Camp leader Tereza (23) breaks the rules and sleeps with teenager Jonáš. But when he’s rejected, it brings out his toxic side. Can Tereza keep the camp in order and protect herself and the kids from the consequences of her failure?
Michal Hogenauer (1984, Czech Republic) studied graphic design and holds a degree in film directing from FAMU in Prague. His diploma film Tambylles (2012) was screened in the Cinéfondation section at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2015, he co-founded the film education platform Cinergy Prague, which organises masterclasses with outstanding filmmakers. His debut feature film A Certain Kind of Silence – the story of a young au pair manipulated by a cult – premiered at IFF Karlovy Vary 2019 and won the Bronze Pyramid award for best first film at IFF Cairo. His second feature film Calm in the Canopy had its world premiere at IFF Pingyao 2023.
Marek Novák is a graduate of Prague’s FAMU, an alumnus of EAVE and a member of ACE Producers. He is the CEO of Xova Film, a Prague-based production company with an auteur-driven, eclectic profile producing audiovisual works with authentic creative vision. Recent productions include the Venice-awarded Ordinary Failures by Cristina Groșan (2022) or After Party by Vojtěch Strakatý, which premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival’s Orizzonti Extra section in 2024.
Since childhood, I’ve felt deeply connected to summer camps – my family runs one, and I was a camp director for over a decade. Camps create an intense, enclosed world where emotions run high and ordinary rules fade. The project Around the Fire explores a charged relationship between camp leader Tereza and teenager Jonáš, where desire, power, and manipulation dangerously blur. Told from Tereza’s perspective, the film follows her failure and Jonáš’s descent into control, examining toxic masculinity, shifting power, and irreversible choices. Although provocative, the story is told with empathy, capturing a few summer days where both teens and adults face loss, responsibility, and emotional reckoning.
Xova Film
Sudoměřská 893/52, 130 00, Praha 3, Czech Republic
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +420 607 240 966
Michal Hogenauer | Director
Marek Novák | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Júlia, a Hungarian anti-corruption activist disappears under mysterious circumstances on the day she uncovers a corruption scandal. According to the most recent information, she left to take her driving test. The domino of her disappearance sets off an avalanche of events that could even weaken the power of the authoritarian government.
Mihály Schwechtje is a Hungarian film and theatre director and university lecturer. In 2020, he was honoured with the Contemporary Hungarian Drama Award. His recent works explore contemporary societal issues through personal dramas. His debut feature film Hope You’ll Die Next Time :) addresses the tragic realities of cyberbullying while also exploring the theme of forbidden love. The film received both critical acclaim and significant audience success. His second feature A Hunt For Hedgehogs has received great feedback in Hungarian cinemas.
Kino Alfa is a Budapest-based film production company created in 2019 by film producer Genovéva Petrovits. She works with carefully selected talents who feel the urge to describe and reflect on our society. Thanks to the cash award from the CCB, Hungary’s first independent film fund, the company is currently in pre-production with its first feature film from Olivér Rudolf, My Mother, The Monster. In 2022, the company released its first feature documentary, Give Me Shelter, directed by Mihály Schwechtje, which won the Best Hungarian Film Award in 2020 at Verzió IFF. A Hunt For Hedgehogs has recently premiered at TIFF in Romania.
The 1989 regime change in Hungary came about essentially as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union rather than Hungarians’ strong desire for democracy. The majority of society was happy enough with the mediocre quality of life ensured by the soft dictatorship. Self-representation and solidarity has no tradition in Hungary. In the 1980s, as the dictatorship weakened, the hero of everyday life was the black and grey-market worker, the doctor getting rich on bribes, and the shop owner running a sweatshop in her flat. Democracy Work in Progress is inspired by these roots. It is an auteur film masquerading as a genre film. It mixes elements of black comedy, crime film, thriller, and political satire in a slice of mid-decade Eastern Europe.
