22/09/2015 - Twenty projects from 13 countries will try their chances at the HFM Co-Production Platform, which kicks off on Thursday

The countdown has started to the Holland Film Meeting (HFM), which is hosting the 17th edition of the HFM Co-Production Platform between 24 and 26 September.

Featuring a total of 20 projects from 13 countries (click here to read about them), this year’s edition of the three-day event has been spurred on by the fact that in the last few months, a record number of projects that had previously been pitched there have made their way to international festivals or will soon get theatrical distribution. Among these success stories are the Berlin entry Eisenstein in Guanajuato [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Peter Greenaway
film profile] by Peter Greenaway, Liza, the Fox-Fairy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karoly Ujj Mészáros
film profile] by Károly Ujj Mészáros and Paradise Trips [+see also:
trailer
interview: Raf Reyntjens
film profile] by Raf Reyntjens; the latter was pitched in 2013, formed part of the Work-In-Progress sessions in 2014 and will have its international premiere during the 35th Netherlands Film Festival (NFF), which unspools in parallel with the HFM from 23 September to 2 October.

In addition, five former HFM Co-Production Platform projects have been nominated in various categories of the Golden Calves, the Dutch film industry’s most prestigious awards: Jan-Willem van Ewijk’s Atlantic [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan-Willem van Ewijk
film profile], Greenaway’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato, Simone van Dusseldorp’s According to Nino, Nicole van Kilsdonk’s In the Heart and Marinus Groothof’s The Sky Above Us [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The winners will be unveiled at the closing ceremony of the NFF (2 October).

Judging the potential of this year’s participants at the Co-Production Platform are Martina Bleis (official projects curator at the Berlinale’s Co-Production Market), Janneke de Jong (distributor – Cinéart Benelux), Konstantinos Kontovrakis (Greek producer) and Claudia Landsberger (senior partner of film consultancy company BaseWorx For Film).

The Work-In-Progress projects (read more) will be assessed by Yvonne Andreas (m-appeal), Bero Beyer (producer and new International Film Festival Rotterdam artistic director) and Pierre Menahem (Still Moving).

As previously announced, the HFM is hosting several events, including the “Be Dramatic!” forum, centring on European series, a Focus on neighbours Belgium and Germany, a master class with Richard Cook, and the traditional presentations of local and international projects.

It will be a frantic edition, chaired for the last time by Signe Zeilich-Jensen, who is stepping down from her position as head of the HFM after five years (read the interview).

Cineuropa is a partner of the 2015 Holland Film Meeting.