Serbia wins CPH:FORUM Best Pitch Award-Nordic docs in development on display

The documentary industry showcase CPH:FORUM, held next to the CPH:DOX international documentary festival closed last night with an awards ceremony where Serbia’s The Last Nomad scooped the coveted €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award for Best Pitch.

The jury consisting of Anne Köhncke (Final Cut for Real), Vesna Cudić (Met Film Sales) and Dr. Eduart Makri (Eurimages National Representative, Albania), said in a statement: “We were impressed by this project which brings us to a place we didn’t know existed, a place of striking beauty and importance to humanity. A story of the human being in a David against Goliath battle, urgently reminding us not to lose our way in the fog of war.”

The Serbian/Montenegro/Croatian/Belgian/French co-production tells a tumultuous family drama that unfolds as Gara (59) and Nada (13) defend their land set to become a military polygon, revealing layers of complexity that bond mother and daughter. The story of violence against women echoes in the violence against nature.

On top of the previously presented Nordic works in progress (CLICK HERE) the following Nordic documentaries in development were pitched in Copenhagen, with registered participants invited to watch the event online.

• Breaking Social (Sweden)
  Directed by Fredrik Gertten (Push, Bikes vs Cars)
  Produced by WG Film AB (Push, Dead Donkeys Fear no Hyenas)
  All societies are based on the idea of the social contract: but if we follow the rules, others don’t. Breaking Social uncovers the pattern of corruption and kleptocracy erasing the social tissue, followed by social uprisings. In Chile a new turn is taken, with young women in the lead, while other female journalists in Nigeria and Malta fight against local injustice and corruption.
• Untitled Andreas Dalsgaard (Denmark/France)
  Directed by Andreas Dalsgaard (The Great Game, The War Show)
  Produced by Elk Film (The Lost Leonardo)
  A Swiss art dealer and a Russian Oligarch caught in a web of secrets, lies and mad money. The inside story of an international billion-dollar game where power is the ultimate currency.
• Climate in Therapy (Sweden)
  Directed by Nathan Grossman (I am Greta)
  Produced by B-Reel Films (I am Greta, Bergman-A Year in a Life)
  What will happen if a group of climate scientists, who usually don’t allow themselves to express their emotions about climate change, get a chance to process their feelings in group therapy? The therapy is led by Richard Beck, one of the world’s most renowned experts in group therapy. Emmy-winning editor Amy Foote (Father Soldier Son, Fauci) is attached to the film.
• ILoveRuss (Sweden)
  By Tova Mozard (The Mismaid Girl)
  Produced by Picky Pictures (Awaiting the Death of Jan Myrdal)
  20 years ago, a Hollywood extra met a budding filmmaker. She honed her directorial skills and he practised lines. Years later, a film which was never supposed to be had already been shot. Neither reality nor fiction, but both at the same time.
• MegaHearts (Sweden)
  Directed by Emily Norling (All We Own)
  Produced by Story AB (Idomeni, That Summer)
  Megaheartz is a hybrid documentary about five women who want to start over. The film begins with an acutely real escape from a destructive boyfriend and continues in a flow of fantasies and fragments of love, pain and desire.The central theme of Megaheartz is the relationship between pain and the desire to feel free.
• Portrait of a Confused Father (Norway/France)
  Directed by Gunnar Hall Jensen (Oh, It Hertz!)
  Produced by UpNorth Film (Name of the Game, Oh, It Hertz!)
  A macho middle-aged control freak of a father is trying to connect with his uncontrollable wild son. It does not go according to plan. The film dives into three generations of men and tackles the themes of attachment, detachment, and masculinity.

• The End of Quiet (Denmark)
  Directed by Mikael Lypinski (Desert Coffee) and Kasper Bisgaard (The Kampala Story)
  Produced by Sonntag Pictures (The Fall, Bobbi Jene)
  In a remote, isolated area, one of the largest telescopes on earth is used to unlock the mysteries of the universe, while the locals live without cell phones and WiFi, cutting themselves off from the world.
• The Human Race (Denmark)
  Directed by Simon Lec (A Change in Fashion)
  Produced by Move Copenhagen (Growing Mature-Human Life)
  In his relentless attempt to build a library of the complete genetic blueprint of the human race, a famous professor gets swirled into the political, ethical and existential tangle his work creates.
• The Whale Mystery (Denmark/Norway/Iceland)
  Directed by Klaus Thymann (Flows, Voices for the Future)
  Produced by Wingman Media (The Mole: Undercover in North Korea)
  Explorer, technical diver and environmental scientist Klaus Thymann will lead a global team on a journey revealing why whales commit collective suicide every year.

• Whitewash (Norway)
  Directed by Andrei Nekrasov (The Magnitsky Act-Behind the Scenes, Russian Lessons)
  Produced by Piraya Film (Mogadishu Soldier, Gulabi Gang)
  Illegal funds travelling from Russia through Estonia into every corner of the world. Whitewash is the inside story of the gigantic money laundering case of Danske and other Nordic banks.

The hybrid festival CPH:DOX ends April 3^rd.​