Oscar-nominated Macedonian director Tamara Kotevska will be among the directors presenting their upcoming films at the Les Arcs Film Festival’s Work in Progress showcase in later this month.
Her debut fiction feature Man Vs Flock, about an elderly farmer fighting for his land after it is earmarked for the construction of a new highway, will be among 12 works in progress unveiled at the event.
Kotevska is best known internationally for Honeyland, which won best documentary – world cinema at Sundance in 2019, and was then nominated for Best Documentary and International Feature Film at the 2020 Oscars, as well as her other nonfiction works The Walk and The Tale Of Sylian.
Jacqueline Lentzou will attend with A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra, taking its cue from the unexpected death of a teenager in Athens, whose light does not go out.
It is Lentzou’s second film after Moon, 66 Questions, which was selected for the Encounters section of Berlin’s 2021 pandemic era online edition, and then won best film at several festivals including Sarajevo and Seville.
Award-winning Bangladeshi producer and director Rubaiyat Hossain will present The Difficult Bride about woman on the cusp of getting married to a man she loves, who struggles with her body image.
It is Hossain’s fourth film after Made in Bangladesh (2019), Under Construction (2015) and Meherjaan (2011).
The Work In Progress event aims to connect films in post-production with international sales agents and distributors. Past participants include 2026 Oscars Best International Feature Film hopefuls Sound of Falling (Germany) and Little Trouble Girls (Slovenia).
It is part of the Industry Village events, which include the Coproduction Village and the Talent Village for projects in development phase as well as the Music Village.
The Works in Progress showcase received 163 project submissions this year.
The projects are in the running for the TitraFilm Award, providing €10.000 ($11.6k) worth of image/sound post-production facilities; the Alphapanda Audience Engagement Award offering marketing consultancy and the creation of a promotional digital asset package worth €7,000 ($8k) and the 22D Music Award providing €10.000 for music composition.
In related news, the festival has also announced that its Revelation Female Film Composer Award, created in 2022 in partnership with Sacem and the Lab Femmes de Cinéma, will be awarded to Léonie Pernet, artist & composer of soundtracks such as Magma by Cyprien Vial.
Full list of projects:
* denotes first feature, ** denotes second features
A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra**
Directed by Jacqueline Lentzou (Greece)
Produced by Avion Films (Greece), Atalante Productions (Greece), Kelek Film UG (Germany), 4 A 4 Productions (France)
A Happy Family*
Directed by Jan-Eric Mack (Switzerland)
Produced by C-FILMS AG (Switzerland)
Barefoot Bull*
Directed by Petar Krumov (Bulgaria)
Produced by KLAS Film (Bulgaria), Harald House(Belgium)
Girl Beast*
Directed by Selma Sunniva (Denmark)
Produced by Manna Film (Denmark)
Luzia*
Directed by Leonor Noivo (Portugal)
Produced by Laranja Azul (Portugal), Terratreme Films (Portugal) Enquadramento Produções (Brazil), Norte (France)
Man Vs Flock*
Directed by Tamara Kotevska (North Macedonia)
Produced by Video Studio Petkovski (North Macedonia), asterisk* (Greece), Nukleus Film (Croatia), Filmoskopija (Serbia), Cine Planet (Montenegro), Zeynofilm (Turkey)
Oasis*
Directed by Jannis Lenz (Germany)
Produced by Zeitgeist Filmproduktion GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), Wega Filmproduktionsges.m.b.h (Austria), Third Picture GbR (Germany)
The Difficult Bride
Directed by Rubaiyat Hossain (Bangladesh)
Produced by Les Films de l’Après-Midi
(France), Khona Talkies (Bangladesh), Midas Filmes (Portugal), Tandem Production (Germany), Barentsfilm (Norway)
The First Week of August*
Directed by Filip Mojzeš (Croatia)
Produced by Wolfgang & Dolly (Croatia)
The Matriarch**
Directed by Alison Kuhn (Germany, Vietnam)
Produced by Schiwago Film GmbH (Germany), Tidewater Pictures GmbH (Germany)
Until The Day Ends*
Directed by Jelena Maksimović (Serbia)
Produced by Taurunum Film (Serbia), Staragara (Slovenia), PREMIERstudio (Bulgaria), Meander Film (Montenegro) – in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab within the “TFL Coming Soon” initiative
Weird Elliot
Directed by Johannes Nyholm (Sweden)
Produced by HOBAB (Sweden), BALDR Film (The Netherlands)
