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Success stories

We help your dreams come true. Indeed

As our alumni confirm, our programs played an important role in their journey to make their own film or serie. See the selection of successful project that graduated from MIDPOINT Institute.

Horia

Restless teenager Horia takes off on his father’s old motorbike in a cross-country journey to reunite with his love. On the road, he is joined by Stela, a sassy 13-year-old, and an unlikely friendship blooms. Horia is about finding one’s free spirit and a sense of self by discovering the world for the first time through an anxious, yet curious teenage gaze. It takes a troublesome journey on a seemingly endless road to make Horia truly savor the moment, and during these difficult times, the director genuinely hopes for this character to inspire viewers to escape into their own, albeit fleeting, inner freedom.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Ana-Maria Comanescu, Carla Fotea
Genre: dramedy
Premiere: Youth and Children's Film Festival / Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn 2023 

Sirin

Sanela, a Montenegrin of Muslim origins who left former Yugoslavia in the 90’ right after her father was kidnapped and killed alongside other Muslims, comes back to the Balkans after twenty years spent abroad, where she has betrayed her origins, erased her own culture, becoming a true Westerner. They say that the past is a foreign land and that the one who goes and the one who returns are not the same person anymore.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Claudia Bottino, Velisa Popovic, Senad Sahmanovic
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Sarajevo Film Festival 2023 

A Sensitive Person

Citlivý člověk

On their return to the Czech Republic to settle down after years of leading a nomadic lifestyle, 12-year-old Elias and his family encounter a swift string of events that turn their fortunes around. Elias, his dad and his little brother flee, disguised as women. While trying to reach a hospital to be reunited with their mother after her sudden collapse, they meet a colourful variety of locals and hear their dark life stories. Elias doesn’t speak and copes with his overall cynicism through his imagination, but he slowly comes to realise the ideals that his dad lost a long time ago.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Tomas Klein, Tomas Michalek
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Premiere: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival / Crystal Globe Competition 2023

Restore Point

Bod obnovy

Set in Europe during 2038, a female detective investigates the case of a murdered couple where a restoration team is able to bring one of them back to life.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Tomislav Cecka, Robert Hloz, Jan Kallista
Genre: Sci-Fi
Premiere: Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 2023

Sweet Sorrow

After the death of his grandmother, Relja is faced with the dilemma of organizing her funeral, as his mother, Olga, refuses to do so due to their rocky relationship. Relja, who initially has little interest in the funeral, sees an opportunity to win over his crush Ana, who shows him emotional support during this difficult time. Against his mother's wishes, Relja takes on the task of organizing the funeral, using his wit and cunning to navigate between love and death. Will his risky plan succeed, or will it only make things worse for everyone involved?

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Kosta Djordjevic, Milos Ivanovic
Genre: dramedy
Premiere: Black Nights Film Festival 2023

Ice Break

Ice Break

Sixteen-year-old Alex is the only girl on a boys’ ice hockey team coached by her father Michal. She is a tough player who feels little affinity for the world of women. But this all begins to change when she falls in love with one of her teammates and yearns to be seen more like a girl.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Rozalie Brozkova, Elvira Dulskaia
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Pragueshorts Film Festival 2023

PAMFIR

PAMFIR

Pamfir earns his living by digging wells in villages of the border area between Ukraine and Romania. His wife Helena works in the local veneer factory, their son Nazar, 12 years old, goes to school. Pamfir’s family badly needs money for Nazar’s eye surgery, which is why Pamfir decides to go to Europe to work. He needs to apply for the visa, but the money he earns is not enough for the visa services. Pamfir’s younger brother Viktor lives by helping the local gang with smuggling. Viktor offers Pamfir a quick way to earn the lacking money by smuggling the bootleg cigarettes across the border without the gang, on their own. Pamfir agrees, without knowing that one needs a tremendous physical endurance to take the bootleg across the border, which the gang achieves by using steroids. The steroids have a dangerous aftermath of uncontrolled aggression. Nevertheless, Pamfir decides to do steroids too. The gang finds out about Pamfir’s business. The biggest challenge of Pamfir’s life awaits him.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Cannes´ Quinzaine des Réalisateurs 2022

Rites

Rituály

A twelve-year-old Michal was born with a cleft lip.
He feels inadequate because of his deformed face.
His only friend Ondra convinces him to join a street gang to finally break free from a position of an outsider.
Two friends have one afternoon to show they have what it takes to pass the admission to the gang. Michal desperately wants to prove he is good enough, but the tempting adventure suddenly turns into an initiation ritual into adulthood. 

