RUNNER by Andrius Blazevicius participates in First Cut Lab’s new program First Cut+.
First Cut+ is a new program created for boosting the competitiveness and marketability of feature films that previously participated in First Cut Lab. The program is launched in 2020 through a close cooperation with two dynamic & well-established film industry platforms: Trieste’s When East Meets West and Karlovy Vary IFF’s Eastern Promises Industry Days. Films developed through partner programs MIDPOINT Feature Launch and LIM – Less is More are also eligible to participate. First Cut+ is the only new action that received financial support from the Access to Markets scheme of Creative Europe’s MEDIA program in 2019.
First Cut+ consists in the promotion of a portfolio of 16 fiction feature films at the stage of post-production, predominantly from countries with a low production capacity (at least 75% of the films) and with a focus on Central & Eastern Europe. The range of films will be large: from both debut & experienced directors, small and larger budgets.
8 films – half of the portfolio – are promoted during the winter session at Trieste’s When East Meets West (January 2020), and another half during the summer session, at Karlovy Vary IFF’s Eastern Promises Industry Days (early July 2020), enabling to welcome most eligible projects, no matter the timeline of their production. Participating projects will have 3 days of consultations on promotion followed by a Works-in-progress session.
