follow choice
Alternativa.

Pitching Training

Online, October 26-30, 2023

This is an online crash course in pitching, from international experts who will teach you how to present a project, analyze its strengths and weaknesses, create a promotional strategy for a film, and plan a roadmap for your professional development. International markets and pitching events are key platforms for meetings between filmmakers and the people who may end up financing projects: festival selectors, representatives of film endowments, production companies, and online platforms. At pitching events, filmmakers tend to find like-minded people, partners, and financing. In short, they build their professional future. Do you want to find out how you can attend such an event? Learn how to write an ideal application? How to structure your speech or what you need to say to be remembered?

During the four-day online crash course, participants will find out how to present their projects to any audience, and learn about the institutes and programs that will help them find financing and partners. The course instructors draw on many years of experience of working with international film festivals and training programs.

One feature and one documentary project will receive a special industry award and the opportunity to participate in our partner's EFM Toolbox programs. Among the 58 other participants worldwide, two filmmakers from Central Asia will participate in the Doc Toolbox and Fiction Toolbox programs in the winter of 2024. Producers of the selected projects will participate in online workshops, receive online consultations, and attend the European Film Market in Berlin. Alternativa Film Labs covers all costs.

Rules & Regulations Privacy Policy
Budding and experienced producers and directors of live action films and documentaries from Central Asian countries, who want to acquire project presentation skills for their national and international markets. Producers with projects at the late development stage (they have a script, director, and an understanding of potential financing sources) are also welcome to take part.
Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
Russian, English (interpreter provided)
Motivational letter
CV with filmography
Links to previous works (where applicable)
Presentation and script of the current project

Program Experts

Wim Vanacker

Director, scriptwriter, pitching expert

Myriam Sassine

Producer, Festival Director, Mentor

PARTICIPANTS

SPECIAL PRIZE
FOR THE BEST
FEATURE PROJECT

Daniel Berger

Mergen

SPECIAL PRIZE
FOR THE BEST
DOCUMENTARY PROJECT

Zhanana Кurmasheva

We Live Here

Diana Zhilkenova

The Cellar

Nikolay Koryakin

Tong

Yulia Levitskaya

Cardboard Paradise

Alina Mustafina

In Between

Aibek Nigmet

Sharp Edges

Ayana Nurdinova

The Teacher

Xenia Pridatchenko

Beauty

Eldar Shibanov

Cardboard Paradise

Вы успешно подписались на нашу рассылку

Daniel Berger

Mergen

feature film
Kyrgyzstan

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there are only two ways to make a living in the town of Mergen — gold mining in the mountain rivers and poaching. A policeman named Nurtai is investigating the death of a hunter in the mountains. The trail leads him to the poacher kingpin Kerim, who brings tourists to Kyrgyzstan to hunt rare animals. Kerim dreams of finding a foreign sponsor and buying a license to reopen an abandoned gold mine. One fateful day, a wealthy tourist accidentally kills a little local girl, Anara, who wanders onto a hunting trail during a hunt. Kerim gets the opportunity to realize his dream by blackmailing the tourist. Nurtai awakens an inherited gift — he experiences strange visions linked to Anara and begins to understand the connection between the hunter's death, the death of Anara, and the gold mine.

Diana Zhilkenova

The Cellar

documentary
Kazakhstan

In her youth, Dina Smaïlova survived gang rape, and only after 25 years did she dare to write a post about it on social media. Following this, many women began telling her their own stories. Dina's desire to help led her to head up the public foundation NеMolchi.kz, which helps victims of sexual violence to seek justice. One of those who turned to Dina was Elena Ivanova, who was working at a construction site to pay for her college education when she became a victim of sexual violence at the hands of her boss, whose power helped him avoid punishment.

Nikolay Koryakin

Tong

feature film
Yakutia

A straightforward heist targeting a food warehouse turns into a real headache for Mikhail, especially when a determined policewoman takes on the case.

Zhanana Кurmasheva

We Live Here

documentary
Kazakhstan

The Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing ground is on a spacious steppe, where an invisible veil of radiation is always felt. Life here goes on as usual: the locals have come to terms with its elusive presence in their lives. Radioactive dust quietly creeps into their homes and floats in the air. However, the former nuclear testing site becomes the center of a desperate struggle for the film's heroes.. The environmentalist has been studying the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site for many years, fighting for every extra year of life that radiation takes away from everyone who crosses its unprotected tainted areas. Nurbol is the father of a disabled child, and is desperately fighting for the health of his daughter. He is sure that radiation is to blame for her illness. Through their struggle, they show us that the indifference and silence of society are not an option; we must defend the right to live on a safe planet.

