IMPORTANT
Time zone: UTC+3
Venue: National Gallery of Art (Konstitucijos ave. 22, Vilnius).
All events are open to everyone and free of charge.
Pre-registration for public events is here.
The core of your pitch is your story. The shortest way to introduce it is a logline followed by a synopsis and your intentions. The better you know your project, the better you can present it. The lecture will focus on the central elements of creating this package as well as a convincing pitch by sharing some tools how to find the core of your story and how to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the project in the development process.
Gabriele Brunnenmeyer is a script mentor, pitching coach and project consultant. She ran the MEDIA Antenna Berlin-Brandenburg, worked for Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film in the area of young talent support and has developed industry events including Connecting Cottbus, the IDM Film Conference Incontri and MDM’s Meet Your Neighbour in Leipzig. Alongside consulting on script development, packaging, and pitching for individual projects, she consults for several European Training rograms as HerArts FilmLab, Midpoint Feature Launch, Midpoint Shorts, Cutting Edge Talent Camp, Baltic Pitching Forum, Istanbul Film Station, Euro Connection Clermont- Ferrand, Cannes SFC: Rendez-Vous Industry, AKM, Berlinale Talents & Sarajevo Talents and many others.
Script consultants play a crucial role in the development of short films, feature films and series. Consultants work closely not only with writers, but also with directors and creative producers. But what is the nature of this work and why is reading and analysing stories so important in project development? When is the right time to invite a script consultant into the writing room? How to give feedback that helps, not hurts? How to enter a work-in-progress and encourage growth? Using the terms described by Christopher Vogler in his legendary “Writer’s Journey”, to whom can we compare a script consultant – a mentor, an ally or an antagonist? Discover the philosophy of script consulting and the tools consultants use to create a safe space to work on one of the most intimate and fragile tasks in the world – writing powerful, compelling stories.
Screenwriter and script consultant. She has a Master’s degree in Film Studies and has participated in several workshops for script consultants and writers, including Midpoint Training the Trainers and Feature Launch programs, Script Circle and Six Days of Practice, led by Francoise von Roy and Franz Rodenkirchen, and LIM – Less is More. Since 2013, she has been consulting projects for various programs on the international market, such as the Baltic Pitching Forum. She is also the co-founder of Script Atelier and Script a Story, Polish language development workshops. Since 2020 she has been Head of Development at Aurum Film. She leads the conceptual work on feature films and series for the company and is credited as a script consultant for, among others, Colors of Evil: Red, the worldwide Netflix hit, and as story editor for A Moment of Silence, the premium Canal+ series. She also develops her projects. Today We’re All Gonna Hide, a short film she co-wrote, will premiere at the 49th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia in 2024.
The presentation will feature key players from the European short film industry, including TV buyers, sales agents, and producers. These representatives will introduce their companies, catalogues, and working methods, as well as share strategies for scouting new projects and films. This event provides valuable insights into how industry professionals approach the acquisition, promotion, and distribution of short films across Europe.
Yle TV1 is a Finnish television channel owned and operated by Yle, Finland’s public TV broadcaster. The channel was launched in 1950s under the name Suomen Televisio and to this day, it is the oldest operating channel in the country.
Network Ireland Television is renowned for its successful distribution of high-quality narrative short films worldwide, including multiple Academy Award winners and nominees. They include ‘An Irish Goodbye’ (dir. Ross White and Tom Berkeley), ‘The Silent Child’ (dir. Chris Overton) and ‘The Phone Call’ (dir. Mat Kirkby).
BODDAH is a Hungarian production company founded by producer Gábor Osváth, director Bálint Szimler, and cinematographer Marcell Rév. Their debut project, the crowdfunded documentary Balaton Method, became Hungary’s most-watched documentary in 2015. The company’s animation venture includes Réka Bucsi’s LOVE, which debuted at Berlinale Shorts and was nominated for European Film Awards.
Radiator IP Sales is a Belgian company founded by Ben Vandendaele, which represents, distributes, and sells a total of 200 short films and several feature films to date. The films have been selected and awarded at multiple international film festivals, including Berlinale, Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand, Sundance, SXSW, Locarno, and Venice.
