The 11th edition of the European Genre Forum, the only European training programme for up and coming genre filmmakers, will present its eight projects from eight production countries during the final lab in Tallinn. Following the co-operation from last year, one of the projects will receive an award of 25,000 euros, consisting of one day rental of an LED stage, preceded by one day of pre-lighting for the production of a selected film.
The award, presented by a virtual production studio ATM VIRTUAL, will be handed out to the project that could use the virtual production services the best.
Radosława Bardes, Managing Director and co-owner of ATM Virtual comments: “We are delighted to partner with the European Genre Forum for a second year. We believe that virtual production is a revolutionary tool for filmmakers, and we are committed to embracing and empowering the creativity of the next generation of genre storytellers. We look forward to seeing how the winning project leverages our cutting-edge technology to realize their ambitious vision."
The project selection of the 11th European Genre Forum brings together projects from various genres including science fiction, horror, thriller, fantasy, mystery and supernatural stories combined with drama are reshaped in the projects of up-and-coming producers and directors. As usual, the projects present a broad geographic spread, with eight production countries represented.
European Genre Forum 2025 projects include:
AR Lives - A European/Asian Ghost Story – Michael Kleinfeld - Director | Jinglin Huang - Screenwriter (Germany, Taiwan)
Blood - The Devil in Helsinki – Viivi Huuska - Director | Aleksi Hyvärinen - Producer (Finland)
Blue Lada – Urmet Piiling - Director, Screenwriter, Producer | Tõnu Hiielaid, Rain Rannu - Producers (Estonia)
Burial Patriot – Massimo Russo - Director | Mattia Puleo - Producer (Italy)
Like Air – Elvira Dulskaia - Director, Screenwriter | Julietta Sichel, Rozálie Brožková - Producers (Czechia)
Little Bird – Faye Jackson - Director, Screenwriter | Carley Armstrong - Producer (UK)
The Stranger – Višna Mamić - Director, Screenwriter | Ivor Radmilović Pavlek - Producer (Croatia)
The Sleepers – Dídac Gimeno - Director | Rafael Álvarez - Producer (Spain)
Earlier this year, the projects were part of the Screenwriting and Directing Lab during the Fantastic Zagreb Film Festival, which focused on script development and other artistic aspects and the Producing Lab during the Imagine Fantastic Film Festival focusing on the business skills. In Tallinn, during the Black Nights Film Festival, the final event of the programme, the Marketing and Packaging Lab, looks at pitching, packaging, marketing and distribution.
The European Genre Forum (EGF) is a collaboration between the Imagine, Fantastic Zagreb and Black Nights film festivals. The training programme aims to boost the careers of future European players working on their first or second film.
The presenter of the award ATM VIRTUAL is a professional virtual production studio based in Warsaw, Poland that provides a wide range of services for creating virtual stage designs, leveraging the power of Unreal Engine and displaying them on specially designed LED screens. Their extensive portfolio includes clients such as Netflix, Disney, Sony Pictures, Viaplay, Canal+, HBO, and TVP, making it one of the most experienced virtual production studios in Europe.