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Damian Vondrasek
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts
Genre: Drama
Premiere: International Short Film Festival of Cyprus 2022 
Awards: Czech Lion For Best Short Film 2023

Traces

After the death of her father, young scientist Ana struggles with an identity crisis, being the last member of a once large family. The changes inside her are suddenly reflected in reality - loneliness, crisis, emigration - and her scientific research on mystical symbols and human traces left in stone are mysteriously intertwined with her life until she regains her confidence, moves on and finally stops hiding her vitiligo marks, traces of her traumas.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Ira Cecic, Dubravka Turic
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Warsaw Film Festival 2022

Borders of Love

Hranice Lásky

Hana and Peter have created the world they longed for. They are young, successful and people envy them. They have built a successful company that shall soon provide them for the rest of their lives. Yet somewhere along the way, they got “lost”.  Facing a relationship crisis, they decide to open up their marriage. They are allowed to do whatever they please, on the condition of being honest to one another. They define a new set of rules that on the outside seems like the pure freedom, but internally are slowly destroying them. 

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Radovan Sibrt, Tomasz Winski
Genre: Drama
Premiere: International Film Festival Karlovy Vary 2022
Awards: The FIPRESCI award for the best film in the Crystal Globe Competition of KVIFF

How is Katia?

Anna is a 35-year-old single mother, working hard to provide a better future for her daughter Katia. A sudden turn of events makes Anna question her moral compass in a society where everyone has lost their own.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Veronika Stepanchuk, Christina Tynkevych
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Locarno Film Festival 2022

Erasing Frank

Eltörölni Frankot

1983. Frank, an angry kid from the streets with "no future". The state banned their music because their words are political. Frank escapes to a psychiatric ward where Hanna, a young enemy of the system, joins him.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Gabor Fabricius, Miklos Havas
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Venice International Film Critics' Week, September 5, 2021
Awards: Verona Film Club Award

Vera, Dreams of the Sea

Vera andrron detin

Vera is a middle-aged sign language interpreter, whose life is disrupted by her husband's suicide who has to face the raw reality of going against the deep-seated gender issues of our times.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Doruntina Basha, Kaltrina Krasniqi
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Venice IFF 2021
Awards: Authors under 40 Award, Best Directing, Venice IFF 2021, Edipo Re Award, Venice IFF 2021, Meet the Neighbours Award, Thessaloniki IFF 2021, Grand Prix Award, Tokyo IFF 2021, Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award, Goteborg FF 2022

Leave No Traces

Zeby nie bylo sladow

In 1983, communist Poland is shaken by the case of high school student Grzegorz Przemyk, who is beaten to death by police. The only witness of the beating becomes the number one enemy of the state.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Jan P. Matuszynski
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Venice IFF 2021
Awards: Special Prize for Best Director, Film Festival Cottbus 2021, Main TRILOBIT Award, Czech Film and TV Association 2022

Pilgrims

Indre and Paulius travel to the small town where a gruesome crime was committed and they learn it is not as easy as expected to revisit the past.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Laurynas Bareisa, Klementina Remeikaite
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Venice IFF, September 8, 2021
Awards: Best Film Award, Orizzoni section of Venice IFF 2021, Best Screenplay Award, Thessaloniki IFF 2021

Inventory

Boris Robič is, as we like to say, an ordinary man. One evening he gets brutally attacked at his home. The police arrives, and open the investigation. There are no suspects, and it seems that no one could possibly be interested in shooting Boris. The police eventually suspend the investigation, convinced that the shooting was a mere coincidence. Riddled with doubt, he starts investigating on his own. While searching for the potential perpetrators, we follow a tragicomic path of a man who discovers that more people hate him than he would ever have thought possible and that the perceptions that he has of his own life are nothing but illusions.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Vlado Bulajic, Darko Sinko
Genre: Drama
Premiere: San Sebastian IFF, September 20, 2021
Awards: Best Directing, Portorož IFF 2021, Best Lead Male Actor, Portorož IFF 2021

Inversion

A film about the complicated friendship of three adolescent girls, two swimming pools, and one malicious act of revenge.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Lucia Kajankova
Premiere: Pragueshorts FF 2021

Lost in Paradise

Ztraceni v ráji

Eugene could have gone down the safe path, studied dentistry in Bern, and taken over his father's practice. Instead, he decided to explore his native country, fulfil his dream, and go to Prague to open a music club. But man proposes and God disposes - Eugene suddenly finds himself back on the road to Switzerland, while in his head, he recapitulates the mistakes he made. A tragi-comic mosaic about remorse, the differing values of two cultures, and the hope for reconciliation.

