Already preparing the trip to Clermont-Ferrand, I wanted to write about Euro connection, a forum we discovered last year and launched for the first time in Spain. Euro connection is organised by the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market and aims to co-produce short films between European countries. The producers of the selected projects are invited to attend the meeting, which takes place over two days, take part in pitching sessions, network with other producers and have one-to-one meetings. The market usually invites 150 professionals each year and covers accommodation, meals and accreditation costs for four days for the selected projects. The short film Pride by Pavel Vesnakov is a good example of the potential of this initiative: this short was a co-production between Bulgaria and Germany, and won the Clermont-Ferrand Grand Prix in 2014, becoming one of the most important shorts of the year. In Cortosfera magazine they devoted an excellent review to it.
The project selection has two stages: on the one hand, each country organises a national jury and chooses one project, which is presented together with the rest of the countries to a second European jury that selects the final 16 projects. This process guarantees the quality of the projects ultimately selected. This year we have been the Spanish Correspondant from Madrid en corto and the ECAM distribution office.
To be able to participate, projects must meet the following requirements:
1. Short film projects (animation, fiction, creative documentary)
2. The duration cannot exceed 40 minutes
3. The project must be open to international co-production
4. It must have part of its production financed externally to the producer, which may be public or private (crowdfunding, development grants and scriptwriting grants, etc.); there is no limit on the amount of these funds.
5. Shooting cannot start before May 2015
Considering it was the first time it took place in Spain and with only one week from the call to the submission deadline (the whole process took place in November), the response has been excellent, with no fewer than 17 short film projects submitted (and 5 projects that met all the requirements, which was not easy). This response says a lot about the vitality of short films in Spain despite the difficulties. In this regard, point 4 has been the most difficult for most projects to meet, but it is important in order to participate, as it is about demonstrating that the producer is able to secure external funding, regardless of the amount.
To form the jury for this first edition, we tried to have a representative from each Autonomous Community that attends the Market regularly. The four jury members were Gemma Pascual (Catalan Films Market Coordinator), Koldo Zuazua (Producer), Luis Ferrón (producer and head of internships at ECAM) and Enrique Perez (Filmoteca de Extremadura).
The project finally chosen was Palabras de caramelo by Juan Antonio Moreno (from the Extremaduran production company Making Doc Producciones), and in December we learned that it was among the 16 projects selected by the European jury—without a doubt, great news, not only for those behind Palabras de caramelo but for Spanish short films as a whole.
Euro connection will take place in a few days, from 3 to 4 February 2015, and is made possible thanks to the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Desk France, the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image Animée CNC (the French ICAA), the Creative Europe’s MEDIA sub-programme and PROCIREP (the French EGEDA).
We hope that the launch of Euro connection in Spain has helped to raise awareness of this forum among Spanish producers, and that next year even more projects will be submitted, and above all, that it will contribute to internationalisation and to the production of quality short films.