On Monday 13 June, the National Film Centre of Latvia announced the recipients of its latest slate of funding. On this occasion, the public body has earmarked a total of €1,982,472 to support the production of five fiction features, seven documentaries and four animated flicks.

The first project in receipt of a grant is Pavel Gumennikov’s Tiger Martindale’s Survival Experts (€350,000, produced by Sergei Serpuhov for Riga-based firm Baltic Pine Films). During our interview at the 2020 edition of Cinekid (where it won the prestigious Eurimages Co-production Development Award), the director described his project as “an emotional story about a 16-year-old girl called Wendy, who creates an imaginary wilderness survival competition in order to protect her blind little sister from the news of their father’s death”.

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The other fiction features awarded with funding from the institution are Juris Poškus’ Call Me Calendar (€289,046, produced by Madara Melberga for FA Filma), Viesturs Kairišs’ Ulya (€200,000, produced by Guntis Trekteris for Ego Media), Dzintars Dreibergs’ Brothers War (€170,000, an Amber Sound presentation produced by the director himself along with Inga Praņevska, Marta Romanova-Jēkabsone and Arta Ģiga) and Alise Zariņa’s Impressions (€200,000, produced by Alise Rogule and Roberts Vinovskis for Mima Films).

Meanwhile, the documentaries benefiting from the body’s backing are Laila Pakalniņa’s Last Stops (€75,000, produced by Kompānija Hargla), Viesturs Kairišs’ Emptiness (€43,000, produced by Gints Grūbe and Elīna Gediņa-Ducena for Mistrus Media), Una Celma and Marina Nazarenko’s Women Without Men (€62,900, produced by Celma for Fenixfilm), Kristīne Želve’s Milda’s Room (€14,020, produced by Marta Bite for Bite Films), Agnese Laizāne’s My 80^th Spring (€70,000, staged by Linda Krūkle for K Films), Dainis Kļava’s Apparent Freedom (€104,000, a Jura Podnieka Studija presentation produced by Antra Cilinska) and Kārlis Lesiņš’ El Lobo Leton: The Legend of Latvian Wolf (€45,870, produced by Roberts Vinovskis and Dominiks Jarmakovič for Studio Locomotive).

Finally, the four animated features in receipt of production bursaries are Kārlis Vītols’ The Northern Star (€180,708, produced by Sniedze Kāle for Studija kokles), Dace Rīdūze’s Upside Down (€84,190, staged by Māris Putniņš for Animācijas Brigāde), Edmunds Jansons’ Freeride (€31,430, staged by Sabīne Andersone for Atom Art) and Krista Burāne’s The Magic Wardrobe (€62,308, a VFS Films presentation produced by Uldis Cekulis).

Speaking about the backed productions, head of the National Film Centre of Latvia Dita Rietuma told Cineuropa: “The projects chosen by the experts of the National Film Centre offer a wide array of genres and styles, spanning sports dramas and biopics, such as Ulya, period dramas, such as Brothers War, a contemporary comedy based on Andris Kalnozolos’ bestseller [Call Me Calendar], and titles for young audiences, such as Tiger Martindale’s Survival Experts and the animated feature The Northern Star. Meanwhile, one of the supported documentaries, El Lobo Leton: The Legend of Latvian Wolf, tells the sensational story of a Latin American film star of Latvian descent.”