Big Screen Competition

ACE Producers has selected 17 experienced independent producers for the ACE Animation Special 2021. The intensive workshop is designed to deepen their knowledge of developing and producing long form,feature film and series animation production for an international audience including cinema, broadcast as well as streaming. Producers applied with animated features and series projects in early development. Originally set to take place during Animation Dingle it was postponed to late June 2021 in Dublin due to the current situation. The selected producers will kick off the workshop with an online session in March giving them the opportunity to benefit from the online Animation Dingle programme.

The ACE Animation Special is supported by Screen Skills Ireland, Screen Ireland, Animation Skillnet, BAI (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland) and Animation Ireland in close collaboration with Animation Dingle.

Of this year’s event, ACE director Jacobine van der Vloed said, “We’re thrilled to be joining with our Irish partners once again for the Animation Special. Of course, the fact that we’re not going to be in Dingle in March is disappointing for all involved, but after our experience last year, we’re confident of delivering a dynamic workshop that will offer our producers the key knowledge to make their way in the animation industry.”

 

SELECTED ACE ANIMATION SPECIAL PRODUCERS:

Simonetta Amenta (ACE Italy), Eurofilm

Emilie Blézat (ACE France), SCIAPODE

Maria Blicharska (ACE Poland/France), Donten et Lacroix/Blick Productions

Fiona Copland (New Zealand), Field Theory

Valérie Delpierre (Spain), Inicia Films

David Epiney (Switzerland), Alina film

Marion Guth, (Luxembourg), a_BAHN

Chris Hees (United Kingdom), Bridge Way Films

Niamh Herrity (Ireland), Pink Kong

Nicole Kellerhals (Germany), X Filme Creative Pool

Tamsin Lyons (Ireland), Ink and Light

Errol Nayci (Netherlands), Storytellers Animation

Kristy Neville (Canada), Wildling Pictures

Sébastien Onomo (ACE France), Special Touch Studio

Iris Otten (ACE Netherlands), Pupkin Film

Aleksandar Protic (Serbia), MIR MEDIA GROUP

Vanessa Robinson (Ireland), Little Moon Animation

 

Topics covered include story development, visual world building and asset creation, international production workflows in multi-country co-productions, financing strategies, physical line production, the integration of an animation department into an existing (film-) production company as well as an assessment of the demands and expectation of broadcasters.

Among the experts of this year’s edition are Oscar nominated and BAFTA winning Magic Light Pictures producers Martin Pope and Michael Rose (“Zog and the Flying Doctors”), BAFTA-winning producer Claire Jennings (“Coraline”, “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”) and renowned animation producer Simon Quinn (“Isle of Dogs”). The full list will be announced shortly. Last year’s expert line-up included Peter Lord founder of Aardman Studios, Chris Dicker, then head of development at Jam Media, Cartoon Network’s Sarah Fell, Michael Ryan of GFM Films and Jean Baptiste Babin of Backup Media.

Please find more information here:
https://ace-producers.com/animation-special/

For more information please contact:
alwilliams@ace-producers.com

A previous version of this post also included Michael Margulis (Ukraine – Kapi Animationas) as a participant. Unfortunately, he had to withdraw from the workshop.

ACE Producers is pleased to announce the call for applications for the Training Days NL, which has been set up in collaboration with the Netherlands Film Fund, NAPA, Film Forward and Eye Filmmuseum.

The ACE Training Days NL is a tailor-made 2-day programme designed for emerging producers at relatively early stages in their careers, who are looking to expand their network and learn more about the international context of the audiovisual industry. The workshop welcomes producers working in fiction, animation and documentary, and strives to make the industry inclusive and diverse.

For this workshop a total of 12 producers (6 Dutch and 6 from neighbouring countries) will be selected to join the workshop taking place in Amsterdam*. As ACE aims to encourage international collaboration, the call is open to emerging producers from the Netherlands, as well as Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.

Scheduled over two days, the Training Days NL will be themed around “The Essentials of International Co-Production & Finance”. The interactive workshop will include plenary sessions as well as group meetings provided with the help of ACE consultants and producers who have notably strong track-records in international co-production and financing, and who will share their knowledge and international expertise.

*ACE will be paying close attention to the ever-changing international situation and will make any adaptations to the workshop necessary to ensure the safety of participants and guests.

WORKSHOP DATES
29 – 31 March 2021

LOCATION
Amsterdam, the Netherlands

ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS

• Emerging producers at a relatively early stage in their careers, with an interest in international co-production (this workshop will not focus on line-production);
• Producers should have at least one credit on a short film;
• Producers will best benefit from the workshop when already working on a feature length project in development;
• Producers would need to be committed to attend the entire workshop.

