From 17-20 March, EFP European Film Promotion will present a broad range of drama, documentary, action thrillers and family entertainment from across Europe at its EUROPE! Hub during the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART).
EFP brings together 14 European world sales companies at the market to showcase recent European productions seeking distribution across Asia. Participating companies are TrustNordisk, Filmax, The Playmaker, Epsilon Film, Picture Tree International, Anton, Beta Cinema, Studio 100 Film, Sola Media, REInvent Yellow, Latido Films, Best Friend Forever, Magnetfilm and Beta Film.
***Click HERE for EUROPE! Hub participants***
With a diverse selection of films, the participating companies at the EUROPE! Hub aim to connect with Asian distributors seeking new European stories across genres.
The featured dramatic titles include 500 Miles by BAFTA-winning director Morgan Matthews (Ireland / Beta Cinema), starring Bill Nighy, Maisie Williams and Roman Griffin Davis, about two brothers embarking on a 500-mile journey from the UK to Ireland’s rugged west coast. Balandrau, Where the Fierce Wind Blew by Fernando Trullols (Spain / Filmax) tells a survival story set during a devastating blizzard in the Pyrenees. Re-Creation by Jim Sheridan and David Merriman (Ireland, Luxembourg / Latido Films) revisits the murder of filmmaker Sophie Toscan Du Plantier through the deliberations of twelve jurors, while this year’s Berlinale competition entry Nina Roza by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles (Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy / Best Friend Forever) centres on a Canadian art expert investigating the paintings of a young prodigy in Bulgaria.
The documentary Akris – Fashion With a Heritage by Reiner Holzemer (Germany / Magnetfilm) traces the hundred-year history of the Swiss luxury fashion house Akris, one of the few fashion brands still owned by its founding family.
Thrillers and action-driven stories add suspense. Last Call by Sherif Francis (Greece / Picture Tree International) centres on a hostage crisis broadcast live on television on New Year’s Eve 1999. The German-Danish co-production Frostbite by Lukas Rinker (REInvent Yellow) turns a disastrous avalanche blast into a survival thriller when a family becomes trapped beneath the ice in a crashed cable car. In Fuze by David Mackenzie (UK / Anton), the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb sets off a mass evacuation in central London.
Family audiences are represented with titles such as Barry & Me by Markus Welter (Switzerland / The Playmaker), about the friendship between a boy and a rescued St. Bernard puppy in the Swiss Alps, and Momo by Christian Ditter (Germany / Beta Film), based on Michael Ende’s beloved fantasy novel. Animated highlights feature Arnie & Barney by Sean Heuston (Germany / Studio 100 Film), a slapstick comedy that puts the popular Maya the Bee supporting characters in the spotlight as they search for water for the insect community; the Norwegian 3D animation Unstoppable by Martin Lund, following body cell Kaya as she ventures into the vast and mysterious world of the human body to discover her specialty (TrustNordisk);Viqueens, Harald Zwart’s Viking adventure about courage and forging one’s own path, which proves that choosing your own way can change the course of history (Norway / Sola Media); and the German-Belgian co-production Mimi and Harold by Toby Genkel, following Mimi, a crossbreed dog, who jumps out of a painting into a museum and befriends the snobbish museum dog Harold. Together they leap through paintings to find Mimi's owner (Epsilon Film).
**discover the highlighted European titles ***
The EUROPE! Hub at FILMART is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and EFP members German Films and ICAA - Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (Spain).
