Participants 2024 - Munich Film Up!

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PARTICIPANTS 24/25

The 6 promising young filmmakers are offered a 8-month journey that starts & ends all together in Munich (at the Film School Fest Munich at first & at the Filmfest München at the end), with individual 3-week-long Pop Up Film Residencies in between.

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Aizada Amangeldy

Aizada is a dramaturgist and director from Kyrgyzstan. She holds a master’s degree in Dramaturgy and completed an advanced apprenticeship in Dramaturgy at VGIK in Moscow, where she had the honor of being the last student of Cannes award-winning screenwriter Yuri Arabov. Throughout her career, Aizada has worked on several acclaimed TV series and documentaries, which were broadcast on the country’s main television channel. She worked as a Senior Script Editor at the National Filmstudio Kyrgyzfilm named after T.Okeev. Aizada is currently developing a screenplay trilogy based on her life experiences, exploring themes of love and Islam, titled 18th Birthday, Husband, and Wife.

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18th Birthday

When 17-year-old Daria is caught with drugs at her elite private girls school in Bishkek, she must navigate bullying and addiction to escape expulsion before her graduation and 18th birthday.

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Maximilian Bungarten

Maximilian Bungarten (b. 1993 in Mechernich NRW, Germany) studied production, media economics and documentary film directing at the University of Television and Film Munich. In 2019, he attended Université Paris VIII as a DAAD scholar. He co-founded Benedetta Films with Felix Herrmann and Camille Tricaud. Their documentary Eleven Tomorrows premiered at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival. His short film The Age of Innocence was nominated for Best Queer Short at Clermont-Ferrand 2023.

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Bumper Cars

Summer in the suburbs: teenager Casper drifts aimlessly, experiments with drugs, gets involved with Jessica and meets unknown men at a highway rest stop. But an encounter on a bumper car ride forces him to get to the core of the origin of his restlessness.

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Chheangkea

Chheangkea is a Phnom Penh-born filmmaker, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in architecture from MIT and his MFA in filmmaking at the NYU Tisch Graduate Film Program, focusing on writing-directing and cinematography. Through his films, Chheangkea seeks to showcase the complexities and colors of queer and Cambodian stories.

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Little Phnom Penh

Spanning two ever-changing decades, from post-Khmer Rouge Phnom Penh to early 2000s California, a Cambodian woman grapples with her identity, family, and love amidst profound cultural and historical upheavals.

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Cristina Iliescu

Cristina Iliescu is a Romanian filmmaker who lives in Bucharest, România. They are writing a PhD on the impact of the internet and generative AI on experimental cinema. Iliescu’s hybrid film practice interweaves reality, fiction and a digitally native take.

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Nothing Sadder than a Limo

An assistant director, two contestants, 26 surveillance cameras, and 18 working hours a day add up to one Romanian reality show filmed on an island in Southern Asia.

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Jakub Jirásek

Jakub Jirásek is a writer, director and musician. Born in Prague in 1993, raised in Switzerland, currently based in Prague. He got a Master degree in Film directing at FAMU in Prague, spent one semester of Erasmus at Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3. His fiction short Don’t Be a Pussy was premiered at Premiers Plans d’Angers, won a few prizes at festivals including YDA 2020 and was shortlisted for BAFTA Student Award in 2020.

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The Delivery

A couple’s “cool parent” plan to supervise their teenage daughter’s first time trying marijuana spirals into chaos when the food delivery guy turns out to be her classmate, turning their afternoon into a cringe-fest of privilege, parenting fails, and secondhand embarrassment.

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Hanna Stock

Hanna, born in 1995 in Bad Aibling, began her career with internships at production companies before starting vocational training in media design at Bavaria Film in 2015. There, she worked across various departments of fictional film production and directed her own short films. Since 2018, she has been studying screenwriting at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), while also working as a camera assistant. In addition to her writing, Hanna has gained experience in the documentary field, having directed short documentaries.