Kino Alfa
Nádor utca 15, 1051, Budapest, Hungary
Email: [email protected]
Xova Film
Sudoměřská 893/52, 130 00, Praha 3, Czech Republic
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +420 607 240 966
Plotless Film
Frankfurt, Germany
Email: [email protected]
Mihály Schwechtje | Director
Email: [email protected]
Genovéva Petrovits | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +36 205 015 531
In Prague’s Vinohrady, Marta (20) experiences love, one first date at a time. Some are awkward, some are exciting, and each reveals a new facet of intimacy. A chaotic student party unexpectedly leads her to Tomáš, a psychology student who seems to truly understand her. Their romance feels like love that will last – until it doesn’t. Years later, they meet again. The spark remains, but can a first love ever truly be revisited?
Šimon Holý (b. 1994) is a graduate of Prague's FAMU. His debut Mirrors in the Dark (2021) premiered at Karlovy Vary and was nominated for two Czech Film Critics’ Awards. His second film, And Then There Was Love… (2022), competed in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima section and was nominated for the Czech Lion and Czech Film Critics’ Awards. His third feature, Hello, Welcome, entered Czech cinemas in 2024. His 4th film, Chica Checa, a Czech-French-Slovak co-production, is now in post-production.
Marek Novák is a graduate of Prague’s FAMU, an alumnus of EAVE and a member of ACE Producers. He is the CEO of Xova Film, a Prague-based production company with an auteur-driven, eclectic profile producing audiovisual works with authentic creative vision. Recent productions include the Venice-awarded Ordinary Failures by Cristina Groșan (2022) or After Party by Vojtěch Strakatý, which premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival’s Orizzonti Extra section in 2024.
First Dates is the story of a woman looking for herself and a relationship in order to discover the love of her life. While she eventually loses this love, she starts to find meaning in life instead. In the end, she may end up finding both. The film looks back at the transition from youth to adulthood and the moments in which we redefine ourselves while discovering love for ourselves and the world around us. This is a film about the fear of vulnerability and all the emotions we attempt to conceal. I hope the audience will love Marta's character as much as I do, because for many of us, acknowledging our emotions is a lifelong struggle.
Xova Film
Sudoměřská 893/52, 130 00, Praha 3, Czech Republic
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +420 607 240 966
Šimon Holý | Director
Marek Novák | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Kerem’s secret relationship with a man sends shockwaves through his deeply religious Muslim family, igniting a battle between faith, identity, and love. As his brother fights to save him from a dangerous exorcism ritual, long-hidden family secrets rise to the surface, threatening to tear them apart.
Nader Saeivar was born in 1974 in Tabriz, a city in northern Iran. He began his career in the film industry in 1990 after completing a degree in cinema at the University of Tehran. As a director, he has made numerous short films as well as three feature films, the latest of which received the Audience Award at Biennale Venice 2024 (The Witness). He also works as a screenwriter, including for the award-winning script of 3 Faces by Jafar Panahi, which received the Screenplay Award at Cannes, and was the director of several TV series until 2016.
Said Nur Akkus is the founder of the Berlin based production company ArtHood Films and the world sales company ArtHood Entertainment. He was born in Turkey in 1986 and has been living in Berlin since 2011. In his role as a producer, film executive, and head of production, he has made a variety of internationally acclaimed, award-winning films and has worked with Nader Saeivar and Özcan Alper, along with many other established filmmakers. Most recently, he received the Audience Award for the film The Witness at the Venice Film Festival this year. His network extends not only to the German-speaking territories, but also to the rest of Europe and the Middle East.
The central theme of this story revolves around Turkish immigrants in Berlin. The writer and director, who is of Turkish descent (Iranian Turkish), brings a deep understanding of the native culture and the ethnic dynamics of the Turkish community. While presenting an engaging narrative, the film also delves into the human dimensions of Turkish culture by highlighting traditional and religious ceremonies still practiced within the Turkish community in Berlin. Set against the backdrop of German society, the story also explores the interactions between Turkish families and German locals, offering insight into the complexities of their relationships.
ArtHood Films
Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243, Berlin, Germany
Email: [email protected]
Sky Films
Büyükdere Cad. No 201 Şişli, 34360, Istanbul, Turkey
Nader Saeivar | Director
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +493 025 561 165
Tatiana Tsyganova | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +49 176 618 93 104
Emre Oskay | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +905 352 484 808
A young archaeologist returns to her hometown to sell her missing father's apartment, but past and present unexpectedly change her plans.
