© Festival del film Locarno
The fifth edition of Carte Blanche, the Festival del film Locarno’s initiative dedicated to films in post-production, this year turns the spotlight on Israel. The films that will be selected will have the chance to be presented to the professionals attending Locarno during the Industry Days.
Thanks to a partnership with the Israel Film Fund, which coordinates the Israeli works in progress of the initiative, Carte Blanche will select 5 to 7 films in post-production. The producers of the selected films will attend the Locarno Festival and present their work to industry professionals. Intended to facilitate the films’ completion and distribution, they will be screened to sales agents, buyers, programmers and representatives of post-production support funds for attending Locarno during the Industry Days event (8 – 10 August). A jury of professionals from the sector will be convened to select the best film, which will receive an award worth 10,000 CHF.
This initiative, inaugurated in 2011, aims to offer a showcase for films in post-production. Previous editions focused on Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Brazil.
Nadia Dresti, Delegate to the Artistic Direction and Head of International: “From the success Eran Riklis had on the Piazza Grande with The Syrian Bride, The Human Resources Manager and Dancing Arabs, to the revelation of Nadav Lapid’s talent with the short film Kvish (2006) and then Hashoter selected for the 2010 Concorso internazionale, the relationship forged between the Festival del film Locarno and Israeli cinema has proved increasingly productive. With the next edition, and the collaboration with the Israel Film Fund, this connection will be further strengthened through Carte Blanche, which highlights current production and all that it indicates for the future. ”
The Israel Film Fund will accept applications from films in post-production until May 1, 2015. The films selected by the Festival will be announced in July.
A success story
From this year onwards, the Carte Blanche initiative Extra will additionally guarantee continuity with the success of preceding editions and consolidate contacts with the national promotion agencies: Cinema do Brasil, CinemaChile, Proimagenes Colombia and IMCINE (Mexico). Up to four up-and-coming producers from each country will be invited to Locarno to present their projects to European and international film industry delegates during the Industry Days event, which is ever more demonstrably proving to be a vector for developing networking in the sector. A series of professional lunches with representatives from the international industry complements this new offering to create a dynamic and productive “Latino Corner”.
Another proof of success can be seen in the trajectories and prestigious awards achieved by numerous films selected for Carte Blanche in recent years. From La Playa DC (Juan Andrés Arango, Colombia), selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes, to Matar a un hombre (Alejandro Fernández Almendras, Chile), last year’s winner at Sundance and at numerous other festivals, to the more recent Brazilian films The Second Mother (Anna Muylaert), Special Jury Award for Acting at Sundance and currently screening at Berlin in the Panorama Special section, and O Touro (Larissa Figuereido), selected for Rotterdam’s 2015 Bright Future program.
The initiative is co-ordinated by Markus Duffner, Carte Blanche Project Manager.
The 68th edition of the Festival del film Locarno will take place August 5 – 15.
