10/02/2021 - The fund’s Selection Committee came together on the occasion of this year’s first funding session, deciding to support 12 projects out of the 30 submitted

Director Christian Neuman, whose project Stargazer has been selected (© Christian Neuman)

The total sums invested amount to €8,518,846. For the record, the Film Fund Luxembourg’s Selection Committee is composed of film critic Boyd van Hoeij (the fund’s President), Guy Daleiden (CEO), Karin Schockweiler (Deputy Director), Gabriele Röthemeyer (formerly the director of the Regional Film Fund for the State of Baden-Wurtemberg), Meinolf Zurhorst (producer, formerly in charge of the film departments at Arte and ZDF) and Sarah Bamberg (acting as Secretary).

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Across the various categories drawn up, the selective cash assistance has first and foremost been allocated to writing and/or development. In terms of live action feature films, the recipients are Les Terres incertaines (€30,000, Iris Productions), which is the first film directed by Tullio Forgiarini (the writer previously collaborated on the script of Baby(a)lone, released in 2015), and the project Stargazer (€60,000, Wild Fang Films) by Christian Neuman, who recently signed his name to the fantasy film Skin Walker [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. On the animation side, the firm a_Bahn will receive €30,000 for the writing and development process involved in Ghostdance, which is directed by Nicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blies (Zero Impunity [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) alongside the Canadian filmmaker of Abenaki origin Kim O’Bomsawin, based upon a screenplay by Quebec’s Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne (known for her collaborations with Denis Villeneuve on Incendies and Enemy). In the category of live action series, meanwhile, writing aid has been awarded to Brothers, helmed by Simon Farmakas (€30,000, Deal Productions).

Regarding the sums allotted to the production of series due to be shot over the coming months, the second season of the hit serial Capitani (whose first season, having been sold to Netflix, will be distributed in 190 countries as of 11 February – read our news), directed by Christophe Wagner and supported by Claude Waringo of Samsa Film in association with Belgium, has been endowed with €1,700,000 (against an overall budget of €4,043,500). This second instalment will see Captain Luc Capitani infiltrate Luxembourg City’s train station district in the dead of night. For its part, W. (Chapter 2), by author-director Frédéric Zeimet, has been granted €148,707 (towards an overall budget of €160,697). Filming on this police series combining drama and the thriller genre and steered by Six Letters will kick off in July 2021.

Poison, meanwhile, the very first feature film directed by Luxembourg actress Désirée Nosbusch, has been awarded aid worth €2,700,000 via Deal Productions, to tell the story of a man and a woman who reunite ten years after their son was killed in a car crash; the drama 15 Jahre by Chris Kraus, co-produced with Germany and Austria, finds itself on the receiving end of €859,403 (Samsa Film) and, last but not least, the animated series Klincus by Ernesto Paganoni and Federico Milella, on which production is scheduled to commence in April 2021, has been granted €1,500,000 via La Fabrique d’Images.

In the field of virtual reality offerings, Sweet Dreams, directed by Robin McNicholas and represented by a_Bahn in the Grand Duchy, has been singled out for funds worth €995,000. Co-produced with England and Canada, the project uses food and the language of dreams to explore our complex and often conflicting relationships with the things we desire. Mathieu Pradat’s The Roaming (€328,187, Wild Fang Films) also distinguished itself in this category, while Frédéric Zeimet’s Chevalier is the only live action short film to have captured the selectors’ attention (€137,549, Six Letters).

(Translated from French)