Projects from Latvia, Hungary and Turkey were among the winners at the 28th edition of the East-West co-production market connecting cottbus (coco) which took place Nov 4-6 during FilmFestival Cottbus in Germany.
The prizes were selected from 13 cocoPITCH projects in development and six cocoWIP projects.
The cocoPITCH Audience Award, with a cash prize of €1,500 and selected by industry participants, went to gothic coming-of-age comedy Tongues by Latvian director Tina Zariņa and her producer Alise Gelze of Riga-based White Picture.
Gelze, who previously attended coco with Renārs Vimba’s Mellow Mud in 2013 and Anna Ansone’s Summer Blues in 2024, said it was the first time they had presented the project to a wider audience. “We were glad to see from the feedback in the one-to-one meetings that they want this kind of project,” she added.
Currently developing the project as a Latvian-Lithuanian co-production (Lithuanian DOP Vytautas Katkus is on board), Gelze is also talking to a Finnish producer with a view to shooting next summer. “But we could also use the meetings in Cottbus to explore alternative options for co-production partners,” says the producer.
Tongues was also one of three projects to receive the MIDPOINT Consulting Award along with the Polish filmmaker Jan Bujnowski’s debut feature Teresa and Armenian director Lilit Movsisyan’s comedy drama Virgin Mary.
Berlin-based director Vera Pirogova and Estonian producer Kristen Aigro of Stellar Film were presented with Romanian post production outfit Avanpost’s award of in kind services worth up to €15,000 for their debut feature Svetlana about a 55-year-old woman who believes that falling in love will make her cancerous tumour disappear.
The Croatian Audiovisual Centre’s €5,000 Project Development Award towards further development of a project went to the magical realist pseudo-documentary drama Something Wild, by Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Konrad, about a middle-class Budapest family thrown into crisis when their daughter begins transforming into a bear.
The film’s Cork-based producer Maya Korn said the development cash prize will allow director Zsuzsi to write the first draft of the script. The short film version of the project premiered last year in Tallinn where it won the best short prize.
The Producers Network Award, consisting of free accreditation to the Producers Network at next year’s Marché du Film in Cannes, went to one of the producers of Katarína Gramatová’s second feature film project White Gypsy which is being structured as a Slovak-Czech-UK co-production between the director’s own company džanes, DNA Production and UK producer Jack Tarling’s Shudder Films to shoot at locations across Slovakia, Czech Republic, the US and UK.
This year’s cocoPITCH jury was made up of producers Adis Đapo (SCCA/pro.ba), Natalia Grzegorzek (Koskino) and Zorana Mušikić (Mayana Films).
Meanwhile, cocoWIP’s international jury comprising sales agent Natalia Dąbrowska (New Europe Film Sales), producer Daria Moheb Zandi and postproduction house sponsors Lukáš Moudrý (Studio Beep) and Robert Wunsch (D-Facto Motion) gave awards to two of the films presented in this year’s showcase of six works in progress.
The D-Facto Motion WIP Award of €12,000 in-kind services went to the Turkish-French co-production This Is It, The Apocalypse presented by director Balahan Gürel and his producer Aysun Karaman of Istanbul-based Rename Media.
Prague-based Studio Beep’s €6,000 Sound Post-Production Award was awarded to Switched Stance, presented by Hungarian director Dániel Füzes and his producer Ádám Farkas of CineSuper.
Commenting on this year’s edition, Film Republic’s Xavier Henry-Rashid pointed to the impressive curation of projects from Central and Eastern Europe.”
“One thing which was evident was the need for productions to push beyond their traditional Eurocentric/soft funders, with several, for example, including production partners from the UK or important cable/SVOD platforms,” he added.
Reason8 Film’s Denis Krupnov said it was “good to see Roma people final getting their place as a minority on the cinema screen,” in reference to cocoPITCH selection Katarína Gramatová’s White Gypsy based on the life of an albino Roma boxer from Slovakia, and the presentation of work in progress footage from Hana Hančinová’s debut feature Interest about a Roma girl winning a regional race in Slovakia wearing only her worn-out ballerina shoes.
First-time attendee, producer Piotr Smiechowski of Poland’s Telemark, said that the event’s “compact and intimate size makes it very cozy and means that you can really connect with people,” whilst another first time attendee, Intramovies’ festival manager Giuditta Giuffrida, praised the “interesting range” and “high quality” of projects in both the WIP and pitch sections.
Croatian director Veno Mušinović, who was in Cottbus with producer Aleksandar Arsovski of Zagreb-based Wolfgang & Dolly to pitch “Balkan-Americana” road comedy Cargo To The South, added that “from the very first meeting, it was clear that Cottbus is a festival shaped by a long tradition and strong, lasting connections.”
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