Young And Talented. 29 projects from 16 different countries make up the 2010 lineup for NCN, the International Rome Film Festival’s co-production market. Now going into its fifth year, NCN has come to be considered the fourth most important event of its kind in Europe (after Rotterdam, Berlin and Cannes). This is where new projects and collaborations get their start; and once again this year NCN reserves its Focus Europe for projects for second works by the best new directors on the European film scene. Producers Cedomir Kolar, Rosanna Seregni and Simon de Santiago have selected fifteen projects out of roughly fifty proposals that were either presented to them directly or discovered in the course of a careful search, with the fundamental collaboration of European film promotion agencies.

This year’s projects include works by Nicolo Donato (project: Alive Before Dead), the Danish filmmaker winner of the Golden Marc’Aurelio for Best Film right here in Rome in 2009, for Brotherhood, and Philip Koch (project: TheEnd of Childhood), whose first feature, Picco, was selected for Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Then there’s Stephen Burke (project: Objects of Interest), whose film Happy Ever Afters was recently released in Italy, the Estonian filmmaker Kadri Kousaar(project: European Psycho) and Spanish director Alvaro Brechner (project: Mr. Kaplan), both of whom had works featured at Cannes, in 2007 (Un Certain Regard) and 2009 (Critics’ Week) respectively. Besides Donato, Northern Europe will be well represented by My First Thought by Kaspar Munch; the Swedish films Bitch Hug by Andreas Ohman and Follow, Follow, Lead by Jens Jonsson (whose first film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival). Italians include Alessandro Aronadio (featured at last year’s Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama Section, with his debut film One Life, Maybe Two) and Claudio Noce, acclaimed director of Good Morning Aman, presented at the International Film Critics’ Week last year.

In addition, with Circuit, NCN has created a real network for prestigious film institutions, with the aim of bringing the world’s best projects to Rome to find attractive opportunities for funding and co-productions. Indeed, thanks to its collaboration with Cannes’ Cinéfondation, the Berlinale Co-production Market, the Sundance Institute, Film London, andScreen Institute Beirut, NCN has put together a lineup of projects linking Europe, the U.S., Latin America and Africa – projects that may well become the most interesting films of tomorrow. Titles include: the project Heritage by Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi, Farming (U.K.) by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, an actor in TV series such as Lost and Oz, now ready for his directing debut; Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton (Canada); Zeroes and Ones by Avi Weider (U.S.A.), and A Birder’s Guide to Everything by Rob Meyer (U.S.A.), now being produced by Crossroads Film (A Love Song for Bobby Long).

Other film projects showcased in NCN Circuit – which is reserved for projects that were previously presented at Cannes’ Cinéfondation – L’Atelier, theFilm London Production Finance Market, and the above-mentioned Sundance Feature Film Labs (Screenwriters, Directors and Producers Lab), and Screen Institute Beirut – include, among others, works byDiego Quemada-Diez (La jaula de oro, Mexico); Ruben Sierra Salles (Lucia, Venezuela); Australian filmmaker Gracie Otto (Rue de Tournon); and the British director Matthew Thompson (Dead, Gone, Buried) now being produced by Ipso Facto Films Irina Palm). And thanks to NCN’s collaboration with the Berlinale Co-production Market, the lineup features projects by Darrell James Roodt (The Shades, South Africa) and Benjamin Ross (Napoleon and Betsy, U.K.). Representing Italy in the Circuit lineup isFabio Mollo, who directed the poetic short Giganti, which won a Special Mention for directing at the Silver Ribbon Awards in 2008 and was selected for the 58th Berlin Film Festival. Mollo’s project, entitled Il sud è niente, was already chosen for last year’s Torino Film Lab, and appears here thanks to a collaboration with the association 100 Autori.