Berlin-based producer Rebekka Garrido , in her second year as director of Connecting Cottbus , tells us about the 18th edition of the East-West co-production market and the way the industry event has been developing to match the needs of the Eastern European film market.
Cineuropa: How many projects did you receive this year, and what was the general trend? Rebekka Garrido: We received a record number of more than applications, which is very high, especially since we only take feature films. Many of them were by very young directors and producers: that was a very strong trend this year, although we always try to have more experienced participants in the mix.
The team that won the coco Post Award, Dina Duma and her producer Marija Dimitrova , with their Macedonian project Sister , are very young, for instance. Yes, female directors are well supported there, and if you talk to Darko Basheski , the former head of the Macedonian Film Fund , now working as a producer again, he was always a great supporter of women in film, and he was actually very moved when the female duo behind Sister got the prize.
Are you pleased with the outcome of this edition? Very happy. I think the final choices were wonderful. Of course, I like all of the projects, but the outcome represents the spirit of Cottbus quite well: the other winner, which took home the coco Best Pitch Award, was a Ukrainian project, Voroshilovgrad ,which coincides with our country focus this year.
I think the audience at the market, which votes for this prize, made a fantastic choice there. Why did you turn to Ukraine this year for the country focus? They have a new tax scheme and a new film-fund situation there. Also, since last year, they have been supporting minority projects, so if there is a project from Ukraine you want to jump on board as a producer, now is the time to do it because they have the money and they want to give money to Ukrainian projects.
