The 13^th edition of When East Meets West (WEMW) is all set to unspool from 22-25 January, bringing over 450 film professionals from more than 50 different countries back to Trieste. For this and the upcoming year, the Italian co-production forum, which is an integral part of the 34^th Trieste Film Festival, is focusing on Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, and Spain, Portugal and Latin America, with the Co-production Pitching Forum selection having already been announced in December (see the news). In addition, it has just unveiled the selection for its sections targeting films at the post-production stage, along with the participants in the EAVE Slate and the Inspirational Labs.

The ninth edition of Last Stop Trieste (LST), the documentary work-in-progress platform run together with the Trieste Film Festival, will showcase six creative docs that were previously selected for one of the partner platforms: Ex Oriente Film, Docu Rough Cut Boutique, Balkan Discoveries, Baltic Sea Docs and ZagrebDox Pro. All films will be eligible for the HBO Europe Award, a cash prize valued at €1,000.

Organised for the sixth time by WEMW and the Trieste Film Festival, in partnership with the Milano Film Network, This is IT, the strand exclusively dedicated to feature films produced or co-produced by Italian producers, includes two titles hailing from the WEMW 2023 spotlight territories, following the success of the last, inaugural experiment. The ten films (six fiction titles, and four hybrid and experimental films), which are ready for their premieres, will all be competing for the Laser Film Award.

Finally, WEMW has announced the eight companies selected for the second EAVE Slate programme. Furthermore, 70 participants from 27 countries are joining the six Inspirational Labs, run in collaboration with the CEE Animation Workshop, ESoDoc, the MIDPOINT Institute and the Fantastic Film Forum, with the support of the ICAA and the IDM Film Commission Südtirol. The full list of participants can be found here.

Here is the list of the selected titles and companies participating in the WEMW sidebars:

Last Stop Trieste

A Day, 365 Hours [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] - Eylem Kaftan (Turkey)
Producers: ZKF, CAF

A Picture to Remember [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] - Olga Chernykh (Ukraine/France/Germany)
Producers: Real Pictures, Lufilms, Tama Filmproduktion

The Land You Belong - Elena Rebeca Carini (Italy/Romania)
Producers: Small Boss, Luna Film

Requiem to the Hot Days of Summer [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Giorgi Parkosadze
scheda film] - Giorgi Parkosadze (Georgia/Greece)
Producers: Attic Production, Filmografik Productions

Smiling Georgia [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Luka Beradze
scheda film] - Luka Beradze (Georgia/Germany)
Producers: 1991 Productions, Color of May, Enekeny Films

Snajka: Diary of Expectations [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Tea Vidovic Dalipi (Croatia/Italy/Kosovo)
Producers: RESTART, STEfilm, Möbius

This is IT

Amor [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri
scheda film] - Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri (Italy/Lithuania)
Producers: Stefilm, Era film

Anna [+leggi anche:
intervista: Marco Amenta
scheda film] - Marco Amenta (Italy/France)
Producers: Eurofilm, Mact Productions

Fiume O Morte! [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Igor Bezinović (Croatia/Italy/Slovenia)
Producers: RESTART, Videomante, Nosorogi

Malevych - Daria Onyshchenko (Ukraine)
Producer: LLC 435 Films

Family Therapy [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Sonja Prosenc
scheda film] - Sonja Prosenc (Slovenia/Italy/Croatia/Serbia/Norway)
Producers: Monoo, Incipit film, Wolfgang & Dolly, Living Pictures

Role Model [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] - Nejc Gazvoda (Slovenia/Italy/Czech Republic/Serbia)
Producers: PERFO d.o.o., La Sarraz Pictures, Film Kolektiv, Biberche Productions

Snake Oil Song - Micah Van Hove (Spain/Canada/USA/Colombia)
Producers: Playlab Films, Tall Pines Pictures

Snot & Splash - Teemu Nikki (Finland/Italy/Poland)
Producers: It's Alive Films, Iwonder, OrkaFilm

Wandering Souls - Maria Giménez Cavallo (USA/Italy)
Producer: anima films

The Zola Experience [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Gianluca Matarrese
scheda film] - Gianluca Matarrese (Italy/France)
Producers: Stemal Entertainment, Bellota Films

EAVE Slate

Amerika Film - Maxi Haslberger (Germany)
Antitalent - Katarina Prpić (Croatia)
Greenlit Productions Oy - Merja Ritola (Finland)
Marni Films - Mina Dreki (Greece)
Nefertiti Film - Nadia Trevisan (Italy)
Non-Aligned Films - Dragana Jovović (Serbia)
Serce - Kuba Kosma (Poland)
Uma Pedra No Sapato - Filipa Reis (Portugal)

WEMW is partnering with the Georgian National Film Center, the ICA - Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (Portugal), the ICAA - Film and Audiovisual Arts Institute (Spain), the ICAU - Directorate of Film and Audiovisual Arts (Uruguay), the CNC National Film Center of Moldova, the National Cinema Center of Armenia, Proimágenes Colombia, Projeto Paradiso (Brazil) and the Ukrainian Institute to facilitate the presence of professionals from the focus countries.

WEMW is being organised once again by the FVG Audiovisual Fund in collaboration with the Trieste Film Festival, EAVE and Creative Europe Desk Italy, and thanks to the support of the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme, MIC-Direzione Generale per il Cinema, CEI – Central European Initiative, Film Center Serbia, Ciclic - Centre Val de Loire, ArteVideo and the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.