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Crossing Borders
Start date: Jan 1, 2015, End date: Dec 31, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The overall objective for Crossing Borders is to pave the way for European documentary professionals to access the Asian market. The international training programme Crossing Borders brings together filmmakers and documentary experts from both Europe and Asia, who are highly motivated to collaborate with each other across national borders and have the ambition to enter each other’s markets both artistically and financially. With Crossing Borders 2015, this objective was again achieved through the combination of strong partners in Europe and Asia, a tailor-made workshop programme with both on location and online activities and synergies with further industry events increasing the participants’networking and helping them to establish new business strategies/models.After five Crossing Borders editions we can now report a steady influx of both immediate and long-term results. Alone in the January and February 2016, three projects from Crossing Borders 2012 are for example premiering at major festivals like Sundance (The Lovers and the Despot / Directors: Rob Cannan & Ross Adam, Producer: Natasha Dack), Docpoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival (Mr. Kim and Sister Lotus / Directors: Sou-Yen Kim and Miriam Rossius, Producer: Gregor Streiber, Inselfilm) and the Berlinale (Inside the Chinese Closet / Director: Sophia Luvara, Producer: Iris Lammertsma).Immediate results are among others:• improvements of the participating projects clearly visible after the first development workshop, where projects get more focused and targeted towards the international market• providing the participants with realistic market information and pointing them in the right direction • networking between participants and between participants and tutors from Asia and Europe•improvement of the projects’ pitch presentations and trailers through consultation with an editor and pith pitch trainers online and at the workshops• crucial one-to-one meetings of the CB participants with international commissioning editors, channel heads, sales agents and distributors after their pitchLong-term results include:• co-production and funding agreements based on meetings at CB• participants using the market knowledge gained through CB for future projects• continued collaboration between participants on both current and future projects• knowledge on the Asian market spread to the European audiovisual sector through Documentary Campus and EDN workshops and market activities• a strong partnership build between Documentary Campus and EDN and film / documentary organisations in Asia• setting up of local documentary organisations and pitching sessions in Asian countriesIt is commonly known in the documentary industry that securing financing and co-production deals take time. Crossing Borders 2015 only held its final pitching session at the end of October, but we already see results from the 2015 programme such as: concrete interest/deals from financiers towards the projects pitched in Leipzig; participants working together and using each others knowledge in realising their projects; the setting up of a local development and pitching workshop in the Philippines based on the experience through Crossing Borders.As the above indicates Crossing Borders stronger than ever and we see a growing interest from partners who want to bring the training programme to their country and in this way facilitate the networking and knowledge exchange between filmmakers from Asia and Europe. During the recent Berlinale (11-21 February 2016), the call for project submissions for Crossing Borders 2016 (to be held in partnership with BCPF from South Korea) was launched and we already have a confirmed partnership agreement with Malaysia for hosting Crossing Borders 2017 and interest from the Philippines for Crossing Borders 2018.
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