Georgia figures high on the list. Arizona Productions was a partner on George Ovashvili’s exquisite Corn Island produced by Georgia’s Alamdary Film and coproduced by Axman Production which earned the Audience Award of the 2014 Cottbus Film Festival and on the young Georgian hit film from last year, the German/Georgian/French coproduction In Bloom directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross and produced by Georgia’s Polare Film. The company is putting 30,000 EUR into the follow up to In Bloom, titled My Happy Family reuniting the same team. The producers will apply to German funding institutions MDM and Medienboard. Arizona Productions is also expected to come on board Ovashvili’s next film. Both films are waiting for funding results from the December call for grants from the Georgian National Film Center.
In Romania, Arizona Productions is forging an ongoing partnership with producer/director Anca Damian. De Seille is enthusiastic over Damian’s upcoming cross-genre film The Magic Mountain, a Romanian/Polish/French coproduction with Damian’s Aparte Film and Polish production company Filmograf. The Romanian National Center for Cinema awarded the 1m EUR film a production grant of 95,000 EUR in April 2013 and the Polish Film Institute supported the project with a production grant of 120,000 EUR. The film about a Quixotic Polish émigré will make use of animation techniques in a manner similar to her much awarded film Crulic - The Path to Beyond which Damian also produced. The Magic Mountain is in postproduction with delivery expected in January 2015. The French producer is likely to continue the partnership with Damian on her film In Perfect Health which was pitched at Connecting Cottbus.
Arizona Productions has joined forces with another Polish coproduction, the new film from young director Tomasz Wasilewski. The French company is partnering with Poland’s Manana and Germany’s Rohfilm on the 700,000 EUR film. Producers are now looking for French and German funds.
The company has ventured into Bulgaria with Nanook by minimalist director Milko Lazarov who also is producing through his company Red Carpet. The 1m EUR film is awaiting the Bulgarian grants decision. The film about an aging Inuit couple in Greenland who continue to live in the manner of their ancestors has been well-received at the Sofia Film Meetings, receiving the Mediterranean Film Institute scholarship and thee 4,000 EUR Synchro post-production service award. It was selected for the Moscow Business Square and the CineLink Co-Production Market.
The last CEE film on de Seille’s current slate is Lazar by the Macedonian director Svetozar Ristovski, now working on sound postproduction. The 1.1m EUR film about a man who smuggles illegal aliens across the border is a coproduction with Small Moves Film from Macedonia, Croatia's MP Film Production, and Bulgaria's Gala Film. Arizona Distribution is also handling sales on the film which will be delivered in early 2015.
De Seille told FNE his company’s participation can be from 10 percent of the budget to as much as 25 percent, although not all the films on his slate receive public funding from France. He generally has between five to seven productions per year, with 2014 being an especially active year with seven films. While he is not actively pursuing new projects, he told FNE, “I’m still reading scripts."
