The San Sebastián Film Festival has unveiled the four titles set to pitch at this year’s WIP Europe sidebar, which will run Sept. 23-25, which suggest the building ambitions of titles made in Eastern Europe.

Previous participants at WIP Europa include Maria Trenor’s eventual Annecy competition player Rock Bottom, as well as a pair of Berlinale Panorama players in Tonia Noyabrova’s Do You Love Me? and Michael Fetter Nathansky’s Every You Every Me, both at this year’s Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section.

Section prizes include post-production services, English subtitles, and Spanish distribution. The WIP Europe Award, a €10,000 ($10,900) cash prize, is granted to the majority producer of the selected title. The 2024 WIP Europe lineup:

In a Grove, Nino Akhvledia ni (Georgia)

The third feature from Georgian director Akhvlediani, In a Grove, is a 1900s period film about four generations living together in Tbilisi. After his brother’s mysterious death, Levan returns from studying in Germany to try to discover how his older sibling died, but he gets different versions of the story from everyone he encounters. Making matters worse, each seems entirely plausible. 

China Sea, Jurgis Matulevi cius (Lithuania, Poland, Taiwan)

The latest from Matulevicius, a former European Discovery Award nominee at the European Film Awards, turns on a martial arts champion who is expelled from his country’s national team for being too aggressive. Rudderless, he takes refuge in the China Sea, a restaurant owned by his only close friend and tries to start a new life. Lithuania’s Film Jam produces with Poland’s Lava Films, Czech Republic’s Bionaut and Taiwan’s Ma Studios co-producing. 

Blue Marks, Sara Miro Fischer (Germany)

Produced by Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin in co-production with Arkanum Pictures and RBB, this feminist drama turns on siblings Rose and Sam. After learning that rape allegations brought against Sam are true, Rose must learn how to deal with her brother’s guilt. Miro Fischer wrote the film’s screenplay with Agnes Maagaard Petersen.

Memento Non Mori, Seyhmus Altun (Turkey)

This fiction feature unravels after a nearby chemical fire ravages a farming community. There, a young girl struggles with the lingering environmental effects and her father’s dismissal of her dreams of education. Last year, the film received the first feature-length fiction film production support from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey. As a project, it participated in the M2 Lab in Turkey and Film Independent script development workshops in the U.S.

WIP Europa is supported by Best Digital, BTeam Pictures, Deluxe Content Services Spain, Dolby Labs, Laserfilm Cine y Video, Nephilim Producciones and No Problem Sonido.  

Jamie Lang