Around 100 French-speaking film professionals have been meeting in Luxembourg over the last few days, having come to discover the feature-length projects that are sure to set tongues wagging in French-language cinemas in the years to come. Approximately 20 projects were presented, all in search of co-production partners as well as distribution. It was a chance for the producers in attendance to bolster their projects, but also to forge lasting relationships with potential partners who face the same challenges and problems as them.

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The 16^th edition of the French-speaking Co-production Meetings, organised by the Film Fund Luxembourg, which unspooled during the Sonic Visions music festival, also shone a spotlight on the creative and legal challenges linked to the use of music in cinema.

A session of video-pitches allowed auteurs and producers alike to present their projects, of which there was a huge variety in terms of formats (ranging from fiction and animation to VR, including the presentation of a project by dancer-director-choreographer Blanca Li, called La Veuve Joyeuse), genres and settings – taking in Haiti and the Ardennes, via Tunis and Marseille, for example.

In particular, two ambitious animation projects – L’Ascension du Haut mal, an adaptation of the cult graphic novel Epileptic by David B, showcased by French director Christophe Gérard and produced by Les Films du Poisson, and Ghostdance, a Canadian-Luxembourgish animation for adults about violence perpetrated against native women in Canada, produced by a_BAHN (Luxembourg) – piqued a great deal of interest.

The other projects that were presented included the intriguing Luxembourgish genre film Kommunioun by Jacques Molitor, a decidedly fantastical reflection on the clash between nature and culture, verging on slasher territory, staged by Les Films Fauves (Luxembourg) and co-produced in Belgium by Novak Production, and La Baleine by Sylvère Petit, which intends to shake off the dichotomy between wildlife documentary and human fiction to tell a story that closely entwines humans and the animal world, which is being produced by Les Films d’Ici Méditerranée in France.

These three days of meetings have really underlined the vitality and diversity of French-language film productions from both sides of the Atlantic, and have shown how useful it can be for professionals to join forces in order to guarantee that their works will enjoy the best possible circulation.