News
Selected Participants for the Pitching of Belarusian Film Projects at the Berlinale's European Film Market
13 Dec 2024
At the European Film Market (EFM) of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, 10 projects of full-length films by Belarusian authors will be presented. Pitching at the EFM for the international film community is organized by the Belarusian Independent Film Academy (BIFA) for the second time. The event will take place on February 15, 2025, in the main building of the European Film Market – Martin Gropius Bau.

The selection of film projects was carried out by BIFA co-founders Irena Kaciałovič and Igor Soukmanov, together with experts from Finland and Italy, Leena Pasanen and Stefano Tealdi. Nine feature film projects and one documentary project were selected for participation:

August by Nella Agrenich (feature drama)

The Land of Pleasure by Alexandra Se Glück and Michal Mieszczyk (feature drama, based on true events)

The Swan Song of Fedor Ozerov by Yuri Semashko (feature dreamedy)

Lithuania Minor by Artsiom Lobach (feature documentary)

Judgment of the Dead by Andrei Kashperski and Mikhail Zui (feature horror, comedy)

Superposition by Marya Ptashka (feature drama, comedy, absurd)

Tamka 9 by Vlada Senkova (feature drama)


Three more feature film projects will take part in pitching anonymously for public communication. Leena Pasanen and Stefano Tealdi, as in the previous year, will prepare the participants for pitching and help them work most efficiently at the EFM.

The stand of the Belarusian Independent Film Academy will continue to operate within the framework of the upcoming EFM. This participation by the Film Academy in the EFM is supported by the Trzy Trąby Foundation, the Goethe-Institut, and German Films.


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Leena Pasanen is an independent film expert, consultant, and tutor. She worked as Managing and Festival Director of DOK Leipzig from 2015 to 2019. She has been a regular expert and tutor at several training programmes and markets, for example, Documentary Campus, EsoDoc, WEMW and EAVE, and has served as a jury member at several international festivals, among others Sundance and IDFA. 

Stefano Tealdi is a producer, director, film expert, consultant. He develops, produces and directs documentaries, docuseries and feature-length dramas, and is a tutor at Biennale Cinema College Venice, Amman Film Industry, Attagirl, Cannes Docs, Documentary Campus, ESoDoc, La Fabrique Cinémas – Institute Francais, Factory, Films de 3 Continents – Produire au Sud, Imagination – Arab Film Scriptwriting, Jump In – Poitiers FF, Ouga Film Lab, Red Sea Lodge, TFL-Torino Film Lab, Scuola Holden, ZELIG Film School.