Greek producer Maria Kontogianni worked on 18 internationally awarded co-productions through Twenty Twenty Vision and Pallas Film in Germany, before founding Wild at Heart in Athens in 2021. She has staged Animal [+lire aussi :
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bande-annonce
interview : Sofia Exarchou
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bande-annonce
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interview : Katerina Patroni
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Cineuropa: With a strong track record in managing international co-productions, what are the primary challenges you encounter when aligning different national regulatory and funding frameworks? How do you ensure smooth operational synergy between diverse production teams?
Maria Kontogianni: The greater the number of co-production countries involved, the higher the complexity arising from the broader pool of resources. You need to act proactively, research your prospective partners carefully, get informed, share information and make sure it is reflected in the co-production structure. Usually, a carefully designed cultural and financial collaboration, together with realistic timeframes and a buffer allowance, will keep most troubles at bay. The magic of co-producing with different cultures is about discovering differences and bridging them over a common creative goal. Producers have to infuse things with understanding, synergy, respect and inspiration.

You've successfully guided films through major international festivals. Could you detail how these festival circuits contribute to a movie’s commercial strategy? What specific role do these events play in the life cycle of a project you produce?
Premieres at “A-list” festivals are indeed an important form of recognition and exposure to prospective distributors and streamers, etc, which are there to acquire their new gem of a film. So, yes, there is a positive correlation between festival circulation and the exploitation of films in terms of volume of distribution countries and diversity of exploitation windows. However, there is no golden rule. I recently produced a low-budget, black-comedy film that was not selected by any “A list” festival. It was a pure “outsider” that managed to become a national theatrical hit, and achieved a broad festival circulation and positive press coverage. This film managed to win the heart of its audience and was the winner of the Audience Award at every festival it was screened at. The fulfilment you get from such an achievement cannot be put into words.

Having returned to Athens to set up a base for multidisciplinary film projects in the digital era, what shifts have you observed in production processes with the rise of digital and streaming platforms? How have these changes influenced your production choices?
Important shifts were afoot before the pandemic, owing to the big streamers (ie, Netflix) entering the Greek market but never being involved in the financing processes of Greek content. Then the pandemic came along, making room for national VoD platforms (ie, Cinobo) and the free streaming channel (Ertflix.gr) of our national channel ERT TV, which is a stable source of financing for films initiated in Greece. Funding options haven’t changed vastly, other than the 40% cash-rebate scheme; however, since the competition is fiercer, pay TV has less financing to allocate to productions. Nowadays, we are just one step away from a huge shift: that of the AI world and that of the EU geo-blocking policies, which will both affect the core of filmmaking as we know it. And let’s not forget our familiarisation with working remotely now, making us indifferent to distances.

What criteria do you use when selecting which projects to develop and produce? Are there any particular thematic or stylistic elements that attract you to a script or a project proposal?
Wild at Heart loves producing every type of film. The only filter is that we want to tell great stories of social concern made by passionate and artistic wild-at-hearters. Wild at Heart has a keen interest in pursuing co-productions with countries that haven’t partnered with Greece before.

How do you leverage your role within organisations like the Hellenic Film Academy and SAPOE to foster international collaborations? Can you share a specific instance when these networks significantly impacted a project?
I am a pretty new member of both organisations, having joined them in 2022. They both tend towards more open, extrovert and productive operations, with a clear intention to attract new members, represent a variety of voices and establish a broader dialogue within the Hellenic film community. SAPOE is the association of independent audiovisual producers, which has lately mostly focused on securing a stable business environment, negotiating legal frameworks that make sense, and keeping an open dialogue with the state and its ministries. In that sense, SAPOE is always an up-to-date source of information regarding how negotiations are advancing with our national bodies.

As a seasoned producer, how do you approach mentoring or supporting emerging filmmakers, especially in a highly competitive international environment?
By focusing on the “golden triangle”: trust in themselves to create, trust in their producer to lead, and trust in their story to inspire.

Which of your projects will you be discussing with industry professionals at Cannes?
Two projects that are making our hearts go wild these days and which are ready to be presented to prospective co-producers. Firstly, there’s the sophomore feature by Asimina Proedrou, Hystera, following her phenomenal debut, Behind the Haystacks [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]. Hystera was presented at WEMW 2024 [see the news] and is about the lives of three Greek women that intertwine, as a series of incidents makes them radically question their identity. It’s a story about motherhood, gender roles and breaking free.

Then there’s the 2D/3D children’s animated feature Nine Lives Left by Zacharias Mavroeidis, which is an adventurous road movie on four paws. The project was presented at Kids Kino Industry and Animasyros, and was then developed at Cinekid 2022. It received the Best Feature Pitch Award at the Czech Republic’s CEE Forum in 2023 [see the news]. It is being co-developed with Poland’s GS animation studio and the 3D studio Mascista, and is awaiting Creative Europe support in order to become the first international animation initiated by Greece.