Fifth edition of the Mentoring Programme Kicks off at AGORA in the THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
In the context of the Agora co-production market at 64th Thessaloniki Film Festival, we had the pleasure to start the fifth edition of EWA Network's Mentoring scheme for female producers.
The mentoring programme was launched in 2018, it allows mentees to upgrade the core skills and competencies needed in their profession such as financing, negotiating, management and business development. It is aimed at female producers established in Europe, with a proven experience of at least five years in the film production department and who are motivated to grow professionally, acquire new skills and evolve in a European environment. The mentors - experienced women producers, who have a successful track record and a consolidated practice in European/international co-production and business development at large - are matched with the mentees, with whom they work along the year on a bilateral basis.
Since the creation of this programme, more than thirty-five European countries have been represented. After seeing the impact of our programme in past editions and the results already seen in the just finished edition, we conclude that this action is really needed to facilitate the incorporation of a diversity of voices in the European Audiovisual arena and to enhance the relation among territories. We have also detected the need to have a special focus on participants from low capacity countries and lower income backgrounds.
We welcomed the six participants, coming from Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Ukraine and the mentors coming from Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Italy and Serbia over a dinner which served as introductory round for most of the participants.
This first meeting started with an introduction of EWA Network and the Mentoring Programme by Alexia Muiños Ruiz. Then, a seminar and case study on marketing & distribution by Christina Pelekani, founder of Endorphin Agency followed.
After the lunch break, the individual bilateral meetings between the mentors and the mentees took place.
On the following day, the group attended the THESSALONIKI CROSSROADS Co-PRODUCTION PITCHING FORUM at Frida Liappa cinema in the port. The 2023 selection features debut and sophomore feature films as well as more experienced directors presenting their third and even fifth film projects. A common theme among the projects is nature, love, war, female emancipation and ghosts presenting
several genre films or genre elements. The selection also featured 10 female directors including these projects by EWA members:
40 MARIA LUISA BOULEVARD – Director / Scriptwriter: Kristina Spassovska, Production:Maya Vitkova-Kosev - Viktoria Films, Bulgaria
AND ME TOO - Director / Scriptwriter: Sondos Shabayek, Production: Kesmat Elsayed - SEERA FILMS Gmbh / See Media Production, Germany, Egypt
I MATTER- Director / Scriptwriter: Alina Serban, Producer: Ada Solomon - microFILM, Romania
After the lunch break, the group gathered again for a workshop with Juliane Schulze with the topic of Building the Foundation for a Sustainable Business.The seminar guided the participants through three practical steps that reveal the driving force behind their professional work and may turn it into a clear competitive advantage. The workshop was structured as one onsite and one online session which will follow and put individual and group work at its focus.
Then a plenary session to recap with the work done with their mentors and structure the follow up session.
In the evening, the group met again for dinner at AKADIMIA restaurant to wrap up this first encounter.
