CineMart selects 25 film projects for 2014 edition

International Film Festival Rotterdam's co-production market CineMart completed its selection for the 2014 edition. New projects by acclaimed directors such as Peter Webber, Naomi Kawase, Alessandro Comodin and Eran Kolirin are among the 25 film projects presented at the 31st edition of CineMart from 26 – 29 January 2014. The selection also includes three Art:Film projects and two projects from this year's Boost! programme. (See full line up online).

CineMart's Bianca Taal and Nienke Poelsma on the 2014 selection: ''We are very proud to present a lean and sharp selection of twenty-five projects all ready to be launched internationally. The projects we chose all amazed, surprised and moved us, and we feel we succeeded in including a wide array of tones, styles and stories into the selection. There is a space for gritty realism, the magical and poetic, and the absurd. We present the horror-like and thriller as well as feelgood and funny. There is a space for intimate family drama as well as politically engaged films. There are stories from the past and the present. A collection of films that we believe will find prominent places at film festivals as well as in the international distribution circuit once realised.''

High-profile independent film makers who will pitch their projects in Rotterdam include Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring, Hannibal Rising), Alessandro Comodin (L'estate di Giacomo), Eran Kolirin (The Band's Visit) and Naomi Kawase (The Mourning Forest).

Kawase's first feature Suzaku was selected for Tiger Awards Competition in 1997 and awarded the FIPRESCI prize. Previous works by Eliza Hittman (It felt like Love), Sebastian Hoffman (Halley) and Babis Makridis (L) also premiered in IFFR’s Hivos Tiger Awards Competition. All present their new projects at CineMart.

CineMart welcomes back several filmmakers whose projects received support from IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund in an earlier stage: Alexis dos Santos and Alejandro Landes (Monos), Shereen Seno (Nervous Translation) and Igor Drljaca (Tabija). Both Boost! Projects showcased in CineMart 2014 by César Acevedo (La tierra y la sombra) and Vincent Moloi (Tjovitjo) received HBF script development grants, and script coaching from Binger Filmlab.

The co-production market does not only welcome back familiar filmmakers, but also sees producers returning to Rotterdam, including Cedomir Kolar (ASAP Films), Helena Danielsson (Hepp Films), and Piotr Kobus (Mañana). While CTM Pictures' Sander Verdonk is in post production on CineMart 2011 project The Sky Above Us, he returns in 2014 with Jenneke Boeijinks debut feature Porcelain.

IFFR and CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, combine forces at IFFR in the Art:Film initiative, which connects visual art to cinema. The three Art:Film projects presented at CineMart 2014 are Fierté nationale by Sven Augustijnen, Tarda primavera by Michael Frammartino, and Invention by Mark Lewis.

The CineMart projects are eligible for two prizes handed out to distinguished projects each year: the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award (€30.000 for a European co-production) and the ARTE France Cinéma Award (€5.000). The winners will be announced during the co-production market's Award Ceremony on Wednesday 29 January.

CineMart is supported by MEDIA Programme of the European Union, City Development Corporation (OBR), City of Rotterdam and MEDIA Mundus. More information on CineMart: http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/professionals/cinemine/

Press information:
IFFR Press Office, Nancy van Oorschot / Mieke van der Linden / Isabelle de Klein
[email protected], +31 10 8909090