US project She Wrestles awarded Best Pitch at the m:brane forum
by Jan Lumholdt
- The humorous Danish animation Pony Pony and a couple of scientific documentaries also received prizes at the Malmö-based event
Out of the 26 projects pitched at the 20th edition of the m:brane film financing forum for youth content in Malmö, Sweden (see the news), a prominent plurality of solid Nordic contenders was outshone by the sole US entry. She Wrestles, a documentary about young female wrestlers in Nebraska, was granted the Best Pitch Award of 2026, supported by Creative Europe and sweetened by a cash prize of €2,500.
It was deserving of the accolade “for beautifully weaving the director's emotional connection to the project with a clear warmth towards his protagonists, demonstrating strong storytelling and clarity in both project and pitch”, as per the discerning jury, consisting of Danish film commissioner at Midtnorsk Filmsenter Helle Hansen, Swedish documentary editor Phil Jandaly and Swedish film commissioner Johan Simonsson (Filmcentrum Syd), who, by their own admission, had faced an arduous task in picking the champion from the line-up in what has quite unanimously been seen as a vigorous year for projects.
Luckily and justifiably, several other awards were also given out to deserving participants. German producer Claus Herzog-Reichel, of filmfaust in Cologne, presenting his project Christmas with the Winter Family at the forum, received the EAVE Marketing Scholarship Award. The humorous Danish animated project Pony Pony, vividly pitched by Nice Ninja producer Thomas Borch-Nielsen, garnered both the Youth Expert Award and the Young Horizons Exchange Award. Two documentary projects, the Norwegian project Scope of the Universe, from LØV Film, and the Danish effort Digital Soul, from Napkin Productions, were rewarded with an invitation to the forthcoming edition of the World Congress of Science & Factual Producers, WCSFP.
The aforementioned EAVE organisation also played a part in the participation of She Wrestles in the forum. “I took part in the EAVE workshop in Thessaloniki last year,” says producer Lucila Moctezuma, whose company Azul Turquesa Films is behind the movie. “While there, I was made aware of m:brane and requested a meeting. The match with our film was just amazingly perfect.” Four years in the making and directed by Nebraskan native Charles Fairbanks, himself a former wrestling champion in the state, the film explores the growing emergence of the sport among young women, primarily those of secondary-school age, in the USA, rising from 11,000 to 75,000 participants in the last ten years. “For about 100 years, it was a boy’s sport; today, it’s the fastest-growing girl’s sport,” says Moctezuma.
By visiting an array of diverse communities in his home state, director Fairbanks (who is, by extension, related to the famous movie stars Douglas and Douglas Jr) will present “a wrestling film not about wrestling”, as he calls it. “Rather,” he explains, “it’s about coming of age, about all kinds of life challenges in the contemporary world and about female empowerment. There are a lot of stories here, many about migrants: we have Native American protagonists from the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska; we’ve been to small towns and big cities; we’ve met conservative females and liberal ones, all across the political spectrum. I started shooting in 2022, the first official year of professional female wrestling in Nebraska.”
Aiming for a 2027 premiere and currently looking for European co-producers, distributors, sales agents and broadcasters, Fairbanks and Moctezuma committed to their pitch at the m:brane event with intriguing gusto. Asked about being on stage with the objective of reaching out and hopefully receiving concrete and fruitful responses, Fairbanks feels little, if any, qualms: “I love talking about this project. In a whole lot of ways, it’s close to home.”
A little over 200 representatives from 23 countries participated in the forum, where just under 300 scheduled meetings were held during the last day’s post-pitch sessions.
Here is the full list of award winners:
m:brane Best Pitch Award
She Wrestles – Charles Fairbanks (USA)
Producer: Lucila Moctezuma (Azul Turquesa Films)
EAVE Marketing Scholarship Award
Claus Herzog-Reichel, filmfaust
Youth Expert Award for Best Pitch
Pony Pony – Love Haak (Denmark)
Producers: Thomas Borch Nielsen, Mette Valbjørn Skøtt (Nice Ninja)
Young Horizons Exchange Award
Pony Pony – Love Haak
World Congress of Science & Factual Producers Award
Scope of the Universe – Anja Manou Hellem (Norway)
Producer: Lillian Løvseth (LØV Film)
Digital Soul – Keiria Shishay (Denmark)
Producers: Ulrikke Xenia Sandby, Ane Vennize Andersen (Napkin Productions)
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