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PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE 2019

Eva Blondiau • Producer, Color of May

"One of the biggest challenges is finding a TV station"

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- German producer Eva Blondiau, working for Color Of May, talks about her previous and future projects in the lead-up to the 2019 Producers on the Move

Eva Blondiau • Producer, Color of May

Eva Blondiau graduated from the ifs international film school in Cologne in 2012 with her production of Elmar Imanov's The Swing of the Coffin Maker. Her partner's diploma film was invited to more than 100 festivals and won over 40 awards, including the Student Oscar. In 2013, they founded their production company Color Of May and produced their next short, Torn, which premiered in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 2014. Since then, they have co-produced Iosep ’Soso’ Bliadze's short Three Steps and Veronika Glasunowa and Lukasz Lakomy's feature documentary Long Echo as well as Boris Khlebnikov's Arrhythmia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Khlebnikov
film profile
]
. Imanov's feature debut End of Season [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
won the FIPRESCI Prize when it premiered in Rotterdam in 2019. She has been selected as one of the 2019 Producers on the Move by European Film Promotion.

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European Film Promotion: Which is the film you are most proud of and why?
Eva Blondiau: My career is not that long, so I have a close bond to all my films. I am proud of all my productions because there is a lot of energy and passion in all of them. I am particularly proud of End of Season because we had the courage and the risk-taking with our own money and a lot of support from partners and team to shoot a film and have freed us from a crisis. The film then won the FIPRESCI Award in Rotterdam. 

What are the challenges and merits of producing in your country?
In my country there are many production companies and therefore many competitors. In order to finance a feature film, we need to prove the national exploitation of the film, either through a broadcaster or a distributor. Distributors rarely give MGs for debut films. That's why we need a broadcaster to be able to set up a reasonably realistic budget. The slots are very limited, so the fight for broadcasters is big. That's one of the biggest challenges: finding a TV station. The next challenge is to find a commissioning editor that suits to the project.

What are your expectations in Cannes as one of the Producers on the Move?
I hope to find potential partners at Producers on the Move - maybe not for this project, but for the future - and become part of a long-lasting, fruitful and potent network. I hope to be able to use the program's attention to make new contacts.

What are your next projects?
I'm working on the fantasy drama Restless by Elmar Imanov, who already won a student Oscar and a short film at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes. His first feature film End of Season won the FIPRESCI Award in Rotterdam in the financing.

I’m also working on Otar’s Death by Iosep ‘Soso' Bliadze. The film is a Georgian-German-Lithuanian co-production. The film is in post-production. I’m also working on three feature films and two documentary films. The projects are under development/financing, three of which are planned as international co-productions.

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