A look at two recent projects to have been showcased at CineMart.

COUNTRY TEACHER

Director: Bohdan Slama

Producer: Pavel Strnad, Negativ Film Productions

Country: Czech Republic

This was the second time a project by Czech director Slama had been selected for CineMart. His second feature, Something Like Happiness, was presented in 2003 and had a successful festival run on completion, winning major prizes (notably in San Sebastian) and selling widely.

When presenting Country Teacher at CineMart in January 2007, Negativ concluded a deal for Wild Bunch to board the film.

"We went to Rotterdam to see what interest there was in the project," recalls producer Strnad. "It was a good way to introduce it to the industry."

CineMart proved the perfect springboard for moving the film into production. Country Teacher began shooting in June and is in post-production. It is due to be released in the Czech Republic in March and could be a contender for Cannes in May.

Strnad suggests there are obvious advantages to having a sales agent on board even before the film started shooting. Wild Bunch also handled Something Like Happiness but boarded the project at a much later stage.

Co-producers are Pallas Film (Germany) and Why Not Productions (France). The film is supported by the Czech Film Fund, MDM and Eurimages.

OU EST LA MAIN DE L'HOMME SANS TETE

Director: Guillaume Malandrin

Producer: Vincent Tavier, Guillaume Malandrin, Adriana Piasek-Wanski

Prod co: La Parti Production

Co-prod: Lumiere Producties Bvba

Partner: Moviestream Entertainment

According to CineMart organisers, the great match of CineMart 2005 was between two production companies.

The Dutch company Graniet Film presented the project Ober, by Alex van Warmerdam, and the Belgium company La Parti presented Ou Est La Main De L'Homme Sans Tete by Guillaume Malandrin, and the firms decided to pair up on the two projects.

Ober had its world premiere at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, had a successful festival run and has sold to various territories. Ou Est La Main De L'Homme Sans Tete was completed in 2007.

La Parti is already a partner on van Warmerdam's next project, De Laatste Dagen Van Emma Blank, which will be presented at this year's CineMart.