On February 15-23, Berlin will traditionally host European Film Market under the aegis of the 68th Berlin IFF. At the market, FILM.UA Group will present its projects in different stages of development and production as well as projects by Kinorob and services from POSTMODERN. FILM.UA Group stand will be located in IFTA Pavilion in MGB under No. 153. The headliners of EFM 2018 are The Stolen Princess, Mavka. The Forest Song and The Rising Hawk: these projects will be in the spotlight, and their posters will be decorating our stand.
For the first time, we will screen a full version of animated feature The Stolen Princess in English (at the previous market, we screened work-in-progress materials), and all market participants will be able to fully appreciate the story told by Ukrainian animators from Animagrad.
The screenings will take place on February 17 at 5:35 PM in CineStar 2 and on February 19 at 6:05 PM in CineStar 6.
“This year EFM is a signature market for us because it is here that we will screen The Stolen Princess in full for the first time. The feedback from the first cartoon viewers is critical for us; among them, there are our partners who acquired it at earlier production stages. Our goal is to persuade them that the cartoon deserves the widest possible distribution. Besides, we have several territories which still haven’t been finalized for the project, but after this screening, we count on striking the deals with them as well,” says Igor Storchak, director for distribution at FILM.UA Group.
“First of all,” says Evgeny Drachev, international sales manager at FILM.UA Group, “we are interested in Southern Europe, namely Italy, Spain, and Portugal, as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. We are positive that the screening will help the success of our negotiations. We’ll keep presenting Mavka; everybody is looking forward to the start of its sales. We’ll also feel the ground for The Rising Hawk distribution, study the project’s potential, and prepare for the start of international sales. We won’t forget The Stronghold either; its international potential hasn’t yet been realized to the fullest. We’ll continue negotiations for the territories we haven’t finalized the sales with, in particular, Poland and Germany.”
This market will be significant for Gareth Jones; this isa joint project from Kinorob (Ukraine), Film Produkcja (Poland), and Crab Apple Film (UK) directed by Agnieszka Holland. The film’s official distributor WestEnd Films plans to present the project to the buyers and to announce the opening of international sales as well as to unveil the lead actors for the movie.
Meetings with Eastern European producers for Felix Austria feature film are also planned; the project is now in development at FILM.UA Group. Besides, we will present the materials for TV shows, which are in our nearest production plans. We will look for partners for Lemberg series; both Ukrainian and Polish cinematographers and screenwriters are now working on its development. Our new project Hide-n-Seek will be presented at an international market for the first time; this is an eight-episode criminal drama with thriller and detective streaks. The project’s creative producer Olesya Lukyanenko is convinced that this original and compelling story about the search for children gone missing, which became the basis for the plot, has a great format sales potential.
On top of that, on February 15-23 in Marriott Ukrainian national stand under No. 118 will be functioning. The stand is organized by Ukrainian State Film Agency, Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukrainian Film Association, and key producers of film content in Ukraine. The stand will feature a catalog of Ukrainian films of 2017-2018, including FILM.UA Group and Kinorob projects. Besides, on February 18 at Co-Production Market during the Country Session Ukraine will be presented for the first time; under Discover Ukraine title, the international market will learn about us as a filming location with an updated legislative environment, an arsenal of cutting-edge services, and remarkable production capacities.
Good luck to all market participants, and we will be looking forward to your news.