Yelizaveta Smith is a film director, co-founder of TABOR, and a member of the Ukrainian and European Film Academy. Her documentary, School Number 3, co-directed by George Genoux, won the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury Berlinale 2017 and a Special Award at the HumanDOC Festival in Warsaw. Her latest film, Militantropos, had its world premiere at the 57th Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
Eugene Rachkovsky is a film producer and CEO at TABOR. A participant of EURODOC and ARTE Ukraine Generation, he produced Black Dog by Nikita Zarkh and Ukraine: Nightlife in Resistance by Maksym Nakonechnyi. His latest film, Militantropos, had its world premiere at the 57th Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
In Vacuo explores the voids left behind, traces in memory, gaps in identity. Marta returns to her hometown of Odesa after her father’s disappearance, confronting shame and rediscovering her father through absence. Inspired by personal experience, this story reflects how loss shapes us. In Ukraine, where memory and heritage are under threat, the film asks: what does the world retain, and what does it erase when someone vanishes? In Vacuo is not just about one missing person, but about the fragile human connections and the importance of remembering before it’s too late.
TABOR LTD
Dalnytska street 2, 65005, Odesa, Ukraine
Email: [email protected]
Yelizaveta Smith | Director
Email: [email protected]
Eugene Rachkovsky | Producer
Email: [email protected]
The Lime Works is based on a Thomas Bernhard novel. Konrad has been working for decades on a study about hearing. However, he hasn't even begun writing down the first sentence. In order to find the perfect conditions, he moves with his "crippled" (sic!) wife into an abandoned lime works factory.
On a daily basis, his wife is subjected to questionable hearing experiments: She must listen for hours until exhaustion to what Konrad shouts, whispers, or says to her from various directions.
Various events intensify the situation at the lime works. On Christmas Eve, Konrad shoots his wife in the head from behind with a rifle. The police discover him after a two-day search in a manure pit on the premises of the factory.
Andreas Horvath is an Austrian filmmaker and photographer. His films have premiered at festivals in Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam, winning major awards in Karlovy Vary, Chicago, New York, Haifa, Orenburg or Minsk. He is a recipient of the Max Ophüls Prize, and the Outstanding Artist Award of the Austrian Ministry of Culture.
As a photographer, Andreas Horvath has published black and white photo albums. His work has been shown internationally at solo and group exhibitions.
Andreas has served as a jury member at Karlovy Vary IFF, Warsaw IFF, Belgrade IFF, Visions du Réel, Chicago International Documentary Festival among others, and has given masterclasses in Lima, Jihlava, Belgrade, or Karlovy Vary.
From the German publisher Suhrkamp, I was given the opportunity to create a film version of the novel Das Kalkwerk (The Lime Works) by the Austrian author Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989).
Thomas Bernhard once said he didn’t understand why people read his books so seriously – he himself would often burst out laughing while writing. That may be an exaggeration in the case of Das Kalkwerk, but the tragic figure of Konrad is not without a certain irony.
55 years after Kalkwerk’s first appearance as a book, I am convinced that the time is right for an international movie-going audience to delve into Thomas Bernhard’s idiosyncratic world and invite the power of his unorthodox and compelling art with open arms.
Andreas Horvath | Director, Scriptwriter, Producer
Email: [email protected]
Anna (30) is seeking a steady foundation in her relationships, but she unknowingly repeats the manipulative patterns learned from her mother. When she crosses paths with a terminally ill patient and his devoted wife, she encounters a profound love that transforms her life.
Marko Škop is the director of the full-length documentary films Other Worlds (2006) and Osadné (2009), both of which received awards at Karlovy Vary IFF. His fiction feature debut Eva Nová (2015) received the FIPRESCI Prize for Discovery at Toronto IFF. His second fiction feature Let There Be Light (2019) received Best Actor Award and Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury at Karlovy Vary IFF.