FEES

APPLICATION DEADLINE
Extended deadline: 5 February 2021 (12 places available)

HOW TO APPLY
Send the following documents (in English and combined into one PDF) to info@ace-producers.com:

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact Maegene Fabias at maegenefabias@ace-producers.com

Best European Film

European Comedy

European Discovery – Prix Fipresci

European Documentary

“Collective” by Alexander Nanau
Produced by Bernard Michaux (ACE LU)

European Short

“Genius Loci” directed by Adrien Merigeau
Produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond (ACE FR)

European Director

European Actress

Natasha Berezhnaya for “DAU. Natasha” by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel
Co-produced by Erik Hemmendorff (ACE SE)

European Actor

This year’s autumn meeting of Best Practice Exchange (BPX), normally held in Toronto during the film festival, took place online.

Split across three sessions the leaders of 24 national, regional and cross-border film funding agencies got together to discuss the effects of the pandemic and the initiatives undertaken by film agencies to adjust to the new world. Attendance included members from five continents.

They talked about new priorities and policies being actively considered by their agencies for implementation from 2021 onwards, to enable the production process, the distribution sector and audience development activities to return to creative and economic health.

BPX was started by  Simon Perry and Katriel Schory 8 years ago to encourage exchange and collaboration between the funds.

Of the online sessions, Simon Perry said, “Besides providing insight into the many ways in which film funding agencies are responding to the impacts of the pandemic on film production across the world, the online forums made it clear that public funding will henceforward be more vitally needed than ever in order to sustain independent film distribution and the survival of independent cinemas.”

BPX would like to thank for their contributions:

Alex Traila – CNC, Romania
Arben Zharku – Kosovo Cinematography Center
Bero Beyer – Netherlands Film Fund
Claas Danielsen – Mitteldeutscher Medienföderung, Germany
Claudia Triana de Vargas – Proimagenes, Colombia
Chris Payne – New Zealand Film Commission
Christa Dickenson – Telefilm Canada
Daniel Saltzwedel – Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany
Desirée Finnegan – Screen Ireland
Dita Rietuma – National Film Centre of Latvia
Graeme Mason – Screen Australia
Helge Albers – FF Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Jeanne Brunfaut – CFWB, Belgium
Karen Thorne-Stone – Ontario Creates
Laufey Gudjonsdottir – Icelandic Film Centre
Liza Dino – Film Development Council of the Philippines
Luis Chaby Vaz – ICA / Portuguese Cinema & Audiovisual Institute
Matti Paunio – Finnish Film Foundation
Neil Peplow – British Film Institute
Roberto Olla – Eurimages
Rolandas Kvietkauskas – Lithuanian Film Centre
Sarah Duve-Schmid& Berenice Honold – FFA / German Federal Filmboard
Sehad Cekic – Film Centre of Montenegro
Zuzana Bielikova – Slovak Audiovisual Fund

Following the selection of eighteen experienced international producers for the ACE 30 programme, ACE Producers is gearing up to hold the session’s first workshop online from the 5th to the 10th October 2020.

Previously planned to be held in Mallorca thanks to the Mallorca Film Commission, the workshop will now be held in an online environment, due to the continued international situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The eighteen producers, based in fifteen different territories, will participate in their first workshop, concentrating on content development, specifically of the project that they each bring to the programme.

The decision was made to not postpone the workshop allowing the producers to already start benefitting from their shared knowledge. Of the decision, director Jacobine van der Vloed said, “The true importance of training and networking has become very apparent over these past months, with producers offering each other advice and support in these difficult times. We felt that we were well placed to adapt to the situation and allow the ACE 30 producers to meet each other as soon as possible and start their training.”

The workshop will offer carefully tailored sessions, which will aim to stimulate and engage the producers online, with group sessions and individual meetings, analysing the concepts, dramaturgy, and target audiences of the producers’ projects.

ACE Producers has previous experience of online events from holding regular
Networking and Support sessions for members of its Network and setting up an online version of the ACE Animation Special in mid-March, one of the earliest examples of adapting to an online environment seen in the audiovisual industry.

ACE Producers is based in Amsterdam and is supported by Creative Europe
MEDIA, The Netherlands Film Fund, Procirep, Téléfilm Canada, German Films, Screen Ireland and Focal.

