SØRFOND PITCHING FORUM 2024
This year's forum will take place on Thursday November 14th at Hos Arne, presenting six projects from Rwanda, Cuba, Egypt, Jamaica, Paraguay and the Phillipines.
At this year's pitching forum, we will be visited by Noemi Ferrer, who will provide an update on international co-production. Director Nishtha Jain will talk about her latest film – the Hot Docs winner Farming the Revolution, and Sverre Pedersen from Freemuse will give an update on freedom of expression in cinema in the world today.
Additionally, five international filmmakers from Rwanda, Jamaica, Cuba, Paraguay, and Egypt will come to Norway to present their projects. The projects have been selected from Ventana Sur, La Fabrique, Locarno Open Doors, Durban Film Mart, and El Gouna. Additionally, one project from the Philippines, selected from the Asian Project Market 2024, will be presented via video.
Date: November 14, 2024
Time: 10:00 - 13:00 (Doors open at 09:30); after the pitches, from 13:00, there will be lunch and mingling lasting until 15:00.
Place: Hos Arne, Gøteborggata 27 B, 0566 Oslo
Please note that at the venue, Hos Arne, shoes are not allowed inside. There is a wardrobe to leave shoes in the hallway.
Below, you will find an overview of this year's projects. A catalog with further project details will be sent out to registered participants.
PROJECTS
RAISED BY GOATS (Fiction, Jamaica)
Multi-generational drama set in 1962 Jamaica, explores the fate of Trudy, a young widow whose quest for renewal takes her to the mystical Blue Mountains. There, between legends and reality, she discovers truths that will transform her.
Director: Gibrey Allen
Producer: Nadean Rawlins (RAW Management Ltd.)
RAISED BY GOATS was invited from La Fabrique Les Cinémas du Monde in 2024 and is represented by producer Nadean Rawlins.
BENIMANA (Fiction, Ivory Coast/Rwanda)
BENIMANA is a story of a friction between political power and family dilemmas. Veneranda, a survivor of the genocide against Tutsi working for reconciliation, believes she has made peace with her past, but she sees her old demons resurface when she unexpectedly learns of her daughter’s pregnancy, under the silent eye of her mother – the Grandmother, who feels the wavering of their family balance.
Director: Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo
Producer: Samantha Biffot (Ogweli Productions)
BENIMANA was invited from Durban Film Mart in 2024 and is represented by director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo.
MOA (Fiction, Cuba)
Cuba. He dreams of a car, she saves a bird, a couple fall apart and the world's smallest frog tries to survive on the edge of one of the world's largest nickel reserves.
Director: Marcel Beltrán
Producer: Paula Gastaud (Mediocielo Films)
MOA was invited from Proyecta at Ventana Sur in 2023 and is represented by producer Paula Gastaud.
THE UNIQUE TIME (Fiction, Paraguay)
Time has stopped. Maximo, the youngest son, kidnapped by the Argentine police and disappeared in the context of Operation Condor, marks a family’s life. A father, a mother, his brothers and one sister just wait. Time goes by while, through letters, we know what each of the characters really feels. We learn about their guilt, their hopelessness, what they hold onto as they wait, in that race between hope and hopelessness. An absence, and the time that passes for a family, as if it were a still life. With El único tiempo, Paz Encina transposes the soul of her country, Paraguay, and continues her tireless work of memory.
Director: Paz Encina
Producer: Gabriela Sabaté (Sabaté Films)
THE UNIQUE TIME was invited from Locarno Open Doors in 2024 and is represented by producer Gabriela Sabaté.
DWELLERS OF THE CABINS (Documentary, Egypt)
My people and I used to live at the centre of the city but were completely isolated from it, as if we were living in a distant isolated island.
Now, the place is changing and me too.
Director: Hend Bakr
Producer: Tamer Nady
DWELLERS OF THE CABINS was invited from El Gouna in 2024 and is represented by producer Tamer Nady and director Hend Bakr.
HUM (Fiction, The Philippines)
Two runaway land defenders live new identities as performers in a decrepit rodeo stadium where the cries of nature seem to follow them, unearthing their buried past.
Director: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Producers: Alemberg Ang, Hannah Schierbeek (Daluyong Studios, Prima Materia Pictures)
HUM was invited from Asian Projects Market in 2024. The pitch will be a pre-recorded video pitch.