Binger Filmmakers' News December 2008
Out of more than 2000 submissions feature film project
On Speaking Terms by Mexican writer
Carlos Contreras is one of the twelve projects selected for the esteemed
Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Carlos - who's currently developing the project at Binger with his Dutch producer Revolver - is thrilled by the news and his return to Sundance. His first feature film
Blue Eyelids (directed by his brother Ernesto) won the Special Jury Award at the Sundance Festival in 2007.
On Speaking Terms tells the story about two old friends in Mexico, who after a quarrel, refuse to talk to each other. Since they are the last two living speakers of the old language Zoque, nobody knows exactly what their fight is about. Santiago, the grandson of one of them, tries to unite the old friends and save a language from extinction.
At the upcoming
CineMart (January 25 - 29), the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, two Binger filmmakers will proudly present their latest projects:
Australian writer/director
Alice Bell (
Suburban Mayhem, 2006) will present
Gin & Tonic, a feature project she's currently developing at Binger Filmlab.
Gin & Tonic is a story about a wealthy suburbanite family coming home one night to find an abandoned baby on their doorstep, forcing them to face up to some home truths and some dirty nappies. Alice and her producers Amanda Higgs and Leah Churchill-Brown will all be present at CineMart to meet with potential co-producers, distributors and sales agents.
Nicola Mills, writer/director from the UK, is presenting her second feature project
Greengrass; a tender and darkly comic tale of a twelve year old girl who needs a functional family, the only way to accomplish this seems to be to get rid of her own. However, as it turns out, things are not quite that clear cut...Nicola recently attended the Script & Pitch workshop with the project and received a Development Award at Torino Filmlab this November. She and her producer Gavin Humphries of Quark Films will attend the CineMart market. Nicola developed her first feature script
Digging For Marni at Binger Filmlab in 2007 - 2008.
In November the Jury of the
TorinoFilmLab assigned Production and Development Awards to several Binger Filmmakers and projects:
Marta Parlatore received a Development Award for
Still Life which allows her to work on her project during the next year, as part of the TorinoFilmLab Development Program.
For its distinctive voice, powerfully articulated both in the script and the pitch
Hugo Vieira da Silva received no less than a € 200.000 Production grant for
Red Cross.
The Jury of the TorinoFilmlab awarded an amount of 120.000 euro to
Agua Fria del Mar by Paz Fabrega. Paz received the award for the project's subtle sensitivity and the filmmaker's passionate tenacity. And that's not the only good news for the project: at the same time the Ibermedia Coproduction Incentive Fund granted her 150.000 USD and the Foundation Groupama-Gan Award another 60.000 euro. Producer
Jean des Forêts of les Films du Requin is thrilled and stated that the first day of principal photography will be February 1st, 2009. The film, set in Costa Rica, will be produced by Les Films du Requin (France), in co-production with Tic Tac Producciones (Spain), Temporal Films (Costa Rica), Pimenta Films (Mexico) and Isabella Films (The Netherlands); Uruguyan producer and former Binger filmmaker
Sandino Saravia Vinay is attached to the project as the line producer.
Adrian Sitaru picked up major awards at Thessaloniki Film Festival with his début feature
Hooked (2008). The film won the Silver Alexander which is the Special Jury Award of the festival and both actresses Ioana Flora and Maria Dinulescu the Best Actress Award ex aequo. But more to come: in the same week the film also screened at the Portuguese Estoril Film Festival and won again the Special Jury Award.
Hooked had its premiere in the Venice Days program of the prestigious Venice International Film Festival. Adrian is now developing his second feature film
For Love With Best Intentions at Binger Filmlab.
Exciting times for Italian filmmakers
Antonio Piazza and
Fabio Grassadonia. Their feature project
Salvo received the Special Mention of the Jury at the Solinas Awards in November, which caught the attention of producers Massimo Cristaldi (Cristaldi Pictures) and Fabrizio Mosca (Acaba Produzioni). With the producers attached they've immediately booked success:
Salvo received Development Funding for Feature Film of the Italian Ministry of Culture on December 9. Antonio and Fabio are still working on
Salvo at Binger in Amsterdam till February 2009.
Carol Murphy's project
Eugene and her producer
Jennifer Sabah of Boa Films are selected for the acclaimed EAVE program starting March 2009. At this leading training and project development program for European producers, Jennifer will work in three weeks throughout the year on the production and development of
Eugene, while Carol joins her at the script sessions in the two first weeks.
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