PALME D’OR 
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT by Jafar Panahi
Produced by Philippe Martin (ACE France) and David Thion (ACE France)

GRAND PRIX – COMPETITION
SENTIMENTAL VALUE by Joachim Trier
Produced by Andrea Berentsen Ottmar (ACE Norway)
Co-produced by Jonas Dornbach (ACE Germany), Janine Jackowski (ACE Germany)

JOINT JURY PRIZE – COMPETITION
SIRAT by Olivier Laxe
Produced by Mani Mortazavi (ACE France)

BEST DIRECTOR  – COMPETITION
THE SECRET AGENT by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Co-produced by Leontine Petit & Erik Glijnis (ACE The Netherlands)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS – COMPETITION
Nadia Melliti for
LA PETITE DERNIÈRE by Hafsia Herzi
Produced by Julie Billy (ACE France)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR- COMPETITION
Wagner Moura for
THE SECRET AGENT by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Co-produced by Leontine Petit & Erik Glijnis (ACE The Netherlands)

FIPRESCI AWARD – COMPETITION
THE SECRET AGENT by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Co-produced by Leontine Petit & Erik Glijnis (ACE The Netherlands)

UN CERTAIN REGARD PRIZE
THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO by Diego Céspedes
Co-produced by Jakob D. Weydemann (ACE Germany)

BEST DIRECTOR – UN CERTAIN REGARD
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA by Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser
Co-produced by Dorothe Beinemeier (ACE Germany)

BEST ACTRESS – UN CERTAIN REGARD
Cleo Diára for
O RISO E A FACA by Pedro Pinho
Produced by Filipa Reis (ACE Portugal)
Co-produced by Radu Stancu (ACE Romania)

BEST SCREENPLAY – UN CERTAIN REGARD
PILLION by Harry Lighton
Produced by Ed Guiney (ACE Ireland)

SPECIAL MENTION CAMERA D’OR – UN CERTAIN REGARD
MY FATHER’S SHADOW by Akinola Davies Jr.
Executive produced by Ed Guiney (ACE Ireland)

QUEER PALM
LA PETITE DERNIÈRE by Hafsia Herzi
Produced by Julie Billy (ACE France)

AFCAE AWARD
THE SECRET AGENT by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Co-produced by Leontine Petit & Erik Glijnis (ACE The Netherlands)

CST AWARD FOR BEST ARTIST-TECHICIAN
Ruben Impens and Stéphane Thiébaut for
ALPHA by Julia Ducournau
Co-produced by Jean-Yves Roubin (ACE Belgium)

PALM DOG
Panda for
THE LOVE THAT REMAINS by Hlynur Pálmason
Produced by Anton Máni Svansson (ACE Iceland)
Co-produced by Eva Jakobsen (ACE Denmark)
Developed during the ACE 33 Annual Programme

COMPETITION

ALPHA by Julia Ducournau
Co-produced by Jean-Yves Roubin (ACE Belgium)

DOSSIER 137 by Dominik Moll
Produced by Carole Scotta (ACE France)

EAGLES OF THE REPUBLIC by Tarik Saleh
Co-produced by Monica Hellström (ACE Denmark)
and Misha Jaari (ACE Finland)

THE HISTORY OF SOUND by Oliver Hermanus
Co-produced by Giovanni Pompili (ACE Italy)

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT by Jafar Panahi
Produced by Philippe Martin (ACE France) and David Thion (ACE France)

LA PETITE DERNIÈRE by Hafsia Herzi
Produced by Julie Billy (ACE France)

RENOIR by Chie Hayakawa
Produced by Fran Borgia (ACE Singapore)

THE SECRET AGENT by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Co-produced by Leontine Petit & Erik Glijnis (ACE The Netherlands)

SENTIMENTAL VALUE by Joachim Trier
Produced by Andrea Berentsen Ottmar (ACE Norway)
Co-produced by Jonas Dornbach (ACE Germany), Janine Jackowski (ACE Germany)

SIRAT by Olivier Laxe
Produced by Mani Mortazavi (ACE France)

TWO PROSECUTORS by Sergei Loznitsa
Co-produced by Viola Fügen (ACE Germany) and Alise Gelze (ACE Latvia)

CANNES PREMIERES

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JOSEF MENGELE by Kirill Serebrennikov
Co-produced by Hernán Musaluppi (ACE Argentina)

