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Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films has revealed its production slate, with projects by Nastia Korkia, Vytautas Katkus, Ernst de Geer and Anna Roller.

Totem Atelier, the development and production arm of the company, has revealed that it has boarded Korkia’s “A Short Summer.”

Korkia’s short documentary “Dreams About Putin” premiered at IDFA last year. Her first documentary feature “Ges-2” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2021.

“A Short Summer” is produced by Germany’s TamTam (“Pacifiction” by Albert Serra) together with independent producer Natalia Drozd (“Compartment N°6” by Juho Kuosmanen) and Serbia’s Art&Popcorn.

The film centers on eight-year-old Katya, who is going on vacation with her grandparents. In the summer heat, the war in Chechnya takes shape, while her grandparents’ relationship falls apart. Despite her youth, Katya wants to look at the world straight in the eyes.

“A Short Summer” has received support from Creative Europe Media,...

Dead Girls Dancing reminded me of movies like The Virgin Suicides or Lady Bird. It’s all about breaking free from home, living on the edge, and ditching strict rules. You know that feeling when you finish school and feel like you have to have big plans and dreams? Well, thank goodness Ira, Ka, and Malin took the leap and left home before the pressure of being 18-year-old girls got to them. This coming-of-age story will make you wish you could escape like they did, even if just for a few days. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to run away from home and live life their own way? Along the way, they meet a new friend named Zoe, and together, their adventure gets wilder and crazier. They even explored an abandoned village and kind of vandalized it to make it their own. But, as they say, actions have consequences.

European Film Promotion has revealed the 10 emerging actors who will take part in the 27th edition of European Shooting Stars program, which promotes European acting talent. Past Shooting Stars have included Carey Mulligan, Alicia Vikander, Maisie Williams and Riz Ahmed.

From Feb. 16-19, the actors will be presented to the international press and industry, and the German public at the Berlin Film Festival. One of the highlights will be the Shooting Stars Awards Ceremony on Feb. 19 at the Berlinale Palast.

The Shooting Stars for 2024 are Belgium’s Thibaud Dooms, Bulgaria’s Margarita Stoykova, France’s Suzy Bemba, Georgia’s Salome Demuria, Germany’s Katharina Stark, Ireland’s Éanna Hardwicke, Italy’s Valentina Bellè, Lithuania’s Džiugas Grinys, Poland’s Kamila Urzędowska and Sweden’s Asta Kamma August.

The jury that selected the actors comprised of Austrian director, screenwriter and producer Barbara Albert, Lithuanian producer Živilė Gallego, Irish actor Moe Dunford,...

We’re once again proud to be a partner in the European Film Promotion’s celebration of the very best of European talent with the announcement of the 2024 Efp European Shooting Stars.

It has been a pleasure to highlight and get to know some of the brightest new stars in the sky. As before, we will look to catch up with the entire cohort to get to know them better at the 74th Berlinale next year, so check back for those interviews.

Until then, here’s a closer look at the ten Shooting Stars for 2024.

© Wil Coban Éanna Hardwicke / Ireland

Éanna Hardwicke’s first professional credit was as a child actor in Conor McPherson’s 2009 horror film The Eclipse. Before graduating from The Lír Academy in 2018 he was cast in Vivarium, which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week 2019. In 2023, a busy year for Hardwicke, he was named a Screen International Rising...

European Film Promotion has announced the 10 up-and-coming European acting talents for its 2024 European Shooting Stars list.

The actors, which include performers from this year’s award-season contenders Poor Things, Ferrari, and The Peasants, among others, will be lauded at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, next year.

The Shooting Stars class of 2024 includes:

Suzy Bemba (France) Suzy Bemba in ‘Homecoming’

French actress Suzy Bemba, who plays a Parisian sex worker who befriends Emma Stone’s character in Poor Things, and whose credits include standout roles in Anthony Chen’s Sundance film Drift and Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming.

Valentina Bellè (Italy) Valentina Bellè in ‘The Good Mothers’

Valentina Bellè from Italy, who plays Cecilia Manzini in Michael Mann’s Ferarri, won Italy’s Nastro D’Argento award for best supporting actress for her turn in Disney+ mafia drama The Good Mothers and has appeared in Disney+ series Genius: Picasso with...

‘Slow’ and ‘Animalia’ both world premiered to acclaim at Sundance while ’The Hypnosis’ picked up prizes at Karlovy Vary.

Paris-based Totem Films has agreed a slew of deals for acclaimed Sundance premieres Slow and Animalia as well as Karlovy Vary-winning feature The Hypnosis.

Marija Kavtaradze’s second feature Slow has sold to KimStim for theatrical distribution in North America and to Conic Film for the UK and Ireland. It was also scooped up by Salzgeber in Germany, Filmin in Spain, Falcon for Indonesia, New Horizons in Poland and HBO for Eastern Europe.

Slow world premiered at Sundance this year in...

The Cnc and Ffa each invest €3.2mi annually in the development and co-pro fund.

New films by Wim Wenders, Angela Schanelec, Ilker Catak and Sharbanoo Sadat are among six projects supported with a total of €1.23m by the Cnc and Germany’s Federal Film Board (Ffa), co-production fund at its second session of 2023.

Each provides €3.2m for the fund annually to support co-production and project development by German and French production companies.

A total of €150,000 production support has been awarded to Wenders’ next feature documentary The Secret Of Places (working title) to be shot in 2D and 3D as a...

The intriguing central location of Anna Roller’s feature debut is an Italian village mysteriously abandoned, Marie Celeste-style, with its wardrobes still groaning with fur coats and its churches fully stocked with altar wine. It is a handy metaphor for “Dead Girls Dancing” itself, which, as a coming-of-age story, plays in heavily pre-trafficked territory, inheriting many of the trappings of the very many films that have preceded it — especially those dedicated to the growing pains of teenage girls exploring their nascent sexuality and the limits of their childhood bonds. But the clothes are borrowed and once they are politely returned, and the woozy contact high of Roller’s impressively confident, hip style wears off, there’s not a lot left that makes a lasting impression in a densely populated category. Just as these girls, however momentous their own experiences, will leave few traces of their presence on the stone...

Dead Girls Dancing director Anna Roller with Anne-Katrin Titze on Alice Rohrwacher: “She’s really important to me and all the female filmmakers with this very distinctive style, like Andrea Arnold and Kelly Reichardt. I really look up to them.”

Anna Roller’s Dead Girls Dancing (a highlight in the International Feature Film Competition of the 22nd edition of the Tribeca Film Festival) stars Luna Jordan, Noemi Liv Nicolaisen, Katharina Stark, and Sara Giannelli on the road looking for adventure. Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides and Bling Ring, as well as Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers may flash through your mind at times, but you’ll soon discover that this journey is distinctly of this century’s fiery Twenties.

Anna Roller with her Dead Girls Dancing star Luna Jordan at the Tribeca Festival Awards Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Friends Ira (Jordan), Ka (Nicolaisen), and Malin (Stark) are recent high school graduates from Munich,...