EX ORIENTE FILM WORKSHOP DEADLINE IS: June 1, 2015
Submissions are now open for Ex Oriente Film 2015 the year-long international workshop supporting the development and funding of creative documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe. At the three workshop sessions taking place in the course of one year, directors and producers develop their projects and funding strategies and benefit from the assistance and valuable advice provided by leading European and US producers, directors, experts and commissioning editors. The Ex Oriente Film training programme culminates with the East European Forum co-production meeting, allowing documentary filmmakers to pitch their projects and to meet with Europe's and North America ́s leading commissioning editors, independent producers, distributors, buyers and film fund and festival representatives. In the twelve years of its existence, more than 150 documentary projects from Eastern and Central Europe went through the Ex Oriente Film workshop, including award-winning films from the key European festivals, such as The Domino Effect, Blind Loves, At the Edge of Russia, Rabbit a la Berlin, Village Without Women, Bakhmaro.
2015/2016 Workshop Timeline:
1st session July 20 – 25, 2015 (Rijeka, Croatia, in cooperation with REFINERI workshop)
2nd Session: October 26 – 31, 2015 (Jihlava, Czech Republic, within Jihlava IDFF)
3rd Session & East European Forum: March 8 – 13, 2016 (Prague, Czech Republic, within East Doc Platform and One World IFF)
Projects we look for:
Creative feature length (52 ́up) documentary projects in development and production tackling contemporary topics, challenging genre and media boundaries and audience participation. We welcome filmmakers who set out to conduct intense and engaged experiences and to change the way we think about topical issues, audiences, ways of storytelling and the world itself.
Participation:
About 12 projects will be selected out of all submissions, which totals 24 participants (director- producer teams) attending the workshop. The workshop is designed primarily for directors and producers from Central and Eastern Europe and/ or for creative documentary projects dealing with stories from Central and Eastern Europe.
Conditions of Participation:
Directors and producers participate with their own creative documentary projects. It is required that all workshop sessions be attended by both the director and the producer. Participants must be proficient in English.
Participation fee:
The participation fee is EUR 1,800 per selected project (includes accommodation, coffee breaks and lunches during all the three workshop sessions for 1-2 persons).
Scholarships:
Participants may apply for scholarship to cover part of the participation fee. Applicants must prove that there is no access to scholarship in their own country and that the project is not supported by any development funding.
EXORIENTE FILM STEP BY STEP:
1st Worjshop Session "Find Your Originality"
July 20-25, 2015 (Rijeka, Croatia, in cooperation with Udruga Ukus and REFINERI workshop)
The first session of the workshop deals with inspiration, focusing on the development of the documentary project, primarily its story potential, as well as researching the potential for documentary co-production and laying the groundwork for project production. The programme is divided between various master classes held by visiting experts and practical intensive work on the projects. The first session aims to integrate the participants into a functioning group, establishing positive atmosphere for creative networking as well as defining the position of each project within the context of the European documentary market.
2nd Workshop Session "Production Development"
October 26-31, 2015 (Jihlava, Czech Republic, within Jihlava IDFF)
The second workshop session focuses on budgeting, legal aspects of co-productions, strategies for selecting commissioning editors and other partners, as well as a deeper creative development of the projects, the rough material as well as the documentary script. The second session is specific in that it has partly separate programme for directors and producers. The directors are working on the script, dramaturgy and trailer, while the producers are preparing the financial and distributional plans and consulting the budget in detail.
3rd Session "The Market Opens" & East European Forum
March 8-13, 2016 (Prague, Czech Republic, within East Doc Platform and One World IHRDFF)
The third meeting of the workshop focuses mainly on developing a plan for the distribution and sales of the film, fine-tuning the final vision of the trailer, after-pitching negotiation techniques as well as practicing of the communication strategy aimed at petting support for the project from the international partners. The theoretical parts of the workshop deal through real case studies mainly with the issues of international co-production and distribution. The workshop culminates in the public presentation / pitching itself, followed by the personal meetings with the international commissioning editors, TV, fund and festival representatives, independent (co-) producers, and distributors, whom the participants can meet at the round tables as well as within the pre-arranged individual meetings. The projects presented at the East European Forum annually compete for 6 awards, providing further support to the winner: direct financial help for further development of the film (East Doc Platform Development Award and Golden Funnel Award), co-production or post-production support from the TV stations (HBO Co-Production Awardand the Czech TV Postproduction Award) or free participation in other key European film co-production meetings and markets (IDFA Forum, DOK Leipzig and DocsBarcelona Awards).
Another important aspect of Ex Oriente Film is the year-round online support - sessions and consultations led by organizers, head tutors and guest tutors of the workshop. The three residential Ex Oriente Film workshops and the East European Forum pitching are supplemented by the Follow-Up Support Programme which tracks the procejtstill their completion, providing former participants with consultation and scholarships for international festivals and markets and helping to multiply their professional contacts (IDFA, Sheffield Doc/ Fest, DOK Leipzig, WEMW, Fipa, etc.).
The final selection of the 12 projects / teams will be announced in the second half of June.
Contact:
Veronika Lišková, Project Manager email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Maša Marković, Project Coordinator email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Institute of Documentary Film (IDF)/ Štěpánská 14, 110 00 Prague 1, Czech Republic/
