The Intouchables co-directors Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache and Sentimental Value producer Maria Ekerhovd are among the speakers lined up for the FilmFest Hamburg’s Explorer Conference.
The event, which takes place on October 1 as part of the festival’s industry programme, will also hear from Tobias Walker and Philipp Worm, the German producers of Berlinale hit Rose, and Leontine Petit of Dutch producer Lemming Film.
A key focus of the programme will be on organisational and business models for production companies, with a particular emphasis on the comedy genre and Asian markets.
Toledano and Nakache, who will also be at the Filmfest for the German premiere of their latest film Just An Illusion, will speak about the art of telling stories with humour and emotion that can reach millions of people internationally.
There will also be a keynote from Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist based at the UK’s University College London, who will offer insights from neuroscience and explore what we can learn from them about telling humorous stories.
Walker and Worm of Munich-based Walker+Worm Film will talk about how a series of productions led them to fundamentally rethink their company. The producers of Rose and Allegro Pastell will speak with organisational consultant Erwin M. Schmidt about structures, roles and company culture.
Lemming Film’s Leontine Petit will discuss alongside Géraldine Ohana of France’s Pac Story and Jérôme Denis of La Pac how leading production companies are positioning themselves through innovative strategies. Ekerhovd, of Norway’s Mer Film, will draw on her experiences of producing Sentimental Value to give insights into how independent film productions can develop internationally and find their way to audiences.
She will also speak about her latest production, Butterfly, which was partly shot in Hamburg with local company Nordfilm as German co-producer. The film, which had its world premiere in Rotterdam in January, will have its German premiere at this year’s FilmFest Hamburg.
The day’s programme will also look beyond Europe to learn about opportunities for collaboration with the Asian film industry from Lorna Tee, secretary-general of the Asian Film Alliance Network, and Taiwanese-born/French-based producer Vincent Wang, who has frequently collaborated with acclaimed director Tsai Ming Liang, while producers Heejung Oh (Seesaw Pictures, Korea), Sara Stockmann (Sonntag Pictures, Denmark) and Alemberg Ang (Daluyong Studios, Philippines) will be offering case studies on the making of two European-Asian film projects Hum and Hana Korea.
In addition, the Explorer Conference’s organisers are collaborating with the Creative Europe Desk in Hamburg to provide an update on the c state of play of the European Commission’s plans for the proposed AgoraEU funding programme.
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