 

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Kristyna Michalek Kvetova, Fiona Ziegler
Genre: Road movie
Premiere: 2021

Progress

Postup práce

During her high school internship, 16-year-old Anna takes care of an older physically disabled man Michael, who is verbally abusing her. When she is interrupted by a visit from a friend, she has no idea that the afternoon will soon turn into the night, during which, being cornered, she will start to cause harm as well…

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Linda Pilkova, Lun Sevnik
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Rome Independent Film Festival 2021

Hausen

After his mother's death, teenager Juri and his father relocate to a rundown housing complex - but there is more here than meets the eye.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Till Kleinert, Anna Stoeva
Genre: Horror/mystery serie
Premiere: Sky Atlantic, October 29, 2020

Homeward

Evge

A father and a son from Crimean Tatar family transport the body of deceased older son and brother from Kyiv to bury him in Crimea.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Nariman Aliev, Marysia Nikitiuk, Vladimir Yatsenko
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Cannes IFF, May 22, 2019

Zana

Dark and haunting psychological drama about the collision of modern day faith healers and post-war trauma of survivors in Kosovo.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Casey Cooper Johnson, Antoneta Kastrati
Genre: Drama, mystery, thriller
Premiere: Toronto IFF, September 7, 2019
Awards: Best Feature Film Award, SEEfest 2020, Audience Award, goEast 2020

Owners

Vlastníci

The owners of apartments of one apartment building gather at a regular meeting. The program consists of several items stirring up a discussion among the owners. The meeting is getting more and more intense and the discussion turns into significant conflicts of the owners, who are defending their personal attitudes and interests with a surprising arduousness. “The duels” of the fighting owners uncover the true nature of the characters and show their motivations. The seemingly trivial story of a meeting turns into an acute statement of the status of our society.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Jiří Havelka
Genre: Comedy
Premiere: 2019
Awards: Best Script, Czech Lion Awards 2019, Best Lead Actress, Czech Lion Awards 2019

Fractures

The ER doctor, Kristin, in the wake of her divorce moves to her home village with her teenage daughter. Completely out of her comfort zone as she deals with her old lover and her psychic mother, forcing her to face the ghosts of her past.

Status: realised
Genre: Medical drama series

By A Sharp Knife

Ostryom nozom

Ludovít has lost his son to a ruthless neo-nazi attack. But, due to a failing in the Slovak legislation, the attackers are soon released and Ludovít is faced with an absurd instance of injustice. He struggles with the apathetic police force, the opportunistic judge, but also with the fact that he was never really close to his own son.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Teodor Kuhn
Genre: Drama
Premiere: 2019
Awards: New Europe Award, Febiofest - PIFF 2019, Special Prize for Best Director, Film Festival Cottbus 2019

A Certain Kind of Silence

Tiché doteky

A young au pair meets a radical family community while working abroad and gets lost in the new world presented to her.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Michal Hogenauer
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Karlovy Vary IFF 2019, The East of the West
Awards: Audience Award, Milano FF 2019

Open Door

Rudina sets off on a long journey with her unmarried pregnant sister, Elma, to meet their strict, traditional father in the Albanian village where they were born. As Rudina’s car makes its way across the mountains, Elma comes up with a plan to enlist an ex-classmate to play the part of her husband.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Florenc Papas
Genre: Road movie
Premiere: Sarajevo IFF, August 19, 2019

Cook F**k Kill

Žáby bez jazyka

Jaroslav, a handsome and seemingly good-natured son, father and a decent husband, is, as a matter of fact, pathologically jealous of his wife Blanka. He is very much afraid that one day she would leave him together with their three children. Jaroslav and his family don´t hesitate to employ violence, deceit and terror against others, which ultimately leads to a family tragedy.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Mira Fornay
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Tallinn Black Nights FF 2019

Entwined

Alyti

City doctor Panos relocates to a remote village in order to offer his services to the community. It’s love at first sight when he sets eyes on Danae, who lives in isolation, with a mysterious
skin condition. Determined to cure her, Panos will soon discover Danae is not the helpless princess he thought she was and time is of the essence for both of them.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Minos Nikolakakis
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Toronto IFF 2019

On the Roof

Na strese

Situated in Prague, a 20-year-old Vietnamese named Song, hoped for a better future in Europe. But now in a Vietnamese district in Prague, he is trapped in a marijuana grow house and has the life of a modern slave. Police rounds up the place. Song runs away on the rooftop of a condo building in a nearby district where he breaks down. Mr Rypar lives alone. He is fond of the old times, living in strong opposition to the modern world. Rypar goes up on the roof and meets Song standing on the very edge of the roof crying and the story begins.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Jiri Madl
Genre: Comedy
Premiere: 2019