ARTILERIA is a Slovak production company led by Marko Škop and Ján Meliš. It has produced acclaimed documentaries like Other Worlds (2006, Audience Award at Karlovy Vary IFF), Blind Loves (2008, CICAE Award at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight), and Osadné (2009, Best Documentary at Karlovy Vary). As a delegate producer, it has produced Eva Nová (2015, FIPRESCI Prize at Toronto IFF) and Let There Be Light (2019, Best Actor at Karlovy Vary). ARTILERIA also co-produced award-winning films such as Little Crusader or Ice Mother.
Láska portrays wounded souls – people consumed by their own pain and grievances, unable to love either themselves or those around them. They yearn to feel whole, to find peace within, but remain trapped in cycles they cannot break. At the same time, I want to emphasize that true love does exist – and it can always offer a new direction in life.
Artileria, s.r.o.
Drobného 23, 841 01, Bratislava, Slovakia
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +421 905 261 949
CINEPOINT
Pod Vinicemi 710/13, 165 00, Prague, Czech Republic
Email: [email protected]
Marko Škop | Director, Producer
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +385 912 821 908
Ján Meliš | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Not so young anymore, Kristof heads to the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival with his debut film and is joined by his team – lead actors Barbara and Olaf, producer Alžběta, and sound engineer Lucas. Their film, based on real events, tells the story of a couple who spent years committing crimes in a small town. As the festival unfolds, excitement turns to unease when an audience member asks if the real criminals have seen the film. The team starts to unravel, questioning their choices, their film, and the blurry line between art and reality.
Ivan Tymchenko was born in Kyiv into a cinematographer's family. He graduated from the Kyiv Institute of Journalism and worked as a political photojournalist before transitioning to cinematography and eventually becoming a director. His works include Oxygen Station (2023), a poetic drama (director, co-author/co-scriptwriter) co-produced by Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Sweden. The film premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and screened at major festivals worldwide. Beshoot (2019), a war drama, was well-received and successfully sold internationally, including in Poland, Slovakia, Romania, North America, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Tymchenko is known for his thoughtful storytelling and ability to explore complex themes with sensitivity.
Svitlana Solovjova is a Ukrainian film producer with more than 20 years of experience in film production. She was born in Kyiv and graduated from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Svitlana has produced several films, including Oxygen Station (2023), a poetic drama co-produced by Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Sweden. The film premiered at Tallinn Black Nights FF, GoEast IFF, Jeonju IFF, etc. She also produced Beshoot (2019), a war drama sold internationally in Poland, Slovakia, Romania, North America, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Svitlana focuses on international co-productions and has participated in various film labs and markets.
Oxygen Station is a deeply personal project for me, inspired by real events and emotions I’ve lived through. It explores the impact of the world around us, how our choices shape our lives, and the internal struggles we face. I wanted to mix drama and suspense with dark humour, creating a story where tragedy and comedy coexist. The characters are caught between fear and hope, and I hope the audience will connect with their journey. This film looks at moments when everything shifts, blending humour with the unsettling reality of human nature.
SvitloforFilm
26B, Ivana Franka street, of. 11, 01030, Kyiv, Ukraine
Email: [email protected]
Silk Films s.r.o.
Rokycanova 8, 130 00, Prague 3, Czech Republic
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +420 724 516 755
Ivan Tymchenko | Director
Email: [email protected]
Svitlana Soloviova | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Alžběta Janáčková | Producer
Email: [email protected]
In 1946, Jan Masaryk, son of Czechoslovakia’s founder, becomes foreign minister in a communist-led government. He battles to prevent a Stalinist coup and defend his country’s democratic legacy. Masaryk: The Coup is a standalone sequel to the successful film A Prominent Patient (2017).
Director and co-writer Julius Ševčík won Best Director at Shanghai IFF for Normal (2009) and 12 Czech Lions & 8 Slovak Sun in a Net national film awards for A Prominent Patient (2017), which premiered at Berlinale Official Selection.
Producer Vanessa Biermannová, who worked with Julius Ševčík on features The Prominent Patient (2017) and The Glass Room (2019), recently produced Once Upon a Time in the East (2024), which was selected for the Competition Section at Warsaw IFF. She is a participant in the Atelier programme and is now shooting a short film for ARTE and developing five feature films.
Masaryk: The Coup is a story of courage and betrayal – set at the flashpoint where hope dies and the Cold War begins. As today’s world once again teeters on the edge of a great power conflict, Masaryk’s tragedy echoes with haunting urgency.
