12/12/2022 - We caught up with the producer of Irene Moray’s new project, which won the Eurimages Co-production Development Award at the TorinoFilmLab

“In a world where women are disappearing, Flora will do everything in her power to save her friend.” This is the plot of the project Sealskin by Spanish writer-director Irene Moray, which took part in the ScriptLab of the 2022 TorinoFilmLab and received the Eurimages Co-production Development Award, worth €20,000 (see the news). The Eurimages jury was made up of Maialen Beloki Berasategui, deputy manager of the San Sebastián Film Festival (Spain); Erik Hemmendorff, producer at Plattform Produktion AB (Sweden); and Els Hendrix, responsible for international and European film policy at the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media - BKM (Germany).

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To discuss the prize and the future of the project, Cineuropa got in touch with the producer of the film, Marta Cruañas Compés, of Vilaüt Films, a Barcelona-based outfit that has risen to international fame following the Golden Bear that Carla Simón’s Alcarràs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Giovanni Pompili
film profile] won at the 2022 Berlinale.

Cineuropa: The Eurimages Co-production Development Award will certainly give Irene Moray's project a boost.
Marta Cruañas Compés: We are thrilled and honoured to have received the Eurimages prize. We are aiming to set up an international co-production, and the prize will definitely be helpful when it comes to looking for partners. Moreover, seeing that the project has had such a positive reception by an international board of jurors is a strong emotional push.

Your total projected budget is €2 million. What is the current status of the project?
Its current status is in development, with principal photography due to begin in 2024.

Can you tell us something more about the project?
Sealskin is like a once-upon-a-time-style fable that talks about the invisible violence that women (as well as men) are exposed to. It opens a door to a safe space where people can reclaim their agency.

Vilaüt Films is a very young company that had a big breakthrough co-producing Alcarràs by Carla Simón. What is Vilaüt's philosophy, in a nutshell?
Vilaüt Films is Lastor Media’s sister company, and we share the same team, mostly. In that sense, Vilaüt benefits from the experience of Lastor Media, which has launched the careers of Spanish filmmakers such as Carlos Marques Marcet, Clara Roquet and Elena Martín. Our main focus is to discover new voices and build a strong and long-lasting creative relationship with them, producing not only their first features, but also the subsequent ones.

What are the company's next projects?
We are currently in post with Creatura, Elena Martín’s second feature [see the news], co-written by her and Clara Roquet, with whom we also worked on Libertad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Clara Roquet
film profile]. Additionally, we are also at a late stage of development with Lucía Aleñar’s feature version of the short film that premiered in the Cannes Critics’ Week, Forastera, as well as developing Carla Cedó’s first feature, Mare de Sucre.