Tamara Kotevska and Johannes Nyholm projects set for Les Arcs’ Work in Progress showcase

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tamara Kotevska, Sweden’s Johannes Nyholm and Greece’s Jacqueline Lentzou are among the directors selected for the 2025 Les Arcs Film Festival Work in Progress showcase.

12 feature projects in post-production will compete for three prizes in the strand designed to help the films find international sales agents, distributors and festival premieres. The projects will be presented on December 14 as part of the Industry Village programme of Les Arcs, which runs December 13-20.

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This year’s selection is powered by women directors who are behind seven of the 12 projects selected among 163 submissions. Twenty countries are represented in the final selection, including co-production territories.

Kotevska will present her debut fiction feature Man Vs Flock. The story centres on an elderly farmer who finds himself fighting for his land against a Chinese construction company, with the conflict soon extending to his own family. An unexpected twist comes when a social media influencer crash-lands on his property and becomes his unlikely ally. The co-production by North Macedonia, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Turkey and Montenegro is in post. 

Kotevska’s Honeyland won the best documentary - world cinema award at Sundance in 2019, and was subsequently nominated for best documentary and international feature at the 2020 Oscars. Her latest documentary The Tale Of Silyan premiered at this year’s Venice film festival.

Swedish writer-director Nyholm will present Weird Elliot, about an autistic vlogger forced to vacate his apartment who finds traces of a dead body captured on an old videotape and sets out to solve the mystery. However, his mental health spirals as he confronts his own past trauma.

Nyholm is known for 2016’s The Giant, which played at several festivals including TIFF, and second feature Koko-di Koko-da which blended live action and animation and world premiered at Sundance. Sweden’s Hobab produces alongside the Netherlands’ Baldr Film.

Greek writer-director Lentzou brings her second feature A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra, which also passed through Critics’ Week’s Next Step programme last year. The film follows the titular Jo, a cool 15-year-old kid who wakes up from a cosmic dream and sets off for a high school day that will change everything when she skips classes to hang out in the streets of Athens with friends. Lentzou follows her debut feature Moon 66 Questions which premiered at Berlin Film Festival in 2021.

Bangladeshi filmmaker Rubaiyat Hossain will present The Difficult Bride. She wrote and directed the film about a bride-to-be struggling with her body image that does not appear to comply with the wedding rituals as a mysterious woman begins to visit her in her imagination. Hossain’s films have won awards at several festivals including most recently 2019’s Made In Bangladesh which played at TIFF.

German-Vietnamese filmmaker Alison Kuhn arrives with her second feature The Matriarch, about a 17-year-old who gets embroiled in her mother’s agency on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast that traffics people from Vietnam to Europe. Producers are Germany’s Schiwago Film and Tidewater Pictures. Kuhn’s 2019 documentary The Case You played at several festivals including IDFA while her debut fiction feature, comedy Holy Meat, world-premiered at this year’s Munich Film Festival.

Meanwhile, the festival’s female film composer award will go to Léonie Pernet, whose recent credits include Cyprien Vial’s Guadeloupe-set volcano drama Magma and recent Prime Video series Culte (2Be3).

“This year’s selection highlights the emergence of new European filmmakers, with eight debut fiction features among the 12 titles. We have focused on identifying distinctive and compelling narratives, with particular attention to audience engagement, while continuing to champion bold cinematic approaches,” said Les Arcs’ Frederic Boyer, Lison Herve and Jeremy Zelnik in a statement.

Les Arcs 2025 Work in Progress

A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra (Gre)
Dir: Jacqueline Lentzou
Prod co: Avion Films, Atalante Productions, Kelek Film UG, 4 A 4 Productions

A Happy Family (Switz)
Dir: Jan-Eric Mack
Prod co: C-FILMS AG

Barefoot Bull (Bul)
Dir: Petar Krumov
Prod co: KLAS Film, Harald House (Bel)

Girl Beast (Den)
Dir: Selma Sunniva
Prod co: Manna Film

Luzia (Por-Bra-Fr)
Dir: Leonor Noivo
Prod co: Laranja Azul, Terratreme Films, Enquadramento Produções, Norte

Man Vs Flock (N Mac-Gre-Cro-Ser-Mont-Tur)
Dir: Tamara Kotevska
Prod co: Video Studio Petkovski, asterisk*, Nukleus Film, Filmoskopija, Cine Planet, Zeynofilm

Oasis (Ger-Aut)
Dir: Jannis Lenz
Prod co: Zeitgeist Filmproduktion GmbH & Co. KG, Wega Filmproduktionsges.m.b.h, Third Picture GbR (Ger)

The Difficult Bride (Bang-Fr-Por-Ger-Nor)
Dir: Rubaiyat Hossain
Prod co: Les Films de l’Après-Midi, Khona Talkies, Midas Filmes, Tandem Production, Barentsfilm

The First Week Of August (Cro)
Dir: Filip Mojzeš
Prod co: Wolfgang & Dolly

The Matriarch (Ger-Vie)
Dir: Alison Kuhn
Prod co: Schiwago Film GmbH, Tidewater Pictures GmbH

Until The Day Ends (Ser-Slo-Bul-Mont)
Dir: Jelena Maksimović
Prod co: Taurunum Film, Staragara, PREMIERstudio, Meander Film — in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab within the “TFL Coming Soon” initiative

Weird Elliot (Swe-Neth)
Dir: Johannes Nyholm
Prod co: Hobab, Baldr Film

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