EURO CONNECTION in European Short Film Co-production Forum, taking part during the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Market. This pitching and networking event aims at fostering partnerships between European productions companies, funders and broadcasters for short film projects. Each year, 150 industry delegates are expected to attend these two days of networking and deal opportunities. Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival is the world’s largest film festival dedicated to short films. In terms of audience and professional presence, it is the second-largest film festival in France after Cannes.
ShorTO Film Market, previously known as Talents and Short Film Market (TSFM), is a dynamic marketplace for emerging talents that fosters international connections, growth and innovation for creatives and operators. Combining the past with the future, ShorTO Film Market is taking a fresh look at the national landscape while further strengthening the commitment to short film worldwide. The event is taking place in November in Turin, Italy.
Latvian Short Film Agency was founded in 2023 with the aim of serving as the missing link in the chain in communication and targeted promotion and representation of Latvian short films. Its activity aims to to further develop the Latvian short film industry by representing the interests of filmmakers, festivals and the country at the local and international level.
With plenty of film festivals out there and new ones popping up every day, it is easy to get lost trying to find the ones that suit your film (and you) best. That’s why it could be interesting to work with a distributor. In this talk, Wouter Jansen from Square Eyes will explain his way of working with directors, strategising for their films, and in general what you can expect when you go out into the world with your film. This way you are prepared, even when you’ll handle your film’s festival run by yourself.
In partnership with Audiovisual Works Copyright Association AVAKA
Wouter Jansen is the founder of the sales company Square Eyes. Launched in 2013 under the name Some Shorts, it changed to Square Eyes in 2019. The company represents bold, author- driven features and shorts, and in close collaboration with the filmmakers it devises bespoke festival distribution and sales strategies. In the past Wouter has worked for 10 years as the head of programming at Go Short. He is an expert for Locarno Open Doors and First Cut Lab, and has been giving lectures at schools like Le Fresnoy, HEAD Geneva and Netherlands Film Academy.
MEDIA strand of Creative Europe programme provides European filmmakers and other audiovisual industry professionals with a variety of opportunities ranging from direct funding of their projects to training initiatives and more. Austėja Milvydaitė, Head of MEDIA Office at Creative Europe Desk Lithuania, will give a short overview of what is relevant for the short film community and emerging filmmakers: how to get their first commercial film funded, which markets and festivals they should attend and what kind of training opportunities would be beneficial to them now and in the future.
Austėja Milvydaitė is Head of MEDIA Office at Creative Europe Desk Lithuania and has been consulting audiovisual industry professionals on all things funding for over 6 years. The MEDIA strand of the Creative Europe programme supports the European film and audiovisual industries to develop, distribute and promote European works. The MEDIA Office at Creative Europe Desk Lithuania promotes Creative Europe programme at national level, assists the audiovisual sector regarding participation in MEDIA and stimulates cross-border cooperation between professionals, institutions and networks.
Finding reliable partners is crucial for every filmmaker. This presentation will explore practical details for collaboration, highlighting co-production opportunities with Croatia that could lead to successful outcomes following the Baltic Pitching Forum.
The Department of Development, Film Production and Complementary Activities is responsible for supporting script and project development (film and television), film production, international co-productions and cooperation and all cinema related activities- professional training, education, film festivals… The Department also analyses the state of affairs in the area of film, supports and monitors the activities of development, film production, co-productions, festivals, training, education, professional associations and film institutions.
Three Baltic Pitching Forum alumni will share how they successfully brought their animated short films to global audiences, with the intriguing detail that all of them secured co-producers in France. Through their presentations, they will reveal the challenges they faced, lessons learned, and offer valuable advice to fellow filmmakers navigating the international market.
