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MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2025

Features
Open Call
EXTENDED DEADLINE: October 23, 2024

A professional script- and project-development program for creative teams and aspiring script consultants who believe in the importance of teamwork.

Benefits Fees & how to apply Tutors Program Awards Structure Company Time Successful films FAQs Contact Partners Archive
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Benefits

An exquisite experience

The program targets creative teams with feature films in development & aspiring script consultants coming primarily from Central and Eastern Europe.

As the first film & series development platform in Europe, MIDPOINT Institute introduces within the Feature Launch program a multi-stage project selection process in order to be able to support more emerging talents.

From the applications, we will select approx. 20 projects, of which their creative teams will receive a detailed online assessment from two experienced professionals (script consultant and producer).

Based on this assessment, 9 projects will be selected for the Feature Launch 2025 program.

For teams of writers, 1st or 2nd time directors and producers

  • move your feature film project to the next level
  • create a financing, marketing, sales, distribution or pitching strategy for your project
  • work with some of the most established European and international creators and professionals who are willing to lay the cards out on the table (good or bad)
  • get unique professional international feedback from our tutors and your peers
  • explore the current film industry landscape and trends
  • pitch it & network at Karlovy Vary IFF

For script-consultant trainees

  • get unique experience, possibility to work on real projects
  • take advantage of safe environment & thorough guidance of an experienced mentor
  • enhance your script editing and communication skills
  • learn to give constructive feedback
  • master your analytic craft of writing script reports for film funds, cultural & other funding organizations
  • learn how to present yourself as a script consultant
  • pitch yourself & network at Karlovy Vary IFF

Fees & how to apply

EXTENDED DEADLINE
OCTOBER 23, 2024

ONLINE FEEDBACK SESSION

FEE
100 EUR per project

WORKSHOP 1 + 2 + 3

FEE
1 800 EUR per participant (writers, directors, producers, trainees)
Possible to pay in installments. The fee includes accommodation, board and tuition during the residential workshops. Travel costs are NOT included.

COMPANY TIME

FEE
300 EUR per participant (only for producers)
The fee includes accommodation and tuition. Travel costs are NOT included.

Who can apply

  • Teams of writers, directors and producers (2-3 members in one team) 
  • Aspiring script consultants
  • The program accepts projects coming mainly from Central and Eastern Europe or with the co-production intention with this region

Application requirements

To apply for the program, please create an account on the MIDPOINT Visitor Page and follow the instructions within the submission form, where you can also find detailed information about application materials. 

The application materials consist of:

  • Basic information about the project
  • One Page Synopsis
  • Script or Treatment
  • Motivation video
  • Author´s statement
  • Preliminary financing plan
  • Producer´s statement
  • Production company profile
  • Previous work of the director
  • Photos and professional biographies of all team members
  • Moodboard (optional)

 Please note that a detailed description of the requested materials can be found on the submission form!

Submit application

Tutors

Inspirational professionals with a passion for sharing their experience

To ensure the most comprehensive approach to training, Feature Launch works with established and respected names from all over the European industry.

Producer Mentor

The Producer Mentor oversees the development of all projects, advises them during the process regarding production and budgetary issues, and guides them through the European industry landscape.

Danijel Hocevar
Slovenia  
Film producer and CEO of Vertigo, a Ljubljana (Slovenia)-based production company with a distinctive track record and ...
Complete bio

Group Leaders

The Group Leaders oversee the development of projects in their group from the very beginning of the program through graduation. They also coach the script-consultant trainee assigned to their group.

Anne Gensior
Germany  
Anne Gensior works as an international script consultant for feature films and documentaries and as a script reader and ...
Complete bio
Pavel Jech
Czech Republic  
Pavel Jech co-founded MIDPOINT in 2010 and has been active ever since as a group leader and speaker in its various ...
Complete bio
Ivo Trajkov
Czech Republic / North Macedonia  
Ivo Trajkov is a director, producer, film editor, screenwriter and story editor. He was born in Skopje, Macedonia and ...
Complete bio

Script-consultant Trainee Mentor

The Script-consultant Trainee Mentor co-creates the training for the script-consultant trainees, ensuring that this training is implemented organically into the group work and that the collaborative set-up simulates a real-life industry environment. He meets regularly with the trainees, providing feedback and support.

