Antoneta Kastrati´s feature film debut ZANA has been selected for this year's Discovery section at Toronto International Film Festival.
It was developed at MIDPOINT Feature Launch in 2017.
Writer and director Antoneta Kastrati and producer Casey Cooper Johnson(Crossing Bridges Films), who attended our Feature Launch program, recount their experience:
„With our first feature, there’s such a big learning curve to overcome and the stakes feel so high. Feature Launch was essential in helping us get our script ready to shoot. The guidance we got on our script was geared toward helping us figure out what story we wanted to tell and then helping us find our way through to that goal. In addition, it was a great place to network and meet not only talented fellow filmmakers and expert advisers but also potential collaborators and partners for our movie."
In 2017, the project was awarded the MIDPOINT Development Award (8. 000 EUR) for the best project and also won the opportunity to be presented at connecting cottbus co-production market.
Moreover, Antoneta attended our special MIDPOINT Editing Room program for projects in rough-cut stage designed to continuously help MIDPOINT graduates.
Read more about ZANA´s journey at MIDPOINT here.
ZANA
“Haunted by her long-suppressed past and pressured by family to seek treatment from mystical healers for her infertility, a Kosovar woman struggles to reconcile the expectations of motherhood with a legacy of wartime brutality, in documentarian Antoneta Kastrati’s deeply personal feature debut.”
Toronto International Film Festival / Discovery
Kosovo, Albania, 2019, 97 minutes
Screenings:
September 7 / TIFF Bell Lightbox / 21.30
September 9 / TIFF Bell Lightbox / 22:00
September 11 / TIFF Bell Lightbox / 21.30
MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2020 is open for applications till September 13, 2019!
Check the program here and start your own journey with us!
Minos Nikolakakis´ feature debut ENTWINED will also premiere in Toronto International Film Festival´s Discovery section.
The project was developed within MIDPOINT program in 2013.
Writer and director Minos Nikolakakis says about the MIDPOINT experience:
“The MIDPOINT sessions helped me considerably to craft the screenplay in a more audience oriented direction, and reshuffle the structure in order for the pace of the film and the story to be one step ahead of the audience, hence maintaining the mystery and tension. It also helped me to balance the supernatural and realistic element in order to have the perfect blend of a 'grounded' mythical story, something that feels like it could happen to you or me in the real world.”
ENTWINED
“City doctor Panos relocates to a remote village in order to offer his services to the community. It’s love at first sight when he sets eyes on Danae, who lives in isolation, with a rare condition that causes her skin to resemble tree bark. Determined to cure her, Panos will soon discover Danae is not the helpless princess he thought she was and time is of the essence for both of them.”
Toronto International Film Festival / Discovery
Greece 2019, 89 minutes
Screenings:
September 8 / Scotiabank Theatre / 18:15
September 10 / Scotiabank Theatre / 17:15
September 14 / Scotiabank Theatre / 17:45
MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2017 was realized with the support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund, International Visegrad Fund, and Macedonian Film Agency. It was presented in cooperation with Audiovisual Producers' Association (APA), Creative Europe Desk CZ/MEDIA, connecting cottbus and CineMart.
MIDPOINT 2013 was realized with the support of MEDIA Programme, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Slovak Audiovisual Fund and International Visegrad Fund.
MIDPOINT operates under the auspices of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
