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SEVILLE 2019 SEFF Industry / Awards

Carlo D’Ursi and Marina Seresesky strike gold at Seville’s European Coproductions Meeting

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- Introduced for the first time this year at the 16th Seville European Film Festival, the event promises to become a new highlight of the programme for industry professionals

Carlo D’Ursi and Marina Seresesky strike gold at Seville’s European Coproductions Meeting
The participants of Seville’s European Coproductions Meeting, with winners Carlo D'Ursi and Marina Seresesky at the centre (© Festival de Sevilla)

The inaugural edition of the European Coproductions Meeting took place on 13 and 14 November, as part of the Seville European Film Festival — a chance for Spanish and Italian filmmakers to come together and showcase their collaborative projects. Following the presentation of the ten shortlisted projects, the jury — made up of Antonio Pérez (Maestranza Films and Suroeste Films), Sara Santaella (Arte Sonora Estudios) and Laura Pugno (Centro Cultural Italiano de Madrid) — opted to award the top prizes to Carlo D’Ursi and Argentinian-Spanish filmmaker Marina Seresesky. D’Ursi takes home the Seville Festival Award (a cash prize of €3,000) while Seresesky receives the Arte Sonora Award (€5,000 in postproduction services).

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The first winning project is the feature-length debut of director Carlo D’Ursi, who also produces for his company Potenza Producciones. The film explores the links between Italy’s Red Brigades and the Basque terrorist group ETA, through the stories of Francesco and Agustín, who are thrown together in 1977 by an attempt to mount a joint operation to murder the Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro. Francesco’s embroilment in this crime sees him travel from Italy to ETA’s training grounds in the Basque Country, where he quickly becomes caught up in an incident that will rock the very foundations of his ideals. Still at the writing stage and on the hunt for partners for all stages of production, the project won over the jury with its focus on “an aspect of the history between Italy and Spain that has never been tackled in film with any great originality” and its director who “perfectly symbolises the ties between our two countries, being half Spanish, half Italian.”

The second winner is the new feature from Marina Seresesky, director of The Open Door [+see also:
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trailer
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]
and A Remarkable Tale [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, marking a return to her Latin American roots. Carlos and Margarita were once the most famous tango dancers in Argentina. Now elderly, the two enlist their friend Pichuquito and embark on a journey from Madrid back to their homeland to reconnect with old memories and emotions and rekindle their passion for dance. The film is being produced by María Velasco and Álvaro Lavín for Áralan Films. An Argentinian coproduction with support from Ibermedia, it is currently looking for an international sales agent and potential co-financiers.

Also selected for the competition were: Animal/humano by Italy’s Alessandro Pugno, Amarillo profundo, a documentary by Spanish duo Esther Lopera Campillo and Miguel Arjona, Caleta Palace, by Spanish director José Antonio Hergueta, Confiteor by Bonifacio Angius (Italy), It’s No Game by Alex and Federico Penzo (Italy), Josefina [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Spanish filmmaker Javier Marco Rico, Piove, by Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernández and Quattro chicos in fuga by Italy’s Chiara Rap. The directors of all shortlisted projects enjoyed plenty of opportunities to network and learn, thanks to the event’s various seminars and talks — including Chiara Fortuna of MIBACT’s presentation on the Italian production scene (see the website Italy For Movies) and Tito Rodríguez (ICAA)’s talk on opportunities for filmmakers in Spain, which can be streamed from the Spain Film Commission website.

The event was organised as a team effort between the brand new Association of Andalusian Film Production Companies for Fiction, Documentary, Animation and Series (ANCINE), the Apulia Film Commission, the AGICI (Associazione Generale Industrie Cine-Audiovisive Indipendenti), the Andalucía Film Commission and Direzione Generale per il Cinema of MIBACT Italy, with support from Cineuropa.

Other highlights of this year’s Seville European Film Festival included an outstanding edition of Make Them Circulate!, which offered a training workshop in film promotion and marketing, and a pop-up think tank on forging links between European film festivals run by members of the European Moving Images - Open Borders network, which proved extremely popular with attendees from festivals Crossing Europe (Austria), European Film Festival in Lecce (Italy), European Film Festival Palic (Serbia), Les Arcs Film Festival (France), Scanorama (Lithuania) and Cottbus Film Festival (Germany).

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(Translated from Spanish)

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