Dutch filmmaker Floor Van der Meulen’s drama Happy Days, about a woman who suffers a burnout after she commits to looking after grandchildren several days a week, has scooped one of the top prizes at the Les Arcs Coproduction Village.
It is one 18 feature film projects selected for the 16th edition of the project market unfolding within the framework of the Les Arcs Film Festival in the French Alps, from December 14 to 17.
Happy Days won the €20,000 Eurimages Coproduction Development Award, decided by a jury consisting of Emilia Fort, producer at Avalon (Spain); Eleni Chandrinou, Consultant and Greek representative for Eurimages, and Victor Pothevin, co-head of Acquisitions at Diaphana.
Produced by Keplerfilm, Happy Days is inspired by the phenomenon of grandparents increasingly giving up their retirement to help their offspring with childcare.
Van der Meulen says the premise was sparked by a conversation with a friend who complained that her mother had refused to commit to babysitting, preferring to enjoy her well-earned freedom as a retiree.
The director, whose previous credits include Pink Moon and 9 Days: From My Window In Aleppo, is a promising film that is observational with a thriller edge.
The Coproduction Village is one strand of the Les Arcs Industry Village program alongside the Talent Village, which is also focused on projects at the development stage, the Work in Progress line-up, and the Music Village. Some 700 European film professionals attended this year’s edition.
In further Coproduction Village prizes, the €20,000 Eurimages Coproduction Development Special Award aimed at Ukrainian filmmakers went to Anastasiia Solonevych’s 30 Days of Summer.
The first feature explores the tension between people who stayed on in Ukraine after the Russian invasion and those who left, through the prism of two siblings, one who fled to Berlin, and one who enrolled to serve on the frontline. It is produced by Bosonfilm.
Eurimages Fund created the award as part of its special measures in support of the Ukrainian film industry.
The €6,000 ArteKino International Award, decided by Rémi Burah, President of the ArteKino Foundation and CEO of Arte France Cinéma, went to French director Clara Lemaire Anspach’s Rosa Candida.
Produced by Haut et Court, the drama follows a young man whose retreat to a Mediterranean island to revive an abandoned monastery garden in the wake of his mother’s death takes an unexpected turn when a woman he had a one-night stand with at the funeral turns up nine months later with a baby girl she says is his daughter.
Work in Progress Prizes
In the Work in Progress section, Dutch filmmaker Thom Lunshof’s debut feature First Zone won the €10,000 TitraFilm Award consisting of €10,000 in post-production services for sound and/or images.
The jury was composed of Critics’ Week delegate general Beatrice Fiorentino, Reykjavik International Film Festival Hrönn Marinósdóttir, and Ivo Andrle, cofounder and CEO of Aerofilms.
Set in a future, flooded Netherlands, the intriguing tale follows the physical and emotional odyssey of a hardened woman who finds herself questioning her life choices after a violent storm wrenches her from her desolate home in a wind turbine, throwing her together with an unexpected traveling companion.
The jury praised the film’s “capacity to convey the anxieties of the present into a possible future”, while “avoiding the pitfalls of didacticism and the traps of genre cinema.”
The €6,000 digital marketing focused Alphapanda Audience Engagement Award went to Spanish director Jaume Claret Muxart’s Strange River produced by by ZuZú Cinema (Spain), Miramemira (Spain) and Schuldenberg Films (Germany).
The jury was composed of journalist Marilou Duponchel, Filmin Head of Acquisitions Joan Sala and Alphapanda’s Joanna Solecka.
Set against the backdrop of a family cycling holiday along the Danube, the coming of age drama follows 15-year-old Dídac, who meets a mysterious older boy on the trip and feels something inside him changing.
There was also an Alphapanda Special Mention for Maxence Voiseux’s documentary Gabin, a Youth in the Backland, following a boy growing up in a rural community in northern France over 10 years. It is produced by Alter Ego Production (France), AMA Film (Germany) and Rita Productions (Switzerland).
In a final Work in Progress prize, the €10,000 22D Music Award dedicated to the financing of the production of an original composition went to Norwegian director Janicke Askevold’s drama Solomamma about a woman who becomes pregnant via sperm donation but then tracks downn the donor when she struggles to cope with lone motherhood.
The feature is produced by Bacon Pictures Oslo (Norway), Bacon Pictures Copenhagen (Denmark), Mistrus Media (Lettonie), Dansu Films (Lithuania) and It’s Alive (Finland).
The jury was composed of mk2 films MD Fionnuala Jamison, Icelandic film composer Atli Örvarsson and 22D Music Founder and CEO Emmanuel Delétang.
In the Talent Village, the €5,000 Talent Village Award went to Made in Mud by Anna Llargues (Spain), produced by Astra Pictures, and there was special mention for Silk by Selma Sunniva (Denmark), produced by Isaac
The jury was composed of Jérôme Parlange, Head of the Live Action Ciclic Film Fund (France), and Margaux Juvénal, producer at Take Shelter (France).
In other awards, Audrey Ismaël received the previously announced €2.000 Revelation Female Film Composer Award. The prize is a joint initiative between Les Arcs Music Village, Le Lab Femmes de Cinéma and Sacem.
Two Cannes Producers Network badges were also given to two Industry Village producers: Iceland’s Kari Ulfsson, who was participating with Seven Balconies by Erlendur Sveinsson, and France’s Arthur Cohen, who produces under the Elementary banner and was attending with Grizzly by Sophie Galibert.