15/03/2012 - Adina Pintilie, Dyana Gaye, Manuel Martín Cuenca, Marco van Geffen, and the duo Gabriel Abrantes - Daniel Schmidt will repesent European production at the 2012 Atelier.

Fifteen feature film projects from 14 countries have been selected for the 8th Cinéfondation Atelier at the 65th Cannes International Film Festival (from May 16 to 27).

Among the projects will be In Your Name by Dutch director Marco van Geffen (photo), whose first feature film Among Us [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was presented in competition at the last Locarno Film Festival.

Two first feature projects by female directors will also be on show with Touch Me Not by Roumanian director Adina Pintilie (whose medium-length film Don't Get Me Wrong was selected by many festivals) and Des Etoiles (lit. "Stars") by Franco-Senegalese director Dyana Gaye (nominated for a César award in 2011 for best short with Saint Louis Blues), a project led by production company Andolfi and that has been promised an advance on receipts from the French National Center for Cinema and themoving image (CNC).

Another project for a first European feature film will be presented at the Atelier with Franco-Portugese production Tristes Monroes (lit. "Sad Monroes") by the duo Gabriel Abrantes - Daniel Schmidt, who were noticed at the last Mostra in Venice in the Horizons selection with the medium-length film Palaces of Pity (France-Portugal).

There will also be Cannibal by the Spaniard Manuel Martín Cuenca that will be the director's seventh feature film after over 12 years, of alernatively making documentaries and fiction films (The Weakness of the Bolchevik, Half of Oscar [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile]).

The other projects selected for the 2012 Atelier are Odysseys by Malek Bensmaïl (Algeria), Run by Philippe Lacôte (Ivory Coast), Blessed Benefit [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Mahmoud Al Massad (Jordan), 3,000 Nights [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Mai Masri ( Palestine), The Untold Tale by Shivajee Chandrabhushan (India), The Dog Show by Ralston Jover (Philippines), To Kill A Man by Alejandro Almendras (Chile), The Last Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Pablo Lamar (Paraguay) and two Chinese projects: Du, Zooey and Ma by Robin Weng and Underground Fragrance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pengfei
film profile] by Pengfei Song.

Created in 2005 to help emerging and confirmed filmmakers to complete financing for their film (115 directors have benefitted so far, 72 films have been made, and 20 are still in pre-production), the Atelier will allow those selected in 2012 to be present on the Croisette from May 18 to 25 with their producers for individual meetings with the professionals interested in their projects. The Book of Projects and application forms will be available at the beginning of April on the Cinéfondation's website.

(Translated from French)