STRANGE ATTRACTIONS was founded by Peter Friedman in 1991 and makes non-commercial films which address difficult (but universal) themes of the individual's relationship to mortality, to nature, and to society. These themes are explored in substantial yet accessible ways, crossing cultural and national boundaries. Previous projects include "Wizard of the Strings" (Academy Award nominee funded by NEH), "I Talk to Animals" (1991 Southern Circuit Tour sponsored by the South Carolina Arts Commission with NEA support), "Silverlake Life" (Sundance Grand Jury Prize, LA Film Critics Award, Peabody Award, funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts), "Death by Design" (Prix Europa, major funding by CPB/ITVS), and recently "The Life and Times of Life and Times" (4-month run at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, licensed for national PBS broadcast) and "There are No Direct Flights from New York to Marseille" (Walter Reade Theatre, NYC, series supported by the MacArthur Foundation and the Independent Feature Project). For more information, please visit www.strange-attractions.com.

Founded in Paris in 1989 by Alain Rozanés, ADR PRODUCTIONS began by producing documentaries and feature films. In 1992, its first feature film, "Hyenes" by Djibril Diop Mambety, was selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Since then the company has produced several features including "Bye-Bye" and "Hors-jeu" by Karim Dridi, "Rien à faire" by Marion Vernoux, and "Karnaval" by Thomas Vincent. The company has produced more than 40 documentaries for TV stations throughout France as well as foreign channels (including RAI-Italy, BBC-England, YLTV2-Finland, RTBF-Belgium, SSR-Russia, and TV Polska-Poland). ADR has won numerous awards, including the Urti prize and an A in the Prix Italia for "Etat d'Apesanteur" by Maciej Drygas, the Mario Ruspoli Prize at the Bilan du Film Ethnographique for "Les illuminations de Madame Nerval" by Charles Najman, the 'Prix du Patrimoine' at the Cinéma du Reel festival in Paris and a special mention at Vue sur les Docs for the film "Pardevant Notaire" by Marc-Antoine Roudil and Sophie Bruneau. Recent documentaries include "Bartholomeos I, the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople" by Jacques Debs "Soya War" by Jean-Bernard Andro, "Voice of Hope" by Maciej Drygas, "The Ultimate Particle" by Michel Andrieu, and "Skinhead Attitude" by Daniel Schweizer. For more information, contact info[at]adr-productions[dot]com or Adr[dot]productions[at]wanadoo[dot]fr .

 

Created in 2001 following the merger of Egoli Films and Tossell Pictures, EGOLI TOSSELL FILM has established itself firmly in the international marketplace as one of Europe's leading producers of highly visible, engaging, award-winning films. Completed productions range from Alexander Sokurov's ground-breaking "Russian Ark" (premiered in the competition of Cannes 2002), which broke arthouse theatre records in the USA, Australia and Great Britain, to the teenage melodrama "Big Girls Don't Cry," produced for Deutsche Columbia Pictures and released theatrically in six territories to date. ETF continues to produce award-winning theatrical documentaries ("Queens of Dust") - two new cinema documentaries will be ready for release in 2004 ("Dancing with Myself" and "Blue Skin"). Principal photography has recently wrapped on "Lively up Yourself," a Jamaican-set feel-good movie starring Heike Makatsch (of "Love, Actually"). Production is currently underway in Ruanda on "Shooting Dogs" starring John Hurt and Hugh Dancy, a British-German coproduction (BBC films/ KIVU films) directed by Michael Caton-Jones. ETF's slate for the coming year includes "Catherine," to be directed by Agniezska Holland, and "The Rainbowmaker" by Oscar-nominee Nana Djordjadze. Headed by Judy Tossell, Jens Meurer and Oliver Damian, ETF has offices in Berlin, Munich, Leipzig and Cologne. For more information visit www.egolitossell.com .

In 1999, KOPPMEDIA was established in Halle as a subsidiary of Koppfilm GmbH in Berlin. Since then Koppmedia, in cooperation with Koppfilm, has been a leading film- and tv-production and postproduction company, and continues to pioneer in HD/24p-production and -postproduction processes. Over the last several years the company has produced and co-produced the national documentary "Mit IKEA nach Moskau" (Michael Chauvistrè, 2001) and the German feature film "Die Datsche" (Carsten Fiebeler, 2003). In 2002 the international production "Russian Ark," directed by Alexander Sokurov, was completed at Kopp's postproduction facilities, and included the longest single "take" in film history. In 2002, "Russian Ark" won the Independent Film Channel Visions Award, the Toronto Film Festival, was a finalist at Cannes, and won best camera and best direction at the Europäischer Filmpreis. Currently Koppmedia is co-financing and postproducing "Nimm dir dein Leben" by Sabine Michel. For more information, please contact k[dot]ritter[at]koppfilm[dot].de .

 

SCARABEE FILM PRODUCTIONS The Netherlands B.V. was founded in 1989 by Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich, and specializes in documentaries, short films and feature films about art, cultural and social topics. Dutch broadcasting corporations (NPS, VPRO, NCRV, KRO and AVRO) as well as a number of foreign TV stations such as BBC, ZDF/Arte and France 3 have broadcast various Scarabee productions.

 

Almost all of Scarabee's films have received international awards, including "Moving Objects" (Leonard Retel Helmrich, , the Golden Gate Award, San Francisco). "De Oogst van de Stilte"/"Broken Silence" (Eline Flipse, , 1st Prizes at Nyon, Montreal, and Bacãu) and "La chaconne d'Auschwitz" (Michel Daëron, , Prix du Jeune Publique, Nyon, and 'La Nuit des Yeux d'Or', Paris). "Biografi" received the Prix Europa (Berlin, 2001) and "De Stand van de Zon"/"The Eye of the Day" (Leonard Retel Helmrich, 2002) won the Dutch Academy Award (Gouden Beeld) for Best Documentary, the Prix du Public (at Nyon, Split, and Maremma), the Prix Idée Suisse, the Grand Jury Prize at Maremma, and Best Dutch Documentary at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2001.

 

Currently Scarabee Films is producing/developing "Shape of the Moon" (Leonard Retel Helmrich, 2004, scheduled to open IDFA 2004), "Yang Ban Xi" (Yan Ting Yuen, 2005), and "Eat Your Enemy" (Eline Flipse, 2005). For more information contact hetty[at]scarabeefilms[dot]com .