Gyula Gazdag
United States  
Gyula Gazdag is a director of film, theatre, and television productions. He has served as the Artistic Director of the ...
Complete bio

Pitching Tutor

The Pitching Tutor prepares participants to present themselves and their projects, in general and for the final pitching session of the program.

Gabriele Brunnenmeyer
Germany  
Complete bio

Producer Tutor

Katarina Tomkova ensures each team develops effective promotional materials and positions their project in an international context.

Katarina Tomkova
Slovakia  
Complete bio

Program Awards

Eurimages Co-production Development Award

For the first time, Karlovy Vary IFF will host the Eurimages Co-production Development Award of 20,000 EUR for one of the projects in development presented within their Eastern Promises Industry Days.
Feature Launch 2024 projects are also eligible to compete for this award, which will be granted based on the project´s artistic quality and its prospects of remaining a European co-production.

connecting cottbus Award

A selected project from MIDPOINT Feature Launch will be given the opportunity to present itself during the pitching event within the connecting cottbus co-production market. Participation will include individual consultations from international film professionals and one-on-one meetings with potential partners.

Rotterdam Lab Award

One producer will be handpicked to participate in the professional training program for producers, Rotterdam Lab, which takes place during the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Structure

Comprehensive program combining various formats

Company Time

Follow-up workshop for producers

  • Producers
    Follow-up workshop for producers
    November 2025 | Thessaloniki, Greece / in collaboration with EAVE

    This follow-up workshop offers participating producers support in the areas of company sustainability and strategic business planning. This training is designed and co-organized with our partner EAVE.

    The workshop is led by Juliane Schulze, a strategic creative economy expert in business, finance, investment and sustainability, who advises European and international audiovisual companies as well as funding institutions and business agencies. Over four days, participants will sharpen their competitive advantage and enhance the viability of their businesses. Feedback rounds and individual mentoring sessions will offer direct support to tackle the challenges they are facing as film professionals in an ever-changing marketplace.

    This workshop is run in collaboration with the Thessaloniki IFF and within its industry section Agora, which brings participants further networking opportunities via its industry program.

Successful films

Selection of our successful alumni

Kyuka – Before Summer’s End

A single dad orchestrates a sailboat vacation for his twin adult children, secretly planning for them to meet their birth mom.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Kostis Charamountanis, Danae Spathara
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2020
Genre: Drama

A Sensitive Person

On their return to the Czech Republic to settle down after years of leading a nomadic lifestyle, 12-year-old Elias and his family encounter a swift string of events that turn their fortunes around. Elias, his dad and his little brother flee, disguised as women. While trying to reach a hospital to be reunited with their mother after her sudden collapse, they meet a colourful variety of locals and hear their dark life stories. Elias doesn’t speak and copes with his overall cynicism through his imagination, but he slowly comes to realise the ideals that his dad lost a long time ago.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Tomas Klein, Tomas Michalek
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2019
Genre: Comedy / Drama

Restore Point

Set in Europe during 2038, a female detective investigates the case of a murdered couple where a restoration team is able to bring one of them back to life.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Tomislav Cecka, Robert Hloz, Jan Kallista
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2016
Genre: Sci-Fi

Borders of Love

Hana and Peter have created the world they longed for. They are young, successful and people envy them. They have built a successful company that shall soon provide them for the rest of their lives. Yet somewhere along the way, they got “lost”.  Facing a relationship crisis, they decide to open up their marriage. They are allowed to do whatever they please, on the condition of being honest to one another. They define a new set of rules that on the outside seems like the pure freedom, but internally are slowly destroying them. 

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Radovan Sibrt, Tomasz Winski
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2017
Genre: Drama

Vera, Dreams of the Sea

Vera is a middle-aged sign language interpreter, whose life is disrupted by her husband's suicide who has to face the raw reality of going against the deep-seated gender issues of our times.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Doruntina Basha, Kaltrina Krasniqi
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2014
Genre: Drama

Erasing Frank

1983. Frank, an angry kid from the streets with "no future". The state banned their music because their words are political. Frank escapes to a psychiatric ward where Hanna, a young enemy of the system, joins him.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Gabor Fabricius, Miklos Havas
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2018
Genre: Drama

How is Katia?

