Alessandro Gropplero – Head of WEMW #WEMW

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews director Alessandro Gropplero, head of When East Meets West.

For its 7th edition,When East meets West, the Italian co-production forum taking place on January 22-24, 2017 in the context of the Trieste Film Festival, launches a double focus: the spotlight territories will indeed be France and Baltic Countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). The Co-production forum just announced the selection of Last Stop Trieste and First Cut Lab and more than 350 industry professionals will be attending. 22 film projects from 15 different countries have been selected and the number of female directors increased in comparison to the last few years. Among the panels and conferences taking place during WEMW, Women in the European Film Industry will discuss the role of women in the industry. The panel has been organized with the European Women Audiovisual Network.

WHEN EAST MEETS WEST 2017 will bring together over 350 producers, financiers, decision makers and film professionals from more than 30 countries, and, in particular, from the spotlight territories. After a first focus on France in 2011, the Nordic countries in 2012, the German speaking countries in 2013, Benelux in 2014, UK, Ireland and North America in 2015, Spain, Portugal and Latin America in 2016, the 2017 upcoming edition will bring some fresh air with a slightly refined format launching for the very first time a new East & West double focus on France and the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). This new formula is based on two complementary ideas: on the one hand, future call for entries will be open to all producers from Europe (plus North and Latin America) who are developing a project with an East/West co-production potential, preferably with one of the selected countries in focus; on the other hand, WEMW will ensure the presence of a large and comprehensive delegation of key decision makers, financiers, producers and film professionals from each spotlight territory so to maximise the co-production, financing and distribution opportunities for all selected projects.