Editor

• View
• Edit

The first edition of Gotham in Progress (GiP) took place on the 17-19 Nov during the second edition of the American Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland.

GiP was the first European industry meeting focused entirely on independent American films. GiP was an initiative of the New York and Paris-based Black Rabbit Films and the New Horizons Association, the organizer of the American Film Festival. The event was supported by the City of Wrocław and the Polish Film Institute.

During the event, 11 projects in final production stages were shown to a group of 40 European and 40 Polish distributors, sales agents, producers and festival programmers. Among them were Wild Bunch (France), Artificial Eye (UK), Trust Nordisk (Denmark), HanWay Films (UK), Memento (France), The Works (UK), East West Filmdistribution (Austria), Wide Management (France) and Reel Suspects (France). Also, programmers from Cannes and Berlinale and representatives of the  key media outlets came to Wrocław for the event. Polish participants included: Alvernia Studios, Opus Film, Gutek Film, Platige Image, Polsat and Monternia.pl.

A jury of industry professionals including Sydney Levine (Sydneysbuzz blog on Indie Wire), Alexandre Weiser (XDC), Jakub Duszyński (Gutek Film) and Mateusz Moczulski (Alvernia Studios) gave the main prize (post-production services donated by XDC, Studio L'Equipe and Mactari) to  NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING by Devyn Waitt (produced by Nicole Emanuele, White Horse Pictures), and a special mention to NOW, FORAGER by Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin (produced by Jason Cortlund, Now Forager) - the latter film will receive the opening and end credits from the Krakow-based Alvernia Studios. A special award of full DI offered by the Warsaw-based company Monternia.pl was given to the film STONES IN THE SUN by Patricia Benoit (produced by Karin Chien, Lotbo Films).

The participants were impressed with the organization of the event and the quality of films presented. Cate Kane of Artificial Eye said it was a great way to see films which might have otherwise slipped under the festival radar and Silje Glimsdal of Trust Nordisk said she truly hoped GiP could develop into a bigger event in the future. Deals between the filmmakers and participating buyers and festivals and still in negotiation. The organizers and filmmakers are also awaiting the selection results of the key US and European festivals. New Horizons Association will inform about further developments.

Please, note that the event will change its name in 2012 due to problems with the Gotham brand. New name will be announced in early 2012.