Anna is a 35-year-old single mother, working hard to provide a better future for her daughter Katia. A sudden turn of events makes Anna question her moral compass in a society where everyone has lost their own.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Veronika Stepanchuk, Christina Tynkevych
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2019
Genre: Drama

Leave No Traces

In 1983, communist Poland is shaken by the case of high school student Grzegorz Przemyk, who is beaten to death by police. The only witness of the beating becomes the number one enemy of the state.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Jan P. Matuszynski
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2018
Genre: Drama

Zana

Dark and haunting psychological drama about the collision of modern day faith healers and post-war trauma of survivors in Kosovo.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Casey Cooper Johnson, Antoneta Kastrati
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2017, MIDPOINT Editing Room 2019
Genre: Drama, mystery, thriller

Inventory

Boris Robič is, as we like to say, an ordinary man. One evening he gets brutally attacked at his home. The police arrives, and open the investigation. There are no suspects, and it seems that no one could possibly be interested in shooting Boris. The police eventually suspend the investigation, convinced that the shooting was a mere coincidence. Riddled with doubt, he starts investigating on his own. While searching for the potential perpetrators, we follow a tragicomic path of a man who discovers that more people hate him than he would ever have thought possible and that the perceptions that he has of his own life are nothing but illusions.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Vlado Bulajic, Darko Sinko
Developed at: MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2017
Genre: Drama

FAQs

You may ask...

  • Can I apply with an animation or documentary film project?

    Sadly, Feature Launch does not work with animation or documentary projects, as these require a different set of skills and addresses a different market.

  • Can I apply without a writer OR director OR producer in the team?

    You can't. All these creative roles have to be present in your team. One person could represent more than one role (writer/director OR director/producer, etc.), or there could be two people representing one role (2x writer OR 2x producer, etc.). In any case, the team must consist of 2-3 people.

  • I'm not European, can I apply?

    Feature Launch is specifically designed for European writers, as we'd like to address the demand for training coming particularly from this territory. The main focus is put on the region of Central and Eastern Europe. However, projects with a strong co-production potential or already attached partners/team members from this region can be accepted as well. In case you are still not sure about your eligibility, please contact the program coordinator Sona Morgenthalova.

  • I'm not fluent in English, can I still apply?

    Sadly, no. As the entire training runs in English, and during the working days you'll be asked to write directly in English, we require an intermediate level of these language skills. This simply means: your grammar doesn't have to be perfect, but you need to talk/write fluently and have the vocabulary to do so.

  • Once selected, how much time should I allocate to the training?

    Quite honestly – a lot. Feature Launch is an intensive training, and apart from the assignments and work done during residential workshops, it operates with a system of tasks and deadlines in between these modules. So clear that calendar up a bit.

  • Do I need to attend all the workshops in the program?

    Yes, to fully engage in the training, it is essential for all team members to be present at every module of the program. It is not possible to selectively choose which workshops to attend, nor can someone else be nominated to take your or your teammate's place without the permission of the program´s selection board. 

    If you are aware, at the time of application, that you will not be able to participate in all the modules as described in the program structure above, please reconsider your application or seek a dedicated teammate who can commit to completing the entire training. 

  • Does MIDPOINT Institute offer scholarships?

    It does. However, these are only partial, cannot be allocated to all participants, and their granting therefore considers various criteria. We HIGHLY recommend applying to a local supporting organization (national or local funds, ministries of culture or education, professional associations, etc.) at the same time you're applying to MIDPOINT Feature Launch. You can always withdraw your application if not selected, but as the processing time of this support can be rather long, it might be quite late to do this once we confirm you're in.

  • Can I send you the application materials via e-mail?

    We only accept applications submitted through our Visitor Page. Firstly, that way you can be sure your e-mail doesn't end up in junk, and secondly, all submitted materials are distributed to the selection committee via the Visitor Page (please see the 'Application' section).

Contact

Did we forget something? Don't hesitate to ask

Sona Morgenthalova
Program Coordinator
sona.morgenthalova@midpoint-institute.eu
Marketa Spatenkova
Production
marketa.spatenkova@midpoint-institute.eu

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