1. October 2024 | redaktion2 The participants of the upcoming 7th edition of the established industry event European Work in Progress Cologne (EWIP), which will take place from 14th to 16th October 2024, have been selected. 29 film projects have been chosen from among over 220 submissions. This year, EWIP will continue last year’s established focus on African cinema and present three projects from Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya. As always EWIP promises a new season of great film projects that can play a decisive role in upcoming international industry events as well as a network of top-class colleagues from the European film industry that is as innovative as it is successful. All projects will be presented exclusively to the EWIP guests and the international jury in a 15-minute pitching session. Furthermore, there will be direct meetings arranged by EWIPto bring producers together with distributors, world sales or other supporters. The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, October 15th 2024 at 8:00 pm. EWIP will take place in Cologne from 14 to 16 October 2024 and is significantly supported by the Film- and Medienstiftung NRW, one of the leading film funding institutions in Europe, the Creative Europe MEDIA programme of the European Union and the City of Cologne. It is thanks to the support of the Film- and Medienstiftung NRW that EWIP could be launched and has been able to establish itself in the European film industry over the past seven years. “When a film is good, it is understood and loved everywhere. And this is exactly what this year’s EWIP film selection reflects. Here, stories from the most diverse regions come together and show that great films know no borders and that their artistic quality and cultural richness are understood everywhere. We would like to thank Torsten Frehse and his team, as well as the jury for their exemplary commitment. We wish all participants great, enriching and wonderful days in Cologne, in the heart of Europe, where EWIP once again offers such an important platform for international cinema and its creatives.” Walid Nakschbandi, Managing Director Film- und Medienstiftung NRW The firmly established industry event also takes place in co-operation with the Film Festival Cologne, KölnBusiness as well as the Creative Europe Desks Germany and the International Film Distribution Summit – IFDS. Since its beginnings, EWIP has taken place in the run-up to the Film Festival Cologne. The 29 European co-productions will once again be competing on the EWIP stage for the numerous awards. Almost 60,000 euros worth of funding is at stake, which will be awarded together with the award sponsors and partners for post-production services, online marketing and international festival PR. This year’s sponsors will be K13 Studios, MMC Film & TV Studios Cologne, LAVAlabs Moving Images, TorinoFilmLab, Gruvi, Way Film GmbH, usheru and mm filmpresse. The international jury 2024 consists of five renowned and highly experienced experts from the international film industry who will advise on which projects have the potential to play a significant role in the international film scene in the coming years. The members of this year’s EWIP jury include: Heino Deckert (Ma.ja.de. Filmproduktions GmbH / Deckert Distribution, Priscila Miranda (film producer / independent film distributor Fenix), Sophie Stejskal (Filmladen Filmverleih), Urte Fink (ZDF/ARTE), Paul Ridd (Festival Director Edinburgh International Film). Selected film projects: A USEFUL GHOST (Pee Chai Dai Ka) Director: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke / Dark Fantasy-Comedy / 124 Minutes / Thailand, France, Singapore / 2025 Production: Cattleya Paosrijaroen, Soros Sukhum (185 Films Co., Ltd.) Worried about her husband being allergic to dust, Nat, a recently-dead woman, returns as a ghost possessing a vacuum cleaner to clean the house and protect her family from other vengeful ghosts in the house. To become a useful ghost, she needs to get rid of the useless