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18 MEDIA supported films in the spotlight at Cannes Film Festival

The 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival as well as its parallel competitions, La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs and Semaine de la Critique, will feature eighteen films co-financed by the EU's Creative Europe MEDIA programme.

collage of stills of the Media supported films at Cannes

18 Media supported films

18 Media supported films at Cannes Film Festival

A new edition of the European Film Forum (EFF) will also be held alongside the Festival on 14 May from 15:00-17:30, focusing on the power of networks and collaboration to increase audiences for European works ('Teaming Up for wider audiences).  The EFF will be preceded by a conference 'Be creative, talk to the bank' that will shed light on the first results of the Cultural and Creative Sectors European Guarantee Facility. A panel on 'Co-producing outside Europe: the role of the International co-production funds' will take place on the Creative Europe MEDIA stand on Saturday 12 May, from 15:00-17:15. More widely, showcase events presenting projects supported by MEDIA will be organised at the MEDIA stand throughout the Festival. More details on the Creative Europe MEDIA events in Cannes are available on this page.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society  will open the European Film Forum and give a keynote speech at the conference on financing on Monday 14 May.  In the context of the European year of cultural heritage 2018 and as part of the Commission's #Digital4Culture strategy, the Commissioner will attend a roundtable on promotion and access to Europe's film heritage.  She will also host a lunch debate on the topic Women in Audiovisual in the presence of MEPs, filmmakers, and industry representatives across the value chain. 

Cannes Film Festival official selection

Since its launch in 1991, the Creative Europe MEDIA programme has provided support to strengthen Europe’s audiovisual sector investing in European content, creativity and cultural diversity. The Cannes Film Festival has acknowledged the quality of European filmmaking by awarding its most prestigious prizes. Since 1991, 43 films co-financed by MEDIA have been awarded Cannes Film Festival's top prizes: the Palme d'Or, the Grand Prix and the Prix de la Mise en Scène/Best Director.

This year, 4 MEDIA supported films are competing for the prestigious Palme d'Or award:

Competition

  1. Dogman by Matteo Garrone (Italy, France)

    MEDIA funding for Distribution: € 360,000

  2. Girls of the sun/Les filles du soleil by Eva Husson (France, Belgium, Georgia, Switzerland)

    MEDIA funding for Development: € 60,000

  3. Lazzaro Felice/Happy as Lazzaro by Alice Rohrwacher (Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany)

    MEDIA funding for Distribution: € 61,151

  4. Zimna Wojna/ Cold War by Pawel Pawlikowski (Poland, France, UK)

    MEDIA funding for Development and Distribution: € 171,839

Screened out of competition

  1. The House that Jack Built by Lars Von Trier (Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France) – screened out of competition

    MEDIA support for Development and Distribution: € 349,051

Special Screenings

  1. The Man who killed Don Quixote by Terry Gilliam (Spain, UK, France, Portugal)

    MEDIA funding for Distribution: € 274,967

  2. Another day of life by Raul De La Fuente & Damian Nenow (Poland, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Hungary)

