NEWS
Reinforcement for the plotlessfilm team
We are pleased to welcome Fabienne Hopf as ournew intern. The communication design student from RheinMain University ofApplied Sciences will be actively supporting us over the next six months. Thisinternship is funded by STEP Hessen Film & Medien.
BLIND, INTO THE EYE – the festival tour continues!
Following its successful premiere in Locarno,the experimental essay film has already been screened at the DMZ DocumentaryFilm Festival in Seoul and, in early October, at the Vancouver InternationalFilm Festival. We are very pleased that BLIND, INTO THE EYE will nowalso be shown at Interfilm Festival in Berlin, the Cork International FilmFestival, and the Short Film Festival in Cologne.
HARDSUB
We were present with HARDSUB at the BFI ProjectFinance Market and were the only German production invited to take part in theNew Talent Strand. The days in London were an important opportunity to push theproject further towards production and to establish new connections. We wouldalso like to express our sincere thanks to HessenFilm & Medien as a partnerof the BFI for making our participation possible.
In addition, HARDSUB won the €10,000 Post-ProductionAward presented by BBRental & BBPosthouse in the Showcase at the InternationalFilm Festival in Riga.
The jury commented:
“This project has this kind of cinematic magic –when you see this character on screen, you want to spend time with him, eventhough you can't explain why.”
We are very pleased about this and about theopportunity to make valuable connections.
BLIND, INTO THE EYE goes on a festival tour.
After celebrating a very successful festivaldebut in Locarno, BLIND, INTO THE EYE’s journey continues. Next, it will be shown at the DMZ Documentary Film Festival in Seoul and then at the Vancouver International Film Festival in early October. We hope the festival tour continues to be a success!
SALAD DAYS (AT) finds its lead actor! Preparations for Julian's debut film SALAD DAYS (AT) are in fullswing. After several auditions, we have now cast Thomas Schubert in the lead role of “the new guy.” We are thrilled that Thomas has accepted the role and look forward to working with him!
HARDSUB
In addition, the prep week for the BFI New Talent Strandtook place in September, where Julian will be participating inthe BFI Market with our project HARDSUB as the only German production. We hope to gain further partners for the project there and would like to take this opportunity to thank HessenFilm & Medien, as a partner of the BFI, for theopportunity to participate.
BITTER GOLD
BITTER GOLD in theaters! Following the successfull festival run of our international co-production BITTER GOLD (orig. ORO AMARGO), we celebrated its official theatrical release on August 21. This was preceded by a small cinema tour through Germany with lead actress Katalina Sánchez invarious German cities, including Berlin, Düsseldorf, Darmstadt, and of course Frankfurt!
We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank our distributor jib film & verleih for their partnership!
BLIND, INTO THE EYE
BLIND, INTO THE EYE premieres in Locarno.
The experimental essay film BLIND, INTO THE EYE by Atefeh Kheirabadi and Mehrad Sephania, which we had the privilege of accompanying as creative producers and realizing as a service production, celebrated its premiere at the 78th Locarno Film Festival!
There, the film also won the YOUNG JURY AWARD. We would like to congratulate the two directors!
BITTER GOLD
BITTER GOLD opened the Marburg Children's and Youth Film Festival. Dascha Petuchow was there and took part in an exciting Q&A.
Theatrical release of Bitter Gold: 21 August 2025
WHERE WE ARE GOING
For her debut film WHERE WE ARE GOING, Dascha Petuchow undertook a research trip to Kazakhstan. With numerous new impressions and experiences, she is now working on the second draft of the screenplay.
BITTER GOLD
BITTER GOLD celebrated its German premiere at the Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt. In addition to a great audience, guests included Marion Wagner (Hessen Film & Medien), Carolina Guerrero (Deputy Consul ofthe Consulate General of Chile in Frankfurt), Eva Soria (Cultural Representative of the Instituto Cervantes) and Svetlana Svyatskaya (Frankfurt Cultural Office).
