After unveiling all projects, works in progress, professionals and companies selected in the different sections of the market, WEMW is happy to announce the four juries and all the awards, as well as the complete programme of panels, lectures and case studies.
The WEMW Co-Production Forum Jury consisting of Darya Bassel (Moon Man), Pierre Dallois (Ciclic Centre-Val de Loire), Gordan Matic (Film Center Serbia) and Elma Tataragic (Sarajevo IFF) will assign three cash prizes of the value of 5.000 € each: the Film Center Serbia Development Award, the Ciclic WEMW Award (granted by the French, Centre-Val de Loire Region) and the ArteVideo Co-Production Award. Moreover, all selected projects will be eligible for the EWA Network’s I HAVE A DREAM Award for Equality & Inclusion of the value of 1.000 €. In addition to these cash prizes, the Co-Production Forum will also feature a series of other major awards, including the EAVE Producers Workshop scholarship, the Marché du Film Producers Network Badges, the Pop Up Film Residency Award, the DAE Talent Development Prize in cooperation with the EFM and the #DocsConnect Taskovski Training Award.
The Last Stop Trieste Jury composed by Martina Droandi (Autlook Film Sales), Tereza Keilova (HBO Europe) and Freddy Olsson (Göteborg IFF), be called upon to decide the winner of the HBO EUROPE Award, a cash prize of the value of 1.000 €; whereas the This is IT Jury, headed by Remi Bigot (Semaine de la Critique), Vincenzo Bugno (Berlinale World Cinema Fund/TFL), Wouter Jansen (Square Eyes) and Giancarlo Chetta (Laser Film), will assign the LASER FILM Award, a prize consisting in 4.000 € in colour grading and an additional 40% discount on post-production facilities. Finally, the First Cut+ Jury, consisting of Esra Demirkiran (TRT), Stefan Ivančić (Locarno Film Festival) and Daniel Vadocky (Pluto Films), will award the TRT Prize, worth 5.000 €.
Alongside the traditional pitch of projects in development and the three Works in Progress sections for fiction and documentary films, WEMW has put together a series of sessions tackling different cutting-edge topics, thanks to the close collaboration with several major long-lasting content partners.
The 2023 edition will open with the conversational inspiring keynote “The role of cinema as an identity marker & a mean of cultural reproduction”. The talk will attempt to highlight the concept of national identity and discuss whether cinema is an art-form that can shape, influence or promote related value sets. In the panel “Digital campaign for your Film Premiere”, First Cut+ will give hands-on tips on how to use digital tools to better understand the audience and to reach it with a meaningful, tailored-made campaign. EAVE will host the session “The Secret Life of a Producer” where Joanna Szymanska and Krystyna Kantor (Shipsboy, PL) will discuss their strategies on how to expand from a couch in the living-room to running a team of six, from a unique perspective of a Central European country. MIDPOINT Institute, key partner of the ‘Cold Open Inspirational Lab’, will organise the lecture “The State of Global Scripted Productions”, which aims at exploring the current opportunities and challenges facing local language scripted series. ACE Producers will host the “ACE Interview with Volodymyr Yatsenko”, founder of production company ForeFilm (UA). Finally, ESoDoc will give a comprehensive overview on how Think-Film works across Europe in the panel “Accelerate IMPACT: bring impactful films to the right audiences”, whereas thanks to the partnership with MEDICI-The Film Funding Journey (organised by FOCAL) Tamara Tatishvili, in conversation with fund representatives and producers, will explore the funding Landscape in Armenia, Moldova and Georgia in the panel dedicated to the 2023 East Spotlight Territories.
The new ecosystem of When East Meets West 2023 will include a record number of different industry activities running simultaneously over four intense days. Thanks to the close partnership with more than 15 European and international training programmes and funding bodies*, WEMW will feature 6 Inspirational Labs, the EAVE Slate programme, the First Cut Lab for films in editing phase, the EAVE Impact Think Tank on anti-racism, the EWA Mentoring Programme, the DAE Confidential chats about documentary film financing and distribution, the Circle Doc Accelerator breakfast sessions, thematic panels on the 2023 spotlight countries and a series of enlightening lectures, live-streamed on Cineuropa and accessible on Festival Scope Pro after the market, and available to more than 500 onsite and 200 online WEMW registered participants and the whole European film industry.
With this new ambitious 2023 edition, WEMW wishes to become "more than a market", it will be a perfect mix of co-financing, training, matchmaking, mentoring, screening, networking, inspiration and brainstorming. Everything carefully shaped under one single underlying idea: there is something for everyone.