    MEDIA funding for Development: € 80,000

Un certain Regard

  1. Gräns/ Border by Ali Abbasi (Sweden, Denmark)

    MEDIA funding for Development and Distribution: € 36,674

  2. Die Stropers/ Les moissonneurs by Etienne Kallos (France, Greece, South Africa)

    MEDIA support for Distribution: € 30,000

  3. Muere, Monstruo, Muere/ Meurs monstre by Alejandro Fadel (Chile, Argentina, France)

    MEDIA support  via International co-production funds: € 40,000

  4. Donbass by Sergey Loznitsa (Germany)

    MEDIA support for Distribution and Development: € 162,811

Cannes Classics

  1. Bergman – A Year in a Life by Jane Magnusson (Sweden)

    MEDIA support for Development and distribution: € 61,440

Semaine de la Critique

  1. Fuga/ Fugue by Agnieszka Smoczynska (Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden)

    MEDIA funding for Distribution: € 12,580

  2. Kona fer í strio/ Woman at war by Benedikt Erlingsson (Island, France, Denmark)

    MEDIA funding for Development and Distribution: € 103, 220

  3. Nos batailles/ Our struggles by Guillaume Senez (Belgique, France) – special screening

    MEDIA support for Development: € 60,000

Quinzaine des réalisateurs

  1. Pájaros de verano/Birds of Passage by Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego (Colombia, Denmark)

    MEDIA support via International co-production funds: € 40,000

  2. Samouni Road by Stefano Savona (France, Italy)

    MEDIA support for Distribution: € 54,749

  3. Weldi/Dear Son by Mohamed Ben Attia (Tunisia, Belgium, France)

    MEDIA support via International co-production funds: € 40,000

Other MEDIA supported projects

Producers on the Move (Cannes) and Shooting Stars (Berlinale) are two flagship programmes of the European Film Promotion, supported by Creative Europe MEDIA via Access to Markets. The aim of Producers on the Move is to connect young, enterprising European producers from different European countries with potential co-production partners, strengthening their industry networks and, at the same time, providing a solid and visible platform for the next generation of European filmmakers. Shooting Stars puts promising young actors from all over Europe into the spotlight, being an essential stepping stone for launching their international careers. This year, 28 former Producers on the Move and 7 European Shooting Stars  will be presenting their films at the Festival, either behind the camera (e.g. Didar Domehri, Vladimer Katcharava, Joseph Roushop,  and Dan Wechsler for Girls of the Sun) or in front of the camera (e.g. Alba Rohrwacher in Happy as Lazzaro). Four films in competition are produced by former Producers on the Moves. Find out more here.

Creative Europe MEDIA Umbrella Stand at Marché du Film Cannes

As part and parcel of its support to the development and distribution of European audiovisual works, Creative Europe MEDIA runs MEDIA umbrella stands at the major international trade fairs for film and audiovisual content, including at Le Marché du Film at Cannes, one of the  largest film markets in the world. MEDIA facilitates access to the market for independent producers and distributors offering audiovisual programmes with strong European content. In Cannes, MEDIA will host more than 250 audiovisual professionals from 26 countries in a stand in the International Village in Marche du Film, offering them the possibility to hold their meetings in the stand premises, business-to-business exchanges, and the cross-fertilization that comes with the immersion amongst a crowd of participants chosen on quality criteria. Find out more about MEDIA umbrella stands here.

MEDIA events at Cannes

Creative Europe MEDIA programme will be present in Cannes to engage with the audiovisual industry through various discussions, roundtables and conferences as part of its ongoing dialogue with stakeholders. More details on the programme and speakers are available on this page.

Showcasing Creative Europe MEDIA

The European Film Forum (EFF) will be westreamed on 14 May from 15:00-17:30.

MEDIA-supported projects, such as the Berlinale Golden Bear winner 'Touch Me Not', will be featured in showcases taking place from Thursday 10 May to Wednesday 16 May at Creative Europe MEDIA stand. Find out more on Touch Me Not.

EU Film Contest winners in Cannes

The 10 winners of the second edition of the EU Film Contest will also be present in Cannes from 14 to 16 May, to discover the behind the scenes of the audiovisual industry. They will meet film professionals, visit the Film Market and attend screening of films selected as part of La semaine de la Crititique and La Quinzaine des Realisateurs. The contest was organised by the European Commission to promote Europe’s unique diversity of films and TV series to a wide audience. 11,445 film lovers took part in this second edition. More info on the contest.

Large support from european stakeholders in Cannes to the Directory of EU Films

Commissioner Gabriel’s project of a creating an online directory of European films has received large support by the audiovisual sector this week in Cannes. Further to a roundtable organised in the context of the Cannes festival on 15 May 2018 on this subject, a number of organisations signed a manifesto supporting the project.

The manifesto states that “the visibility of European films is still insufficient and there is still an important margin for improvement on distribution, promotion and findability on online platforms. In particular, despite constant efforts on the regulatory side, European films are still poorly represented in the online environment - only 47% of the cinema releases of European films are followed by a release on VOD.”

It therefore supports the setting up of an online directory of European films to increase the visibility of European films. The core of this infrastructure will be built by the European Audio-visual Observatory - a public body providing reliable statistics and research – and will add up to the already useful Lumiere database. A prototype of this directory will be released in October 2018.

By signing the Manifesto, organisations committed to facilitate the setting up of reliable and constantly updated data on the availability of European films online in the VOD services in the different Member States. They also agreed to explore how to complete this infrastructure with the development of new tools, offering access to the films searched, either directly or by creating bridged with VOD services. The directory will thus initiate the progressive setting up of a whole ecosystem of services around its core database

List of the Signatories of the Manifesto:  EFADs, l'ARP, Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna,  EuroVOD, CNC,  EFA, Studio Canal, Bertelsmann, SAA,  filmDoo & Fassoo, SACD, ARTE,  universciné Belgium and Film Fund of the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles

Background

Creative Europe MEDIA programme plays a crucial role in supporting Europe's audiovisual sector through the development, promotion and distribution of thousands of films/TV series as well as support to training programmes, film festivals, cinema networks or distribution platforms. Since 1991, the EU has been investing over €2.5 billion in European content, creativity and cultural diversity, helping European talents to work together across borders.

The European Film Forum is a structured dialogue between policy makers and audiovisual stakeholders. This dialogue takes place notably during Film Festivals, under different formats (such as conferences, roundtable discussions and workshops).

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