Monday, January 22----European Film Promotion, the pan-European organization that represents all the individual film promotion agencies in Europe, is lending financial and marketing support for eleven European films that are screening at the Sundance Film Festival. Film Sales Support (FSS), the European Film Promotion sales support initiative, is backing the promotion of 8 European feature films and 3 documentaries screening here this week. Begun in 2004, FSS is funded by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union following a mandate to boost the visibility of European films outside of Europe, in particular in North and South America and East Asia.

10 European sales agents and production companies are given financial incentives – grants up to €5,000 – to promote their European films to local buyers. The films originate from Denmark, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the UK. For the first time, EFP is able to grant FSS support for the promotion of a Swiss film, FRAULEIN by Andrea Staka, as a result of Switzerland recently joining the MEDIA Programme.

Most of the supported films are screening in the festival’s World Dramatic and World Documentary Competition sections, which the Sundance Film Festival made competitive in the past two years. This has greatly raised the profile of international films at the event and made it a destination for international sales agents, buyers and programmers.

Although there is no formal market here, the networking possibilites are enormous, and meetings begun here can be followed up at the more formal European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival, which begins in just a few weeks. EFP, which is based in Hamburg, has a typically strong presence at the Berlin Film Festival , with the promotion of new European acting talent, the Shooting Stars initiative, its mainstay activity. To read more about Shooting Stars, visit our Berlin Film Festival Online Dailies site: Berlin Film Festival Online Dailies.

FILMS AND COMPANIES RECEIVING FILM SALES SUPPORT AT SUNDANCE

Celluloid Dreams (France)
SON OF RAMBOW by Garth Jennings, UK/France 2006

Dare Films (UK)
A VERY BRITISH GANGSTER by Donal MacIntyre, UK 2006

Dox Productions (UK)
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON by David Sington, UK 2006

Media Luna (Germany)
FRAULEIN (DAS FRÄULEIN) by Andrea Staka, Switzerland/Germany 2006

MK2 (France)
THE LEGACY (L’HERITAGE) by Temur & Géla Babluani, France 2006

Nordisk (Denmark)
OFFSCREEN by Christoffer Boe, Denmark 2006
REPRISE by Joachim Trier, Norway/Sweden 2006

NovDoc (The Netherlands)
THREE COMRADES (DREI KAMERADEN) by Masha Novikova, The Netherlands 2006

Samson Films (Ireland)
ONCE by John Carney, Ireland 2006

Sogepaq (Spain)
SUMMER RAIN (EL CAMINO DE LOS INGLESES) by Antonio Banderas, Spain/UK 2006

Wide Management (France)
DREAMS OF DUST (RÊVES DE POUSSIÉRE) by Laurent Salgues, France/Canada 2006

Sandy Mandelberger
Sundance Online Dailies Editor