Les Arcs Festival Launches Talent Village Under Thomas Vinterberg’s Patronage

By Elsa Keslassy

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Celebrating its 10th year anniversary, Les Arcs Industry Village is launching the Talent Village, a new development workshop and platform for emerging talents which will be under the patronage of Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (“The Hunt”).

Kicking off on Dec. 12 and hosted at the Cinéfabrique Film school in Lyon, the workshop will take place over three days — right before the start of .

The participants include Poland’s Dawid Bodzak whose short “Tremors” won Grand Prize at Clermont Ferrand;
Israel’s Miki Polonski whose short “Ten Buildings Away” was selected for Cannes’s Cinéfondation; Spain’s Joan Vives Lozano whose short “El Escarabajo al Final de la Calle played at Clermont Ferrand. All eight filmmakers have just started developing their first film and some of them don’t have a producer yet.

The other participants are Alexandra Brodski from U.K./Russia, Monica Lima from Portugal, Renato Muro from Italy, Hania Ourabah from France and Bernhard Wenger from Austria.

The workshop aims at helping directors develop all aspects of their projects, from the writing to the visual identity, as well as the score, production design and wardrobe.

Filmmakers will be coached by experienced tutors including Franco-Bulgarian cinematographer Lubomir Bakchev (“The Dreamers”), London based Italian production designer Dionisia Cirasola (“Sandrine in the Rain”) and Polish costume designer Katarzyna Lewińska (“The Lure”).

The Talent Village will also bring together composers who will propose a musical theme for each project under the leadership of music supervisor Quentin Boniface, the former head of Gaumont’s music department. Vinterberg will close the workshop with a masterclass.

Following the workshop in Lyon, the young directors will head to Les Arcs and will pitch their projects at the festival’s industry sidebar, the Coproduction Village. A jury will award the best project with a Paribas cash prize of 5000 Euros. The Talent Village jury comprises Antoine le Bos, who runs the Groupe Ouest and its film lab; the producer Klaudia Smieja (“High Life”); and Mira Staleva, who organizes the Sofia Meetings and IFF in Bulgaria.

The 10th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival will run Dec. 15-22.