France’s Les Arcs Film Festival has unveiled the 18 European feature film projects due to be presented in the 14th edition of its Les Arcs Coproduction Village, running December 10 to 13 against the backdrop of the French Alps.
The meeting, aimed at connecting projects with co-producers, financiers, sales agents and distributors, received 311 submissions this year, 40% more than in 2021.
Hailing from 13 territories, seven of the projects are helmed by female filmmakers, and 11 by men, a proportion equal to the applications received for the Coproduction Village.
Nine of them are first features, six are second features and three are by more established filmmakers.
They include U.K. director Henry Blake’s The Golden Radiance Of A Beetle, his second feature after buzzy debut County Lines. The 1919-set drama follows an English woman who falls in love with a Chinese docker and then metamorphosizes into a beetle due to societal hatred.
Ukrainian director Oleh Sentsov will attend with Kai, a project inspired by his own difficult life experiences, which he began developing prior to his 2014-2019 detention by Russian authorities.
Austrian filmmaker Sandra Wollner, whose second feature The Trouble With Being Born won the Special Jury Prize in Berlin’s Encounters sidebar in 2020, will present her third feature Everytime, about the tangled relationship between the mother of a dead teenager and the girl’s first great love.
From Spain, Júlia De Paz Solvas will present Fed Up, which expands on her 2021 short of the same name, exploring domestic violence from a child’s point of view. De Paz Solvas’s debut feature Ama, a gritty drama about a homeless, young, single mother, won best film at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival in 2021.
All the projects will compete for the €6000 ($6,000) ArteKino International Award.
The Co-Production Village runs within the framework of the Les Arcs Industry Village.
The program which hosts some 550 cinema professionals every year will also feature panel discussions and three workshops with sustainability as a common thread.
It also encompasses the Music Village, connecting music and film professionals; the Talent Village, aimed at nurturing eight emerging filmmakers and the Works in Progress day, the selection for which has yet to be announced.
Parent event Les Arcs Film Festival runs December 10-17.
The 2022 Coproduction Village Project Selection (*indicates 1st film, ** 2nd film)
A Good Day Out (It)
Dir. Francesco Mattuzzi
Prods. Planck Films (Italy)
Amerika* (It)
Dir. Davide Maldi
Prod. Ring Film
Blueprints* (Fr)
Dir. Josza Anjembe
Prod. Yukunkun Productions
Boys Only* (Fr)
Dir. Prïncia Car
Prod. After Hours Production
Everytime (At)
Dir. Sandra Wollner
Prods. Panama Film KG (At), The Barricades (Ger)
Fed Up** (Sp)
Dir. Júlia De Paz Solvas
Prod. Mayo Films
Flood* ((Sk)
Dir. Martin Gonda
Prod. Silverart
The Golden Age* (Fr)
Dir. Bérenger Thouin
Prod. GoGoGo Films
The Golden Radiance of a beetle** (UK)
Dir. Henry Blake
Prods. Two Birds Entertainment, Bosena
Juliette** (Bel)
Dir. Vania Leturcq
Prod. Hélicotronc
Kai (Ukr)
Dir. Oleh Sentsov
Prod. by Arthouse Traffic
Motherhood (At-Ger-Switz)
Dir. Johanna Moder
Prod. FreibeuterFilm (At), Match Factory Productions (Ger), tellfilm (Switz)
Obsession* (Pl)
Dir. Tadeusz Łysiak
Prod. Film Produkcja
Primavera** (Mne)
Dir. Dušan Kasalica
Prod. Meander Film
Songs Of The Fallen Mountains* (Fr-Bel)
Dir. Manon Coubia
Prods. EL Films (Fr), The Blue Raincoat (Bel)
The Visitor*(Lt)
Dir. Vytautas Katkus
Prod. M-Films (Lithuania)
Volcano** (Nl)
Dir. Mees Peijnenburg
Prod. Juliet
Welwitschia** (Ger)
Dir. Faraz Shariat
Prod. Jünglinge Film