The Impossible Voyage

Cesta do nemozna

Animated docudrama about incredible adventures of one young astronomer, who set up on the road to achieve freedom for his nation.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Noro Drziak
Genre: Drama
Premiere: 2019
Awards: Best Feature Film in Cinemas, IGRIC Awards 2020

National Street

Narodni Trida

In 1989 Vandam was used to be called a national hero. Today, he is almost unknown, a loser like many others. His fight for the woman he loves is a fight for his dignity, and it will be his downfall.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Stepan Altrichter
Genre: Drama
Premiere: 2019

History of Love

Zgodovina ljubezni

Seventeen-year-old Iva is in the process of coming to terms with the death of her mother. Influenced by this deep personal loss and by the discovery that she didn’t know everything about her mom, the girl slowly immerses herself into a strange, almost dreamlike world far from reality.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Mitja Licen, Sonja Prosenc, Rok Secen
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Karlovy Vary IFF, June 30, 2018

Miss Hanoi

Miss Hanoi

Alongside a surly veteran detective, an idealistic police officer must investigate a murder that reopens old wounds for her Vietnamese community.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Zdenek Viktora
Genre: Crimi
Premiere: 2018

Atlantis, 2003

2003, four years before Slovakia entered the Schengen Area. Martin and Denisija, a young couple from Ukraine, are trying to get illegaly to Germany through Slovakia, like many people before them. The border between Slovakia and Ukraine will be in a couple of years one of the most secured borders in Europe, but in 2003 it is still open for smugglers and for people hoping to find a new life in Western Europe. Martin and Denisija both dream about getting to Germany, a place they’ve never been to, both ready to sacrifice everything they have to reach this destination.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Michal Blasko, Jakub Brychta
Premiere: Cannes IFF, Cinéfondation Official Selection 2017

Little Harbour

Piata Loď

Jarka lives with a mother who is not yet ready to be a mom, and spends most of her time alone. Pushed by her desire for love and to form a fully functional family, she finds herself substituting a "mother" to two babies.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Iveta Grofova
Genre: Drama
Premiere: IFF Berlinale 2017 
Awards: Crystal Bear, Generation Kplus, Berlinale IFF 2017, Best Script, Sun in a Net Awards 2018, Best Cinematography, Sun in a Net Awards 2018, Best Art Direction, Sun in a Net Awards 2018

OUT

Out - Kihűlés

The film is an odyssey of 50-year-old Ágoston, the head of the family, who sets out on a journey through Eastern Europe with the hope of getting a job and fulfilling his dream of catching a big fish. He ends up in the Baltics with empty pockets, leaving only sea salt and wind behind his collar. During his journey, he gets into more and more bizarre situations.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Eszter Horvath, Gyorgy Kristof, Magdalena Mackovicova, Gabor Papp
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Un Certain Regard Cannes IFF, 2017

Absence of Closeness

Absence Blizkosti

Hedvika is struggling with the lack of maternal affection towards her newborn daughter. When she one night finds the diaries of her late father from the time of her own childhood, she decides to try to overcome the absence of closeness by reading them and by visiting the places she used to know as a child. The film is an intimate psychological drama taking place at the end of one hot summer.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Josef Tuka
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Karlovy Vary IFF 2017, The East of the West

Filthy

Spina

Lena is seventeen years old and is on the threshold of entering adult life, but her growing up is brutally interrupted by a horrific event. Devastated, she goes into her shell and is scared to share her experience with others.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Tereza Nvotova
Genre: Drama
Premiere: International Film Festival Rotterdam
Awards: Czech Film Critics's Award 2017, Best Feature, FEST New Directors/New Films Festival 2017, Best Feature Film, Valladolid IFF 2017, Best Editing, Czech Lion Awards 2017

Babyland

Kyiv, 2020. Natasha has created Babyland, a luxury hotel where fertile women give birth for infertile couples. When a tragic event from Natasha’s past comes back to haunt her, Babyland’s future is threatened and Natasha’s soul is at stake.

Status: in development
MIDPOINT participants involved: Martichka Bozhilova, Dianne Jones, Simona Nobile

Magic Moments

Parents struggle to earn money, so sisters basically take care of each other alone.

-Why do we walk on the grass?

-So that we step into dogshit and are lucky.

