Hana Jušić’s project God Will Not Help selected for Venice Production Bridge
The fiction feature project, God Will Not Help, directed by Hana Jušić and produced by Ankica Jurić Tilić’s (Kinorama), has been chosen as one of the 27 projects to participate at the 9th Venice Gap-Financing Market (VGFM) for co-productions. The market is part of the Venice Production Bridge programme and takes place 2nd – 4th September, during the 79th Venice International Film Festival.
The Venice Gap-Financing Market is intended for producers of fiction features, documentary films or immersive projects seeking international partners to complete their project financing. Activities at the Market include one-on-one meetings with potential partners and financial backers during the 79th Mostra in Venice, provided that the project has already secured 70% of its budget in case of fiction films and documentaries, or 30% of financing for immersive projects.
This year, 240 projects have applied for participation at the VGFM, while 27 out of the 63 accepted projects are fiction feature films. One of these is God Will Not Help, directed by Hana Jušić, with Ankica Jurić Tilić (for Kinorama) as the film’s producer.
Set at the start of the 20th century, God Will Not Help tells the story of Teresa who suddenly arrives from Chile in a mountainous sheepherding cooperative. Her arrival disrupts the dynamics of the strictly structured isolated community of shepherds in which her only desire is to fit in.
The project has been developed at the Cinéfondation residence of the Cannes Film Festival and as part of the TorinoFilmLab programme ScriptLab, having also received a prize from the Re-Act regional fond. God Will Not Help has been supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.
This will be Hana Jušić’s second fiction feature, after her feature debut with Quit Staring at My Plate in 2016, which had its world premiere in the Giornate degli Autori section at the Vennice IFF, going on to screen at over 150 film festivals and taking home more than 30 awards.
Kinorama is in charge of production, in co-production with Rosamont from Italy, while Jušić will once again engage her long-time collaborators Jana Plećaš as director of photography, Jan Klemsche as editor, and Katarina Pilić as costume designer.
The Venice Gap-Financing Market will take place 2nd – 4th September, during the 79th Venice International Film Festival running 31st August – 10th September.
Some of the projects previously selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market are Jasmila Žbanić’s Quo Vadis, Aida? (Best Film at the 2021 European Film Awards; nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Feature), and Croatian minority co-production God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunija, directed by Teona Strugar Mitevska (with Zdenka Gold of Spiritus Movens as the Croatian producer; winner of the 2019 European Parliament LUX Prize). More information about the Venice Gap-Financing Market is available on the following link.