European Film Promotion announced on Wednesday, May 3, the 20 participants in this year’s edition of Producers on the Move, one of the most prestigious and long-lasting programs developed by the network, which takes place during the Cannes Film Festival.

Representing Romania in the program is film producer Diana Păroiu, who has been nominated by ADFR, the official representative of Romania in the EFP. Diana has been involved in the production of some of the most important films in recent Romanian cinema such as Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (dir. Radu Jude), House of Dolls (dir. Tudor Platon), Everything Will Not Be Fine (dir. Helena Maksyom, Adrian Pirvu), Uppercase Print (dir. Radu Jude), Ivana the Terrible (dir. Ivana Mladenović), The Distance Between Me and Me (dir. Dana Bunescu, Mona Nicoara), I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (dir. Radu Jude), One Step Behind the Seraphim (dir. Daniel Sandu), Soldiers. Story from Ferentari (dir. Ivana Mladenović), Tarzan’s Testicles (dir. Alexandru Solomon).

Diana Păroiu has also participated in workshops such as Rotterdam Producers Lab, Talents Sarajevo, Cannes Producers Network, TorinoFilmLab NEXT TV.

The other producers selected to participate in the program are Johannes Schubert (Austria), Maarten Schmidt (Belgium), Katya Trichkova (Bulgaria), Janine Teerling (Cyprus), Vladimír Lhoták (Czech Republic), Evelin Penttilä (Estonia), Judith Lou Lévy (France), Ketie Danelia (Georgia), Alexander Wadouh (Germany), Ioanna Bolomyti (Greece), Jessie Fisk (Ireland), Alessandro Amato (Italy), Derk-Jan Warrink (The Netherlands), Marija Dimitrova (Republic of North Macedonia), Andrea Berentsen Ottmar (Norway), Cuba Kosma (Poland), Jakub Viktorín (Slovakia), Felipe Lage Coro (Spain) and Stefan Eichenberger (Sweden).

Producers on the Move is an initiative designed to encourage and strengthen the exchange of experience between promising, up-and-coming professionals in the industry and to contribute to developing new connections and European co-productions. This year, the program will be held both online, prior to the festival, as well as in Cannes (May 19-23, 2022).

The selected producers will take part in project pitching, 1:1 meetings and case studies, social events and an extensive promotion campaign, which includes online presentation and an introduction in the international trades.

Some of the participants even have films in the official selection of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Among them are Diana Păroiu, who is a producer on Mammalia (dir. Sebastian Mihăilescu) and an executive producer on All the People I’ll Never Be (dir. Davy Chou), which is to be presented in the Un Certain Regard section.

Two other films selected in the same section are Mediterranean Fever (dir. Maha Haj), produced by Janine Teerling, and Sick Of Myself (dir. Kristoffer Borgli), produced by Andrea Berentsen Ottmar.

Derk-Jan Warring’s co-production, The Woodcutter Story (dir. Mikko Myllylahti), will be screened in Semaine de la Critique.

The films produced by the participants in Producers on the Move range from debut projects to works signed by award-winning directors, such as those co-produced by Jakub Viktorín – Spoor (dir. Agnieszka Holland) and State Funeral (dir. Sergei Loznitsa), or the three fiction films by Stephan Komanderev, on which Katya Trichkova served as a producer.

Mammalia, produced by Diana Păroiu, but also Tailor (dir. Sonia Kenterman) and Behind The Haystacks (dir. Assiminia Proedrou), both produced by Ioanna Bolomyti, fall into the debut category.

The program also features animation film producers, like Vladimir Lhoták, who has worked on Even Mice Belong to Heaven (dir. Jan Bubenicek, Denisa Grimmová).

For more information on the Producers on the Move program, visit the European Film Promotion website.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.