15/06/2023 - Projects by Signe Baumane, Vitaly Mansky and Laila Pakalnina are amongst those set to receive funding totalling €1.4 million

Director Signe Baumane, who has received €60,000 for the feature Karmic Knot

The National Film Centre of Latvia has recently announced the projects that will receive a share of production grants totalling €1,411,871. The money will be divided amongst five fiction features, six documentary features and five animated projects (two animated features, one series aimed at children and two shorts).

Latvian-born, US-based animator Signe Baumane and production company Locomotive will receive €60,000 for the film Karmic Knot, on the heels of the successful films Rocks in My Pockets [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Signe Baumane
film profile] and the EFA-nominated My Love Affair With Marriage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Signe Baumane
film profile]. The film is described as “a story about a family that loses everything due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the challenges of rebuilding their life afterwards”.

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Another animation veteran to receive a grant is Ilze Burkovska-Jakobsena, whose latest animated feature film, Roach Coach (Ego Media), will receive €60,000. Her previous film My Favorite War [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen
film profile] screened at numerous festivals and was a multiple award winner at the 2020 edition of the Annecy Film Festival.

Other recognisable names on the list include the doyenne of Latvian documentary making, Laila Pakalnina, and production company Hargla with her latest project, Cat on My Mind (€150,000), and Vitaly Mansky and production company Vertov, who will receive €34,900 for the forthcoming documentary feature Iron.

Production company Trickster receives three separate production grants, following a successful 2022, which saw such films as Neon Spring [+see also:
film review
film profile] garner many plaudits on the festival circuit. Their new projects that will be receiving funding include The Child, a fiction feature by director Linda Olte, whose 2022 effort Sisters [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] premiered at last year’s edition of the Warsaw Film Festival and subsequently walked away with its 1-2 Award. Olte also received the Best Director gong for the film at this year’s Latvian National Film Awards. The Child will receive the largest production grant out of all of the successful projects, with €252,764. Other Trickster projects set to receive grants include Rūta Znotiņa’s A Boy – receiving €33,000 – which is described as “a sensitive coming-of-age documentary”.

Further fiction films to have secured grants include the debut feature by Anna Ansone, Summer Blues. Receiving €70,000 and produced by White Picture, the film sees young artist Ulla faking her family history for her artwork as she fights for acceptance in the German city of Cologne. When her first exhibition opens, Ulla begins to doubt the ethics of her artwork and life itself. Ansone’s short film Can’t Help Myself was the winner of the National Short Film Competition at the 2022 edition of the Riga International Film Festival.

The remaining projects being backed are as follows: Urga Yo & Po by Ilze Lasmane Brože and Raitis Kalniņš (Sunday Rebel Films, €50,000, animated series), The Odd Carrot by Inese Pavēne (AB Studija, €60,000, short animation), Kami Kaze by Mareks Kolāts (Trickster Pictures, €49,652, short animation), Silent Explosion by Kārlis Lesiņš (Red Dot Media, €80,000, feature documentary), All the Birds Sing by Krista Burāne (VFS Films, €70,000, feature documentary), Beautiful Void by Andris Gauja (Riverbed, €120,094, feature documentary), The Bog by Reinis Kalviņš (Mistrus Media, €50,000, fiction feature), The Final Statement by Armands Zvirbulis (Red Dot Media, €51,161, fiction feature), and The Burlaks by Gatis Ungurs (Tritone Studio, €120,000, fiction feature).

Head of the National Film Centre of Latvia Dita Rietuma said: “I am very proud that many of this year’s production grants have gone to female directors. Aside from the well-known names on the list – such as Signe Baumane and Laila Pakalnina – it’s exciting that we’re able to support new, up-and-coming directors, such as Anna Ansone, whose work is full of promise.

“The film centre is also excited to continue supporting feature-length animation. Alongside the continuation of Signe Baumane’s internationally successful trilogy of animated features, we’re also supporting the newest project by Ilze Burkovska-Jakobsena.”