Theatrical release of BITTER GOLD: 21 August 2025
KLOPF, KLOPF
We are delighted that Julian Gerchow's short film KLOPF, KLOPF was shown in the DACH competition at the renowned Landshut Short Film Festival.
HARDSUB
HARDSUB won the Midpoint Pitch Award at the Bratislava Industry Days. The project was presented by Valeria Sochyvets (CUC) and Julian Gerchow. In subsequent one-to-one meetings, numerous new contactswere made and intensive discussions about possible collaborations were held.
HARDSUB
Novruz Hikmet's feature film debut HARDSUB has received its first production funding! We are delighted to announce that the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films has selected HARDSUB as one of only 8 projects out of 43 submissions to receive support. This marks an important milestone as we have now finally entered the financing phase.
ORO AMARGO
We are pleased to announce our new partners jip film&verleih as the German distributor for our project. We look forward toworking with them! At this year's Berlinale, ORO AMARGO was presented to an industry audience during the AG-Kino-Gilde screenings. We hope to announce acinema release date for Germany soon.
ORO AMARGO
ORO AMARGO was screened at the renowned Gothenburg Film Festival! We feel very honoured to be shown alongside so many special films.
WOHIN WIR GEHEN (AT)
The Full Circle Lab came to an end at thePoitiers Film Festival, where Dascha and Julian presented WOHIN WIR GEHEN (AT)to representatives of the French industry. Following the pitch, the two were able to participate in one-on-one meetings with producers and international distributors. We are very grateful for the opportunity to participate in this extraordinary programme.
HARDSUB
This November, the renowned Torino Feature Lab came to an end with the long-awaited pitch. Hardsub was presented to industry representatives in Turin and discussed in more detail in one-on-one meetings afterwards. Discussions were held with international distributors and potentialco-production partners. We are very grateful to have been able to participate in this unique programme.
HESSEN DELEGATION IN TALLINN
Dascha Petuchow was invited to travel to the Tallinn Black Nights Co-Production Market as part of the Hessen delegation andrepresent us there.
ORO AMARGO
Our international co-production ORO AMAGRO wasnot only shown at the Critics Week of the renowned Cairo International FilmFestival, but also screened at the International Film Festival of India in Goa. We wish the film continued extraordinary festival success.
ORO AMARGO (AT)
Our international co-production Oro Amargo byJuan Olea had its world premiere this October at the renowned 40th Warsaw International Film Festival in the international competition. There, the film was awarded the Ecumenical Jury Prize. We are proud to be part of the project and are delighted for everyone involved in the production.
WOHIN WIR GEHEN (AT)
Dascha Petuchow was nominated for the German Young Screenwriter Award for her debut film ‘Wohin wir gehen’ (Where We Are Going). The award ceremony will take place on 9 November in Hanover. We're keeping our fingers crossed for her!
KLOPF, KLOPF
Julian Gerchow's short film KLOPF, KLOPF was shown in the short film competition at the B3 Festival of the Moving Image in Frankfurt this October. The short film will be screened at the 37th Exground Filmfest in Wiesbaden on 17 November at 12 noon.
HARDSUB
In September, the Torino Feature Lab started its second round – this time virtually. Over two weeks, Novruz and Julian took partin numerous mentoring sessions and masterclasses and deepened their work on the German-Ukrainian-Polish co-production ‘Hardsub’. In mid-November, the two will attend the renowned Tornio FF, where they will once again receive mentoring and masterclasses, before pitching the project to a select audience from the filmindustry.
WOHIN WIR GEHEN (AT)
The Full Circle Lab is entering its next round,this time in Wiesbaden. Dascha and Julian spent five days working at Biebrich Castle, invited by Hessen Film & Medien. The story of WOHIN WIR GEHEN (AT)was further developed in intensive mentoring sessions. The lab will conclude inearly December with an industry pitch at the Poitiers Film Festival.
SCHÖNE SEELEN
This September, the last two days of shooting for SCHÖNE SEELEN by Tom Schreiber took place in Hesse. We accompanied andorganised this shoot as a service production. The project, produced by Ingmar Trost (Sutor Kolonko), is now in post-production. We wish Tom every success for the rest of the post-production.
