Berlin’s Hungarian Institute (Collegium Hungaricum Berlin) is to host a new pitching platform, Pitch Stop, for producers from Central Europe as part of its “Cinema Total” initiative during the forthcoming Berlin Film Festival.

Producers and directors of six selected projects from Austria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia will have the opportunity to present  their works to an international professional audience in a public pitching moderated by Simon Perry.

Following the presentations, specially selected producers, commissioning editors, film funders and sales agents will discuss the projects’ feasibility and give some useful tips.

Simon Perry is no stranger to Cinema Total. In 2009, as head of the Irish Film Board, he signed a co-production agreement there with Erszebet Toth of the Hungarian Motion Picture Public Foundation to foster co-productions between the two countries.

Speaking to Screen Daily, Francoise von Roy, one of the curators of Cinema Total with Katalin Gödrös, explained that although the focus for the 2011 edition is on Hungary and four of its neighbours, the four-day event from February 12-16 at the Institute’s modern new building in the heart of Berlin will also be open to filmmakers from other parts of Eastern Europe as well as their counterparts from Western Europe.

Other events planned include a Producers’ Brunch for producers from the invited regions to meet and talk with German producers; a Location Salon allowing location service-providers from Central and Eastern Europe to present themselves and their unique locations; True Stories examining the current state of screenwriting in Eastern Europe through concrete case studies; and Books At Sundown presenting Eastern European literary properties available for screen adaptation.

In addition, Cinema Total will be collaborating with FilmFestival Cottbus and the East-West Co-Production Market Connecting Cottbus on promoting networking between East and West through the Cottbus Lounge.

The 2011 edition of Cinema Total is part of the official supporting programme for Hungary’s presidency of the European Union in the first six months of next year.


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