03/04/2025 - Among the selected works are the upcoming projects by Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, Dovilė Šarutytė, Saulius Baradinskas, and Irma Pužauskaitė

Directors Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, who have received support for Krištolo sala (© Ieva Jura)

The Lithuanian Film Centre has announced the recipients of state funding from its Q4 2024 competition for fiction and documentary film pre-production and production. A total of 55 film projects have been awarded financial support amounting to €4,655,460. This includes 24 fiction features granted €3,346,460, 18 documentary projects receiving €833,000, and 13 animated films securing a combined total of €476,000. The competition attracted 135 applications, with 122 projects advancing to the stage of being evaluated by expert committees following an administrative review. Some of the winning projects will also receive additional funds in 2026-2027, totalling €2,365,000.​

Among the feature films specifically receiving production grants, seven are fiction, six are documentaries and one is animated. The highest amount of support was awarded to Krištolo sala, the latest project by Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, known for their most recent work, Vesper [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kristina Buožytė and Bruno …
film profile]. The film has received a total of €1.1 million from this and an additional session, and is being produced by Natrix Natrix.​

Furthermore, Dovilė Šarutytė, who debuted with Feature Film About Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dovile Sarutyte
film profile] at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in 2021, is receiving €670,000 for her sophomore film, Šeimininkai, produced by Studio Uljana Kim. Additionally, Concrete Music, a musical directed by Saulius Baradinskas and produced by Viktorija Films, received a total of €540,000 across both sessions. This project had previously been rewarded in the When East Meets West (WEMW) co-production forum two years ago.

Other supported projects include Hold Me Closer by Irma Pužauskaitė (known for her debut, The 9th Step [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Irma Pužauskaitė
film profile]), which is being produced by Smart Casual. Having now received €525,000 in both sessions, the project was also presented last month at Meeting Point Vilnius (see the report).

Renowned filmmaker Šarūnas Bartas also secured support with his new feature, Kažkur pasaulyje, produced by Studija Kinema, receiving €550,000. The debut fiction feature Spring, directed by Rostislav Kirpičenko and produced by Film Jam, was granted €400,000 (see the news). Another newcomer, Kamilė Milašiūtė, was supported with €420,000 for Family Feeling, which was featured in the connecting cottbus selection last year. The only animated feature, Arklio Dominyko kelionė į žvaigždes, directed by Vytautas V Landsbergis (The Poet [+see also:
trailer
interview: Giedrius Tamoševičius
film profile]), received €200,000 across both sessions.​

Regarding the minority co-production grants, a total of 11 projects have been supported, including five fiction films, three documentaries and three animations. Among them is Far Away, the newest film by Lithuanian-US filmmaker Tomas Vengris (Five and a Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius, Lithuania [+see also:
film review
interview: Tomas Vengris
film profile]), which received €90,000 and is being produced by Studio Uljana Kim. March 14th by Alberto Gross Molo from Spain, who won the VFF Talent Highlight Award at this year's Talent Project Market – a collaborative effort between the Berlinale Co-Production Market and Berlinale Talents – received a total of €100,000 across both sessions, and the Lithuanian producer is Čiobreliai. Its other producers are Spain's Ayhe Productions, Contraria Media and Solita. The debut feature by Latvian filmmaker Anna Ansone, Summer Blues, which follows young artist Ulla faking her family history for her artwork as she seeks acceptance in Cologne, was granted €70,000 and is being produced locally by Akis bado, alongside White Picture (Latvia), Filmfaust (Germany) and Von Anfang Anders (Germany). Another Latvian project, The Child by Linda Olte – whose 2022 film Sisters [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was awarded the 1-2 Award at the Warsaw Film Festival – received €60,000. Finally, Latvian filmmaker Viesturs Kairišs, known for his Tribeca-premiered January [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], received €50,000 for his upcoming project Ulya, which is being staged by Tremora in Lithuania, together with Ego Media (Latvia), in co-production with Allfilm (Estonia) and Staron Film (Poland).