BEAUTIFUL SOULS
Summer 1996: Freddy, an eternally youthful daylabourer, is fed up with life in uncomfortable Germany and wants to start a new, relaxed life in a Spanish holiday resort. The shooting of Tom Schreiber's new feature film BEAUTIFUL SOULS took place in Spain in May, June and July, with Maximilian Hasenstab acting as production coordinator for the entire shootand Julian Gerchow assisting as second assistant director for one month. Our intern Theresa Philine Kramer also gained new experience as a set intern. Dascha Petuchow prepared the second shooting block in Hessen in parallel. This is expected to be shot in September, with us providing on-site production services.
BLIND, INS AUGE
We are pleased to announce the successful completion of filming in Darmstadt and the start of post-production for BLIND INS AUGE. Atefeh Kheirabadi and Mehrad Sepahnia visited a studio in Darmstadt for three days during filming. Editing will now take place in Berlin throughout August, before the two come to us in Frankfurt in mid-September for soundpost-production at Hyve Audio.
DEMOCRACY, WORK IN PROGRESS
Good news for our project DEMOCRACY, WORK INPROGRESS by screenwriter and director Mihály Schwechtje: The film has received production funding from Hessen Film & Medien! We look forward to working with Kino Alfa, Nord Quest and Xova Film on this Hungarian-French-German-Czechco-production. The project was part of the Nipkow Programme, received the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award and is supported by the Creative Europe Media Desk.
BLIND, INS AUGE
We are delighted for Atefeh Kheirabadi and Mehrad Sepahnia and their hybrid documentary short film project BLIND, INS AUGE. Thanks to production funding from Hessen Film & Medien, we have the opportunity to support this unique project as creative producers and service producers during filming in Hessen. The project is also supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and is a production of Realillusion GbR.
HARDSUB
Director Novruz Hikmet and producer Julian Gerchow took part in the first Torino FeatureLab workshop in Opatija, Croatia, to work on the HARDSUB project. During the workshop, they not only learned new approaches and perspectives, but also networked intensively with other participants.
WHERE WE ARE GOING (AT)
Director Dascha Petuchow and our producer Julian Gerchow took part in the first workshop of Full Circle LAB Nouvelle-Aquitaine Hessen 2024 with the project WHERE WE ARE GOING, which took place at La Maison Forte in Monbalen, France. During insightful sessions and joint discussions with the other participants and mentors, they were able to gain valuable insights and gather new ideas for their project.
WOHIN WIR GEHEN (AT) at Full Circle Lab 2024
We are pleased to announce that WOHIN WIR GEHEN by Dascha Petuchow will participate in Full Circle LAB 2024. The participants were announced at the Cannes Film Festival. Dascha Petuchow and Julian Gerchow will take part in the international programme for script development.
HARDSUB
We are honoured that our project HARDSUB has been given the opportunity to participate in TorinoFilmLab. Director Novruz Hikmet and our producer Julian Gerchow will take part in Feature Lab 2024.
KLOPF, KLOPF
We are delighted that KLOPF, KLOPF will be screened at the 34th Emden-Norderney International Film Festival. Many thanks to our entire team and all our supporters, especially Hessen Film & Medien and KulturMut.
ORO AMAGRO
There is also news about our internationalco-production ORO AMARGO, for which we have found a World Sale in Patra Spanou Film. We look forward to working with them in the future.
Reinforcement for the plotlessfilm team
We are delighted to welcome Theresa Kramer as ournew intern. The communication design student from RheinMain University ofApplied Sciences will be providing us with valuable support over the next sixmonths. This internship is sponsored by STEP Hessen Film & Medien.
Dascha at the East-West Talent Lab
Dascha will participate as a producer in thisyear's East-West Talent Lab as part of the goEast – Festival of Central andEastern European Film in mid-April. Fifteen talents from Central and EasternEuropean countries have been invited with their documentary film projects andwill meet producers from Germany, France, Poland and Georgia.
