13 projects at the US in Progress in Wroclaw

Nine American projects in post-production and four Polish projects in the development stage have been selected to participate in the US in Progress forum. The tenth edition of the co-production forum will be held online from November 11th to 13th 2020, as a part of the 11th edition of the American Film Festival in Wroclaw. US in Progress is organized with the support of The Polish Film Institute.

The event aims to facilitate professional networking among European and Polish film professionals and independent filmmakers from the United States. Leading Polish sound and image studios provide in-kind awards of post-production service packages for the American projects: Coloroffon, Fixafilm, Orka, Maciej Zielinski and Soundflower Studio.

The director of the Polish Film Institute will award one project with a $10,000 cash prize for post production in Poland. Other awards include an acquisition offer from Canal + group (Ale Kino+ television channel) and a free pass to next year’s Cannes Producers’ Network. Match&Spark will grant consulting services to one project.

The selected 2020 US in Progress Wrocław participants are: 

  • Disfluency by Anna Baumgarten, prod. Danny Mooney, Elaine Hastings Edell, Anna Baumgarten, Jim Cummings, Ben Wiessner;
  • Have a Nice Life by Prashanth Kamalakanthan, prod. Artemis Shaw;
  • Homebody by Joseph Sackett, prod. Joy Jorgensen;
  • Kendra and Beth by Dean Peterson, prod. Reilly Myklebust, Dean Peterson;
  • Ludi by Edson Jean, prod. Fabiola Rodriguez, Mark Pulaski;
  • Superior by Erin Vassilopoulos, prod. Benjamin Cohen, Grant Curatola, Patrick Donovan;
  • The Boardinghouse Reach by Geoff Marslett, prod. Meryem Ersoz, Geoff Marslett, Melodie Sisk, David Arquette, Lily Gladstone, Kiowa Gordon, Bill Way;
  • To the Moon by Scott Friend, prod. Cate Smierciak, Everett Hendler, Stephanie Randall, Gabe Wilson;
  • We’re All Going to the World’s Fair by Jane Schoenbrun, prod. Sarah Winshall, Carlos Zozaya.

The directors and/or producers will attend the virtual event and have a chance to network with top European festival programmers and buyers (Berlinale, Rotterdam, Tribeca, Venice, Films Boutique, Memento, The Match Factory, among others).

Four Polish projects in the development stage seeking partners from the US selected in a collaboration with the Polish Producers Alliance will be analyzed and discussed by American experts (of Magnolia Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, CAA and Paradigm Agency): 

  • Borderline directed by Katarzyna Rosłaniec, produced by Piotr Kobus, Agnieszka Drewno (Mañana);
  • How to Be Loved directed by Borys Lankosz, produced by Marcin Dorociński, Anna Świątek (Salto Films);
  • Unpaved directed by Mikael Lypinski, produced by Małgorzata Kozioł (Eastbeast);
  • Uprising directed by Youssef Ouarrak, produced by Dariusz Tokarz (Cave Wolf Pictures).

Discussions, meetings and panels

The Polish-American Co-production meetings at US in Progress forum will also feature presentations of Polish co-production incentives, as well as two panel discussions hosted by Deadline’s Tom Grater. The first panel will feature experienced Polish producer, Ewa Puszczyńska, Dylan Leiner (Sony Pictures Classics), Maren Olson and Kat Moncrief from CAA, as well as Derek Kigongo from Paradigm Talent Agency and will be a discussion about challenges of transatlantic collaboration. The second panel is a case study of Jan Komasa’s Academy Award-nominated „Corpus Christi” with publicist Hilda Somarriba (PrismMedia), Anna Kot (Aurum Film) and Ewa Bojanowska (New Europe Film Sales) regarding the foriegn-language film PR campaign. 

To learn more or contact US in Progress please email: aff@snh.org.pl

30.10.2020