In Film Praha s.r.o.
Žitná 23, 110 00, Praha 1, Czech Republic
Email: [email protected]
Julius Ševčík | Director, Scriptwriter
Petr Kolečko | Scriptwriter
Vanessa Biermannová | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Rudolf Biermann | Producer
In Purgatory, it’s not the dead who haunt – it’s the living. After their father's death, three siblings and a pregnant outsider gather in a hunting lodge deep in the forest. Surrounded by decaying masculinity, freezer-burned meat, and generational rot, they descend into a psychological purgatory where family roles become predators and prey. The food chain is more than a metaphor. It's a ritual, hierarchy, and curse. As the lines between mourning and menace blur, the question becomes not who will survive the weekend, but what part of themselves they'll have to swallow. The patriarch may be dead, but his hunger still lives on.
Žiga Virc is a director and producer known for blending documentary and fiction. His debut feature, Houston, We Have a Problem! (2016), premiered at Tribeca and had its European premiere at Karlovy Vary. It was Slovenia’s official Oscar submission and received international acclaim. In 2024, he directed Kismet, a short film featuring Roma actors, which received Special Mention at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and will have its North American premiere at Palm Springs ShortFest. In 2023, his feature Shooting Blanks, a Slovenian-Greek-Croatian co-production starring Angeliki Papoulia, was released. Virc recently completed the TV drama A Cry for Help for National TV Slovenia. He is currently in pre-production of the feature film Purgatory and the series Aristocracy.
Producers Žiga Virc and Iza Strehar bring a wealth of experience from years of collaboration with various production companies. Iza is a Berlinale Talents alumna, Žiga is an EAVE graduate, and together they run the recently established LILIT. Their recent work includes the award-winning doc series Heroines, the documentary Of Birds and Bees, and the drama features Land Stealing and Overtime (dir. Áron Horváth). They are in the financing stage with the feature Purgatory and in preproduction of the financed TV series Aristocracy, with features Liberty and Demons in development. They focus on bold, socially engaged storytelling and are establishing themselves as strong international co-production partners.
Purgatory is a personal film born from grief and reflection. After losing a loved one, I witnessed how death brings out both tenderness and brutality in families. Set in a remote forest, the story mirrors that emotional terrain – where inheritance becomes a power struggle, and nature quietly watches. The brown bear, once hunted by the family's patriarch, symbolizes what we try to control but never truly understand. Blending fiction with found footage, the film explores our ties to land, food, and each other – asking what kind of legacy we leave behind and what it really means to survive.
Lilit
Tovarniska 18, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Email: [email protected]
Žiga Virc | Director, Producer
Email: [email protected]
Iza Strehar | Scriptwriter, Producer
Email: [email protected]
Present-day Transylvania. A crumbling town buzzes over a peculiar miracle: a forest cabin burns eternally, defying attempts to extinguish it. Some declare that the fire grants wishes, sparking a pilgrimage. A Western European investor smells profit and plans a wellness centre nearby. Citizens go mad over the investment. Political schemers, get-rich-quick dreamers, wannabe prophets, and disgruntled foundry workers fight for or against construction. Old grudges resurface as interests clash. But the millionaire backs out, and the townspeople gradually forget their miracle. Meanwhile, the fire burns on, steadfast and unimpressed.
László Csuja graduated at the Academy of Film and Drama in Budapest. His first feature film, Blossom Valley (2018), premiered at Karlovy Vary and won the festival's Jury Prize. Shortly after, his feature length documentary Nine Month of War (2019) won the Jury Prize at Sarajevo Film Festival. László made his sophomore feature, Gentle (2022), together with painter Anna Nemes. Gentle premiered in Sundance's World Cinema Competition, where it received rave reviews, and after winning the East-European Film Award in Cleveland, it is slated to be showcased in festivals from Sydney to Hong Kong.
