EFP selects candidates for Producers On The Move in Cannes

European Film Promotion (EFP), the Hamburg-based  promotional organisation, has selected 23 enterprising young European producers for the 11th edition of its Producers On The Move networking initiative which will be held during the Cannes Film Festival next month.

This year’s line up, which has been selected by the EFP member organisations, includes the UK’s Isabelle Stead of Human Film, who produced Mohamed Al-Daradji Berlinale prize-winner Son of Babylon and is currently in post-production on his new film Iraq’s Missing, and France’s Lauranne Bourrachot of Paris-based Chic Films, who produced Jacques Audiard’s multi-award-winning A Prophet.

EFP has also selected Bulgaria’s producer-director Kamen Kalev, whose film Eastern Plays had its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight  last year, and Berlin-based Oliver Damian whose 27 Films Production begins shooting soon on the hilarious sci-fi comedy Iron Sky by Finnish cult director Timo Vuorensola with Blind Spot Pictures producing.

Since its launch in 2000, Producers On The Move has brought together over 200 producers, including this year’s crop, and aims to lay the foundation for future collaborations at roundtable meetings and co-production lunches.

Past editions, for example, saw the producers of Urszula Antoniak’s Locarno prize-winner Nothing Personal, Reiner Selen of Rinkel Film & TV Productions and  Macdara Kelleher of Ireland’s Fastnet Films, meeting in Cannes as Producers on the Move in 2008 and deciding to work together. The same happened with Meike Kordes of Germany’s Kordes & Kordes when she met Estonian producer Riina Sildos of Amrion Productions in Cannes in 2007, who then boarded Chris Kraus’ drama Poll.

An innovation this year will see Commerzbank serving as a new financial partner for Producers on the Move and providing the participating producers in Cannes with information about complementary financing opportunities.