For the second time, SOFA – School of Film Advancement will hold a workshop in Vilnius, Lithuania, from 17-21 September 2019. Selected SOFA alumni will get the chance to present their projects in front of experienced private investors and representatives of European public film funds.

Five SOFA alumni active in the film industry have been selected: Angelos Tsaousis and Andromachi Papaioannou (Greece), Dániel Deák (Hungary), Eva Brazdžionytė (Lithuania) and Marat Parkhomovsky (Israel). Participants in the Vilnius event will be trained by two highly experienced cinema industry professionals, Juliane Schulze and Thierry Baujard from Germany's Media Deals, a firm that organises European Investment Forums in a range of European countries, providing opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to meet up and discuss investment and partnership opportunities. After two days of intensive training, participants will present their project ideas to Simay Dinc (Co-founder of Recontact, Turkey), Patrick Zucchetta (President & Founder of Able Technologies, holding Group, France), Veikko Maripuu (Co-founder and Managing partner at Head Capital, Estonia), Lars Mattiasson (Co-founder of the xPlot platform, Denmark) and Rolandas Kvietkauskas (director of the Lithuanian Film Centre, Lithuania).

Through this event, SOFA keeps offering training for up-and-coming cinema professionals and cultural entrepreneurs in developing, financing and realising innovative projects for national and international audiences. The workshop in Vilnius offers added value to selected SOFA alumni, as it explores alternative ways of financing cultural projects in the field of cinema. This event is funded by the Lithuanian Film Centre, the German Federal Foreign Office and Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and is co-organized by Filmplus UG (Germany) together with the Vilnius Film Cluster.