Yulia Levitskaya

Cardboard Paradise

feature film
Kazakhstan

Young Bigul resists the changes that occur when her mother reunites with the girl's father and moves from the city to the countryside. Bigul despises her new environment and provincial life, causing scandals and provocations. Her father sees a way out of the conflict through Bigul's quick marriage – and her bride price could make him rich. A complex chain of events follows, with an escape to the city, a search for money, betrayal, revenge, kidnapping, and a car accident.

Alina Mustafina

In Between

feature film
Kazakhstan

Sholpan, a Kazakh woman in her mid-thirties, returns to her homeland, Kazakhstan, after seven years of studying and working in France, to attend her grandmother's funeral. Her relatives and society pressure her to get married and have children. Her mother even lies about a genetic disease, which could be prevented if Sholpan has a child. Sholpan attempts to return to France, but her legal status makes this challenging. While seeking employment in Paris, she uses her Instagram blog to raise her voice on issues of gender equality and women's rights, sharing her adventures in search of the right man. In her struggle against social pressure and stereotypes in her home country, she endeavors to find her own identity. Нer voice gradually becomes more prominent in her blog and in real life, and she discovers significant empathy in the local community, which she missed during her time abroad. The question remains: will she stay or go?

Aibek Nigmet

Sharp Edges

feature film
Kazakstan

Galiya is an inspector for juvenile affairs. She lives with her two children, 17-year-old Azat and 6-year-old Aldiyar, and her elderly father. Strong and strict, Galiya loves to control everything, and her family suffers from her overprotectiveness. One day, Galiya is diagnosed with an incurable disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which leads to complete paralysis and ultimately death. She weakens, and her life falls apart: her older son falls in with a bad crowd, and a series of tragic events take place at work. As a result of an attack, Galiya ends up in the hospital. When she returns home a few weeks later, she discovers that her family has changed in her absence — and not necessarily for the worse.

Ayana Nurdinova

The Teacher

feature film
Kazakhstan

Zhandos, a young music teacher, lives in a small town on the shores of Lake Balkhash and dreams of moving to a big city. His neighbor, Svetlana, has a son named Kirill with developmental challenges. Kirill is wary of people, but Zhandos manages to establish a connection with him. Unexpectedly, the teacher is presented with an opportunity to realize his dream: By performing a successful concert with his students for a patron, he could win his chance to move to the city . In the meantime, Kirill's mother takes her own life. Zhandos does his best to help the boy and is constantly by his side, continuing to play. He discovers for the first time how therapeutic music can be. The patron is impressed by the concert, and Zhandos’ dreams stand on the brink of being realized. However, while playing for Kirill in a small room, the hero realizes that music sounds exactly the same here as it does in a concert hall. The patron leaves alone. Early in the morning, standing on the shores of Balkhash, Zhandos realizes that he has found his place.

Xenia Pridatchenko

Beauty

documentary
Kazakhstan

This is a story about the freedom to be yourself and the courage to defend that right. At the age of 11, Arulat becomes a master manicurist in the tough mining town of Ekibastuz, where there is still a clear division between male and female roles. Everything stands in his way: time, resources, the city, and society. However, his entire family supports him; each of them is transformed by their eldest son’s conflicting dream. His younger brother becomes a hairdresser; his father, a participant in the Tajik Civil War, becomes a model and makeup artist; and his mother, a former technician, a master manicurist. Now, at 16, Arulat has his own beauty salon. He's also a high school student, the family breadwinner, a philanthropist, and an ordinary teenager. Arulat's family represents a cross-section of modern Kazakh and post-Soviet society – their story is that of Kazakhstan today, where the old and the new coexist.

Timur Shevchenko

My Father Is a Tiger

feature film
Kazakhstan

Amanatay is an insecure chess teacher at his ten-year-old daughter Alua’s school. She admires her friends’ fathers and is embarrassed by her own, whom she considers a failure. These and other problems lead the hero to attempt suicide, and Amanatay ends up in hospital. There, he experiences the sudden onset of a rare genetic brain disease, which results in a complete loss of fear. This leads him into a confrontation with gangsters, from which the hero emerges victorious, and a reunion with his wife. However, his relationship with his daughter remains strained. In order to earn Alua's respect, Amanatay decides to become a superhero.

Eldar Shibanov

Cardboard Paradise

feature film
Kazakhstan

Young Bigul resists the changes that occur when her mother reunites with the girl's father and moves from the city to the countryside. Bigul despises her new environment and provincial life, causing scandals and provocations. Her father sees a way out of the conflict through Bigul's quick marriage – and her bride price could make him rich. A complex chain of events follows, with an escape to the city, a search for money, betrayal, revenge, kidnapping, and a car accident.