20/03/2006

Six European filmmakers feature on the list of the 18 selected for the 2nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival Atelier.

A brainchild of the Cinéfondation, the event organises meetings at the festival between producers and directors looking to secure financial backing for projects. Among those lucky enough to be chosen for the 2006 session are France's Fabrice Génestal (The Squale, 2000), who will present his script Black Box, co-written with duo Paul Besson and Agnès Caffin, which is set in the universe of hedge funds (high-risk speculative funds).

Produced by Ciné Nominé for a budget of €7.8m, with an advance on receipts guaranteed from the National Film Centre (CNC), the financial thriller brings together Romain Duris, Marie Gillain and Gilbert Melki, with Duris playing a young financial market specialist who applies a revolutionary forecasting model invented by a climatologist to stock market fluctuations.

Belgium will also be represented at the Atelier by Bernard Bellefroid and his film La régate, produced by the Dardenne brothers and their company Les Films du Fleuve. The script recounts the difficult relationship between a 15 year-old and his father, with whom the son lives in a suburban apartment. The two work in the same supermarket until one day the father, humiliated, is fired. Their relationship becomes bitter and to escape his humdrum life, the son only has one obsession – to win the Belgian rowing competition.

Also present at the Atelier in Cannes will be Spain's Luiso Berdejo (whose film is being produced by Versus Entertainment), Croatia's Goran Rusinovic, Romania's Cristi Puiu (winner of the 2005 Un Certain Regard section) and Switzerland's Ursula Meier (whose Strong Shoulders was nominated for Best Swiss Film of 2004).

Another important film to be presented is French production Mange, ceci est mon corps from US/Haitian filmmaker Michelange Quay. The film is being produced by Films à Un Dollar and includes Sylvie Testud in the cast.

(Translated from French)