One of the segments of the B2B Project is a series of industrial meetings. In the framework of this series is a pitching to which projects were submitted in two ways. Foreign projects have mainly arrived upon invitation, whereas for some projects we have asked the representatives of film centres to send them to us, while for domestic projects we have had a tender via the relevant associations and producers. We have also had personal contacts with the authors. Several times we have prolonged the deadlines and the response has been excellent.

We have received 17 projects, out of which the Council of FEST has selected two on a special session devoted to this project.

Considering that this is the first year of the B2B project, we didn’t want to be too strict with respect to form, and we have tried to make it easier to everyone. We didn’t have limitations length wise, or when it comes to production stages. The request was very simple – all that was requested was a synopsis, the profile of the production house behind the project and the author’s biography, says Miroslav Mogorovic, explaining the new segment of this year’s Festival

”With these kinds of open competitions, the rules are really quite clear. For instance, synopses have to be submitted by both sides. We have also considered lengthier synopses and nobody was refused for formal reason; each member of the Council were informed of all the projects that have arrived and they have made their decisions based on that.

Next year we shall have stricter rules; the length of the synopses, the profile of the production house are very important for there must be a partner who can negotiate with potential representatives of the funds. The author of the project can also be owner of the production house, but the project must be backed by a legal person. This has seemed natural to us.

I am confident that the authors of the projects that were selected, Oleg Novkovic and Milutin Petrovic, are experienced enough and that they will present their projects in the best possible way on the pitching.
For younger authors without enough experience, we will prepare a short educational simulation of the pitching on the Documentary and Short Film Festival. B2B is open for all interested parties which, should they come, shall learn a great deal.

I think that this pitching will be very varied, for our target has been a market that is not developed enough according to Western standards; although the official language will be English, there will also be authors who shall defend their projects in Russian.

If all this goes well, and it should be, since experienced people from the world say that the target group Europe out of Europe to be an excellent one; we are on the map of big European industries (France and Germany), and at the same time we are not in conflict with other regional festivals, for we have films from Asia (Tajikistan), Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan).
The B2B Project was presented on the recently held Berlin Festival; in the logistical sense, we are very close to the Berlianale. I hope that we will be able to define a partnership relationship with this festival, the kind the Sarajevo Film Festival has with the Festival in Rotterdam.