Gints Grūbe, producer at the film studio Mistrus Media, is among the 20 of the most promising up-and-coming European producers to take part in European Film Promotion’s networking platform Producers on the Move at the Cannes Film Festival (May 17 – 28, 2017).
Every year EFP (European Film Promotion) and its member organisations select 20 professional and promising European film producers to participate at the high-profile networking platform Producers on the Move. The stakes for participation are high, including the key requirements that the candidates have experience in an international co-production and an international theatrical release in their portfolio. The final selection shows that quality and entrepreneurship are not limited to the big players of the larger European countries, however this year Gints Grūbe is the only participant from the Baltics.
Participation at the five-day event will offer the producers a tailor-made programme of roundtable pitching sessions, 1:1 speed dating, case studies, including one in co-operation with the pan-European co-production fund Eurimages, as well as other industry meetings. All of these events are being organized to support the exchange of experiences and help create new professional networks, as well as to secure publicity in the leading film industry resources such as Screen International and Variety. Gints Grūbe will have a chance to present the feature fiction project The Boy With The Dog by Dāvis Sīmanis, supported by the National Film Centre of Latvia in the programme Latvian Films For Latvian Centenary.
“Cannes film festival is the most important meeting point for the European filmmakers. I am pleased that the work of our film studio Mistrus Media, as well as the success of our documentary films and feature fiction The Chronicles of Melanie, has been acknowledged and will give me a chance to introduce the new project by Dāvis Sīmanis to wider audiences, as well as to present Latvian cinema and our studio’s work to the European film professionals,” says Mistrus Media producer Gints Grūbe.
Gints Grūbe worked extensively in the field of media before setting up his own company Mistrus Media in 2000. His productions have included Escaping Riga (2014), My Father The Banker (2015) and the omnibus film Over The Roads, Over The River (2014) as well as the war drama The Chronicles of Melanie (2016), which was premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and was the most successful local film in Latvia in 2016. He is currently developing the feature documentary To Be Continued by Ivars Seleckis and Dāvis Sīmanis’ historical drama The Boy With The Dog. The Boy With The Dog tells the story of the unique Rigan Žanis Lipke and the events that took place in the German-occupied Riga and Lipke’s home. In Latvia, Žanis Lipke is among the most striking personalities to save other people’s lives – a passionate and fearless adventurer who, thanks to his natural humanity, saved more than 50 Jews. The shooting of the film began in January and would continue in June. The premiere has been set for September 2018.