This year marks the fourth edition of the Works in Development – Feature Launch initiative, the project showcase organised by the MIDPOINT Institute along with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF). A total of nine feature-film projects, all developed during this year’s international script-development programme, along with the three script-consultant trainees, will be participating in KVIFF’s Eastern Promises Industry Days, and will be presented on Wednesday 28 July at 14:00 CEST. All registered film professionals, including potential co-producers and partners, will be able to attend and, afterwards, book one-to-one meetings.

Ahead of the presentations, the nine projects were developed over the course of the previous three intensive online workshops and a number of consultations in between. The initial training and kick-off ran in February, while the first workshop took place in mid-April, and the second one was held in late June. The pitching training and preparation for the presentations were conducted by acclaimed pitching tutor Gabriele Brunnenmeyer.

The best project will pick up the KVIFF & MIDPOINT Development Award, valued at €10,000, while the other winning team will receive the connecting cottbus Award and a chance to pitch at this year’s East-West Co-production Market during the Cottbus Film Festival. Meanwhile, the Rotterdam Lab Award will invite one producer to participate in next year’s professional training programme organised by International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2021 projects are as follows:

Aliya (Israel/Russia/Poland)
Writer/director: Dekel Berenson
Co-writer: Greer Ellison
Producers: Marek Rozenbaum, Alexander Rodnyansky, Paul Wesley
Co-producers: Aleksandra Aleksander, Anna Rozalska

Bijuterie (Lithuania)
Writer: Birutė Kapustinskaitė
Writer/director: Tomas Vengris
Producer: Emilija Sluškonytė

The Bomber (Latvia)
Writer: Gatis Mūrnieks
Writer/director: Pauls Ķesteris
Producer: Inese Boka-Grūbe

Brothers (Montenegro)
Writer: Stefan Bošković
Director: Bojan Stijović
Producer: Veliša Popović

Head Nurse (Czech Republic)
Writer: Václav Hašek
Writer/director: Jan Vejnar
Producer: Kamila Dohnalová

Leave the Door Open (Croatia)
Writer/director: Judita Gamulin
Producer: Rea Rajčić

No Reverse (Montenegro)
Writer: Milo Masoničić
Writer/director: Branislav Milatović
Producer: Miljan Vučelić

Thinking David (Czech Republic)
Writer/director: Šimon Holý
Producer: Pavla Klimešová

What It Feels Like for a Girl (Estonia)
Writer/director: Maria Reinup
Producer: Maario Masing

Script-consultant trainees

Olga Michalik (Slovenia)
Mikuláš Novotný (Czech Republic)
Eliza Subotowicz (Poland)