The Baltic Bridge East by West (B’EST) is an initiative to be held in 2013 by the organizers of the Baltic Event (Estonia) and Rfilms, CTB Film Company (Russia) in co-operation with EAVE, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs), and with the support from MEDIA Mundus.

B’EST consists of two workshops, which will take place on September 11-15 in St.Petersburg within at the St. Petersburg International Film Festival and November 26-29 in Tallinn, as part of the Baltic Event. The workshop will bring together 10 producers with feature film projects, 5 from the European Union and 5 from the CIS countries and Georgia.

It will offer:

A five-day workshop/training which includes plenaries on the script development process, financing in Eastern and Western Europe, legal aspects of co-production, and marketing strategies, as well as individual meetings with script, pitching and finance/marketing consultants

Meetings with decision makers and potential co-production partners at St. Petersburg, Russia

Online sessions with producers and tutors concerning the development of  scripts and projects during the 2-month gap between workshops

Two-day follow-up session regarding the development of  projects and the final preparation for pitching at the Baltic Event

Presentation of the projects at the Baltic Event and meetings with potential financiers, co-producers, sales agents, and distributors

B’EST is aimed at experienced feature film producers wishing to work on an international scale and create long-term creative and business relationships between Western and Eastern Europe. Interested producers should apply with a feature film project in development stage

Other criteria include the requirement to have a full-length feature film with potential for theatrical distribution, suitable for an international co-production and looking for co-producers and - preferably – with national support in place. Projects from the European Union and Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldavia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are accepted.

For full information on criteria, special conditions and requested materials for submission, visit the Baltic Event Site. The deadline for all submissions is June 15.