Les Arcs’s Co-Production Village Kicks Off 10th Edition
Marylise Dumont’s “Black Dog,” Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen’s “Ashes and Snow” and “Each of Us” are among the 20 projects which will be pitched at the 10th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival’s Co-Production Village.
The Co-Production Village will run alongside the festival which will be presided by Ruben Ostlund, the Swedish helmer of Palme d’Or-winning and Oscar-nominated “The Square,” and will open on Dec. 15 with Louis Garrel’s “A Faithful Man.” The movie will compete along with nine films selected by Frederic Boyer, the artistic director of both Les Arcs and Tribeca festivals.
Besides Ostlund, a flurry of high-profile European filmmakers, industry figures and talent are expected to attend the festival, notably Laetitia Casta (“A Faitful Man”), Alex Lutz (“Guy”), Lukas Dhont (“Girl”), Charlotte Le Bon (“The Promise”), Jeremie Renier (“Double Lover”), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (“Les estivants”), Romain Duris (“Heartbreaker”), Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent!), and Thomas Vinterberg (“The Hunt”) who will spearhead the inaugural Talent Village with emerging filmmakers.
“Ashes and Snow” is Gulbrandsen’s follow up to his feature debut “Valley of Shadows” which premiered at Toronto. The project follows Thomas, an ambitious and ruthless documentarian who sets off to shed light on Ukrainian miners doing high-risk work in the Russian mines on the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard.
“Black Dog” is a drama fantasy about a dog who comes back to a small town after being abandonned in the woods. British actress Gemma Arterton (“Their Finest”) is attached to star in the film. Dumont previously directed the short “Counting sheeps” and wrote “A Night in the car.”
“Each of Us” will be directed by Carla Simon, whose “Summer 93” won best best first feature at this year’s Berlin; Anne Zohra Berrached (“24 Weeks”); and Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”). The project is set in 1945 and takes place in the only all-women German concentration camp.
Another potential highlight is Spiros Stathoupolous’s “Godard Knows The Truth” which takes place in an hypothetical Europe and follows a marine archaeologist who embarks on an urgent, irreverent and groundbreaking scientific investigation introduced to her by Jean-Luc Godard. One of Colombia’s most prominent directors, Stathoupolous’s credits include “PVC-1” which premiered at Cannes’s Directors’ Fortnight.
The co-production village will also boast a large number of genre projects, including Brendan Mccarthy’s “Woken,” Jagoda Szelc’s (“Tower. A Bright Day”) “The Delicate Balance of Power” and Dean Puckett’s (“Satan’s Bite”) “I Feel Blood;” as well as lighter projects, such as Vincent Cardona’s “Magnetic,” a coming of age comedy set in 1980 which is being produced by Easy Tiger, the banner behind “Divines.”
As part of this year’s focus on Poland, four Polish projects will be pitched at the Coproduction Village. Spanning 12 countries, the selection will comprise 11 feature debuts and six projects from women directors. Several conferences will be hosted during the industry event, including one moderated by Romanian filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu (“The Concert”) which will be exploring how global services like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Netflix can be integrated in the financing system of European cinema.
Projects are selected by Jérémy Zelnik, the head of industry at Les Arcs, Anna Ciennik, the manager of the industry village, and Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin, the festival’s CEO. Boyer, meanwhile, handles selection of films in post-production which are presented in the work-in-progress session.
Since launching a decade ago, Les Arcs Film Festival has been a key venue for many talented emerging directors and has helped them finance their feature debuts through its Coproduction Village as well as the Film School Village. Celebrated alumni include László Nemes with “Son of Saul,” which went on to win Cannes’ Grand Jury Prize and a foreign-language Oscar, as well as Alice Rohrwacher (“The Wonders”), Carla Simon Pipo (“Ete 93”), Lukas Dhont (“Girl”), and Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt (“Diamantino”).
The 10th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival will run Dec. 15-22.
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