950 co-production meetings for 27 projects involving 288 participants (directors, producers and distributors): these are the figures for La Fabbrica dei Progetti/New Cinema Network 2011, the co-production market of the International Rome Film Festival which, now in its sixth edition, “once again demonstrated that it is an efficient and informal networking platform, where European film-makers and producers can find concrete opportunities for developing and financing their projects”, as section head, Lucia Milazzotto, happily confirms.

In fact, despite having been held only five times before, NCN can now claim to have transformed 59 projects into movies, including “L’Uomo che Verrà ” (The man who will come) by Diritti, “Another Silence” di Santiago Amigorena, “Io sono Lì” (Li and the Poet) by Andrea Segre, “The milk of sorrow” by Claudia Llosa, “Simon Konianski” by Micha Wald, “Life in One Day” by Marc De Cloe, “The Invisible Eye” by Diego Lerman and “Nobody else but you” by Gerald Hustache-Mattieu.

The soundness of this formula is confirmed by the constant growth of NCN which began in 2006 with 91 participants and tripled this figure in 2011, with the presence of prestigious companies such as Wild Bunch, Bankside, Le Bureau, Arte, Intramovies, K5, Indiana Productions, Rai Cinema, Indigo, Cattleya, Barbagallo, Match Factory, Future Films and Haut & Court. One contributing factor to NCN’s success is the network of alliances the market has managed to create with the Sundance Institute, the Cannes Cinefondation, Rotterdam Cinemart, Sarajevo Cinelink, Screen Institute Beirut and, above all, with Eurimages.
For the second consecutive year, Eurimages (the Council of Europe Fund for cinema) has given the jury of NCN “” consisting of Peter Gustafsson, Rosanna Seregni and Simon de Santiago “” the task of assigning the Eurimages Co-production Development Award, a ” 30,000 prize for developing the best project presented at NCN, that complies with the collaboration and co-production criteria that have inspired Eurimages.
This year the Jury assigned the prize, which was presented by the President of Eurimages Jobst Plog, to the French-Palestinian project “Off Frame” by Mohanad Yaqubi, for “using hidden and forgotten filmic treasures from the past to highlight the importance of filmmaking as a revolutionary tool to inspire people to fight for change”.
In addition to the Eurimages award, New Cinema Network also assigned its own ” 10,000 award “” backed by the Fondazione Cinema per Roma “” to the best project in Focus Europe, the NCN section dedicated to projects for European second works, which was presented to “Rising Voices” by Bénédicte Liénard and Mary Jimenez (Belgium),”for its brave, passionate and balanced investigation of a politically complex current issue like emigration, which is a relevant and uncomfortable reality for most Europeans today”.
The jury also decided to give a Special Mention to “Profound North” by Marco Luca Cattaneo (Italy), to “encourage a young and promising filmmaker to continue his very personal and interesting exploration of his family roots”.