WHERE WE ARE GOING
Great news for Dascha Petuchow: her feature filmproject WHERE WE ARE GOING (AT), which was already supported last year by the STEP writers' scholarship, is receiving funding for material development from Hessen Film & Medien.
ORO AMARGO
Visitors from Chile and Uruguay! Director Juan Francisco Olea, producer Francisco Hervé and sound designer Daniel Yafalian travelled to Frankfurt for the sound mixing of their coming-of-age western ORO AMAGRO (formerly: LA HIJA DEL PACIFICO). They spent two weeks in the recording studio of the Frankfurt-based company FunDeMental and were able to successfully complete the cinema mix together.
DER TRICKBETRÜGER (AT)
Julian Gerchow presented his debut film DERTRICKBETRÜGER (AT) at the Max Ophüls Film Prize 2024 on the MarketplaceScreenplay. Thanks to Hessen Film & Medien, MFG Filmförderung,Saarlandmedien and the Kuratorium junger deutscher Film for organising andhosting the event. The screenplay is in its second draft and is funded byHessen Film & Medien.
HARDSUB (AT)
We are very pleased to announce that HARDSUB byNovruz Hikmet has received funding from the European Solidarity Fund forUkrainian Films! The debut film is an international co-production betweenGermany (plotlessfilm), Ukraine (CUC) and Poland (Gogol Film).
The screenplay is being written by Novruz Hikmetand Olena Podolianko, who also collaborated on the internationally acclaimedshort film IT IS QUIET HERE. Hessen Film & Medien supported the developmentof the screenplay in 2023 as part of its Talent Package funding programme.
December 2023
KAUGUMMI
We congratulate Dascha Petuchow on being selected for the T-Port Lighthouse Selection 2023 with her project KAUGUMMI. The selection was made by guest curators Laurence Boyce (PÖFF, Short FilmConference) and Maike Mia Höhne (Berlinale, Hamburg Short Film Festival).
KAUGUMMI will also be shown at the Talent ShortFilm Market in Turin. Dascha also won the German Young Talent Award at the Upand Coming Film Festival in Hanover with KAUGUMMI. We are very happy!
IT IS QUIET HERE
The docu-fiction IT IS QUIET HERE. by Novruz Hikmet and Olena Podolianko was shown this November at the 17th Cologne ShortFilm Festival.
KLOPF, KLOPF
The short film KLOPF, KLOPF by Julian Gerchow was completed in early November 2023 and is now in festival evaluation.
DER TRICKBETRÜGER (AT)
Julian Gerchow's debut feature film DER TRICKBETRÜGER (AT) will be presented to industry professionals at the Drehbuch 2024 marketplace as part of the Max Ophüls Film Prize.
LA HIJA DEL PACÍFICO (AT)
We are pleased to announce that LA HIJA DEL PACÍFICO (AT) was recently selected for both the European Work in Progress in Cologne and the Venice Biennale Market in the Work in Progress section. The film is currently in post-production and will be presented to industry representatives at these events.
KAUGUMMI
We are also delighted for Dascha Petuchow, whose short film KAUGUMMI celebrated its world premiere on 8 October at #46 LUCAS –International Festival for Young Film Fans in Frankfurt.
B3 HESSENLAB 2023 IN FRANKFURT
And we are staying in Frankfurt, with a strong presence at the B3 Festival of the Moving Image: Novruz Hikmet was represented there with HARD SUB and Dascha Petuchow with WOHIN WIR GEHEN at HessenLab 2023.
LA HIJA DEL PACÍFICO (AT)
We are delighted to announce that filming for LA HIJA DEL PACIFICO (AT) by Juan Olea and Cristobal Zapata has been successfully completed shooting! Post-production has begun and is expected to come to us in Frankfurt in November 2023 for sound mixing and colour grading.
KNOCK, KNOCK
We are delighted to announce that filming for Knock, Knock by Julian Gerchow has been successfully completed!
We are now turning our attention topost-production and would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to our crew and cast, as well as everyone who participated in and contributed to the project. We would also like to say a big thank you to all the extras and minor actors, whose help made the shoot such a success.
