Building a bridge between independent American filmmakers and the European market is the goal of USA In Progress, which is hosted each year during the American Film Festival (AFF) in Wroclaw, Poland.
The event presents a hand-picked selection of nearly half a dozen US independent titles in the final stages of production for sales agents, distributors and festival programmers. This year’s edition takes place from November 9-11.
Besides offering these films to European buyers, each year US in Progress invites leading Polish post-production companies to the event, with Fixafilm, Orka Studio, Black Photon, XANF and Soundflower Studio this year each offering $10,000 in kind. prize. This is along with a newly added cash prize of $50,000 to be distributed by the Polish Film Institute, to be spent by the winning director on post-production, image, sound and/or visual effects in Poland.
It’s an attempt to emphasize some of the opportunities available to American filmmakers in the host country, which is offering a 30% cash back discount, and to highlight “the value we have as an industry in Poland,” according to American Film Festival director Ula Śniegowska.
For American filmmakers dipping their toe into the European market for the first time, she added, simply opening up to the European industry is “a huge advantage for every filmmaker.”
“It just broadens their minds,” she said. “These are the people who work on their own. They invest a lot of their lives and their hearts into those films without any of the formal form of support we get here in Europe.”
Notable recent alumni of the US in Progress program include “Jethica” (pictured), by Pete Ohs, which is color graded at Black Photon in Warsaw and premiered at SXSW, and “Quantum Cowboys” by Jeff Marslett, award-winning People’s Choice Award at the Champs-Elysées Film Festival as well as Best Original Music at the Annecy Film Festival for the work of composer Maciej Zelensky, presented to Marcellet through the US event in Progress.
Other notable previous participants include Amy Simitz, director of the neon horror film She Dies Tomorrow, whose film debut has taken part in the event. and Adele Romansky, co-producer of Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning Moonlight.
There is no entry fee, and films can be submitted through US site in progress. The deadline is September 18.
Ohs, who also participated in US in Progress in 2016 with “Everything Beautiful is Out of Time,” said the event came at a critical point in his budding career, describing it as one of the first times he’s sat across the table from sales agents and other professionals In the field, “hearing what it’s like to be in one of these conversations.”
“There’s all this growth going on from it, which I think is one of the really great things about the IFP program,” he said.
The American Film Festival takes place from November 8 to 13.
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