The Producers on the Move program at the Cannes International Film Festival gives 20 promising emerging European producers from 20 European countries a platform and the opportunity to build and enlarge their international network. Participants will meet potential co-production partners and sales companies in one-on-one meetings and take part in project pitching, case studies, social events, and a comprehensive promotional campaign.
Wanda Adamík Hrycová is the owner of Wandal Production and Alluvium Production, previously serving as the CEO of the Media Pro Entertainment Group Slovakia. She is also a former President of the Slovak Film and Television Academy. Among her other notable projects are Peter Bebjak’s crime thriller The Line (2017) or Zuzana Marianková’s comedy Perfect Strangers (2021).
Do you have any specific expectations regarding your participation in the Producer on the Move program?
My participation in this wonderful program comes at the perfect time. We have just finished working on the script for Flight from Kabul, the second feature film by Afghani-Slovak writer-director Sahraa Karimi (her debut Hava, Maryam, Aeysha premiered in 2019 at Venice Film Festival). It is a script she co-wrote with an amazing Belgian writer Kevin Meul, and it is based on true events—a rescue mission Sahraa experienced herself during the fall of Kabul in 2021. We are now ready to start financing and I can’t imagine a better place to kick it off than Cannes.
Your next film Waves is currently in post-production. Besides Flight from Kabul, you also have another project Ice Down in the development stage. As of now, where do these projects stand?
Waves will premiere this summer and I am extremely happy about the film. It is a touching political drama based on real events and talks about what happens to people when the free independent media are shut down and journalists are silenced.
As for Ice Down, we have decided to make it into TV miniseries. I am very happy to continue the development with Czech Television and I will be looking for other co-producers, so again, Cannes comes at the best time possible.
Which of these projects do you consider most appealing to international audiences?
I hope that all of them will captivate audiences beyond Slovakia and the Czech Republic. However, Flight from Kabul stands out as particularly compelling for global viewers. We all remember those horrible images of Afghani people falling off the departing planes when trying to escape the Taliban. I think we have an important story to tell and we have a very unique and authentic voice of Sahraa Karimi to do it.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced as a producer lately?
Covid aftermath – low cinema attendance, the Russian war in Ukraine that has huge side effects in the region – rising energy costs and inflation, which have increased prices by 30%. We’re also facing a continuous lack of funding and a growing number of competing projects and applicants at the film fund. Should I go on?
Web: https://www.efp-online.com/programs/producers-on-the-move