We would also like to give special mention toHessen Film & Medien, KulturMut and, of course, our supporters at Startnext, without whose support this project would not have been possible!
TALENT PACKAGE FROM HESSEN FILM & MEDIEN
The approval of Hessen Film und Medien for the talent package funding is a real milestone for us as a young production company. The funding will enable us to take on new projects and expand with plotlessfilm. We are very happy and grateful for the opportunities that this funding will bring!
The projects HARD SUB (AT), DER TRICKBETRÜGER(AT) and MAKE KIN NOT BABIES (AT) received funding.
KNOCK, KNOCK
We are delighted to announce that our short filmproject KNOCK, KNOCK has been awarded funding by Hessen Film und Medien!
The fictional short film KNOCK, KNOCK followsambitious con artist apprentice Huey as he takes his final exam. Disguised asan employee of an internet provider, he must try to steal valuables from amansion on his own. This is to prove to his mentor Jennifer that he has what ittakes to be one of them. Inside, he encounters the birthday party of a noblefamily and realises that no amount of training in the world could prepare himfor this.
We are currently in the middle of pre-productionand have our hands full, as filming will take place between 27 March and 1April 2023!
Our short film KAUGUMMI is currently beinge valuated. We will of course keep you informed about the world premiere and allother festivals here or via our social media platforms!
In addition, we have submitted Kaugummi to theGerman Film and Media Evaluation (FBW) and received the rating ‘particularly valuable’. A press release is already available there. As soon as the jury'sreport is uploaded, we will let you know.
Of course, we have also tackled a number of submissions again this autumn. You will find out exactly which ones after thejury meetings.
But what we can already reveal, and what we areequally proud of, is that Dascha Petuchow has been awarded the STEP programme's HessenFilm und Medien writing scholarship and will now use it to write her debut film WOHIN WIR GEHEN (AT) in the coming months!
We would like to welcome Roya Ghanavati to our team, who will be supporting us as a working student for at least the next six months.
We are delighted to announce that the docu-fiction, a German-Ukrainian co-production by Olena Podolianko & Novruz Hikmet, ITS QUIET HERE. celebrated its world premiere on 17 August 2022 at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Congratulations also to our partners in Ukraine: Packgauz Production and CUC. We are very happy and would like to thank HessenFilm und Medien once again for their support, which made this project possible. In addition, the docu-fiction was screened at the Odesa Film Festivaland won the award for ‘The Best Short Film’ at the Batumi International ArtHouse Film Festival. Furthermore, the Molodist Kyiv Film Festival presented its national competition with Ukrainian short and feature films at the Filmfest Hamburg ,including IT IS QUIET HERE.
From 27 October to 10 November, the docufiction will be shown at the Filmski Fronk Festival, The Shortfilmfestival and on 11 November at the Baku Short Fest.
At the end of June, we finished shooting the short feature film OMATE by Maximilian Hasenstab. With our film crew, we spent several days shooting this exciting graduation film in a small town in the Spessart region on the Bavarian-Hessian border. The project is currently in post-production.
We did it! The first official funding from Hessenfilm und Medien with plotlessfilm. The project LA HIJA DEL PACIFICO (AT) is an international co-production with Chile and Uruguay. With Juntos Films (Chile) and Tarkiofilm (Uruguay), the film will be shot in Chile and thenpost-produced in Hessen. The exciting mix of western and coming-of-age is agreat synergy of genre and arthouse, written by Augustin Toscan, Pancho Hervé and Moisés Sepúlveda and directed by Juan Francisco Olea and Chrisóbal Zapata.
Not only LA HIJA DEL PACIFICO (AT) was funded by HessenFilm in this submission, but also the feature film SCHÖNE SEELEN by our new colleague Tom Schreiber, who has been part of plotlessfilm since February. SCHÖNE SEELEN, starring August Diehl and Josef Hader, is produced by Sutor Kolonko from Cologne, and we are supporting the Hesse part of the projectat our location.