13. September 2018 | redaktion The international jury of the first edition of European Work in Progress Cologne is now confirmed: producer Jonas Dornbach (Germany, Komplizen Film), international film consultant & marketing expert Olimpia Pont Cháfer (Spain, European Art Cinema Day & festival delegate), sales & acquisitions professional Aistė Račaitytė (Lithuania, Kino Pavasaris Distribution & Vilnius Film Festival) and distributor & producer Pernille Munk Skydsgaard (Denmark, 41 Shadows). For this year’s newly initiated market platform EWIP 25 high quality feature film projects in production or post-production have been selected out of more than a 100 submissions from 49 countries. The four jury members will award three projects with vouchers for post-production services endowed with 20,000 €, respectively 15,000 € provided by the MMC Studios as well as a voucher for sound post-production services worth 10,000 € by the K13 Studios. Leopold Grün, Managing Director of AG Verleih: “We are very happy to have won such a top-class jury for our first edition of European Work in Progress Cologne and look forward to working with them.” Jonas Dornbach, since 2010 an established member and producer of Komplizen Film (“Toni Erdmann”, “Western”). Prior he was CEO of his own company Kinoherz in Berlin. He works with directors such as Maren Ade, Benjamin Heisenberg, Sonja Heiss, Vanessa Jopp, Valeska Grisebach, Miguel Gomes, Barbara Albert, Jasmila Zbanic and Hans Weingartner. Olimpia Pont Cháfer is an esteemed international film consultant born in Spain. She has worked for different film festivals such as FICCO in Mexico City, Sarajevo Film Festival or Seville European Film Festival. Between 2008 and 2016 she was head of the sales department at the Coproduction Office. Since 2017 she is project manager of the European Art Cinema Day. Aistė Račaitytė, since 2017 head of Sales & Acquisitions at Kino Pavasaris Distribution, a Vilnius based distribution company which acquires auteur films for Baltic countries. She also works as programmer at Vilnius International Film Festival, the largest and most important cinema event in Lithuania. Over more than 20 years, the festival has become a highly-attended cultural phenomenon which also distributes around 20 art house films every year. Pernille Munk Skydsgaard founded the production and distribution company 41Shadows in 2012. Prior she worked for many years as Head of Marketing and Festival Manager for the Danish Film Institute and was a consultant at MEDIA Desk Denmark. “We asked ourselves recently a lot: what can cinema do? And we don`t want to overestimate the power of it but we truly believe there is no other medium that can take us so easily to foreign places, times and into other people’s heads. With its new initiative, EWIP is making an important contribution to strengthening cinema. In this sense, I am happy to be part of the EWIP jury”, adds producer Jonas Dornbach. European Work in Progress Cologne will take place from October 9th to 11th, 2018 during the Film Festival Cologne. European Work in Progress Cologne is an initiative by AG Verleih, the association of German independent distributors and supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, one of Germany’s leading film funding institutions. The industry event aims to create opportunities to collaborate with experienced sales agents, distributors, producers, commissioning editors, financiers, festival representatives as well as other complementary partners. In addition to one-to-one meetings, EWIP offers a supporting programme consisting of moderated panels in collaboration with Creative Europe Desks Germany and EAVE, evening events and the award ceremony for the best projects. More information can be found here on our website or on Facebook www.facebook.com/europeanworkinprogress/. The agency rische & co pr manages the publicity work for European Work in Progress Cologne 2018. Pictures and publicity material are available in their download area. Please feel free to contact us if you need further material or have any questions.
