Eight promising European filmmakers at the Angers Workshops

by Fabien Lemercier

20/08/2015 - The programme features master classes for eight young filmmakers hailing from Belgium, Spain, France, Greece, Switzerland and Algeria

Eight promising European filmmakers at the Angers Workshops

24 August will mark the start of the 11^th Angers Workshops, founded and managed by Jeanne Moreau with the organisers of the Premiers Plans Festival. This year, the residency has selected eight young European filmmakers in order to help them to prepare their fiction feature debuts. Until 29 August, the residents will be able to benefit from master classes led by directors Faouzi Bensaidi, Lionel Baier and Radu Muntean, screenwriter Razvan Radulescu, and producers Joseph Rouschop (Tarantula) and Alan R Milligan (Film Farm Production).

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Among the individuals selected for this year’s event are three female directors. Spaniard Carla Simon is working on Summer 1993, the story of a six-year-old child’s first summer with his new adoptive family, in a new, rural world, following the death of his mother (produced by Inicia Films and Avalon). French director Marie Monge is preparing Les Joueurs, which centres on a woman prepared to do anything to win the heart of a compulsive gambler who disappears when his cash starts to be in short supply (produced by The Film). Meanwhile, her fellow countrywoman Emma Benestan will be in attendance at the workshops with her project Petite Sauvage!, which recounts the misfortunes of a 15-year-old girl who is leaving Algeria for France in order to go and live with her father, a former football player whom she has never met (an Apaches Films production).

Belgian director Wouter Bouvijn has been accepted with (V)Lucht, a story based on real-life events and revolving around 17-year-old Vincent, a terminally ill triplet growing up in the shadow of his two sisters, whose illness prevents him from leading a normal life (produced by Eyeworks NV). French filmmaker Hubert Charuel, meanwhile, is developing Bloody Milk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hubert Charuel
film profile], the plot of which revolves around a 30-year-old farmer who lives a solitary life and devotes himself completely to rearing cattle – an operation that ends up coming under threat (Domino Films).

Other projects that have been selected are the Greek-French film 14 juillet by Basile Doganis, which is set in the world of rival gangs on a council estate in suburban France; Those Who Work [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antoine Russbach
film profile] by Switzerland’s Antoine Russbach, centring on a father of five children, who is dismissed for gross misconduct and begins a process of soul-searching, questioning all his values (Box Productions); and the Franco-Algerian project En attendant les hirondelles by Karim Moussaoui, which follows three characters: a rich entrepreneur, a bride-to-be and a doctor, all of whom will have to live with the consequences of a decision they made recently (produced by Les Films Pelléas).