First Berlinale Residency announces participants

Berlinale Residency, Berlin International Film Festival’s new international fellowship programme, is inviting six filmmakers with their latest projects to Berlin for four months, beginning in September 2012.

The selected participants can finalize their scripts, and develop production and distribution strategies at the Residency. Mentors will advise participants on developing and revising their scripts. In a “Script to Market” seminar with market experts, the producers and directors will explore the audience potential of their works.

The selected projects will be presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 10-12, 2013) and/or at the Guadalajara Ibero-American Co-production Meeting in March 2013.

Selected projects

Matías Bize, Chile: The Memory of Water

Screenwriters: Matías Bize and Julio Rojas

Producers: Adrian Solar, Ceneca Producciones, Chile, and Nicole Gerhards, NiKo Film, Germany

Born in 1979, this director and screenwriter first attracted international attention in 2003 with his feature film debut, Sábado, una película en tiempo real. In 2005 his drama En la cama, which went on to win several awards, celebrated its premiere at the film festival in Locarno.

Rebecca Daly, Ireland: Mammal

Screenwriters: Rebecca Daly and Glenn Montgomery

Producer: Macdara Kelleher, Fastnet Films, Ireland

Rebecca Daly was one of the finalists for the Berlin Today Award at the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2010. She presented her first full-length feature, The Other Side of Sleep, at the film festival in Cannes and many other international film festivals.

Samuel Maoz, Israel: As We Live

Screenwriter: Samuel Maoz

Producer: Michael Weber, Pola Pandora, Germany

Samuel Maoz first made a name for himself as a documentary filmmaker. In 2009 he won the Golden Lion in Venice, among numerous other awards, for Lebanon, his fictional feature debut.

Raya Martin, Philippines: New Spain

Screenwriters: Raya Martin and Norman Wilwayco

Producer: Arleen Cuevas, Cinematografica, Philippines

Born in 1984, this director and screenwriter has made several short and full-length films since 2004. His fictional feature Independencia received support from the World Cinema Fund in 2009 and has screened at a number of international festivals.

Rafi Pitts, Iran: Soy Negro

Screenwriters: Rafi Pitts and Razvan Radulescu

Producers: Thanassis Karathanos, Twenty Twenty Vision, Germany

This Iranian director and screenwriter has won many awards and been invited to participate in the Berlinale Competition twice. The first time he presented Zemestan/It’s Winter (2006); and more recently, Shekarchi/The Hunter (2010), which had received backing from the World Cinema Fund.

Sacha Polak, Netherlands: Luna

Screenwriter: Helena van der Meulen

Producer: Marleen Slot, Viking Film, Netherlands

Since 2006, this 29-year-old director has made several short films. In 2010, she participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus. In 2012, she presented her first feature-length drama, Hemel, in the Berlinale Forum and won the FIPRESCI Prize.

Posted by NewsDesk on Jun 12 2012. Filed under Features & Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.