European Work in Progress Cologne 2020: The international jury has been appointed

This year’s jury of European Work in Progress Cologne 2020 (EWIP) has been appointed. Once more, four top-representatives from the film industry will decide upon which projects will receive the coveted awards. Triin Tramberg, programme coordinator and head of Creative Gate for Tallinn Black Nights Festival, has a special expertise in creative industry events. Leslie Chen, Senior Advisor of Blossoms Entertainment, Melanie Andernach, CEO and co-founder of MADE IN GERMANY Filmproduktion as well as Sebastian Lückel, head of acquisitions, co-productions and programming at ARD Degeto, complete the high-class EWIP jury of 2020.

Up to 30 feature films and documentaries, which are suitable for an international theatrical release will be chosen by the selection committee. The jury will once again acknowledge the best pitches with awards including post-production services worth 37.500 Euros. Award-sponsors are K13 Studios, LAVAlabs Moving Images, ARRI Media as well as ZOOM Medienfabrik.

„As someone who is constantly searching for new projects and filmmakers, I am very excited to be a jury member for this year’s edition”, says Triin Tramberg about being on the board of jury of European Work in Progress Cologne 2020.

Torsten Frehse, managing director of European Work in Progress Cologne, adds „I am very pleased that in this difficult year for cinema and production we have been able to attract such a top-class jury for our young industry plattform. The international jury members work in the fields of production, distribution, festivals and sales and thus cover the entire spectrum of independent cinema. I am very curious to see which projects they will award.“

Triin Tramberg has been the programme coordinator of the Tallinn Black Nights Festival since 2011. She is also the co-founder of the distribution company Punch Drunk Films. In 2016, she started to focus on the industry side of the festival, selecting titles for the showcase International Works in Progress and the Script Pool script competition. Since 2019, she has been managing Creative Gate, a part of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, which is a creative industry development centre with the primary aim of developing entrepreneurship as well as providing masterclasses and workshops for different film professionals.

Leslie Chen is the senior advisor of Blossoms Entertainment, a newly established sales agency and publicity company for Chinese films. She is responsible for the strategic planning of sales and distribution worldwide. Leslie was SVP of Asian Sales & Distribution for AGC, handling multiple Hollywood blockbusters sales like Moonfall by Roland Emmerich. Before that she worked at IM Global, founded the studio’s Beijing office and oversaw the pan-Asian sales. Leslie also built the local industry’s leading export platform for Chinese language cinema, working with the major local players like CFG, Wanda, Ali-Pictures. Before that, Leslie was the head of international for Huayi Brothers, handling International sales, distribution and publicity for titles from acclaimed Chinese directors.

Melanie Andernach After studying Law at the Universities of Bonn, Munich, and Paris, Melanie Andernach did her Ph.D. in Copyright Law in 2003. And after her additional studies of Creative Production at the International Film School (ifs) in Cologne, she fully devoted herself to film. She worked as an independent author, director, and producer for theatrical documentaries and feature films. In 2007, she teamed up with Knut Losen and founded MADE IN GERMANY Film Produktion. MADE IN GERMANY develops and (co-)produces high-quality documentaries and feature films for German, European, and International audiences.

Sebastian Lückel is head of acquisitions, coproductions and programming at ARD Degeto. He works for Degeto Film GmbH since 2018 and is responsible for feature film and series acquisitions, pre-buys as well as German cinema and international series co-productions. He curates the ARD “Sommerkino im Ersten” and is responsible for scheduling the Degeto film stock. Prior to this, he was editorially responsible for international feature films and series from 2009 – 2018 at ZDF and ZDFneo and from 2007 – 2009 at Sat.1. He has built long-term business relationship with producers, distributors and world sales companies in all major territories.

European Work in Progress Cologne 2020 will take place from 5-7 October, 2020 during the 30th edition of the Film Festival Cologne.

Productions with at least one European country involved will be presented. Eligible are projects that have already shot material available to present to the attending group of professionals from the areas world sales, distribution, film festivals and broadcasting. The pitches are scheduled for a max. of 15 minutes incl. film excerpts and a Q&A. Besides the many networking opportunities, there will be individual one-to-one meetings to make the participation as impactful as possible.

European World Sales representatives and distributors as well as financiers are also welcome to join the event. Accreditation is possible from 1 September 2020. European Work in Progress Cologne will be accompanied by various panel discussions, workshops and evening events. The complete programme will be announced by mid-September.

European Work in Progress Cologne (EWIP) is mainly supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, one of Europe’s leading film funding institutions. It takes place in cooperation with AG Verleih, the association of German independent film distributors.