Les Arcs Film Festival Unveils Work-in-Progress Lineup

Elsa Keslassy
·3 min read

Les Arcs Film Festival has unveiled the 15-title lineup of its Work-in-Progress session, the popular industry sidebar whose alumni roster include Vladimar Jóhannsson’s “Lamb,” Lukas Dhont’s “Girl” and Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher.”

The section, curated by Frederic Boyer, the artistic director of Tribeca and Les Arcs Film Festival, will include “Opponent,” a drama by Swedish up-and-comer Milad Alami (“The Charmer”) and produced by Sweden’s Tangy and Norway’s Ape&Bjørn; “Preparations for a Miracle,” directed by Tobias Nölle and produced by Switzerland’s Hugofilm Features and Germany’s Flare Film; and “Silver Haze,” helmed by Sacha Polak and produced by Dutch banner Viking Film and the U.K.’s Emu Films.

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Spanning 18 countries across Europe, the selection comprises films in post-production, eight of which are by female directors. Jeremy Zelnik who spearheads Les Arcs’s Industry Village received a record 164 projects, which reflects the fact that many European countries maintained a high level of production throughout the pandemic. As much as 38% of the projects submitted are directed by women.

Fifteen films will be screened in front of industry professionals on Dec. 12 in Les Arcs during a session moderated by the Artistic Director of the festival, Frédéric Boyer. The award ceremony will take place on Dec. 13.

Several awards will be handed out with juries including Kevin Chan, co-head of Acquisitions at MUBI, Mimi Plauché, artistic director of Chicago film festival, and French producer Didar Domehri (“Girls of the Sun”).

In terms of health protocols, the festival said that all guests will have to provide a negative PCR or antigen test dating from 48 hours upon arrival in Les Arcs, even if they are fully vaccinated.

The selected projects are:

“Dogborn,” directed by Isabella Carbonell (Sweden) produced by Momento Film (Sweden)
“Eismayer,” directed by David Wagner (Austria) produced by Golden Girls Film (Austria)
“Embryo Larva Butterfly,” directed by Kyros Papavassiliou (Cyprus) produced by AMP Filmworks (Cyprus) and Graal SA (Greece)
“January,” directed by Viestur Kairish (Latvia) produced by Mistrus Media (Latvia) and Staron Film (Poland)
“Losing Control,” directed by Ewa Wikiel (Poland) produced by the Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie Berlin (Germany)
“Matadero,” directed by Santiago Fillol (Spain) produced by 4A4 Productions (France), El Viaje Films (Spain), Magoya Films (Argentina), Nina Films (Spain) and Prisma Cine (Argentina)
“Nika,” directed by Vasilisa Kuzmina (Russia) produced by Vodorod (Russia) and Art Pictures Studio (Russia)
“Stranger In My Own Skin,” directed by Katia de Vidas (France) produced by Wendy Production (Great Britain)
“Summer to Come,” directed by György Mór Kárpáti (Hungary) produced by Proton Cinema (Hungary) and Café Film (Hungary)
“The Mechanics of Things,” directed by Alessandra Celesia (Italy) produced by Films de Force Majeure (France) and Dirk Manthey Film UG (Germany)
“The Ordinaries,” directed by Sophie Linnenbaum (Germany) produced by Banden Film (Germany) and Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf (Germany)
“When It Melts,” directed by Veerle Baetens (Belgium) produced by Savage Film (Belgium), PRPL (The Netherlands) and Versus Production (Belgium) – Out of Competition / In Partnership with Flanders Image

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