ones. BALEARIC Director: Ion de Sosa / Fantasy-Drama / 75 Minutes / Spain, France / Spring 2025 Production: Marina Perales Marhuenda, Xavier Rocher (La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma) Three ferocious dogs keep a group of young people prisoners in a pool belonging to a luxurious house they have sneaked into, while neighbors gather at a party in a villa nearby to celebrate the start of summer. It’s St John’s Eve, a favourable day for magic. BEAUTIFUL SOULS (Schöne Seelen) Director: Tom Schreiber / Drama / 110 Minutes / Germany / Autumn 2025 Production: Ingmar Trost (Sutor Kolonko) It’s summer 1996. Freddy (August Diehl), an eternally youthful odd jobber accidentally arrives in a Spanish holiday resort. At first, he believes he has landed in paradise, but the first season is not yet over when he becomes the centre of the grotesque disintegration of the drop-out community he had just found. CICADAS (Zikaden) Director: Ina Weisse / Drama / 100 Minutes / Germany, France / Fall 2025 Production: Felix von Boehm (Lupa Film GmbH) The film tells the story of a friendship between two dissimilar women: single mother Anja (Saskia Rosendahl), who tries to keep herself and her daughter afloat with various jobs, and Isabell (Nina Hoss), who looks after her parents in need of care and whose relationship with her husband Philipp (Vincent Macaigne) is put to the test. DOHA – THE RISING SUN Director: Eimi Imanishi / Drama / 95 Minutes / USA, Spain France / 2025 Production: Shrihari Sathe, Belen Sanchez Silvero, Virginie Lacombe, Eric Dupont, Eimi Imanishi, Damon Owlia, Jayne Baron Sherman (Dialectic, Incognito Films, Un Capricho de Producciones, Virginie Films) Disheartened by her deportation from Europe, Mariam is forced to return home to Western Sahara. Adrift in the very place that was once her home, she desperately searches for the means to assert agency over her own life. FABULA Director: Michiel ten Horn / Drama / 120 Minutes / The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium / May 2025 Production: Sander Verdonk, Thomas den Drijver (New Ams Film Company B.V.) Desperately searching for a solution to a drug deal disastrously gone wrong, Jos together with his father Lei and his unwanted son-in-law Ozgur goes on a mad adventure through the Dutch province Limburg in search of a bag of money. But what Jos really grapples with, is in fact the continuing, agonizing question: Who or what is punishing me? FILOMINATION Director: Aleksandra Odić / Drama / 100 Minutes / Germany / 2025 Production: Aleksandra Odić, Leonie Schäfer (Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin) Filo, in her 30s, is an artist living in Berlin. She is single, has no children, little money and an active sex life. When her biological clock starts ticking she has to make a decision. But Filo doesn’t feel like counting down her oocytes. FOREIGNER (Forastera) Director: Lucía Aleñar Iglesias / Drama / 100 Minutes / Spain, Sweden, Italy / Winter 2024, Spring 2025 Production: Marta Cruañas, Tono Folguera, Ariadna Dot (Lastor Media) Catalina will see how her vacation is dramatically disrupted by the absurd and violent death of her grandmother, which only she witnesses. FUCKING FREEDOM (Ficken für Freiheit) Director: Hille Norden / Drama / 115 Minutes / Germany / 2025 Production: Annette Unger, Sven Rudat, Paula Lichte (Leitwolf Filmproduktion GmbH) Schoolmates Nore and Jonna move in together in their early 20s and party hard. It becomes clear tough that “schoolyard bitch” Nore was never the young femme fatale Jonna assumed, but an overwhelmed young girl. As Nore tries to find a suitable perspective on what has happened, a genuine friendship emerges. I WANT IT ALL (Ich will alles!) Director: Luzia Schmid / Documentary / 90 Minutes / Germany / March 2025 Production: Thomas Kufus (Zero One Film GmbH) “I Want It All” is a documentary about Hildegard Knef and how she survived worldwide successes and crushing defeats without ever losing her dignity and humor. A reflection on fame and its transience and on