THE LOVE THAT REMAINS by Hlynur Pálmason
Produced by Anton Máni Svansson (ACE Iceland)
Co-produced by Eva Jakobsen (ACE Denmark)
Developed during the ACE 33 Annual Programme

UN CERTAIN REGARD

CARAVAN by Zuzana Kirchnerová
Co-produced by Carlo Cresto-Dina (ACE Italy)

MY FATHER’S SHADOW by Akinola Davies Jr.
Executive produced by Ed Guiney (ACE Ireland)

THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO by Diego Céspedes
Co-produced by Jakob D. Weydemann (ACE Germany)

O RISO E A FACA by Pedro Pinho
Produced by Filipa Reis (ACE Portugal)
Co-produced by Radu Stancu (ACE Romania)

ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA by Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser
Co-produced by Dorothe Beinemeier (ACE Germany)

A PALE VIEW OF HILLS by Kei Ishikawa
Co-produced by Mariusz Włodarski (ACE Poland)

PILLION by Harry Lighton
Produced by Ed Guiney (ACE Ireland)

SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE

REEDLAND by Sven Bresser
Produced by Marleen Slot (ACE The Netherlands)
Co-produced by Dries Phlypo (ACE Belgium)

SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE – SHORTS

ERASERHEAD IN A KNITTED SHOPPING BAG by Lili Koss
Produced by Vanya Rainova (ACE Bulgaria)

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT

PEAK EVERYTHING by Anne Émond
Produced by Sylvain Corbeil (ACE Canada)

YES! by Nadav Lapid
Co-produced by Janine Teerling (ACE Cyprus) and
Jonas Dornbach and Janine Jackowski (ACE Germany)

OUT OF COMPETITION

THE RICHEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD by Thierry Klifa
Co-produced by Jacques-Henri Bronckart (ACE Belgium)

BRIDES by Nadia Fall premiered during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Producer Nicky Bentham (ACE United Kingdom) brought the project to the ACE 31 Annual Programme, where she met fellow producer Marica Stocchi (ACE Italy), and they produced the film together. ACE sat down with them to discuss their journey from their meeting in the workshop, until the premiere at Sundance.

Two teenage girls in search of freedom, friendship, and belonging run away from their lives in the UK with a dangerous plan of travelling to Syria.

How are you looking back at the premiere during Sundance earlier this year?
The premiere in Sundance was great! It’s such an amazing festival for filmmakers, they were very supportive and welcoming to us, and the film was received very well! So that was lovely.

On the ‘friend’ side, it was wonderful to experience the film together with the team. Nicky found a house where we were staying in with 10 women, who all worked on the film, and we lived together for almost one week. We shared so many nice moments together during the festival and the premiere, but also at the house in the mornings and evenings, or even eating a pasta at night together.

How did the ACE Annual Programme benefit you as a producer, and your ACE project?
The ACE Annual Programme played a pivotal role in the realisation of Brides. Nicky applied with the project for the workshop, as she knew she had to shoot a part of the film aboard and wanted to investigate all options for this. Soon after the start of the programme, after meeting Marica, Nicky quickly identified that Italy could possibly be a sensible option. During the Financing Strategies Workshop, we’re asked to present a few different financing plans, but she didn’t really find anything that would work as well as Italy. Marica also responded very strongly to the material and the project, so already very early, it seemed like a natural fit.

Our group of producers in the workshop was so wonderful, we learned a lot from each other. It’s just as much give as there is take, which is very valuable. Nicky knew that there was no way to make this project on her own, so the camaraderie and reciprocity of the group was very important to her.

Nicky really came to the ACE Annual Programme to define the finance strategy. There was already a strong script, and although the international perspectives on it by fellow participants and consultants were important, the film was already there. But, during the workshop, Nicky could really explore the financing opportunities with European co-producers and investigate which options would be the most viable.

Also important to note is that we met our sales agent Bankside during the workshop. They were present for the Financing Strategies Workshop and approached us afterwards to collaborate. So, every step of the workshop was a big success to us.

What was the most challenging in getting this film from script to the screen?
Bringing this film to life was far from easy, there were many challenges like shooting a low budget film in three countries, but these felt like things that we had in our control.

