European Film Promotion has revealed the participants for its Producers on the Move program, which runs before and during the Cannes Film Festival.
The promotion and networking program, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, brings together 20 of Europe’s most promising producers. This year, EFP will also put a spotlight on the numerous collaborations that have developed between the around 500 participants from 37 European countries over the past quarter century.
The 20 producers were selected for the program from the nominations submitted by EFP’s member organizations, which are all European national film promotion institutes.
They are Katharina Posch (Austria), Elisa Heene (Belgium/Flanders), Kalin Kalinov (Bulgaria), Tibor Keser (Croatia), Tonia Mishiali (Cyprus), Kristýna Michálek Květová (Czech Republic), Lina Flint (Denmark), Delphine Schmit (France), Fabian Driehorst (Germany), Maria Kontogianni (Greece), Sara Nassim (Iceland), Evan Horan (Ireland), Giedrė Žickytė (Lithuania), Katarzyna Ozga (Luxembourg), Angela Nestorovska (North Macedonia), Anita Rehoff Larsen (Norway), Isabel Machado (Portugal), Dragana Jovović (Serbia), Wanda Adamík Hrycová (Slovak Republic), and Eva Åkergren (Sweden).
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The group will take part in a tailor-made program to foster international co-productions, intensify the exchange of experiences and help create new professional networks. The pre-festival online program, which starts today and runs until May 3, includes 1:1 speed meetings, roundtables and pitching sessions. The producers will then meet in person during the Cannes Festival from May 16 to 20 and take part in a five-day on-site program, including case studies, social events and an extensive promotional campaign via the international trade magazines.
The selected participants have already been behind a number of award-winning films:
Lina Flint (Denmark) produced Gustav Möller’s “The Guilty,” which won Sundance’s Audience Award and was shortlisted for the Oscars.
Delphine Schmit (France), whose short film “Across the Waters” by Viv Li is screening in the short film competition at this year’s Cannes, was also successful with the films “Love According to Dalva” by Emmanuelle Nicot, which triumphed at the 2024 Magritte Awards and picked up seven prizes including best film, and “Our Mothers” by Cesar Diaz, which won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes in 2019.
Other prize-winners are:
Katharina Posch (Austria): “Soldier Jane” by Daniel Hoesl, Tiger Award, International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2013;
Sara Nassim (Iceland): “The Lamb” by Valdimar Jóhannsson, Un Certain Regard – Prize of Originality, Cannes, 2021; European Film Awards, Visual Effects, 2021;
Evan Horan (Ireland): “Oddity” by Damian McCarthy, Midnighter Audience Award at SXSW 2024; Feature Film Audience Award at Overlook Film Festival, 2024;
Elisa Heene (Belgium/Flanders): “Holly” by Fien Troch, Bisato d’Oro for best actress, Venice Film Festival, 2023;
Kalin Kalinov (Bulgaria): “Because I Love Bad Weather” by Yana Lekarska, Audience Award, Sofia Film Festival, 2024;
Tonia Mishiali (Cyprus): “Pause” by Tonia Mishiali, FIPRESCI Prize for best film, ERT National Television Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival, 2018;
Kristýna Michálek Květová (Czech Republic): “Arved” by Vojtěch Mašek, Czech Lion Awards: best actor, screenplay, music; Czech Film Critics’ Award.
Some producers have tended to concentrate on the production of animated films or documentaries such as:
Fabian Driehorst (Germany) with his Hamburg-based company Fabian&Fred, whose credits include the multi-award-winning animated feature film “Sultana’s Dream” by Isabel Herguera;
Maria Kontogianni (Greece), whose “Nine Lives Left” by Zacharias Mavroeidis received an award at the 2023 CEE Animation Forum;
Giedrė Žickytė (Lithuania), who was both producer and director of her documentaries “Master and Tatyana” and “The Jump”;
Anita Rehoff Larsen (Norway) who produced such award-winning documentaries as Viktor Kossakovsky’s “Gunda,” which premiered at the 2020 Berlinale, Tone Grøttjord-Glenne’s 2020 Hot Docs competition title “All That I Am,” and Corinne van der Borch and Tone Grøttjord-Glenne’s “Sisters on Track.”
In addition to animated films and documentaries, other participants have also been involved in producing series for TV and streaming platforms such as Wanda Adamík Hrycová (Slovak Republic) with the historical TV series “The Slavs” by Peter Bebjak.
The lineup also includes producers who continue long-standing collaborations with their directors, work with renowned talents or discover new ones in their respective countries or focus on debuts such as:
Tibor Keser (Croatia), who produced Ivan Ramijak’s highly acclaimed “El Shatt – A Blueprint” for Utopia;
Katarzyna Ozga (Luxembourg), who was involved in Barbara Albert’s “Blind at Heart”;
Angela Nestorovska (North Macedonia), who co-produced Asimina Proedrou’s feature debut “Behind the Haystacks”;
Dragana Jovović (Serbia), who is the producer of Ognjen Glavonić’s feature “The Load,” which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2018;
Isabel Machado (Portugal), who co-produced David Bonneville’s feature debut “The Last Bath”;
Eva Åkergren (Sweden)’s recent co-productions have been Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider,” Malou Reymann’s “Unruly,” and Gustav Möller’s “Sons,” together with Flint. She is now in preproduction on her third collaboration with Amanda Kernell with “The Curse – A Love Story.”
