Projects in development will be introduced to potential partners and financiers such as producers, distributors, sales agents, representatives of film funds etc. at the Transilvania Pitch Stop (TPS) on 29 July, during the Transilvania International Film Festival (23 July - 1 August). The number of participants is slightly lower than for pre-COVID editions, when up to fifteen projects would be promoted, however it is higher than last year’s selection of nine works in progress. The forum is also readdressing its format by merging the development workshop dedicated to Romanian and Moldavian projects with the co-production platform.

As usual, TPS aims to discover a strong selection of projects from Romania and the countries of the region destined for European co-production, by giving a special priority to cross-border cooperation between the Black Sea and the neighbouring eligible countries. Five projects will benefit from a tailored script consulting service provided by the experienced Christian Routh, who often collaborates with entities such as Eurimages and Creative Media Skills: the Romanian film Engelthal, which tells the story of a family in a horrible human condition; The Poor Dove, about the legendary Moldovan performer of Romanian folk music Maria Drăgan; the Serbian romantic coming-of-age project The Talentless; The Ways We Look at the Sun, again from Romania, exploring the complex relationship between two identical twins; and the Turkish film Tussifed, depicting the process of growing up as a tragicomic journey and also awarded at Meetings on the Bridge 2021.

All participants will be coached by renown consultant and film critic Wendy Mitchell prior to their presentation and will be competing for the following awards: the Chainsaw Europe post-production award, securing 25,000 € in post-production services; the TPS Avanpost Media Development award, providing 7000 # in cash; and the CoCo Award, offered by the Connecting Cottbus Co-Production Market. The final decision about the winners remains with Katarina Tomkova (Midpoint Institute), Maria Tânjală (FilmChain) and Vicky Miha (Asterisk*) on the international jury, who will hand out the awards.

Here is the complete list of the selected feature projects:

Confrontation - Filiz Kuka
Producer: Seckin Akyildiz – FILMPLUS (Turkey)

Engelthal - Eugen Dediu
Producer: Gabriela Suciu, Dumitrana Lupu - Atelier de Film (Romania)

I’m Not Lakit – Marie Ivanova Surae
Producer: Marie Ivanova Surae - Scoop Production (Russia)

Sasha – Vladimir Beck
Producers: Katerina Mikhaylova, Vasily Klepatsky, Ruben Dishdishyan - Vega Film, Mars Media Entertainment (Russia)

The Human Shape – Gheorghe Preda
Producer: Alin Panc - Papa Pictures (Romania)

The Poor Dove - Călin Laur
Producer: Ștefan Nahaba - Racketa Production (Republic of Moldova)

The Talentless - Radivoje Bukvić
Producer: Jovana Jovičić - Prikaz Film (Serbia)

The Ways We Look at the Sun - Ioana Țurcan
Producer: Ana Maria Pîrvan - Studioset Production (Romania)

Who is Martha? - Darina Tregubova
Producer: Aleksandr Omelyanov – Joyfilms (Ukraine)

Tussifed - Doğu Akal
Producer: Kaan Ege - Bir Film (Turkey)