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Delulu

In a small Bavarian village, 15-year-old Ina’s desperate need for affection leads her to mistake her best friend’s brother’s exploitation for love, blurring the lines of consent and triggering a series of events that devastate her friendships and unravel her grasp on reality.

MunichFilmUp! 2024/25 participants

KIRCH FOUNDATION AWARD

WINNER

Chheangkea

Statement of the jury
KIRCH FOUNDATION AWARD
MUNICHFILMUP!2025

The Jury was impressed by the diversity and quality of the projects selected in this edition of the MunichFilmUp! After deliberation we have decided to award the Kirch Foundation Award 2025 of 5 000€ for the project: “Little Phnom Penh”, by Chheangkea – a heartwarming take on a family and generational drama that spans over decades and cultures, from Cambodia to the United States. It’s a sensitive and well-balanced approach to complex themes such as family, immigration and choice, which are particularly important in the current times. This is one of the projects we would really like to see and wish to congratulate all participants for their dedication and achievements.

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JURY 24/25

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HELEN BELTRAME-LINNÉ

Helen Beltrame-Linné is a Brazilian screenwriter and script consultant, currently working on her first feature film as a director. After working as a corporate lawyer, newspaper editor and director of the Bergman Center Foundation in Sweden, Helen has been dedicating herself to storytelling in Brazil, Europe and SouthEast Asia, participating in initiatives such as the Torino Film Lab, the Full Circle Lab and the Pop Up Film Residency. She first collaborated with the Munich Film Up! program as a host of filmmaker Ashmita Guha Neogi and her project Cold Ashes Can Cause Forest Fires in 2023.

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ALEM ANG

After being a school teacher for ten years, Alemberg Ang shifted into a career of film producing. His filmmaking is shaped by his passion for socio-civic issues, and Philippine arts and literature. Having traveled extensively to festivals in Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, and Busan, his films seek to give cultural minorities a voice in world cinema. Working with filmmakers mostly on their first and second features, his filmography includes 3 films at this year’s Cannes: Chie Hayakawa’s Renoir, Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Romero’s Agapito and Adnan Al Rajeev’s Ali. Ang has participated at the Rotterdam Lab (2012), Berlinale Talents (2013, 2021), Tribeca Film Institute Network (2019), Locarno’s Open Doors (2019), La Fabrique Cinema du Monde (2021), IDFA Producers Connection (2021) and EAVE Producers Workshop (2022).

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NICOLE GERHARDS

Nicole Gerhards studied Theatre and French in Paris as well as Producing at the DFFB in Berlin. In 2005 she founded NiKo Film and has since then produced 32 successful and award winning films. In 2012 Nicole was selected ‘Producer on the Move’ for Germany and also took part in the Producers Lab Toronto and the prestigious Inside Pictures Programme. In 2019, Nicole Gerhards and Karsten Stöter (Rohfilm Factory) drafted the INDEPENDENT COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE FILM PRODUCTION through avoidance, reduction and compensation with proactive measures, which has so far been signed by more than 50 members of the German producers’ association. Nicole is a member of EAVE, ACE, Inside Pictures and of the German and the European Film Academy. She has been a jury member at various renowned film festivals and works as an expert for Creative Europe, Locarno Open Doors, Ciclic and the DFFB.

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GIOVANNI POMPILI

Giovanni has a background in filmmaking and media studies. After his degree in visual communication and filmmaking experiences, he took over as head of Kino Produzioni aiming to develop a new generation of emerging talents often in co-production with international companies. His productions won the European Film Award – Discovery, Berlinale and Toronto International Film Festival. He is Head of Studies of the international workshop Green Film Lab and is a member of Ace, Eave, Berlinale Talents, Eurodoc and TFL Alumni.

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Mentors 24/25

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ANNA CIENNIK

Participant: MAXIMILIAN BUNGARTEN
Project: Bumper Cars

Both French and Polish, Anna Ciennik is a multilingual screenplay consultant and scriptwriter. She recently co-wrote Erige Sehiri’s sophomore film produced by Maneki films, and is writing Déni Pitsaev’s debut, produced by Dublin films and Nabis filmgroup.

