For international producers looking for a French partner or sales agent, Paris Project is the event to attend. The four-day co-production platform runs as part of the Paris Cinema Festival (July 2-13) and attracts a wide range of European and international projects.

In its ninth year, Paris Project aims to connect non-French film-makers, producers and their projects with French co-producers and sales companies. Foreign professionals are also welcome and increasingly present.

“Paris Project was launched at the same time as the festival. It was seen as important that the festival had some sort of industry event attached to attract professionals,” says Paris Project chief Thibaut Bracq. “France has a long tradition of co-productions… a co-production platform made sense.”

Starting with just 30 submissions and 60 attendees in its first year, the 2011 edition has received more than 300 projects and will host some 350 professionals during the meeting.

The event estimates that roughly 50% of the projects presented to date have found a French partner.

In 2010, Turkish producer C Asli Filiz of Nar Film Yapim signed a co-production deal with Paris-based Arizona Films for Ozcan Alper’s Future Lasts Forever during Paris Project.

Arizona then helped its Turkish partners tap into the Aid for Foreign Language Films fund of France’s CNC. This year the film is among four former projects in post-production that will be given an industry screening at Paris Project.

The tale of a young music academic delving into her past in the ethnically Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in south-east Turkey is tipped for a major festival premiere later this summer.

Future Lasts Forever is among scores of films which have come to fruition with the help of Paris Project.

“We originally met in Istanbul but the deal was signed at Paris Project. Events like this are incredibly important for us because it’s very difficult to find finance for a film like this back home,” says Filiz.

‘We look for intriguing stories, particular universes and innovative cinema’

Thibaut Bracq, Paris Project

Other recent success stories include Hier from Hungary’s Balint Kenyeres. Les Films de l’Apres Midi boarded the film following its Paris Project presentation in 2010 and also helped it secure CNC funding. The project featured in the Cannes Atelier this year where it won the Arte development prize.

“We’re looking for projects which are going to reveal new producers or new directors,” says Bracq. “Sometimes we choose film-makers who have made quite a few films but have not had much exposure in France. We look for intriguing stories… particular universes and innovative cinema. It’s good if a project has some of the budget in place but not obligatory.”

This year’s selection of 15 projects, notes Bracq, has a strong genre theme running through it, notably in films such as Evil Woman, Cannibal and To Kill A Man.

Alongside the official selection, Paris Project will also present projects from Taiwan in a half-day workshop supported by the Taipei Film Commission and the CNC.

Rotterdam Lab projects — Ineke Smits’ N.N. and Marco van Geffen’s No Name — will also be unveiled, as well as films being developed by six present residents of Cannes’ Cinéfondation.

In addition to the co-production sessions, the event will also host a series of industry events. The Ateliers du Cinema Européen (ACE) is organising a seminar on film incentives in Europe. An EAVE presentation will explore independent film production. Europa Distribution and Eye on Film are co-organising a workshop on the distribution of non-European films in Europe, focusing on the releases of Oliver Sherman and Golden Bear- winner Nader And Simin, A Separation.

This year for the first time, four completed films to have found backing through Paris Project will be given public screenings in the festival.

“We thought it was about time we showed the public some of the films that have been made with the help of Paris Project,” says Bracq.

The selected titles include Hard Labor, which premiered at Cannes in Un Certain Regard, and Radu Muntean’s adultery drama Tuesday After Christmas, which first came to the attention of German sales outfit Films Boutique when it was presented at Paris Project in 2009.

Industry screenings

Projects