Thanks to the bond they have, they might have already won over life´s shit.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Martina Buchelova, Erika Paulinska
Premiere: 2016

KILLSWITCH

KILLSWITCH

Lea is a cyber security expert on her way to a sabbatical. Nina is a rising star of investigative journalism with a grudge against her colleague Peter. When Peter is found dead and Lea’s only friend and colleague Sebastian is kidnapped, the two women are brought together to find out what happened to their loved ones, using their unique skillsets and annoying the hell out of one another in the process. Their joint efforts put them on a path to uncover a dark scheme behind the upcoming parliamentary elections that threatens to take over the country’s internet and with it, the freedom of speech.

Status: in development
MIDPOINT participants involved: Anastasia Hoppanova, Lukas Teren
Genre: Thriller

TURBO

Aging mobster Dragan struggles to adapt to the new times by fighting teenage-hot-shots on the rise – realizing that his son is becoming the very face of this emerging “turbo-generation”.

 

Status: in development
Genre: High-end crime drama

The Monk

The Monk

A young boy Zawana enters a small village monastery led by U Dahma. Zawana has doubts if this lifestyle is right for him, but he grows to like the old abbot. The monastery faces financial crisis, monks are leaving, and on top of that U Dahma gets sick. Somebody must take care of him and the whole community. Zawana understands that he has to take the challenge...

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Aung Min, The Maw Naing
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Karlovy Vary IFF 2014

Journey to Rome

Cesta do Říma

Vašek learns that he is dying, so he steals a painting and goes to Rome to sell it – he needs money for a healer. Sitting on a train with a fake moustache on his face, he has no idea that he has, in fact, been sent on a spiritual quest of his life by a beautiful girl. His pursuers look as if they were transported from a 1970’s movie, yet his attention is constantly drawn to the other passengers, who pull him into their own stories with no mercy.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Tomasz Mielnik, Mikulas Novotny
Genre: Comedy
Premiere: Karlovy Vary IFF 2015, The East of the West

David

David

A mentally handicapped young man decides to leave the security of his family in order to search the purpose of his existence; whether it is freedom, sexual experience or death.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Jan Tesitel, Klara Zaloudkova
Genre: Drama
Premiere: Karlovy Vary IFF 2015, The Forum of Independents

Little Man

Malý Pán

There was house in a cave under little hill and that was a place where Little Man lived. He was quite well there until one night - when he had a mysterious dream. He dreamed about a house with provoking sign above its door: "YOU WILL FIND HERE WHAT YOU MISS". He had to go for a dangerous journey to find out what he was missing. He had to complete many difficult quests, overcome his fears and above all, keep moving forward no matter what was happening to him! And did he finally reached the place he searched for? And what did he find there?

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Radek Beran, Lumir Tucek
Genre: Puppet Film
Premiere: 2015 

Bear with Us

Chata na prodej

A family has decided to sell their lovely cottage as none of them has visited it for some time. Yet it holds so many nostalgic memories that the mother suggests they all spend one last day there before the sale takes place.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Tomas Pavlicek
Genre: Comedy
Premiere: Karlovy Vary IFF 2015, The East of the West

Schmitke

Schmitke

Schmitke is an old German wind turbine engineer. One day, he is dispatched to the Czech side of the Ore Mountains to fix an old squeaking wind turbine. His colleague disappears and mysterious things begin to happen in the forest.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Tomas Koncinsky, Tomas Vach
Genre: Comedy
Premiere: Busan Film Festival 2014

Candidate

Kandidát

The story follows the background of a political campaign of a presidential candidate. There are two months remaining to the elections. Adam Lambert, a successful and influential owner of an advertising agency, gets a job - to create a political campaign for a peculiar candidate - an indistinctive small-town entrepreneur. The goal is simply to stir the political waters and strip the opposite party of a few votes. Lambert is used to manipulating people without a blink of an eye and always gets what he wants. However, during a dinner party, he is provoked into a bet against his rival - Ivan Muller, who works for the heaviest favourite of the elections. The stake is approximately 7 million euros. Lambert bets all his fortune on a single horse, the unknown candidate. He swears he will transform this loser into a president, and that he will accomplish that no later than in the first round of the elections.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Maros Hecko
Genre: Thriller
Premiere: 2013

Land of Storms

Viharsarok

Szabolcs quits football against his father's will and returns to his country in Hungary to take charge of an inheritance from his grandfather. There, he meets Aron and they both explore their identities.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Julia Berkes, Ivan Szabo
Genre: Drama
Premiere: IIF Berlinale Panorama 2014