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BRIFF 2021 Brussels Co-Production Forum

Successful outcome for the 5th Brussels Co-Production Forum

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- The industry section of the Brussels International Film Festival generated fruitful exchanges despite all the constraints linked to the date change and the pandemic

Successful outcome for the 5th Brussels Co-Production Forum
(© BRIFF/Claire Zombas)

The Brussels International Film Festival has just closed its doors and with it the Brussels Co-Production Forum. It is difficult to draw a conclusion after a few days, but the forum has raised real enthusiasm and fruitful exchanges between project owners and potential co-producers. 19 projects had been selected by the festival team (read the news) and the 21st vintage seemed particularly good.

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Several film projects attracted more attention than others. These were Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Leslie Menahem and produced by Ikki Films in France, Tres canciones (Three Songs) by Adrià Guxens, produced by Corte A Films in Spain, and above all the remarkable La furia (The Fury) and An Enemy.

An Enemy is set in Belgium and directed by Teresa Zofia Czepiec. The co-production with Belgian producers therefore makes sense. The Polish production company Pokromski Studio had clearly identified what it wanted from these meetings: locations for the shoot, a part of the cast and technical crew, and a Belgian co-producer to finance part of the estimated 2 million euros budget, with the intention of shooting the film in autumn 2022.

But undoubtedly the film project that attracted the most interest at the forum was the Spanish film La furia (The Fury) by director Gemma Blasco and produced by Ringo Media, based in Barcelona. For the young Spanish director, this is her first feature film project. It is interesting first of all because it is a very strong project with the theme of the rape of a young actress and her work of resilience to (re)build herself, a film with a resolutely modern and extremely symbolic feminist point of view and defended by a willing and convincing director/producer duo. The budget is estimated at 1 million euros, and shooting is scheduled for November 2022.

And it was this project that won the Music & Cinema prize, which is organised in collaboration with the Music & Cinema - International Film Festival in Marseille. This prize offers an automatic gateway without going through a selection committee to the market, which will allow a meeting between the director/producer duo and a composer next March to develop a working relationship based on the script and the project's musical note of intent. This direct selection has regularly produced concrete results in the past.

One of the most positive points of this year's forum was the workshop dedicated to pitching. Anna Ciennik, expert and Industry Village Manager at Les Arcs Film Festival, helped the less experienced producers to boost their pitch, and to really change the game in terms of interest for co-producers and sales agents.

And now, for the festival team, another work begins, another mission: to accompany on the long term, which isn’t a question of a permanent collaboration, but rather of a follow-up to know which regional or national financial aids have been attributed, in which phases of development the projects are, if the film has been shot, if it is selected in a festival...

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(Translated from French by Manuela Lazic)

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