Directors Village is a 5-day on-site residence training program to enhance and develop the skills of new European directors-writers and bring their next film to the screen. CineSud and its Screen Talent Europe partners are thrilled to announce the 2025-selection of new European Film talent.
Directors Village 2025
Directors Village is a unique training program organised by CineSud in collaboration with our dear partners of Screen Talent Europe: Film Stockholm, New Noardic Wave, MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Ardán Ireland, GMAC Film, FilmCloud and Film Workshop Copenhagen.
Eight filmmakers from different countries are selected to take part in this edition of Directors Village. They will join the 5-day residence in Maastricht at the Euregion Film Forum 2025.
Get to know all the participants below!
Directors Village 2025 participants
Directors Village Project - The Boy and the Poster
Directors Village Project | BRÀIGH
Directors Village Project | Om jeg går / If I leave
Directors Village Project | Der Tag gehört uns
Directors Village Project | Vennesorg
Directors Village Project | Ramp Tramp
Directors Village Project | Den morgonen
Directors Village Project | Oyster
Lauriane Almeda
The Boy and the Poster
Lauriane Almeda is a creative director, producer, and filmmaker with seven years of experience. Her first film, Na Zongi, completed a year ago, achieved international success — selected for 12 international festivals, earning three nominations, and winning one award. This journey revealed the wealth of untold stories waiting to be shared and the audiences eager to hear them. As a writer, producer, and director, Lauriane develops her projects from concept to filming, often taking on multiple roles to bring these stories to life.
Directors Village Project - The Boy and the Poster
When the 11 y.o. Luke decides to sell a poster he won at school strange things start to happen. His life changes when he finds out that the poster is an ancient family artefact that slowly uncovers his hidden identity. Hunted by strange symbols he embarks on a life changing journey to find the poster back before he runs out of time.
Niall McRae
BRÀIGH
Niall McRae is a Scottish-Thai filmmaker whose unique island upbringing shapes his distinctive worldview. His work explores themes of identity, rural decay, and time, blending award-winning cinematography with intimate storytelling. Niall’s short documentary And So It Was received a UK Royal Television Society Student Award nomination for Best Factual, premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and won Best Documentary at St Andrew’s Film Festival, becoming both BAFTA and BIFA qualifying through its successful festival run. His portfolio includes collaborations on Screen Scotland-funded films and producing the short documentary, Katya, with Grierson Doc Lab alumni Dhillon Clarke. Now, Niall is returning to fiction, stepping into the writer-director’s seat to craft deeply emotional and authentic scripted narratives that reflect and twist his verité sensibilities.
Directors Village Project | BRÀIGH
A young mixed-race man, struggling to vacate his late mother’s home for good, is stranded on a remote island by a fierce snowstorm. Forced to spend one more night in their empty house, he’s confronted by an echo of the past that allows him to confront his loss, and the subsequent fear of losing his identity.
Vilde Stokke
Om jeg går / If I leave
Vilde Stokke was born and raised on the island of Bømlo in Western Norway. She has been very involved in most cultural events there from a young age, be it dance, theater, singing or music. She was educated in languages and literature at the University of Bergen. Vilde works with both copywriting and translation. She also works as an actor and in recent years has developed as a screenwriter through various talent development programs. Vilde is now working to complete her new short film which is being produced by Snowfall Cinema.
Directors Village Project | Om jeg går / If I leave
A young woman is starting to realise that the relationship she is in is constantly taking turnes in a darker direction. But will she manage to leave?
Phoebe Ammon
Der Tag gehört uns
Phoebe Ammon, born in Hamburg in 1993, studied film the Merz Academy in Stuttgart. During her studies, Phoebe was also a Directing Intern for theater director Kay Voges and then Evening Director at the Schauspiel Stuttgart. She did a second Directing Internship with Nina Wolfrum (TV series, Letterbox film production). After graduation, Phoebe was Editor-in-Chief at the Advertising Agency &scherAppelt before becoming a freelance director and author. She won the Audience Award in both 2020 and 2021 in the Scenario category of Schleswig-Holstein. Her film LONG NIGHT STAND (2023, 34 min.) appeared at the 2024 Film Festival Screened in Schleswig-Holstein, among others, won Best Film at the Blue Flower Award and was chosen for Best Director. With Der Tag gehört uns, she is nominated for the third time for the Schleswig-Holstein Scenario Prize.
Directors Village Project | Der Tag gehört uns
Her cancer-stricken mother's wish to die forces Enisato confront her unresolved war trauma.
Anne Saabye
Vennesorg
Bio following soon.
Directors Village Project | Vennesorg
Hannah can't bring herself to put flowers on her recently deceased friend's grave, until her friend Luna shows up and pressures her to let go.
Perla Heiefort
Ramp Tramp
Perla Heiefort is a screenwriter trained at YRGO University of Applied Sciences, graduating in 2023. She has worked as an assistant director to Sanna Lenken on Smärtpunkten (SVT, 2024) and previously attended the film program at Katrineberg Folk High School. Her debut short film Fruktkött won Best Film (middleweight) at Frame Film Festival 2021 and Silver at the November Festival. She received Best Director at the Swedish Short Film Festival two years in a row for Tårtkalas (2022) and Lika Olika (2023), with Lika Olika also earning the WIFT Sweden Director's Prize and a national cinema release on Kortfilmsdagen 2023. Erla currently teaches film at Kungälv's cultural school, bringing valuable experience to her work with young actors.
Directors Village Project | Ramp Tramp
Annelie is 25 years old and sick of the teenage boys who skate where she lives. One day she has enough and confronts the skaters and their nonchalant attitude to the outside world but things don't play out as she thought it would...
Svante Håkansson
Den morgonen
Bio following soon.
Directors Village Project | Den morgonen
After a classmate’s sudden death, a crisis counselor arrives at the school. Soon, a shy girl is accused by her teacher of bullying the boy. The girl faces the dilemma of telling the truth or playing along with the adults' game.
Kate Haley
Oyster
Kate Haley, an award-winning writer and director from Co. Donegal, Ireland, is known for her acclaimed short films. A Death in the Family won Best Irish Short at the Disappear Here Film Festival and Best Cinematography at the WFT Short Film Showcase, with a screening at the
CIACLA Irish Short Reels Series in Los Angeles. Splash! received a Red Dot Award for Sound Design and earned nominations at the NATAS Southeast Student Emmys. A Fairytale Romance, produced with the executive producers of Netflix’s MerPeople, won Best Student Short at the Kerry International Film Festival.
Directors Village Project | Oyster
In a small Irish coastal town, a teenage girl dreams of escaping her stifling reality, but when a summer night spirals out of control, she discovers the cost of her choices.
Join the Euregion Film Forum in march 2025!
Exclusive offer: Get your Early Bird tickets now!