The results of the second Eurimages Project Evaluation Session for 2024 have just been announced and we are finding some major projects in the mix that have either began filming or are getting ready for a summer, fall, winter and/or 2025 calendar shoot. Of the ones we fancy the most we see that Quebecois filmmaker Geneviève Dulude-De Celles is moving swimmingly along with a Blue Flower, a film that will be shot in Bulgaria. It was among the projects selected at last year’s Venice Gap Market. We have Visar Morina (filmmaker of 2020’s Exil – read review) working on Hatixhe and Shaban – a project that has been on our radar since 2022. Set to shoot in September, Laura Samani received a sizeable amount of coin for One Year of School – while Iceland’s Hlynur Pálmason receives that same amount for his next project On Land and Sea. Valentyn Vasyanovych receives a smaller sum of coin for To the Victory! and rounding out our faves we find Nadav Lapid steadily moving along with Yes, and the Dardennes securing some extra coin for The Young Mothers’ Home which would be tipped for a Cannes 2025 showing. Here are all the selections (31 feature films, 6 documentaries and 3 animations):
Bells of Kabul – Chabname Zariab (France) – €390 000 (France, Germany, Belgium) Blue Flower– Geneviève Dulude-De Celles (Canada) – €420 000 (Canada, Bulgaria) Dust – Anke Blondé (Belgium) – €400 000 (Belgium, Greece, Poland) Hatixhe and Shaban – Visar Morina (Germany) – €160 000 (Germany, Kosovo*, Albania, Slovenia) In Alaska – Jaap van Heusden (Netherlands) – €468 000 (Netherlands, Canada) Jim Queen – Marco Nguyen (France), Nicolas Athané (France) – €223 000 Animation (France, Belgium) Kika – Alexe Poukine (Belgium) – €200 000 (Belgium, France) La Baleine – Sylvère Petit (France) – €200 000 (France, Belgium, Spain) Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake– Irene Iborra (Spain) – €500 000 Animation (Spain, France, Belgium) On Land and Sea – Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland) – €500 000 (Denmark, Iceland, France) On Their Own – Tudor Cristian Jurgiu (Romania) – €155 000 (Romania, Italy) One Year of School – Laura Samani (Italy) – €500 000 (Italy, France) Our Girls – Mike van Diem (Netherlands) – €400 000 (Netherlands, Austria, Belgium) Permanent Being – Juan Palacios (Spain) – €50 000 (Netherlands, Spain) Salvation – Emin Alper (Türkiye) – €250 000 (Türkiye, Netherlands, Greece) Save the Dead – Tamara Stepanyan (France) – €450 000 (France, Armenia) Sevda – Ufuk Emiroglu (Switzerland) – €360 000 (Switzerland, Belgium) Sjap & King – Mascha Halberstad (Netherlands) – €400 000 Animation (Netherlands, Belgium) The Young Mothers’ Home – Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne (Belgium) – €400 000 (Belgium, France) Tiger Martindale’s Survival Experts – Pavels Gumennikovs (Latvia) – €228 000 (Latvia, Lithuania) To the Victory! – Valentyn Vasyanovych (Ukraine) – €70 000 (Ukraine, Lithuania) Valeska – Jakob Moritz Erwa (Austria) – €319 000 (Germany, Austria, Belgium) Volcano – Mees Peijnenburg (Netherlands) – €150 000 (Netherlands, Belgium) Wolf Grrrls! – Claudia Estrada Tarascó (Spain) – €500 000 (Spain, Belgium) Yes– Nadav Lapid (France, Israel) – €370 000 (France, Germany, Israel)
Fatna, a Woman Named Rachid – Hélène Harder (France) – €100 000 Documentary Gabin, a Youth in the Backland – Maxence Voiseux (France) – €200 000 Documentary Imago – Déni Oumar Pitsaev (France) – €150 000 Documentary Kartli– Tamar Kalandadze (Georgia), Julien Pebrel (France) – €60 000 Documentary Moon Diary – Vanessa Del Campo (Belgium) – €90 000 Documentary Three Sisters – Massoud Bakhshi (France) – €97 000 Documentary (Austria, France, Germany)
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson’s "This Teacher" (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022, he was a New Flesh Juror for Best First Feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Current top films for 2023 include The Zone of Interest (Glazer), Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An), Totem (Lila Avilés), La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher), All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson).
