CineLink Workshop 2025
The CineLink Workshop in Slano will take place 16-20 June 2025.
During the five-day CineLink workshop in Slano, directors, producers, and writers will work with top mentors on eight feature films and five drama series in development. Additional value to this process is provided by film talks with guest speakers as part of Slano Film Days.
CineLink Co-production Market 2025
CineLink Co-production Market has selected 8 promising feature films in the development stage to participate in the Workshop. Overall, this year’s projects are thematically connected through their exploration of trauma, drawing parallels between contemporary struggles and historical events. They delve into the tension between the need for belonging and the quest for individual identity, offering a search for meaning amid chaos, and inviting audiences to discover beauty in vulnerability and strength in connection. Seeking a responsible and thoughtful way to speak about the present moment, authors are turning to historical themes - and increasingly - to adapted material, which offers them a sense of security that there is a story worth telling, but also the way it supposed to be told.
AGATHA CANDY
Director and Writer: Andrei Tănase
Producers: Anamaria Antoci, Anda Ionescu, Ana Voicu
Production Company: Tangaj Production
Country: Romania
Synopsis: While investigating the case of a teenage girl left for dead in the woods, Luminița (34), a small-town police officer, risks being swallowed into a dark, sinister world, where the unlawful meets the occult.
BRIGHT GREY
Director: Miruna Minculescu
Writers: Miruna Minculescu, Iulia Lumânare
Producers: Oana Iancu, Ana Ciobanu
Production Company: The East Company Productions
Co-Production Company: Contrast Films
Countries: Romania, Bulgaria
Synopsis: Caught in a tangled situation with present and former lovers, Călina tries to find purpose as both a mother and a human being on a charity trip to the frontier of a war that doesn't belong to her, but scares her less than her own.
PLACES HALF EMPTY
Director: Dorka Vermes
Writer: Sára Törley-Havas
Producers: Evelyn Balogh, Botond Lelkes
Production Company: Non Lieu Kft.
Country: Hungary
Synopsis: A controversial and intimate portrait of a queer relationship in the context of Orbán’s Hungary.
POGANA
Director: David Kapac
Writers: Andrija Mardešić, David Kapac
Producers: Rea Rajčić, Tina Tišljar
Production Company: Eclectica
Co-Production Companies: Vertigo
Countries: Croatia, Slovenia
Synopsis: On a faraway island in Dalmatia in the 1920s, Pogana, a woman from the inlands, is sold to be the new wife of a widow sailor with five children. When the sailor is lost at sea, Pogana is left at the mercy of the cruel villagers and their customs.
RAIN COUNTRY
Director: Zeynep Köprülü
Writers: Zeynep Köprülü, Haziran Düzkan
Producers: Utku Zeka, Zeynep Köprülü, Cansu Menlikli
Production Company: Periferi Film
Country: Turkey
Synopsis: In early 2000’s, in Istanbul, high school senior Gül's secret is exposed after her classmate suicide, turning her life upside down. Gül embarks on a journey to find her inner strength for independence and growth.
STONE OVER STONE
Director: Hilal Baydarov
Writers: Hilal Baydarov, Georg Tiller
Producers: Maéva Ranaïvojaona, Georg Tiller, Hilal Baydarov
Production Company: Subobscura Films
Co-production Company: Ucqar Film
Countries: Austria, Azerbaijan
Synopsis: Living and working in the decaying confines of a construction site, a young couple struggles to secure a hopeful future for their unborn child, trapped in a cycle of poverty and exploitation as they search for redemption amidst the rubble.
THE SHAME OF THE BORBÉLY FAMILY
Director: Kálmán Nagy
Writer: Kálmán Nagy
Producers: Andi G Hess, Johannes Schubert
Production Company: Schubert
Co-Production Company: Lupa Pictures
Countries: Austria, Hungary
Synopsis: In a small Hungarian town, the life of Tamás and Éva's family shatters when their 17-year-old son attacks his teacher with a knife. The family must face the consequences of the violent act.
THAT COUNTRY
Director and Writer: Yusuf Elbaşı
Producer: Burak Çevik
Production Company: Fol Films
Country: Turkey
Synopsis: In the mid-19th century, a Turkish painter and a German photographer set out to capture images of the Ottoman 'homeland'. Lost in the mountains, they search for the purpose that led them there.
CineLink Drama Projects 2025
As a part of the CineLink Drama selection, additional 5 projects will participate highlighting the growing maturity of regional storytelling and the ability of its creators to produce high-quality content, grounded in professional experience and marked by compelling, authentic narratives. The rise in adapted content in this year’s submissions, and thus in final selection, highlights the growing synergy between the publishing and film industries. It reflects the idea that powerful, relevant stories are not confined to a single form - they resonate across artistic disciplines and find new life as they are reimagined for the screen. This transposition from literature to film not only enriches the narrative depth of the projects but also broadens their cultural reach, allowing stories to engage wider audiences while preserving the essence of their literary origins.
HOMEBOYZ
Creator and Writer: Stefan Bošković
Producer: Ivan Đurović
Production Company: Artikulacija
Country: Montenegro
Synopsis: Talented Mensur and Koča dream of success, but their debt to criminal Ljuka pulls them into a dangerous underworld. As they rise in music, they face escalating conflicts and unforeseen consequences.
P.I.G.S.
Creator and Director: Theo Papadoulakis
Writers: Gabor Krigler, Giulio Rizzo
Producer: Ioanna Davi
Production Company: Indigo View Productions
Country: Greece
Synopsis: When four Mediterranean misfit MEPs discover a dangerous plot in EU's underbelly, they must act fast to defend their culinary heritage from corporate exploitation.
RED WATER
Creator: Ljubica Luković
Writers: Ljubica Luković, Jurica Pavičić
Director: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović
Producer: Danijel Pek
Production Company: Antitalent
Country: Croatia
Synopsis: In 1989 seaside Croatia a family is shattered by their daughter’s disappearance. Her dark secrets disintegrate the community over two decades until the return of the ex-investigator unveils the truth.
SOUTH STREAM
Creator: Marko Popović
Writers: Marko Popović, Iva Mitrović
Producers: Krastyo Lambev, Marko Popović
Co-Producers: Milan Stojanović, Orestis Plakias, Christo Grozev
Production Company: Concept Studio
Co-Production Companies: Sense Production, Foss Productions
Countries: Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece
Synopsis: While searching for his missing fiancé, an ex-con finds himself entangled in a multinational cover-up regarding an ongoing energy war between European Union and Russia.
WONDERFUL
Creators and Writers: Katarina Mitrović, Isidora Veselinović, Vladimir Tagić
Directors: Vladimir Tagić, Isidora Veselinović
Producer: Marija Stojanović
Production Company: Sense Production
Country: Serbia
Synopsis: Unsatisfied with how her life has turned out, a woman starts waking up in the mornings of some key decisions that shaped it and takes alternate paths towards different lives that could have been.