growing old in showbiz, told with archive material from six decades. LATE SHIFT Director: Stefanos Tsivopoulos / Social Drama / 90 Minutes / Greece, Romania / Fall 2025 Production: Nikos Smpiliris (Boo Productons) A single mother from Romania with a history of activism struggles to fit into Greek society. After being unfairly fired from her job her activist instincts kick back in, and her quest for justice clashes with her need to belong. LOST LAND Director: Akio Fujimoto / Drama / 100 Minutes / Japan, France, Germany, Malaysia / March 2025 Production: Christian Jilka, Kazutaka Watanabe (Scarlet Visions GmbH, E.x.N K.K.) Shafi and his sister Somira, two young Rohingyas, undertake a dangerous journey from their refugee camp in Bangladesh on their way to Malaysia, in the hope of being reunited with their family. MADE IN EU Director: Stephan Kommandarev / Social Drama / 110 Minutes / Bulgaria, Germany, Czech Republic / 2025 Production: Stephan Komandarev, Katya Trichkova (Argo Film) When small town factory worker Iva is revealed to be the first case of covid in rural Bulgaria, albeit not having left her town in years, she is faced with an entire community turned against her. As the death toll rises, her demonization spirals into a rabbit hole of revelations on the factory’s exploitation, the capitalization of Bulgaria and the machinery driving Europe itself. MARIELLE Director: Frédéric Hambalek / Fantasy-Drama / 93 Minutes / Germany / Q2 2025 Production: Philipp Worm, Tobias Walker (Walker + Worm Film GmbH) Marielle (12) develops telepathic abilities overnight. She can suddenly see and hear what her parents are doing in their private lives – day and night. The girl’s idyllic world falls apart, and the parents struggle with how to deal with this complete surveillance by their own daughter. MINIMALS IN A TITANIC WORLD (presented in the frame of FOCUS ON AFRICA) Director: Mbabazi Sharangabo Philbert Aimé / Drama / 79 Minutes / Rwanda, Germany, Cameroon / Early 2025 Production: Ishimwe Samuel (Imitana Productions) After The mysterious death of the young Serge, his girl friend and best friend have to deal with the grief, which bonds them together. OUR FATHER (Oče Naš) Director: Goran Stanković / Drama / 95 Minutes / Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia / February 2025 Production: Snežana van Houwelingen (This and That Productions) Dejan, a drug addict, arrives for treatment at an isolated monastery commune where he becomes the right hand of the authoritative Father Branko, until the priest takes his violent methods too far. PATERNAL LEAVE Director: Alissa Jung / Coming-of-Age-Drama / 110 Minutes / Germany, Italy / 2025 Production: Cécile Tollu-Polonowski, Michael Weber, Viola Fügen, Sonia Rovai, Mario Gianani (The Match Factory, Wildside) Alone and quite angry, a young German girl travels to the lonely winter coast of northern Italy to meet her biological father. Full of questions and longing, she confronts him with her existence and fights for acceptance, love and honesty. RUN Director: Uwe Boll / Drama / 110 Minutes / Germany, Croatia / 2025 Production: Michael Roesch (Bolu Filmproduktions- und Verleih GmbH) RUN follows a boat carrying migrants from various African countries through the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. The film focuses on the storylines of the migrants, locals, and tourists. SEA OF GLASS (Thalassa apo gyali) Director: Alexis Alexiou / Crime Thriller / 125 Minutes / Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus / Spring 2025 Production: Afroditi Nikolaidou, Elina Psykou, Alexis Alexiou (Tugo Tugo Productions) A story of violence and how it is passed from men onto the earth; a story about two women who, stuck in a run-down off-season seaside resort, come together to confront the past, family stereotypes, and the closed provincial community. SLEEPLESS CITY (Ciudad Sin Sueño) (presented in cooperation with TorinoFilmLab – Museo Nazionale del Cinema // TFL Coming Soon) Director: Guillermo García López / Drama / 102 Minutes / Spain, France / May 2025 Production: Damien Megherbi, Justin Pechberty, Marina García López (Les Valeurs, Sintagma Films) La Cañada Real, outskirts of Madrid. Tonino, a 15-year-old Roma boy, has always lived here with his family and his best friend Bilal, lulled by the gypsy legends. But everything falls apart when he discovers that his best friend is leaving La Cañada for good. STREETCOACHES VS. ALIENS (Straatcoaches vs. Aliens) Director: Michael Middlekoop / Comedy, Science Fiction / 102 Minutes / The Netherlands / February 2025 Production: Tom van Blommestein, Leontine Petit (Lemming Film) Best friends Amin (Shahine El-Hamus) and Mitchell (Daniël Kolf) work as street coaches in the lively neighbourhood of Schijndrecht. Not exactly a flashy job, but that changes when residents suddenly turn into creepy, slimy creatures. Together with a motley crew of local residents, the duo gets the ultimate chance to prove themselves. TALES FROM CHRISTIANIA (Fortællinger fra Christiania) Director: Karl Friis Forchhammer / Documentary / 90 Minutes / Denmark / May 2025 Production: Rikke Tambo Andersen (Tambo Film Aps) Explore the strengths and pitfalls of “Christiania”, a consensus-based society of 800 people in Copenhagen, where all is tolerated, revealing the challenges of one of the world’s biggest social experiments ever to exist. THE BADGERS (Grevlingene) Director: Paul Magnus Lundø / Family-Adventure / 90 Minutes / Norway / February 2025 Production: David L. Leader (73 Eyes Film Production) A spirited orphan boy revolts against his hyper-woke foster mother to realize his dream of becoming a skilled Scout, like his deceased father. THE HERD (presented in the frame of FOCUS ON AFRICA) Director: Daniel Etim Effiong / Thriller, Action, Drama / 126 Minutes / Nigeria, USA / 2025 Production: Feyifunmi Oginni (Filmone Studios) When a wedding guest is kidnapped by bandits, his wife goes through hell to ensure he returns home alive. THE PRANK Director: Benjamin Heisenberg / Comedy / 90 Minutes / Germany, Switzerland / Spring 2025 Production: Matthias Miegel, Andreas Banz (Kundschafter Filmproduktion GmbH) An April Fool‘s joke by young Chinese house guest Xi Zhōu (12) gets completely out of hand and catapults Lucas Roosen (12) and his family out of their daily routine. In the vortex of a hilarious screwball comedy, they first slide into total chaos, only to find their way back to each other as a family. They will never be the same again after the series of events that unfolds. TRUCK MAMA (presented in the frame of FOCUS ON AFRICA) Director: Zipporah Nyaruri / Documentary / 80 Minutes / Kenya, South Africa, The Netherlands / 2025 Production: Zipporah Nyaruri (Visual Asili c/o Zippy Creatives) Driving a 20t truck on East Africa’s notorious highway, also known as the ‘Devil’s Highway’, a mother’s guarded freedom faces an ultimate test when she gives birth to her youngest child. TRUTH OR DARE Director: Maja Classen / Documentary Experimental, Gender & Sexuality / 75 Minutes / Germany / April 2025 Production: Saralisa Volm (Poison GmbH) An exploration of desire in the queer sex positive party scene in Berlin, in times when the spaces for it seemed possibly lost forever. VLAM Director: Daphne Lucker / Drama / 85 Minutes / The Netherlands / Early 2025 Production: Derk-Jan Warrink, Koji Nelissen (Kepler Film) Temporarily removed from her home, teenager Olivia has to find her place in a crisis shelter between equally damaged peers and well-meaning social workers, and gains new insights about herself and the symbiotic relationship with her mother. ŻEJTUNE Director: Alex Camilleri / Musical / 103 Minutes / Malta, Germany, Qatar / 2025 Production: Alex Camilleri, Oliver Mallia (Solari Productions Ltd., Pelikola Ltd.) Mar, a young woman, is determined to claim her family inheritance and leave the small island of Malta behind for good. But an encounter with Nenu, an elderly troubadour, introduces her to the mesmerising art of Maltese folk singing, tempting her to rediscover a love for the country she wishes to escape.