Anna Szijártó studied film history and theory at Eötvös Loránd University before earning an MA degree in line producing from ESCAC Barcelona in 2012. After managing production for award-winning music videos (SXSW, Encounters), she was the managing director of the production company Kinomoto from 2014 to 2023. Since 2020, she has shifted her focus towards cinema, producing several short films including the acclaimed Diamond Beauty (Krakow Film Festival – Silver Dragon, Filmfestival Kitzbuehel – Best International Short Film, Pragueshorts Special Mention, multiple national awards) and Pun Intended (Palm Springs ShortFest, PÖFF Tallinn, Cinefest – Fipresci Award). Her portfolio also includes the HBO Europe co-produced feature documentary Cabin Pressure, which premiered at Zagreb Docs.
Some Good News is a multiplot, satirical, magical-realist film set in Eastern Europe, exploring whether a community can redeem itself through a miracle. With no main character, parallel storylines feature locals embodying distinct ways of life. Robert Altmanian plotting meets Gogolian-Kafkaesque humour in a melancholic town on the world's edge. The ex-Soviet bloc faces immense tensions – socialist shadows linger while capitalism rises atop crumbling industrial sites. People live better yet feel lost, awaiting salvation. Will the miracle deliver? Baron Münchhausen pulled himself from the swamp by his own hair. That too is a miracle.
Cinesuper Kft
Rákóczi út 10, 1072, Budapest, Hungary
László Csuja | Director
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +36 207 751 534
Anna Szijártó | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +36 706 307 359
Starska is a family epic about a businesswoman with bipolar disorder – a woman who moves mountains in her manic highs but pays a devastating price in her depressive lows. It is a love story about a woman defying patriarchal norms, fighting to claim her independence while yearning for the recognition of the man she loves. She is the obsessive director of her own life who, even in a psychiatric ward, refuses to be subdued and builds a world on her own terms. Ultimately, it is the story of someone grappling with mental illness in a world that itself is profoundly unwell, forcing us all to confront the question: What does “normal” truly mean?
Piotr Adamski is a visual artist, film director and screenwriter. He is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts and Wajda School and a three-time Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship recipient. In 2016, Adamski made his short film debut Opening. In 2019, he released Eastern, his feature-length debut. After its initial screenings, critics hailed the work as one of the most original Polish films in recent years. In 2023, Adamski directed the psychological thriller The Hidden Web, based on the bestseller by Jakub Szamałek.
The Kijora company was founded in 2007 by Anna Gawlita. It focuses on producing both documentary and feature films, with a strong emphasis on stories that address current social and ethical issues as well as intimate, local narratives. Kijora’s productions have been showcased at international festivals such as Berlinale, Busan, Visions du Réel, Slamdance, Karlovy Vary, Camerimage, and many others. Our latest documentary, The Big Chief, premiered at Visions du Reel 2025 in the Burning Lights competition. Our filmography contains acknowledged projects from directors such as Tomasz Wolski (An Ordinary Country, 1970), Piotr Stasik (Opera about Poland, A Diary of a Journey), Zuzanna Solakiewicz (Soil), or Tomasz Wolski & Piotr Pawlus (e.g. In Ukraine).
Starska is inspired by my late mother. This screenplay is deeply personal; one I have carried with me since my mother’s passing. In mania, my mother was a charismatic force – impossible not to follow. In depression, she became a shadow of that person, beyond reach, beyond help. Today, I feel as though I had two mothers, and this inherited duality often serves as a creative impulse for me. I believe that exploring what is most personal – even when it is extreme – can give rise to something profoundly universal, a work that affirms the power of human connection.
Kijora Film
Jarosława Dąbrowskiego 18/15, 02-561, Warsaw, Poland
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +48 609 421 497
Piotr Adamski | Director, Scriptwriter
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +48 512 903 295
Marta Szymanowska | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +48 663 500 515
Three women of different ages and backgrounds – a family fugitive, a reluctant bride, and a flamboyant tourist turned accidental saviour – move through separate lives across Italy and Slovenia, unaware they are all heading toward the same deserted beach near the border. When their lives collide in a single day, a violent encounter forces each to act beyond fear, in service of the others. The Happiest Day is a poetic borderland thriller about survival, female alliance, and the transformative power of the accidental, sometimes darkly absurd.
