Denmark's Zentropa and Scotland's Sigma Films have formed an alliance to back three low-budget English-language films which will shoot in Scotland later this year.
Under the Advance Party banner, the three digital £1m films will be directed by Scottish feature debutants Andrea Arnold and Morag McKinnon as well as Denmark's Mikkel Noergaard.
The move follows the relationship struck up between Zentropa and Sigma Films on Lone Scherfig's Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself which shot in Scotland under producers Gillian Berrie and Sisse Graum Olsen.
The idea was to find a new way of making low-budget films different from the Dogme movement.
"Many others have tried to make low budget films and failed because they tried to create low-budget slates without clear concepts and without rules or limitations," says Barrie.
Olsen and Berrie set up meetings with Lars Von Trier and Lone Scherfig, the creator and most popular exponent for the Dogme movement respectively.
"We concluded that low budget films should create an environment that lends itself to real creative collaboration between directors," adds Berrie.
Trier suggested that the directors make three to four films using the same characters and actors in each.
Olsen explains: "The films can be connected or completely independent of each other, but the process should act as a catalyst for collaboration."
Scherfig and Anders Thomas Jensen wrote the characters for the films and the filmmakers were chosen and met each other last weekend in Denmark. Olsen and Berrie will executive produce, while Carrie Comerford, Angus Pigott and Marie Gade will produce. The project has received development funding from the Glasgow Film Office and will be sold internationally by Trust Film Sales.
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