TIES THAT BIND takes off in Udine for the 11th time!

This year’s edition of THAT THAT BIND (TTB), the leading workshop programme connecting professionals from Asia and Europe, will start again in Udine in a few days. We are proud to announce the selection of 15 participants out of 59 applications from 31 countries!
Please see the list below.

TIES THAT BIND has become the reference for developing European-Asian co-productions in the past decade, combining producer training, project development and co-production meetings, and focusing on co-operation between European producers and their Asian counterparts.

The participants’ group is led by EAVE graduates Jonas Weydemann (Weydemann Bros., DE) and Fran Borgia (Akanga Film Asia, SG).
Jonas recently produced System Crasher by Nora Fingscheidt, winner of the Silver Bear Alfred-Bauer-Preis at the 2019 Berlinale, and Fran has produced A Land Imagined by YEO Siew Hua, winner of the Golden Leopard at the 2018 Locarno Festival.
The two group leaders will guide the participants’ discussion and analysis of each others’ projects from both the Asian and European perspective.

TIES THAT BIND will partner again with FOCUS ASIA, the Industry Section of the Udine Far East Film Festival, organising public sessions for more than 100 film professionals from Europe and Asia, such as Vincenzo Bugno’s (World Cinema Fund, DE) session “It’s not only about Money, let’s talk about Cinema”.
The participants will also have the opportunity to join round tables with leading Asian and European buyers, sales agents and festival programmers, and will meet them individually in one-to-one meetings, which will be organised together with other projects selected for the FOCUS ASIA – All Genres Project Market.
This year’s selection of Focus Asia features projects of the TTB graduates Hoang Diep Nguyen, Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Stefano Centini.

TTB Head of Studies Christophe Bruncher (Ici et Là Productions, FR) has put together a team of top-notch industry professionals from Europe and Asia.
Clare Downs (Script Consultant, UK) will introduce the main script development tools to strengthen the participants’ understanding of narrative principles. Sibylle Kurz (Pitching Consultant, DE) will be coaching the participants how to fine-tune their pitches and embrace pitching as a development tool. Roger Garcia (Hong Kong Int. Film Festival, HK) and Marco Müller (Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Int. Film Festival, CN) will give insight into Asian cinema in an interview conducted by Mathew Scott (Cool Hand Media, HK). Patrick Mao Huang (Flash Forward Entertainment, TW) will focus his session on Co-Producing with China and Taiwan. TTB will also tackle the latest distribution trends in Asia with Mitch Mallon (Stadium Media, US) who will elaborate on A-B-C of Digital Distribution and Monetization.

Also on the programme: Individual coaching sessions on marketing strategies with Constanza Arena (CinemaChile, ES), festival strategies with Thierry Jobin (Festival Int. de Films de Fribourg & Visions Sud Est, CH) and financing opportunities in Asia with Justin Deimen (Aurora Media Holdings, SG). In his meetings Sten-Kristian Saluveer (Storytek, EE) will advise on how to build sustainability and your career through projects and how to apply new business models to film production.

The first TTB workshop will take place in Udine (Italy) from April 29 – May 3, 2019 within the framework of the 21st edition of the Udine Far East Film Festival (April 26 – May 4, 2019).
The second TTB workshop will be organised in Singapore from December 2 – 6, 2019, during the Southeast Asian Film Financing Forum (SAFF).

TIES THAT BIND is organised by Friuli Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Fund, EAVE, Udine Far East Film Festival and Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association (SAAVA), and supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA sub-programme of the European Union and Aurora Media Holdings.

The following 10 Participants focusing on project development with feature films in development and 5 Participants focusing on career development wanting to extend their knowledge and network towards Asia have been selected to participate in TTB 2019:

Nathalie Dennes, The Living, France

Maria Drandaki, Homemade Films, Greece
Project: Titanic Ocean by Konstantina Kotzamani

Fei Ling Foo, Ghost Grrrl Pictures, Malaysia
Project: Tiger Stripes by Amanda Nell Eu

Sunhee Han, Plain Pictures, South Korea
Project: The Final Print by Woojin Jang

Anda Ionescu, Alien Film, Romania
Project: Simin Dona by Igor Cobileanski

Chi-an Lin, Coolie Films, China
Project: Uncharted by Hongsong Zhang

Siska Raharja, Elora Films, Indonesia
Project: Mayday by Eden Junjung

Fernanda Renno, Fidalgo Film Production, Norway

Nancy Schoesetters, TM Media Productions, Belgium

Radu Stancu Mihalcea, deFilm, Romania
Project: To the North by Mihai Mincan

Joanna Tatko, Staron-film, Poland

Supatcha Thipsena, Mobile Lab Project, Thailand
Project: Babylon by Keith Deligero

Raymond van der Kaaij, Revolver Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Project: Blood of Ghost by Michael Sewandono

Boštjan Virc, Studio Virc, Slovenia

Xinyu Zhou, Alcatraz Films, France
Project: Children by Yifan Shi