As a script consultant, her credits include Clara Sola by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén (Directors’ Fortnight 2021), Amparo by Simón Mesa Soto (Cannes Critics’ Week 2021) or Julie keeps quiet by Leonardo Van Dijl (Cannes Critics’ Week 2024). She works for labs such as Locarno Residency, Cannes Residency, Open Doors, ESP, TFL ScriptLab, among others.

Before jumping fully into script development Anna had a career in the industry as line producer and post-production supervisor and she worked at Les Arcs European Film Festival as manager of the European Industry events. Between 2017 and 2021, she curated five editions of its co-production markets. She works on a regular basis for co-production markets, production or sales companies, and film commissions as a reader or pitching coach.

Anna is a member of the Collectif 5050, the SCA, and a bit of a wine and language geek.

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ANTONIA GIRARDI

Participant: HANNA STOCK
Project: Delulu

Antonia Girardi is a Chilean programmer and screenwriter born in 1987. She holds a master’s degree in Latin American Cultural Studies and is an alumna of SPEAP, the Experimental Program in Arts and Politics founded by Bruno Latour. She has contributed to collective books such as El novísimo cine chileno (Uqbar, 2011) and Film on the Faultline(Intellect Ltd, 2015). Since 2019, she has been the Director of FIDOCS, the Santiago International Documentary Film Festival, one of the leading documentary film festivals in Latin America. She first joined the festival as a programmer in 2015.

Filmography as Co-Writer:
Currently – Impunidad, directed by Felipe Gálvez (Feature Film, in development)
Project selected for the Ikusmira Berriak residency.

2023 – Los Colonos, directed by Felipe Gálvez (Feature Film)
The film premiered in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2023, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. Chile’s official submission for the Academy Awards.

2018 – Rapaz, directed by Felipe Gálvez (Short Film)
Premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week 2018.

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LEONARDO STAGLIANÒ

Participant: JAKUB JIRÁSEK
Project: The Delivery

Leonardo Staglianò wrote a film, two plays, three books on writing and several articles and short

stories published in newspapers and magazines. He’s been working in the field of story development for a dozen years, for independent producers, film funds, TV channels and streaming companies. He’s a Biennale College, Torino Film Lab, Berlinale Talent Campus, Scuola Holden and Tisch alumnus.

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SELCEN ERGUN

Participant: AIZADA AMANGELDY
Project: 18th Birthday

Selcen Ergun is a director, screenwriter, and producer based in Istanbul. A Berlinale Talents (2018) and Medienboard Nipkow Artist-in-Residency (2019) alumna, she is also a member of the European Film Academy. She holds a master’s degree in Design as well as in Directing & Screenwriting. Her debut feature, Snow and the Bear, was supported by Eurimages and premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. It was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and won over 15 international awards, including the New Directors Award at the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival. She has directed award-winning short films, interactive projects, and commercials for leading brands. Ergun has also mentored, consulted, and served on juries for platforms such as CinéCollective, Meetings on the Bridge, and M2 Film Lab.

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UNA GUNJAK

Participant: CRISTINA ILIESCU
Project: Nothing Sadder than a Limo

Sarajevo born, Paris based writer, director and editor, Una Gunjak studied in Italy and then in the UK, at the NFTS, where she graduated from the Editing department. Her short film ‘The Chicken’ premiered at the Cannes’ Critics Week in 2014, won the European Film Award for Best Short Film and competed at Sundance.
‘Excursion’, Una’s first feature premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2023, taking home the Special Mention Award. It went on to screen at more than 50 festivals so far, winning awards for Best Script at FAF Belgrade and Best Actress at Marrakech Film Festival. ‘Excursion’ has secured theatrical release in many countries across Europe and the Mediterranean.
Una is an editing consultant for the First Cut Lab and the Dok Incubator, and is currently developing her sophomore feature “How Melissa Blew a Fuse”, supported by the Hubert Bals
Fund and Europe Creative Media.

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PARTNERS

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by the Kirch Stiftung