04/12/2023 - Last week, the body granted development and production support to 23 new projects, including 12 fiction features, two series and five animated flicks

Director Donato Rotunno, who has received €120,000 worth of development support for his documentary feature Capitales Europe – La bataille des sièges (© Tarantula)

After holding meetings from 13-17 November, the members of the Film Fund Luxembourg selection committee have announced that the fund will be backing 23 new projects – 12 fiction features, five animated features, one documentary feature, one drama series, one animated series, one fiction short and two VR projects. The beneficiaries of this year’s final round of funding were announced by the film body last week.

Fourteen projects will be in receipt of development support. The eight fiction features backed by the organisation are Gintaré Parulyte’s Alpha Amen (€60,000, produced by Red Lion), Christophe Wagner’s Arjin (€60,000, a Samsa Film presentation), Isabelle Marinov and Simon Farmakas’s Boy Underground (€60,000, staged by Deal Productions), Julien Becker’s Echos (€60,000, a Skill Lab production), Govinda Van Maele’s Headless (€60,000, produced by Les Films Fauves), Myriam Muller’s E Lëtzerbuerger mann (€90,000, also staged by Samsa Film), Emile V Schlesser’s Mortal Beings (€51,879, produced by 35M Films) and Cyrus Neshvad’s On se retrouve toujours (€60,000, produced by Cyne Films). The list of projects benefiting from development support is rounded off by Hefang Wei’s animated series Mission Magique à Mexico (€30,000, produced by Mélusine Productions), Donato Rotunno’s documentary feature Capitales Europe – La bataille des sièges (€120,000, produced by Tarantula Luxembourg), Thierry “Gordon” Guernet’s VR project Les animaux parlent (€45,000, produced by a_BAHN), along with three animated features: Alexandre Espigares’ The Sad Goddess (€60,000, a Bidibul Productions presentation), Chérifa Bakhti’s Dudley and the Invasion of the Space Bugs (€60,000, staged by Fabrique d’Images) and Iryna Tsylik’s Red Zone (€45,000, another production courtesy of a_BAHN – see the interview).

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Meanwhile, the project awarded the biggest production grant (€3 million out of a total budget of €3.99 million) is the period crime-drama series Marginal, created by Loïc Tanson with Frédéric Zeimet, Jonathan Becker and Katia Lanero Zamora for Samsa Film. A co-production with Belgian partners, the show is set to enter production in March 2024. Set in the first few years of the 20th century, it zooms in on an investigating judge and a police corporal who work on difficult cases, leading them to explore the margins of their transforming society, “where victims and perpetrators merge”.

Next, four fiction features received production support – Yuki Kawamura’s 1960s-set drama Ama (€1.21 million, led by Les Films Fauves with Japanese and French partners, and set to enter production in September 2024), Nabil Ben Yadir and Mokhtaria Badaoui’s Baronnes (€1.14 million, staged by Wady Films with Belgian partners, set to enter production next month), Udita Bhargava’s Kohinoor (€200,000, spearheaded by Amour Fou Luxembourg with German partners) and Miroslav Terzic’s The Excursion (€200,000, set to enter production in August 2024, produced by Paul Thiltges Distributions and co-produced with Serbian, Bulgarian, Italian and Croatian studios).

Finally, the remaining production grants have been handed to Roxanne Péguet’s fiction short Mia Mio (€120,000, a Red Lion production), Kate Voet and Victor Maes’ VR project The Time of a Moment (€253,000, produced by Tarantula Luxembourg with Belgian and Dutch outfits) and two animated features - Ali Samadi Ahadi’s Go With the Floh (€1.5 million, produced by Amour Fou Luxembourg with Austrian and German firms) and Rémy Schaepman’s Les enfants de la liberté (€1.5 million, produced by Mélusine Productions with French partners).