“Another Round” by Thomas Vinterberg
Co-produced by Laurette Schillings (ACE NL) and Frans van Gestel (ACE NL)

“Atlantis” by Valentyn Vasyanovich
Produced by Vladimir Yatsenko (ACE UA)

“Berlin Alexanderplatz” by Burhan Qurbani
Produced by Fabian Maubach (ACE DE)
Co-produced by Erik Glijnis (ACE NL) and Leontine Petit (ACE NL)

“Collective” by Alexander Nanau
Produced by Bernard Michaux (ACE LU)

“Corpus Christi” by Jan Komasa
Co-produced by Patrice Nezan (ACE FR)

“DAU. Natasha” by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel
Co-produced by Erik Hemmendorff (ACE SE)

“Falling” by Viggo Mortensen
Produced by Daniel Bekerman (ACE CA) and Chris Curling (ACE UK)

“Father” by Srdan Golubović
Produced by Amra Baksic Camo (ACE BH), Cédomir Kolar (ACE FR)
and Jelena Mitrovic (ACE RS)

“Let There Be Light” by Marko Skop
Produced by Marko Skop (SK) and Pavel Strnad (ACE CZ)

“Martin Eden” by Pietro Marcello
Produced by Viola Fügen (ACE DE)

“Persian Lessons” by Vadim Perelman
Co-produced by Jamila Wenske (ACE DE)

“Servants” by Ivan Ostrochovský
Co-produced by Pavel Strnad (ACE CZ)

“The Painted Bird” by Václav Marhoul
Co-produced by Igor Savychenko (ACE UA)

“Uppercase Print” by Radu Jude
Produced by Ada Solomon (ACE RO)

“Wildland” by Jeanette Nordahl
Produced by Eva Jakobsen (ACE DK)

“Willow (Vrba)” by Milcho Manchevski
Co-produced by Ildiko Kemeny (ACE HU)

Competition Programme Feature Film

“All the Pretty Little Horses” by Michalis Konstantatos
Produced by Yorgos Tsourgiannis (ACE GR)
Co-produced by Fabian Massah (ACE DE ) and  Dries Phlypo (ACE BE)

“Exile” by Visar Morina
Produced by Jonas Dornbach (ACE DE) and Janine Jackowski (ACE DE)
Co-produced by Jean-Yves Roubin (ACE BE)

Competition Programme Documentary

“House of Dolls” by Tudor Platon
Produced by Ada Solomon (ACE RO)

“Wood” by Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Michaela Kirst, Ebba Sinzinger
Produced by Ebba Sinzinger (ACE AT)

Kinoscope

“Wildland” by Jeanette Nordahl
Produced by Eva Jakobsen (ACE DK)

“Gagarine” by Fanny Liatard & Jérémy Trouilh
Produced by Carole Scotta (ACE FR)

In Focus

“Full Moon” by Nermin Hamzagić
Produced by Amra Baksic Camo (ACE BH)

“Malmkrog” by Cristi Puiu
Produced by Anamaria Antoci (ACE RO)

“Uppercase Print” by Radu Jude
Produced by Ada Solomon (ACE RO)

“Willow” by Milčo Mančevski
Co-produced by Ildiko Kemeny (ACE HU)

Open Air

“Father” by Srdan Golubović
Produced by Jelena Mitrovic (ACE RS)
Co-produced by Amra Baksic Camo (ACE BH) and Cedomir Kolar (ACE FR)

Special presentations

“Another Round” by Thomas Vinterberg
Co-produced by  Frans van Gestel (ACE NL) and Laurette Schillings (ACE NL)

“Falling” by Viggo Mortensen
Produced by Chris Curling (ACE UK) and Daniel Bekerman (ACE CA)

“The Father” by Florian Zeller
Produced by Philippe Carcassonne (ACE FR)

Discovery

“Limbo” by Ben Sharrock
Produced by Angus Lamont (ACE UK)

“Spring Blossom” by Suzanne Lindon
Produced by Caroline Bonmarchand (ACE FR)

“Wildfire” by Cathy Brady
Produced by Carlo Cresto-Dina (ACE IT)

Contemporary world cinema

“La nuit des Rois” by Philippe Lacote
Produced by Yanick Letourneau (ACE CA)

“Quo Vadis, Aida?” by Jasmila Zbanic
Co-Produced by Roman Paul (ACE DE), Eric Vogel (ACE NO)

Gala presentations

“Pieces of a Woman” by Kornel Mandruczo
Executive producer Viktória Petrányi (ACE HU)

Primetime

“Trickster” by Michelle Latimer
Executive producer Julia Sereny (ACE CA)