are going to have audiences leaving cinemas in good spirits or even laughing. These films have huge audience potential and so we expect them to be especially interesting for many financiers.”

Another 247 applications were entered in conjunction with the Berlinale Talent Campus and eleven of these exciting newcomer projects have been chosen for the “Talent Project Market”. This section of the Co-Production Market is especially attractive for those producers who want to get involved in projects at an early stage.

New this year for the Berlinale Co-Production Market is the cooperation with the online platform Festival Scope, which allows participants and other potentially interested partners to prepare for their meetings in Berlin by watching previous films by the selected directors online.

A few exciting films that were looking for partners at the Berlinale Co-Production Market in the past are returning this year – just completed, they are celebrating their premieres at the Berlinale: Barnaby Southcombe’s I, Anna, starring Charlotte Rampling and Gabriel Byrne, will screen in the Berlinale Special; and Olivia Silver’s Arcadia has been selected for Generation Kplus. Additional films are eagerly awaited.

Over the years, out of the projects selected for the Berlinale Co-Production Market, more than 120 films have already been realised. At 40%, the success rate of these co-production meetings is exceptionally high.

The programme of the Berlinale Co-Production Market will also feature further networking opportunities, as well as an up–to-date series of events concentrating on the latest information and trends in film financing and international co-productions.

The main partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market are MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market.
The Berlin House of Representatives – situated directly across from the European Film Market in the Martin-Gropius-Bau – will again be the Co-Production Market’s cooperation partner and venue.


The official section for the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2012
(listed alphabetically by production company):

- Odyssea (director: Pascal Deux), Alliance de Production Cinématographique, France

- Heirs of the Night (director: Marco Kreuzpaintner, tbc), Bavaria Pictures & Hamster Film, Germany

- The Santo Amaro Circus (director: Chico Teixeira), Bossa Nova Films, Brazil

- Wasteland (director: Pieter Van Hees), CCCP/Epidemic, Belgium

- Embrace of the Serpent (director: Ciro Guerra), Ciudad Lunar Producciones, Colombia

- Coiled (director: Amanda Evans), DO Productions, South Africa

- Rockpool (director: Sonia Whiteman), Dragonet Films, Australia

- Ten Dates with Mad Mary (director: Darren Thornton), Element Pictures, Ireland

- Thomas and the Book of Everything (director: Ineke Houtman), Eyeworks Film & TV Drama, Netherlands

- Fleeing Dreams (director: Petri Kotwica), First Floor Productions, Finland

- The Pope's Toilet (director: Kasia Adamik), Flying Moon Filmproduktion, Germany & Opus Film, Poland

- The Beacon (director: JP Siili), Helsinki Filmi, Finland

- The Summer of Flying Fish (director: Marcela Said), Jirafa, Chile

- Kutch (director: Bobby Bedi), Kaleidoscope Entertainment, India

- L'Hérétique (director: Didier Nion), Les Films d'Ici, France

- Cristian (director: Tudor Giurgiu), Libra Film, Romania

- Mother Earth (director: Giulio Manfredonia), Lumière&Co, Italy

- Doctor Proktor's Fartpowder (director: Arild Fröhlich), Maipo Film, Norway

- The Bible II (director: Hans Petter Moland), Monster Film, Norway

- Julia Here (director: Sonya Gildea), Newgrange Pictures, Ireland

- The Word (director: Anna Kazejak), Opus Film, Poland

- Sunstrokes (director: Gustavo Taretto), Rizoma, Argentina

- Naked Eyes (director: Maria Nygren), Sonet Film, Sweden

- Pope (director: Stéphanie Weber Biron), Submission Films & straightedge films, Canada

- Coconut Hero (director: Florian Cossen), teamWorx Television & Film, Germany


Rotterdam-Berlinale Express:

- Lost Rooms (director: Alexei Popogrebsky), Koktebel Film Company, Russia

- Tourist (director: Ruben Östlund), Plattform Produktion, Sweden & Essential Film, Germany

- Jojo Rabbit (director: Taika Waititi), Unison Films, USA & Defender Films, New Zealand


Talent Project Market (listed alphabetically by talent):

- Khsara (director: Suha Araj), Palestine/USA

- Heat Wave (producer: Sebastien Aubert), France/Israel

- Above the Clouds / Alapaap (producer: Bianca Balbuena), Philippines

- The Lunchbox / Dabba (director: Ritesh Batra), India

- Bummer (producer: Michelle Eastwood), United Kingdom

- Bridging (director: Sarah Goodman), Canada

- Hot Comb (director: Caroline Kamya), Uganda

- The Maglev Story (producer: Melissa Lee), Hong Kong

- Wasted Dreams / Eisen im Feuer (producer: Maximilian Leo), Germany

- Elba (director: Arturo Menéndez), El Salvador

- The Boda Boda Thieves (producer: Sarah Muhoho), South Africa/Kenia