The most challenging was the financing the project from the UK and Italy. It is very challenging for European countries to work with the UK, as the two systems are very different. In a financing plan it works, but if you compare the financing and legal frameworks of the UK and Italy, they are not compatible. So, on paper, it wouldn’t really work, and perhaps the co-production wouldn’t have worked if it wasn’t between Nicky and Marica, because there was a click between us from the beginning, and Marica responded so strongly to the project from the first pitch.

There were moments when it all felt so precarious that it could collapse, hitting a dead end, or something didn’t work out or fell through. We also really needed each other for support and to drag each other through these times.

Also meeting each other in a workshop like the Annual Programme helped, as we could really get to know each other during the three different sessions. It would have been difficult to take this leap of faith without knowing each other this well.

What’s ahead for you and your company? What are you currently working on?
Basically, we are contacted daily about co-productions between Italy and the UK, from Italian or UK producers with a project, or producers who want to be introduced to Nicky or Marica. That’s like a full-time job now.

Nicky and Marica are now developing a new project with the same writer and director team, set in Rome, so we hope our collaboration will continue. Now that we know we can do it, we want to do it more often! It was too much of a success and such a stress to not do it again.

Marica is participating in the ACE Animation Special, so now she has done all the programmes ACE has to offer. She previously participated in the ACE Leadership Special, and the Series Special. The series she developed was on air last year, and we’re currently working on the second season.

Competition

THE SAFE HOUSE by Lionel Baier
Co-produced by Yaël Fogiel (ACE France)

HOT MILK by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Produced by Giorgos Karnavas (ACE Greece)

MOTHER’S BABY by Johanna Moder
Produced by Oliver Neumann (ACE Austria)
Co-produced by Viola Fügen (ACE Germany)

THE BLUE TRAIL by Gabriel Mascaro
Co-produced by Marleen Slot (ACE The Netherlands)

REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND by Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani
Co-produced by Gilles Chanial (ACE Luxembourg) and Bart van Langendonck (ACE Belgium)

THE ICE TOWER by Lucile Hadžihalilović
Co-produced by Ingmar Trost (ACE Germany)

YUNAN by Ameer Fakher Eldin
Produced by Dorothe Beinemeier (ACE Germany)

Perspectives

HOW TO BE NORMAL AND THE ODDNESS OF THE OTHER WORLD by Florian Pochlatko
Produced by Arash T. Riahi (ACE Austria)

LITTLE TROUBLE GIRLS by Urška Đukić
Co-produced by Miha Cernec (ACE Slovenia), Dragana Jovovic (ACE Serbia) and Julie Paratian (ACE France)

PUNCHING THE WORLD by Constanze Klaue
Produced by Alexander Wadouh (ACE Germany)

Berlinale Special Gala

LATE SHIFT by Petra Volpe
Produced by Reto Schärli (ACE Switzerland)

KÖLN 75 by Ido Fluk
Co-produced by Erik Glijnis (ACE The Netherlands), Leontine Petit (ACE The Netherlands), Dries Phlypo (ACE Belgium)

Berlinale Special

NO BEAST. SO FIERCE by Burhan Qurbani
Produced by Fabian Maubach (ACE Germany)

Panorama

BEGINNINGS by Jeanette Nordahl
Produced by Eva Jakobsen (ACE Denmark)
Co-produced by Erik Glijnis (ACE The Netherlands), Leontine Petit (ACE The Netherlands) and Dries Phlypo (ACE Belgium)

DELICIOUS by Nele Mueller-Stöfen
Produced by Jonas Dornbach (ACE Germany) and Janine Jackowski (ACE Germany)

THE UGLY STEPSISTER by Emilie Blichfeldt
Co-produced by Ada Solomon (ACE Romania) and Mariusz Włodarski (ACE Poland)

DREAMERS by Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor
Produced by Emily Morgan (ACE United Kingdom)

PAUL by Denis Côté
Produced by Hany Ouichou (ACE Canada)

Generations

OUR WILDEST DAYS by Vasilis Kekatos
Co-produced by Jamila Wenske (ACE Germany)

PATERNAL LEAVE by Alissa Jung
Produced by Viola Fügen (ACE Germany)
Executive produced by Mario Gianani (ACE Italy)

SANDBAG DAM by Cejen Cernic
Produced by Ankica Juric Tilic (ACE Croatia)

Forum

SCARS OF A PUTSCH by Nathalie Borgers
Co-produced by Olivier Dubois (ACE Belgium)