FRED Film Radio - English Channel

Marcin Dudziak – Filmmaker – Calling.

FRED’s Matt Micucci meets Marcin Dudziak, whose feature debut “Calling” had its international debut in the Bright Future section of the 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam. Marcin tells us about the way in which he made the wilderness a character in the film, how he directed his actors to restrain their performances and even gets into detail about the interesting casting of the young boy. He also shares with us his interests and the themes he would like to develop in his future projects.

Plot: Father and son on a journey in the forest. Their trip through nature is an act of initiation for them both. What looks innocent and safe turns out to be dangerous and vicious. “Calling” is a beautifully shot meditation on first encounters with the world as it is.

Calling trailer from Marcin Dudziak on Vimeo.

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Dieter Kosslick – Festival Director – 65th Berlin International Film Festival

Festival director Dieter Kosslick returns to helm the 65th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). He talks with us about what to expect from this year’s edition, which will be the main and most powerful issues that we will see portrayed in the films selected for this year’s programme and a general overview on the status of the eternal fight between European films and Hollywood.

Berlin: an exciting, cosmopolitan cultural hub that never ceases to attract artists from around the world. A diverse cultural scene, a critical public and an audience of film-lovers characterise the city. In the middle of it all, the Berlin International Film Festival: a great cultural event and one of the most important dates for the international film industry. More than 300,000 sold tickets, almost 20,000 professional visitors from 124 countries, including around 3,700 journalists: art, glamour, parties and business are all inseparably linked at the Berlinale.

Dieter Kosslick took over the creative direction and management of the Berlin International Film Festival back in 2001.

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Matthjis Wouter Knol – Director – EFM (European Film Market)

As we gear up for another exciting edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, we also get ready for this year’s EFM (European Film Market), one of the leading film markets in the world. We interview its new director, Matthjis Wouter Knol, who tells us about what to expect from this year’s EFM and also about his idea of what a film market should do and will do under his direction.

Every February the EFM (European Film Market) opens the grand doors to the Martin-Gropius-Bau and welcomes over 8,400 producers, buyers, sales agents, distributors, exhibitors and financiers to the first major film market of the year. It’s the first date in the industry’s calendar and regarded as an early indicator for the new film year. Their trusted organization and commitment to quality content from around the world brings together the right people at the right place and time, inspiring theconversations and connections that are the cornerstone of the business.

Some of the things on offer at the EFM this year are:

American Independents in Berlin is an initiative organized by the EFM, the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) and Sundance Institute. The screening series “IFP Selects” and “Sundance at EFM” showcase the best in new US indies to over 1,500 international buyers. The dedicated lounge on the second floor of the Martin-Gropius-Bau gives independent filmmakers a place to meet and promote their projects. In addition to the regular market screenings, the EFM is proud to present a new programme of high-quality television series at the Market on Monday and Tuesday, February 9 and 10. With a focus on Europe, these market screenings will highlight series from Germany, Scandinavia and the UK as well as North America and trends from around the world.

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Tina Trapp – CEO – EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs)

Tina Trapp tells us about the great work that EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) does for the audiovisual sector and the various tailor made workshops EAVE-On-Demand can offer. We also chat with her a little about the new frontieres of VOD (Video on Demand) and internet distribution in general for films – an element that is changing today’s film distribution landscape drastically.

European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, EAVE, is a professional training, project development and networking organization for audiovisual producers.

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Rada Sesic – Head of Last Stop Trieste

Sarajevo Film Festival programmer, film lecturer, film critic and filmmaker Rada Sesic talks to us about Last Stop Trieste, the new work in progress section for documentaries from Eastern Europe and Italy. If a filmmaker is looking to get their documentary feature finalized and released during the course of the year, this is certainly the annual section at When East Meets West to look out for.

The programme is directed by Rada Sesic, and in our interview with her she tells us about the selection criteria and the kind of help which Last Stop Trieste provides to the selected projects – including getting the opportunity to be screened to an exclusive panel of international sales agents, festival programmers and TV commissioning editors with the aim of enhancing their potential of being selected in top festivals and increasing their chances at distribution and broadcasting.

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Florian Weghorn – Programme Manager – Berlinale Talents

FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti talks to Florian Weghorn, programme manager of the 13th edition of Berlinale Talents, which is an extensive summit programme of master classes and panel discussions but also a networking platform for its 300 emerging talents participating. To cite Berlinale Artistic Director Dieter Kosslick, Weghorn’s presence at the Berlinale Talents ( he was former head of the Berlinale section Generation) will guarantee an even closer connection between the programming sections and the networking platform.

The 13th edition of Berlinale Talents will take place from the 7th to the 12th of February at the HAU Hebbel am Ufer theatres in Berlin and will see the participation of big names of the cinema world who will host master classes and panels to share with the audience and the talents their experience.

