Fond. Cinema Roma - The selection 2011

27 projects from 16 different countries make up the selection for NCN 2011, the International Rome Film Festival’s co-production market. Now in its sixth year, NCN has earned its stripes as one of the most important European dates on the industry calendar (along with Rotterdam, Berlin and Cannes), at which new projects and collaborations come to life.

Focus Europe, the NCN section devoted to second films by the most intriguing and talented filmmakers on the European scene, has received over sixty submissions this year, some of which were directly presented to the festival, and others uncovered during our scouting efforts or thanks to the crucial collaboration of the European film promotion agencies.

This pool of submissions was whittled down to twelve by the jury composed of producers Cedomir Kolar, Rosanna Seregni and Simon de Santiago.

The filmmakers who made the cut include: U.K. director Paddy Considine (project: The Leaning), whose first film Tyrannosaur was unanimously acclaimed on the festival circuit, from Sundance to Berlin; and the Spanish directors Antonio Naharro and Alvaro Pastor (project: Un Final Feliz), whose debut film Yo, Tambien, also co-directed, won numerous awards (including one at the San Sebastian Festival and the prestigious Spanish Goya awards). For Belgium, Bénédicte Liénard (project Human Song, to be co-directed with Mary Jimenez), is the exponent of an emerging auteur cinema well-received at Cannes (his first film A Piece of Sky was selected for Un certain regard at its 55th edition). Northern Europe is well-represented by Iceland’s Hafsteinn Sigurðsson (project: Cold Spring) and Sweden’s Hanna Sköld (project: Granny’s Dancing on the Table); the project has already made its director co-winner of the MEDIA European Talent Prize 2011. The lineup includes two Italian projects: La sagra della primavera by Matteo Botrugno and Daniele Coluccini, directors of the acclaimed Et in terra pax, which has made the rounds of many international festivals, from Venice (Venice Days) to Tokyo; and Profondo Nord by Marco Luca Cattaneo, who won kudos for his first film Amore liquido, among them Best Film at the Montréal World Film Festival. Rounding out the roster are Thomas Woschitz (Blind, Austria), Martina Priessner (A Road Named Desire, Germany), Patxi Amezcua (Seventh, Spain), Roberto Castón (The Silly  Ones and the Stupid Ones, Spain), and Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant, U.K.).

With its Circuit section, NCN has created a well-oiled network with the world’s premier film institutions, aimed at bringing the best projects from around the globe to Rome, in order to give them interesting opportunities for financing and co-productions. In 2011 NCN strengthened and expanded its ties to other film markets and partner events, inaugurating a collaboration with Rotterdam’s CineMart and Sarajevo’s CineLink.

Thanks, therefore, to its collaborations with Cannes – Cinéfondation, the Berlinale Co-production Market, the Sundance Institute, Film London, the Screen Institute Beirut, Rotterdam CineMart and Sarajevo CineLink, NCN has assembled a roster of projects that build bridges between Europe, the U.S., Latin America, Africa and the Middle East: perhaps the most interesting films of tomorrow.

The lineup includes: the project Revolution Reload by Palestinian filmmaker Mohanad Yaqubi;The Diving Helmet by Pablo Reyero (Argentina), a Cannes attendee in 2003 (in the section Un certain regard) with the film La cruz del Sur; Ad Inexplorata, an ambitious trans-media project by U.S. filmmaker Mark Elijah Rosenberg; and The Story of Ram by the Indian director Ritesh Batra. Among other selections for NCN Circuit, reserved for projects that have already passed through the above-mentioned institutions and NCN market partners, there are works by Martín Desalvo (Darkness by Day, Argentina), Mohamed Al Daradji (The Train Station, Iraq), Talya Lavie (Zero Motivation, Israel), Pedro González-Rubio (Tree Shade, Mexico) and Mahmut Fazil Coskun (Yozgat Blues, Turkey, winner of the Eurimages Co-production Development Prize at the recently-ended Sarajevo Film Festival).

This year NCN, working in synergy with the Festival’s 2011 Focus section dedicated to the U.K., and thanks to its partnership with the Film London Production Finance Market, has selected three projects for an overview of new British cinema: Heart of Darkness (an animation project) by Gerald Conn, The Time of Their Lives by Roger Goldby and Indian Summer by Brian Ward.

Lastly, thanks to its collaboration with 100autori and, starting this year, Anica, Circuit | Italian Panorama will feature two Italian projects with an international appeal: Se Dio vuole by Elisa Amoruso, a screenwriter – her credits include Good Morning, Aman by Claudio Noce – at her directorial debut, and Uno by Giotto Barbieri, a feature by this acclaimed documentary filmmaker.