Presented by: Eglė Davidavičė and Agnė Adomėnė, director and producer of “The One Who Knows”, BPF2020 alumni (Lithuania), Sergo Kibus, director of “Schrödinger”, and Kadriann Kibus, producer of “Schrödinger” and “Pulcinella”, BPF2021, BPF2023 alumni (Estonia), Lizete Upīte, director of “Riga’s Lilac”, BPF2016 alumni (Latvia)
Eglė Davidavičė is an animation director based in Vilnius, Lithuania. She graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2019 where she made her first animated short films that have been successfully shown at film festivals. Her debut animated short film ‘The One Who Knows’ was awarded as Best Animated Film of the Year at the Silver Cranes Awards this year and it is still touring through international film festivals. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Visual Arts and developing a new animation project.
Founder and Producer of ART SHOT Production Company, Board Member of The Lithuanian Animation Association, Member of The European Film Academy. Creative producer Agnė Adomėnė focuses on development and production of artistic animated films. In 2012 she founded production company ART SHOT, since then has been producing films of different animation techniques, most of the films are co-productions and received international recognition. Agnė is also one of the founders and a board member of The Lithuanian Animation Association, a member of The Independent Producers Association of Lithuania, a member of The European Film Academy, a member of The Lithuanian Film Academy and WIFT LT. A jury member at Annecy IAFF 2018, France, BIAF 2019, South Korea, Anima 2021, Belgium, Animafest Zagreb 2021, Croatia.
Sergo Kibus is an animation director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He is a co-founder of the film studio Rebel Frame. Sergo holds degrees in photography and audiovisual media and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in “Asian Politics and Societies”. As an academic lecturer he has given courses on animation, scriptwriting and photography. His breakthrough as a director was an award-winning animated short “Teofrastus” (2019). In 2022 he directed a stop-motion horror short “The Undertaker”. His new film “Schrödinger”, currently in pre-production, won at the Baltic Pitching Forum and participated in the EURO CONNECTION 2022 at the Clermont-Ferrand Film festival.
Kadriann Kibus is an Estonian film producer and director. In 2011, she established her production company Rebel Frame which she runs with her husband, animation director and writer Sergo Kibus. Rebel Frame mostly focuses on documentary and animated film production and is co-production oriented working currently with partners from Armenia, Lithuania, and France. As a director, she has a feature-length documentary in the advanced production stage, and as a producer, several animated short films in different stages of development or production. Kadriann has participated in several pitching forums and workshops over the years, among them twice at Baltic Pitching Forum. In 2021 with “Schrödinger”, an oil painted animated short by Sergo Kibus, which became the winning project, and in 2023 with “Pulcinella”, a 3D animated short, which received Finnish YLE TV pre-buy award. In 2024, she was one of the two Baltic producers delegated by the Baltic Pitching Forum to take part in the Festival de Cannes Cinéma de Demain SFC | Rendez-vous Industry initiative ‘New Producers’ Room’.
Lizete Upīte is an animation film director from Latvia. Lizete began her audiovisual media studies at the Baltic Film and Media School in Estonia, but after Erasmus exchange studies in Portugal, she changed her major to animation. In 2013 she graduated from La Poudrière, school of directing animation, in France. Her graduation film, the short animation “Night on the Lake”, was made with participation of Arte France and screened in several festivals around the world, also receiving the Latvian National Film Award “Lielais Kristaps” as the best student film. Since then Lizete has been working on several international animation film projects as a director, editor and script advisor. She has directed and animated her own animation short films, namely, “Night Walks” (LV / 2018/ 6’) and “Riga’s Lilac” (FR, LV / 2019 /14’). With “Riga’s Lilac” Lizete took part in several pitching forums including the Baltic Pitching Forum, the European Short Pitch and Annecy Mifa pitches. The film received the “Lielais Kristaps” award as the best short film.
In this discussion, Baltic Pitching Forum alumni and Baltic industry representatives will share their insights into the diverse working cultures of animation co-production in the region. They will explore strategies for attracting potential co-producers and provide perspectives on how the Baltic short film scene is seen in Europe. Come and discover the opportunities and challenges you might encounter while developing your short animated project.
Presented by: Agnė Adomėnė, Art Shot (Lithuania), Kadriann Kibus, Rebel Frame (Estonia), Lizete Upīte, animation director (Latvia)
Moderated by: Laurence Boyce