This year’s main theme is A SPACE DISCOVERY. On this topic, top experts will structure their workshops and panels. To name but a few: The panel “Road, Movie: Films in Motion” brings German director Sebastian Schipper from the Competition programme (Victoria) together with Walter Salles (On the Road). Both will keep track of their protagonists’ cinematic journeys through space and time. Oscar®, Golden Globe and Grammy-winning Film Composer Howard Shore will host two panels with the audience and privileged emerging film composers to elaborate how a film’s score and sound create spaces in which stories unfold. Talking about “Space discovery”, spaces for exhibiting films and bustling hubs of alternative culture will be the main points discussed during the panel “Crossroads to Culture – Cinema(s) in the Arab World”. Berlinale Talents is strictly connected to the EFM – European Film Market with whom it shares initiatives, spaces, resources and ideas. This year indeed, as the EFM will hold two panels on TV Drama Series, Berlinale Talents opened its doors to emerging talents with a TV series background. In addition to that, The European Film Market 2015 welcomes Berlinale Talents once again to the initiative Berlinale Talents Market Hub in partnership with Canon. This platform, at its buzzing location in the gallery of the Martin-Gropius-Bau, serves as a contact and meeting point, offering new perspectives to both EFM participants and upcoming talents. On top of that, much like last year, there is the Talent Project Market which is a co-operation between the Berlinale Co-Production Market and Berlinale Talents. It offers ca. 10 selected upcoming producers and directors ( this year 11) an opportunity to present their projects to Berlinale Co-Production Market participants in one-on-one meetings and to meet experts to learn more about international co-production.

Berlinale Talents is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, a business division of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in cooperation with Creative Europe MEDIA, a programme of the European Union, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Canon. It was initiated in 2003. In addition to the extensive summit programme of master classes and panel discussions with top-notch experts, Berlinale Talents offers a range of Project Labs in which you can further develop and present your own project. Berlinale Talents also provides Studio programmes and workshops for specific groups of film professionals. As an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, the entire event is closely linked with the programmes of the festival sections and the European Film Market. While the roots of Berlinale Talents are firmly planted in Berlin new shoots of the initiative have been sprouting internationally. These Talents International editions, Talents Beirut in Lebanon, Talents Buenos Aires in Argentina, Talents Guadalajara in Mexico, Talents Durban in South Africa, Talents Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Talents Tokyo in Japan have the familiar structure and purpose of their German counterpart; all the while retaining a regional perspective and finding support and the necessary amenities in a locally based international film festival. Talents initiatives are supported by local partners as well as by the Goethe-Institut

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Katie Mustard / Antonio Tibaldi – Producer / Director – The Oldest Man Alive

Katie Mustard (producer) and Antonio Tibaldi (director) talk about their American movie that, “unusually”, is not American at all. Despite the fact that it is shot in New York City by an American production, this is a very touching story filmed by an Italian director and financed by Italy, Romania and another European country.

“The Oldest Man Alive” is the story of a 90-year-old inventor who tries to kill himself after the tragic loss of his wife. He is saved, by sheer chance, by a young Romanian woman, whose own life and personal problems he increasingly gets caught up by. This is a family drama with a sense of humour and a heart of gold about new beginnings.

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Veselka Kyriakova / Milko Lazarov – Producer / Director – Nanook

Producer Kyriakova and director Lazarov talk about their new project – a film based on the life of an Inuit family,  which they pitched at the When East Meets West co-production market. They explain how they dread the pitching process, what the production value of their film is and the main challenges that the making of their project will entail (such as location and the weather…)

The film narrates the story of Nanook and his wife Selma, who are still living the old fashioned and traditional Inuit lifestyle in their igloo, even as the world around them is constantly changing and embracing the modern ways. When Selma gets sick, Nanook calls upon their daughter to come back home. This creates a clash between the modern and old values, which exlodes withing the family context.

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Graziella Bildesheim – Head of MAIA Workshops

Graziella Bildesheim tells us about how the MAIA Workshops programme works to achieve its aim in helping and preparing as well as training – or as she specifies in the interview, coaching – new documentary film directors in taking their first steps in the worlds of festivals and marketing.

MAIA Workshops is an advanced training and coaching programme for emerging producers. They see the producer as central to the complex process of developing, producing, marketing and distributing an audiovisual work and they work together, with a hands-on participative and creative approach, to provide their participants with the fundamental skills they need to steer their projects through all these phases to their audience.

Under the guidance of some of the best industry experts from all around the world, Maia has a steady hold on the state of the art in the global audiovisual market. They are keen to explore new and innovative ways of making and marketing films with low budgets. They also look forward into transmedia storytelling and building crossmedia projects for different platforms as much as they insist on consolidating our knowledge of the crafts and the skills of classical film production.

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Andrew Bendel – producer – The Italian Chapel

Producer Andrew Bendel on seeking partners for the making of his film “The Italian Chapel” at the When East Meets West co-production market.

“The Italian Chapel” is a film that draws inspiration from the real story about a group of Italian soldiers captures in the war and brought to a semi-deserted island near Ireland, where they were imprisoned for a long time. Andrew talks with us about the huge potential of the project, but also some of the challenges than may be encountered during the making of the film – such as weather and locations.

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