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The National Film Center (NKC) has confirmed the results of the 2024 film production competition – with the financing of EUR 1,800,158 available in the competition, the production of a total of 14 films will be started – six full-length feature films, six documentaries and two animated short films.
From the funding available in the competition, EUR 1,113,660 was allocated to feature film projects, supporting very different ideas of a wide thematic and stylistic spectrum for different audiences. The regulations of this year’s competition called for special attention to be paid to films for children and young people, and two adventure stories with elements of mystery and fantasy were selected from several applications for this year’s production support – director Linda Olte will make the film “When Tīne and Bīne met Juhana” (based on the book by Dāvid Vikmans Roņpils. The story of the marsh” by the Air Productions studio, produced by Antra Gaile and Līga Gaisa), while the director Aiks Karapetjans will use his knowledge gained in art history studies, shooting the feature film “The Magician’s Eye”, whose characters enter the world of ancient paintings (the film is produced by the Mistrus Media studio ). The main character is also conceived as a teenager in the feature film “Tabita” (director Juris Kursietis, producer Alise Ģelze, studio White Picture), in a sensitive story about the psychological experiences of a child with special needs in a family. Other projects supported for production promise vividly expressed qualities of different genres – director Andrejs Ēķis and actor Jēkabs Reinis have jointly conceived a historical spy thriller “The Dark Border”, in which the action takes place in 1939 on the border of Latvia and Russia, while director Marta Elīna Martinsone in the film Bride (studio Ego Media) will implement its extensive knowledge and passion for the musical genre. Director Laila Pakalniņa and cinematographer Gints Bērziņš will also start making a new feature film, their project “Whispers in the Cellar” will tell a conditional story about the refugees of the tsar era, who are hiding in the basement and depend on the rescuers, who may also have their own complications.
Practically all feature film projects are conceived as international co-productions, so part of the projects plan to start filming when co-financing is also approved by the funds and institutions of the partner countries.
Documentary film projects were awarded 544,133 EUR in the competition, and stylistic diversity and socially relevant topics can also be observed in this competition. Director Madara Dišler has planned a documentary film “Dancing Emptiness”, which will tell about the emotionally complex work of “Clown Doctors” in Latvia and elsewhere (studio Sunday Rebel Films), director Stanislavs Tokalovs will make a film “Ka ir Velta Ivanova?” at Ego Media studio; the idea of the film was born after working and filming for a long time in the Mežciem boarding house. Director Normunds Pucis will explore historical themes in the film “Can you get a beer here? Post Scriptum”, with the help of documentary footage, archive footage and animated graphics, solving the spy story of the post-war years, which also inspired the novel of the same name by Anšlava Eglīš. Authentic and so far unpublished archive footage will also be used in the VFS Films work “Letters to my creator” (directors Ivo Briedis and Alex Shirjaevs, producer Uldis Cekulis); the story of the film is inspired by the world’s first gender reassignment operation, which was performed by surgeon Viktors Kalnbērzs in Riga in the 1970s.
Today’s permanent relevance is reflected in the future film “War in the distance”, directed by Vitalijs Manskis, a documentarian living in Latvia, filming his native city of Lviv, Ukraine, centering the changes caused by the war around the everyday life of the military orchestra. The project “I love you, Leks Friedman!” promises the most geographically diverse points and unexpected turns. (studio Trickster Pictures), in which producer Matīss Kaža and actress Iveta Pole will become co-directors, documenting the personal search of a creative woman in Latvia, Germany and America.
This year, EUR 142,365 is allocated to animation film projects, two short films are supported. Director Anna Zača and artist Oskars Pavlovskis will create a puppet animation film “Ligzda” in the VFS Films studio, which will imaginatively and attractively play out the changes in the life of a young couple from the moment a baby crib appears at home. Debutant director Ella Mežule creates the two-dimensional drawn film “Paisuma daba” (studio Kokles), which is centered on the relationships, memories, disappointments and misunderstandings of a young woman.
The National Cinema Center (NCC) announced the 2024 Film Production Competition on 25 January 2024 with the aim of supporting the production of new feature films and full-length animation and documentaries. The submission of projects ended on February 29, 16 feature films, 5 animated films and 10 documentary film projects were submitted to expert commissions with a total request for 2024 of EUR 3,967,357.
The public presentations of the projects submitted to the competition took place at the National Film School on March 28, April 2 and 3, the projects were evaluated by expert commissions and representatives of the advisory society. Director and pedagogue Pēteris Krilovs and film critic Sonora Broka, creative director of the Riga IFF festival work in the feature film expert commission, film scholar Zane Balčus and producer Ieva Łebele in the documentary film commission, director Māra Liniņa and film critic Kristīne Simsone in the animation film commission. One NKC representative also works in each expert commission, Inga Blese in the feature film commission, Kristīne Matīsa in the documentary film commission, Agnese Zapāne in the animation film commission.
For several years now, the film production competition has also attracted representatives of the public, who provide recommendations to experts, supporting the allocation of public funding to such projects, which are relevant and important for various audiences in Latvia. Latvian Television representative Zane Valeniece, Splendid Palace cinema representative, film critic Daira Āboliņa and Kino Bize cinema manager, social anthropologist Māris Prombergs participated in the project evaluation in 2023.
In the NKC’s planned film industry competition schedule for 2024, a competition for the support of minority co-productions (submission of projects until 16.04) is currently also relevant, and a competition for the development of film projects is also planned (to be announced in August). Two tenders have been open almost throughout the year – support for films in production with NKC funding and support for other projects in the film industry, the projects submitted to these tenders are reviewed once a month.
