26/09/2005

The UK MEDIA Desk is organising on October 25 a one-day European co-production forum during which other European co-production partners will give their perspective and experience of working with the UK.
The programme entitled Co-production Express will provide five case studies of recent successful European co-productions that will be discussed by their respective producers.

The producers of Christian Carion’s Merry Christmas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Carion
interview: Christophe Rossignon
film profile] Philip Boeffard from Nord-Ouest Production (France), Patrick Quinet from Artémis Productions (Belgium), Bertrand Faivre and Kate Ogborn from The Bureau (UK) will discuss if a co-production can be a commercially driven attempt to increase soft money funding potential beyond national borders.
Stefan Schwartz’s The Best Man will be used by its co-producers Neil Pelow from the Works Media Group (UK), Ildiko Kemeny from Hungarian Connection (Hungary) and Benjamina Mirnik from Pitorion Pictures (Germany) to explore the question of the type of projects originating from the UK that could benefit from collaborating with Eastern Europe.
The co-producers of Dominic Harari and Teresa Pelegri’s Only Human, Mariela Besuievsky from Tornasol Films (Spain), Adrian Sturges from Picture Farm (UK), Patrick Cassavetti from Greenpoint Films (UK) will explain how a Spanish contemporary comedy can be made with UK public funding, and they will be joined by Jan-Jacob Lousberg, Head of co-productions at the UK Film Council.
Zentropa’s Peter Aalbeck Jensen and Peter Garde from Denmark will be on stage to discuss with their German co-production partner Bettina Brokemper from Heimat Film, the making of Thomas Vinterberg’s Dear Wendy, a Danish/French/UK/German co-production. They will also give their views on the use of the English language for productions made in countries with restricted language capacity, as well as on the capacity of European countries to retain their successful filmmakers.
Finally French producer Cedomir Kolar from ASAP Productions, German producer Jens Meurer from Egoli Tossell and Thomas Eskilsson from the successful Swedish regional fund Film i Väst will discuss the pros and cons of co-producing with the UK.

The event is free of charge, but participants will be accepted based on relevant co-production experience. Application deadline is Friday 30 September.