Sonja Prosenc is a screenwriter, director, producer, and PhD candidate in film at AGRFT. Her three feature films – The Tree, History of Love, and Family Therapy – were Slovenia’s official Oscar entries and received both international recognition and national awards. She was named one of Cineuropa’s “female directors to watch” and was featured in Eurimages’ Golden Album among the 50 most prominent European female directors of the past 20 years. Her work, spanning arthouse drama, dark comedy, and thriller, is known for its poetic cinematic language. It has been the subject of academic study and has garnered international critical acclaim.
Rok Sečen co-founded the production company Monoo with director Sonja Prosenc. He has produced and co-produced both feature films and shorts. All of his feature films were selected as national Oscar entries and premiered at renowned festivals such as Tribeca, Karlovy Vary, and Sarajevo. His films have received multiple national and international awards and continue to travel the global festival circuit. The most recent feature he produced, Family Therapy (2024), is currently being distributed worldwide by Giant Pictures. His last three features were international co-productions, and his projects are regularly supported by Eurimages and the Creative Europe MEDIA program. Rok is also an EAVE and Producers on the Move alumnus.
The Happiest Day condenses into a single image: a body drifting in water, echoing Medusa – but this time, the myth is reversed: a woman is reclaiming power. Set between Italy and Slovenia, the film follows three women whose timelines converge in an unexpected, transformative encounter. Their collision allows them to break free from the roles imposed on them. Told in a mosaic structure with stripped-back thriller tension and a touch of the darkly absurd, I explore fear, instinct, and imperfect solidarity – an alliance that arises not from intention, but from accidental connection. I wanted to see how, in this world, Thelma and Louise might decide not to drive off the cliff – but keep going instead.
Monoo
Kvedrova cesta 36, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Email: [email protected]
Sonja Prosenc | Director
Rok Sečen | Producer
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +386 41 865 751
Mauł returns to her childhood village in the mountains to care for her dying grandmother. Her grandfather distances himself from the illness, focusing on constant house repairs. Ann drifts back from a long journey. As death nears, life sharpens: starlings greedily strip the cherry trees, cries of dying animals drift from the slaughterhouse, and the hillside begins to collapse. Awaiting the inevitable, Mauł confronts long-buried memories and pain. A quiet longing stirs – to carry the seeds of her homeland within her. Mauł and Ann prepare a space for something new. When the house is repaired, grandfather dies. After the funeral, Mauł visits her childhood friend and instinctively takes his semen. She returns home and lies beside Ann and grandmother. Life fades – and begins to sprout again.
Jagoda Szelc is a Polish director and screenwriter focusing on ecological and spiritual crises in the contemporary socio-political context. Her films have been screened at Berlinale, Karlovy Vary, Hot Docs, Cottbus, IDFA, Cannes Short Corner, and New Horizons. Her short film Such a Landscape won the Golden Tadpole at Camerimage (2013). Her first feature, Tower. A Bright Day (2017), premiered at Berlinale (Forum) and won the Best Debut and Best Script awards at the Polish FF in Gdynia. Her second feature, Monument (2018), premiered at IFF Rotterdam. In 2018, she won the Polityka Passports Award.
Joanna Szymańska is an accomplished producer and development executive with over 15 years of experience in feature films, shorts, and international co-productions. A graduate of film studies and law, she is an alumna of EAVE, ACE, and Torino Script Lab. Joanna is a founding member of the Polish Producers Guild and deputy chair of the European Film Academy Board since 2017. Her recent work includes Red Path (2024), which premiered at Locarno Film Festival alongside acclaimed titles like Operation Hyacinth (Netflix Original) and Detective Bruno. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Łódź Film School.
The film is an adaptation of Małgorzata Lebda’s book, which inspired me to create a story about bodies and their natural entanglement. The film seeks to challenge prudish depictions of female physicality and nature, presenting their raw, unromanticized bodies. It explores birth, death, and transformation, with no biological hierarchies – just life in all its forms. Through the characters of Mauł and Grandma, I aim to reconnect viewers with their origins, embracing the rawness of nature and existence.
Shipsboy
Czerniakowska 71/613, 00-715, Warsaw, Poland
Email: [email protected]
Jagoda Szelc | Director
Email: [email protected]
Joanna Szymańska | Producer
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First-hand brews throughout the year.
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