As part of the 18th Arras Film Festival, currently in full swing (see the news and read the interview), the sixth edition of the Arras Days is about to unveil eight projects at the writing stage, which will be pitched to a jury of three professionals (Géraldine Goldenstern, Émilie Voisin and Geoffroy Grison) on Saturday, and which will duke it out for two development aid grants (one worth €8,000, courtesy of the CNC, and the other worth €5,000, provided by the City of Arras). Furthermore, the Arras Days, which is also devised as a co-production and funding platform, will allow producers, distributors and sales agents interested in these projects to discover them for themselves at first hand.

Standing out among the projects vying for the grants is Icarus. The Story of Mietek Kosz by Polish director Maciej Pieprzyca (Life Feels Good [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Maciej Pieprzyca
intervista: Renata Czarnkowska-Listos …
scheda film]), which will be introduced by Pieprzyca’s producer. The story is based on the life of jazz pianist Mieczyslaw “Mietek” Kosz, who died in tragic circumstances after having lived a tumultuous life (he spent his childhood on a poverty-stricken farm and lost the power of sight at the age of 12, then his gift for music blossomed and his career started to take off while his personal life became very complicated; he was then reborn through love, among other highlights).

For her part, Slovenia’s Hanna Slak (The Miner [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hanna Slak
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Belgium’s Samuel Tilman (The Benefit of the Doubt [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Samuel Tilman
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German filmmaker Nick Baker-Monteys (The Man Who Jumped Cars, The Final Journey [+leggi anche:
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Georgia’s Mariam Khatchvani (Dede [+leggi anche:
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Russian director Boris Khlebnikov’s (Arrhythmia [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Boris Khlebnikov
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Czech filmmaker Petr Vaclav (Marian, The Way Out [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Petr Václav
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intervista: Petr Vaclav
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Last but not least, My Dad Is a Sausage, the feature-debut project by Belgium’s Anouk Fortunier, will be presented by producer Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem (who has films such as Zagros [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Sahim Omar Kalifa
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