Russia (bbabo.net), - The international co-production forum When East Meets West (WEMW) will focus on Russia for the first time. The forum will take place on January 24-28 in Italy, in the city of Trieste. Five Russian films, selected by an international jury, will be presented in various programs at one of the largest European co-production venues.
The directors and producers of these films will be able to personally present their work to the professional international community. The national delegation will also include producers who will take part in special sessions and panel discussions. The When East Meets West forum will be held in partnership with Roskino's export brand Russian Content Worldwide (RCW), which means "Russian content - all over the world." In general, the event in Trieste will take place in a hybrid format: delegations of participating countries will join WEMW both physically and virtually.
The five Russian films that will be presented in various programs of the forum are the following.
1. "Short Summer" directed by Nastya Korkiya and produced by Natalia Drozd. Natalia is a co-producer of the film "Compartment number six", which received the Grand Prix of the 74th Cannes Film Festival, and Nastya Korkia's previous film participated in one of the programs of the Venice Film Festival in 2021. In Trieste, the film "Short Summer" will be presented at the co-production forum.
2. "White Road!" directed by Ella Manzheeva and produced by Victoria Lupik. Previously, the film was a participant in the Atelier section of the Cinefondation program of the 74th Cannes Film Festival.
3. "Year of birth" directed by Mikhail Mestetsky and produced by Sergei Kornikhin and Semyon Zakruzhny.
This film, as well as Manzheeva's new work, will be presented in two sections at once: This is it (full-length feature films or hybrid projects at the post-production stage) and at the First Cut Lab Trieste seminar.
4. "Against the Wind" directed and produced by Tatyana Soboleva.
5. "Talk to me" directed by Yulia Mironova. The last two tapes present Russian impact content (impact - means socially significant - approx. SA) in the new section of the Impact Pyramid Inspirational Lab forum.
Also, the Russian delegation at the WEMW forum will include Russian filmmakers Yulia Mishkinene ("Blonde"), Anna Gudkova ("Catcher in the Sea"), Elena Stepanishcheva ("Replacement"), Alexander Weinstein ("The Beilis Case"), Yulia Shaginurova (" Dissidents and Madness"), Lika Alekseeva (Jurowski DOC), Helga Grigoryeva (Doc. Just Doc), Vladislav Ketkovich ("Tundra Blues"), Polina Shlicht ("City of Birds").
On 24 January there will be a special session on "How to optimize co-production opportunities with Europe and get the most out of the market". A Meet the Russian Delegation session is also planned: Russian film industry professionals will be able to present themselves and their company to all participants of the WEMW forum. The event will be moderated by the head of the Russian delegation, General Director of Roskino Evgenia Markova, who recalls that "the participation of the Russian delegation in the international co-production forum When East Meets West in Italy is a logical continuation of our partnership with the forum within the Russian content market Key Buyers Event, as well as the further development of the dialogue with the Italian industry, which began as part of the business platform of the Venice Film Festival in 2021, when we organized a focus on Russia.Such increased interaction with the European production community is not accidental - we are seeing a willingness to co-production on the part of both Russian colleagues and international community. It is significant that almost 10 percent of the total number of applications for the WEMW co-production forum came from Russia. I am sure that the forum will enable the Russian film industry to maximize its potential, and also help to increase the level of expertise of Russian producers."
"One of the most pleasing results that we have already received at this WEMW forum is the huge interest in our activities from the Russian film industry. Over the past few months, we have received an incredible number of Russian applications (and these were high-quality projects) in all programs of our forum. We are very happy to have selected some promising names and outstanding projects and look forward to offering them the opportunity to find partners for co-production, international sales or festival participation among the more than 750 WEMW attendees," says Alessandro Gropplero, Head of When East Meets West Forum.
bbabo.Net