26/06/2023 - The Rhenish Co-Production Meetings will unspool 27 – 29 June in Strasbourg, showcasing French- and German-language projects, both fiction films and documentaries

The crossroads of cross-border cooperation between Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg, the Alentours Forum – Rhenish Co-Production Meetings are set to kick off in Strasbourg tomorrow for a duration of three days, with 31 selected projects (20 works of fiction and 11 documentaries) set to be pitched during this 2023 edition (running 27-29 June).

New to this year’s event is the CinEuro Prize, which will be awarded to two co-production projects from a list of eight contenders (three documentaries and five fiction films), which notably includes Les danseurs de Strasbourg by French director Zoé Labasse.  Singled out as the Jury Film Crush at the 2023 Screenplay Awards, having also won 2022’s Emergence contest as well as the Grand Nord residency, the project is based on a screenplay penned by the director herself alongside Marie-Stéphane Imbert, which takes us back to July 1518. Hilde is trying to find a way to work as a female surgeon. When Strasbourg is gripped by a strange dance epidemic, the young woman finds in this chaos an unhoped-for opportunity to finally practice dissection… The project is in the final stages of development and in the early phase of funding.

Besides pitching sessions and One to One meetings, the Alentours Forum agenda also boasts a variety of round tables and workshops, including "co-producing today: An opportunity or a challenge?", "films to change the world: a focus on impact cinema", and "encouraging international co-productions through the Belgium-style tax shelter initiative".

Organised by the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg, the Grand Est region and Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg as part of the Interreg CinEuro project, in collaboration with the Creative Europe desks of neighbouring countries (Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Swiss Media desk), Arte Geie and the Ludwigsburg-Paris Workshop, the Alentours Forum has also recently offered up co-productions along the lines of Gutland [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Govinda Van Maele
film profile] by Govinda Von Maele, Chris The Swiss [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anja Kofmel
film profile] by Anja Kofmel, the animated movie Fritzi: A Revolutionary Tale [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Matthias Bruhn and Ralf Kukula, and the documentary Black Mambas [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Lena Karbe (which is set to screen in this year’s edition).

The selection:

Detroit, cité des dieux et des machines (France) (documentary film)
Director: Florent Tillon
Production: Lardux Films

Dino Doom (France/Hungary) (animated film)
Directors:  Zsuzsanna Kreif, Balazs
Production: Promenons-nous dans les bois, Boddah

Every Times it Rains (France) (fiction)
Screenplay: Jérémy Sahel, Vincent Poymiro, David Elkaïm
Production: Perpetual Soup

Femmetasia (Belgium/Morocco) (documentary film)
Director: Mouhssine El Badaou
Production: Playtime Films, Waq Waq Studios

Le voyage (France) (fiction)
Director: Léo Grandperret
Production: Nolita Cinema

Les Noctuelles (Switzerland) (fiction)
Director: Géraldine Rod
Production: Peacock Film

Lisa (France) (documentary film)
Director: Frederik Arens Grandin
Production: Petit à petit production

L'homme de la situation (France) (fiction)
Director: Ibtissem Guerda
Production: De L’autre Côté Du Périph’, Daï Daï Films

Personne n’a peur des gens qui sourient (Belgium/France) (fiction)
Director: Vanja d’Alcantara
Production: Iota Production, Le Bureau

Pierre de mémoire (France) (documentary film)
Director: Nora Schnitzle
Production: Sancho & Compagnie

Sang Épais, chez les derniers intouchables japonais (France) (documentary film)
Director: Jérôme Schmidt
Production: Walter Films

Blind Entertainment (Germany) (fiction)
Director: Naemi Ada Büchtemann
Production: Riva Filmproduktion

Chess in slums (Germany) (documentary film)
Director:  Jan Schmidt-Garre
Production: Pars Media

Ciao Svizzera (Germany) (documentary film)
Director: Tamara Erbe
Production: Carousel Film Ug.

Die Ewigen (Germany) (fiction series)
Screenplay: Beatrice Meier
Director: Tomasz Rudzik
Production: Lailaps Films

Grenzgebiet (Germany) (fiction)
Director: Anke Sevenich
Production: Fourmat Film

Jakob Wonders (Germany/Austria) (documentary series)
Director:  Mic Thiemann
Production: Qatsi.tv, Navigator Film Produktion

La légion – Patria Nostra (Germany) (fiction series)
Showrunner: Don Schubert, Marc Eisenchtete
Production: G5Fiction

S’Illuminent Les Eaux (Luxembourg) (animated film)
Director: Nicolas Blies, Stéphane Hueber-Blies
Production: A_Bahn

Pas Ta Maman (Germany) (fiction)
Director: Michèle Flury
Production: Sommerhaus Filmproduktion

Honolulu (Germany/France) (fiction)
Director: Jonas Bak
Production: Ama Film, Trance Films

Ski Shalom (Germany) (fiction)
Director: Viviane Andereggen
Production: Rat Pack Filmproduktion

The Late Alan Milbrandt (Switzerland/England) (fiction)
Director: Oliver Paulus
Production: Motorfilm, 104 Films

Projects in contention for the CinEuro Prize

Le dernier soin (France) (documentary film)
Director: Nicolas Gayraud
Production: La Vingt-cinquième Heure

Aux origines de l’Europe (Luxembourg/Belgium) (documentary film)
Director: Willy Perelsztejn
Production: Nowhere Land Productions, Les films de la mémoire

Le Haut feu (France) (documentary film)
Director: Alexandre Regeffe
Production: La Vingt-cinquième Heure

Motel (France/Germany) (fiction series)
Director: Wim Wenders
Production: La Belle Affaire Productions, Laïdak Films, Road Movies

Fagnes (Belgium) (fiction series)
Production: Les Gens

À main levée (Belgium/France) (fiction)
Production: Altitude 100, Offshore Production

Apatrides (Belgium) (fiction)
Writer: Michel Bellier
Production: Artémis Productions

Les danseurs de Strasbourg (France) (fiction)
Director:  Zoé Labasse
Production: Avenue B Productions, Kalpa Films

(Translated from French)