Less Is More (LIM), the renowned training and coaching programme for feature-film development, run under the auspices of Le Groupe Ouest, has unveiled the 16 film projects and 12 Development Angels that have made the cut for its seventh edition. Additionally, this year marks a special collaboration between the LIM team, Creative Europe — MEDIA and the French CNC, as they are working together to provide support to four Ukrainian writer-filmmakers (in collaboration with Terrarium), who are among the teams behind the 16 selected projects. LIM will thus help them develop their feature-film projects.

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Antoine Le Bos, LIM’s artistic director, stated: “The darkness of the geopolitical context of 2023 is pushing us to redefine what films are made for. Do we need films that comfort us? Or those that give us strength? Our selection team has been driven to look at all of the projects received this autumn through a new lens. And the nature of the projects received has indeed changed substantially, as if the filmmakers had been shaken by the climate, like antennas for the world’s troubles.”

Massimiliano Nardulli, LIM’s head of talents, gave his insight into the selected participants: “There are some very personal and original approaches to genre film, as in the case of Scotland’s Ciaran Lyons, Portugal’s Gonçalo Almeida, Switzerland’s Luca Zuberbühler and Ukraine’s Stanislav Bytiutskys. We can already imagine them telling each other scary stories while walking back at night on the beaches of Plounéour-Brignogan, LIM’s headquarters in Brittany. Thanks to the wind, maybe some of their words will also reach those sitting at the Café du Port in the middle of the writing room – Azeri participant Suad Gara, Denmark’s Christian Bonke, Brit Alfie Baker and France’s Théo Jourdain. They are discussing their main characters and the weight they carry.

“Just a bit further on, on the same huge beach covered in white sand, observing the incredible change in the landscape due to the tides, Basque participant Ainhoa Gutiérrez del Pozo and Australia’s Gabrielle Brady are murmuring about the impact of the ocean on their projects.

“On the other side of the bay, hidden among the dunes, in a circle, we discover Belgium’s Hyun Lories and Sun Mee Cattrysse, Croatia’s Lana Barić, Norway’s Magnus Lysbakken, as well as Ukraine’s Kateryna Gornostai, Alina Matochkina and Tetiana Symon. They all seem to be looking at the moon and share how, for each of them, intimacy becomes a weapon in times of turmoil. It’s as if they feel totally safe, daring to expand their world into new territories.”

The LIM team has assembled a group of four tutors, comprising Meritxell Colell Aparicio (Spain), Tony Grisoni (UK/Italy), Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk (Ukraine) and Vinca Wiedemann (Denmark), who will oversee all 16 projects. Additionally, LIM has also chosen 12 "Development Angels", consisting of creative producers, development executives and script-development professionals who are seeking to leverage LIM's script-development framework and tools, which have been fine-tuned over the years.

Supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe – MEDIA programme, Less Is More is run by Le Groupe Ouest (France), and was developed with Control N (Romania), the Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds – VAF (Belgium) and the Krakow Festival Office (Poland), in partnership with the Lithuanian Film Centre, the Norwegian Film Institute, the Brittany region, Screen Scotland (UK) and Focal (Switzerland), and with exceptional contributions from France’s CNC and Terrarium.

Here is the full LIM 2023 selection:

Abaño, 2086 - Ainhoa Gutiérrez del Pozo (Spain)
The Advent - Gonçalo Almeida (Portugal)
Antonivka - Kateryna Gornostai (Ukraine)
Eomma - Hyun Lories (writer-director), Sun Mee Cattrysse (writer) (Belgium)
F**cking Sensitivity - Tetiana Symon (Ukraine)
The Flightless Bird - Gabrielle Brady (UK/Australia)
Heads - Luca Zuberbühler (Switzerland)
Hercules Falling - Christian Bonke (Denmark)
High Risk - Alfie Baker (UK)
Hotel Diana - Suad Gara (UK/Azerbaijan)
Inheritance - Stanislav Bytiutskys (Ukraine)
Mother - Alina Matokhina (Ukraine)
Obedience - Ciaran Lyons (UK)
The Rhythms - Magnus Lysbakken (Norway)
Son of the Foam - Théo Jourdain (France)
Tibidabo - Lana Barić (Croatia)

Here is the list of LIM 2023 Development Angels:

Rebecca Anastasi (Malta)
Nina M Barbosa Blad (Norway)
Marek Čermák (Czech Republic)
Penny Davies (UK)
Paul Fitzsimons (Ireland)
Clara Kiskanc (Switzerland)
Elena Martin (Romania)
Gaia Meucci-Astley (Italy/UK)
Nicola Ofoego (Ireland/UK)
Joyce Palmers (Belgium)
Gemma Pascual (Spain)
Anja Wedell (Germany)