Meet the winners of the Crossborder Film Pitch 2024

Today during the Crossborder Film Conference the winners of the Crossborder Film Pitch and Script Pitch were announced. Seven projects were presented to the jury, of which two were awarded.

Crossborder Film Pitch

CineSud stimulates local and euregional filmmakers and professionals in several ways. Through training programs, writers rooms and networking event we aim to help connect talents all over BeNeLux and Germany. Via our Pitch Forums we are able to offer filmmakers production grants, which they can use to finance their next projects. The winners of the Crossborder Film Pitch will respectively receive development grants of €2.500 (Crossborder Film Pitch), and €500 (Script Pitch) from CineSud.

In the week prior to the pitch, the selected participants received two Pitch Training sessions from IJswater producer Nicky Onstenk. Today, the participants pitched their projects live to a jury consisting Matthijs Wouter Knol (head of the European Film Academy), Dutch producer Maarten van der Ven (Studio Ruba), Ido Abram (former head of SEE NL) and German producer Christine Kiauk (Coin Film).

Best Development Pitch

After the jury deliberated, they decided to award the development grant of €2.500 made possible by CineSud to:

Headshots - Anja Niedringhaus, photographer pitched by Monika Mack from Germany. Jury statement: "Strong female project. Anja deserves a film in this world that is on fire as she gave a human face to international conflicts. Great that there is a connection to the maker and the protagonist. Good pitch, witch international potential. Interesting storylines, we are curious to see the creative storytelling/perspective of Anja herself, be aware of talking heads.

Congratulations!"

Headshots will receive a development grant of €2.500 sponsored by CineSud.

Best Script Pitch

After the jury deliberated, they decided to award Script Pitch grant of €500 made possible by CineSud to:

A Demon's Gift pitched by Luciënne Venner from the Netherlands. Jury statement: "Intriguing project, with a good connection with two specific regions (Limburg and Sardegna) and with the two carnival traditions. In that sense there is a lot of potential on the coproduction side. Curious to know more about the ending; is the women her imagination or not? We hope that after the further development it will be clear for Luciënne what the balance will be between the experimental form and the narrative. Congratulations!"

A Demon's Gift will get €500 sponsored by CineSud.