US & French Connection – 2018
Presentation
US & FRENCH CONNECTION ANNOUNCES ITS FIRST EDITION AT THE INDUSTRY WEEK OF CHAMPS-ELYSEES FILM FESTIVAL FROM JUNE 13 TO JUNE 15, 2018.
US & FRENCH CONNECTION is a year-round program created by the INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER PROJECT (IFP) in partnership with FRENCH IN MOTION, two organizations based in New York bringing together film professionals and talents. US & FRENCH CONNECTION is designed for producers and directors who want to produce international movies, tv series, documentaries, for which they need partners on both sides of the Atlantic.
The selection is made upon a call for applications, in March for American projects and in May for French projects. The first workshop takes place in Paris, June 13-15, 2018, at the Champs Elysées Film Festival ‘Industry Week’. US teams will meet with their French peers from the program, and with industry decision makers (producers, financiers, distributors, sales agents, broadcasters, etc.). The second workshop takes place in New York at IFP Week September 15- 20, 2018, where French teams come to meet the American industry.
The five American projects selected on script and application for this first edition and whose producers / directors will be present at the Champs Elysees Film Festival are the following:
- KIDS GO FREE TO FUN FUN TIME: Feature Film- Dir. Ben Hicks, Prod. Liz Cardenas (‘A Ghost Story,’ ‘Never Goin’ Back’). A young, adventurous couple struggles to evolve together – as they live in Japan, Taiwan, and Spain – over the course of ten years.
- THE EXPAT: Feature Film- Dir. Daniel Laabs (‘Jules of Light and Dark’) Prod. Jeff Walker (‘Jules of Light and Dark’). The story of one man’s terrifying retreat into a familiar stranger’s lawless paradise of rum, survival, and midnight shark fishing.
- THE FIREBIRD: Feature Film- Writer Suzanne Egan, Prod. Amy Rapp (‘Return’, ‘The Woman who wasn’t there’, ‘Tower’), Nora Unkel, Devin Shepherd. During the Russian civil war, a runaway princess finds refuge at a ballet academy. As the red army marches closer, she searches for a safe escape while keeping her identity a secret.
- THE GYMNAST: Feature Film- Dir. Charlotte Glynn (‘Rachel Is’, ‘The Immaculate Reception’), Prod. Mike Harrop (‘Billions’, ‘I smile Back’, ‘Burning Blue’, ‘Manhattan Romance’), Brian Koppelman & David Levien (‘Billions’, ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’, ‘The Girlfriend Experience’). In a former mill-town devastated by loss of industry, a 14 year-old aspiring Olympic gymnast and her a single father, a die hard “gym dad”, must fight to reinvent themselves after a potentially career ending injury.
- AU PAIR: Feature Film- Prod. And Dir. Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin (‘Barracuda’, ‘Now, Forager’). An American woman searches for her adopted son, who has gone missing while trying to reconnect with his birth mother in rural France.
