19/12/2025 - The Italian co-production forum has revealed the selections for its works-in-progress sections, the EAVE Slate programme, the Inspirational Labs and the new Films x Games Connection Hub

Director Urša Menart, who is taking part in First Cut+ with Everything That’s Wrong with You (© Katja Goljat)

The 16th edition of When East Meets West (WEMW) is set to take place from 18-20 January in Trieste, once again bringing together hundreds of film professionals from across Europe and beyond. Organised as part of the Trieste Film Festival, the Italian co-production forum continues its mission of fostering collaboration between Eastern and Western audiovisual industries. Following the recent announcement of the Co-Production Forum selection (see the news), WEMW has now unveiled the complete line-up for its works-in-progress sections, the EAVE Slate and Inspirational Labs, alongside the launch of a new Films x Games Connection Hub.

The 12th edition of Last Stop Trieste (LST), run in collaboration with the Trieste Film Festival, will showcase five creative documentaries at the fine-cut stage. The selected projects were previously presented at partner platforms and will be pitched to an audience of international decision makers. The ninth edition of This is IT, organised by WEMW and the Trieste Film Festival in partnership with the Milano Film Network, will present ten works in progress. The section is dedicated particularly to features and hybrid works from Italy and the WEMW 2026 focus territories, aiming to support their path towards festival premieres and international distribution. Meanwhile, First Cut+ will once again spotlight eight promising titles from ten countries, selected for their strong international potential, and presented to attending sales agents, buyers and festival programmers.

WEMW is also hosting the fifth edition of the EAVE Slate programme, with eight companies from eight different European territories selected. At the same time, 100 professionals from 34 countries will take part in the Inspirational Labs, organised in collaboration with a wide network of European and international partners. The complete selection can be found here.

A major novelty this year is the launch of the Films x Games Connection Hub, a new initiative run in partnership with SpielFabrique and designed to foster collaboration between film producers and game studios. The complete selection can be found here.

WEMW also highlights the strong presence of projects and professionals from the 2026 East & West focus countries, supported by an extensive network of national film institutes, funding bodies and film commissions. WEMW 2026 is organised by the FVG Audiovisual Fund, in collaboration with the Trieste Film Festival and EAVE, and thanks to the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA, MIC - Direzione Generale per il Cinema, CEI – Central European Initiative, Catalan Films, Film Center Serbia, CICLIC - Centre-Val de Loire Region and the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Here is the list of the selected titles and companies participating in the WEMW sidebars:

Last Stop Trieste

Sacred Songs – Nona Giunashvili, Mariam Bitsadze (Georgia)
Producer: 17/07 Productions

Sunken – Dimitris Gkotsis (Greece)
Producer: Marni Films

Now You See It – Alessandro Leonardi (UK/Lithuania)
Producers: Open Citadel, Era Film

Hide Me in the Light – Markiian Miroshnychenko, Nataliya Kovalyova (Ukraine/Germany)
Producers: Life Map Films, Luk Productions

Birdie – Aneta Ptak (Poland/Iceland)
Producers: Staron-Film, Akkeri Films

This is IT

Death Has No Master – Jorge Thielen Armand (Venezuela/Canada/Italy/Luxembourg)
Producers: La Faena Films, Volos Films Italia
Co-producer: Deal Productions

Kohinoor – Udita Bhargava (Germany/Luxembourg/India)
Producer: Schiwago Film GmbH
Co-producers: Amour Fou Luxembourg, VK Art and Design Pvt Ltd

Sevda – Ufuk Emiroglu (Switzerland/Belgium/Turkey)
Producer: Akka Films
Co-producers: Stenola Productions, Bir Film

No Me Without You – Janno Jürgens (Estonia)
Producer: Filmivabrik

Uncomfortable Beings – Maja Križnik (Slovenia/Italy)
Producer: December
Co-producer: Incipit Film

Home Sive Natura – Giovanni C Lorusso (Italy/Colombia/France)
Producer: Revok
Co-producers: Primates, Labo GCL

Prima della guerra – Tommaso Usberti (France/Italy)
Producers: L’Heure d’Été, Mir Cinematografica

Dice-Ching-O-Mat – Kristijonas Vildziunas (Lithuania)
Producer: Studio Uljana Kim

Eclipse – Manuel Wetscher (Austria/Italy)
Producers: Eutopiafilm, Albolina Film

Everytime – Sandra Wollner (Austria/Germany)
Producers: Panama Film, The Barricades

First Cut+

We Are Not Dreaming – Ulisses Arthur (Brazil)
Producers: Cup Filmes, Céu Vermelho Fogo

Elephants in the Fog – Abinash Bikram Shah (Nepal/France/Germany/Brazil/Norway/USA)
Producers: Underground Talkies Nepal, Les Valseurs Bordeaux, Die Gesellschaft DGS
Co-producers: Bubbles Project, Zischlermann Filmproduktion, Enquadramento, Storm Films, Jayantii Creations

The Winning Generation – Marco De Stefanis (Netherlands/Italy/Armenia, documentary)
Producers: Bind, EiE
Executive producer: Ofelya Zalyan

Patty – Luise Donschen (Germany)
Producer: Fünferfilm UG

The Arctic Circle of Lust – Markku Heikkinen (Finland/Germany/Sweden, documentary)
Producers: Zone2 Pictures, dirk manthey film ug, Vilda Bomben

La détention – Guillaume Massart (France, documentary)
Producers: TS Productions, Triptyque Films

Everything That’s Wrong with You – Urša Menart (Slovenia/Germany/Serbia)
Producers: Vertigo, Chromosom Film, Living Pictures

New Life (working title) – Bernadette Weber (Italy, documentary)
Producer: Albolina Film

EAVE Slate

David Bohun - Panama Film Gmbh & Co KG (Austria)
Ioanna Davi – Indigo View Productions (Greece)
Michael Henrichs - Die Gesellschaft DGS (Germany)
Jasmina Karajlovic - Montenegro Max Film (Montenegro)
Oleksandra Kravchenko - Moon Man (Ukraine)
Viktorija Rimkute - Dansu Films (Lithuania)
Mayca Sanz L-Higueras – Allegra Films (Spain)
Marta Zaccaron - Incipit Film (Italy)