Power woman for Europe

European Film Promotion invites with its programmeSegment Producer on the Move every year invites promising film talents from all over Europe to the International Film Festival in Cannes. This year, the Hamburg film producer Verena Gräfe-Höft (Junafilm).

The aim of the renowned programme is to promote international productions and initiate new film projects. Gräfe-Höft gained international recognition through the FFHSH-funded productionsTore dances andAntboy.

"Verena Gräfe-Höft is a great Executive Producer and therefore rightly counts among Europe'sSegment Producer on the Move. She has a great flair for captivating and stirring material, as she demonstrated in 2013 with her feature film debutTore dances has impressively demonstrated this," says Maria Köpf, CEO of Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. "This award honours an exceptional entrepreneur of whom Hamburg can be proud. I look forward to many more films from Junafilm."

In 2009, Verena Gräfe-Höft, after completing her film studies at theHamburg Media School founded her production company Junafilm. She received international attention in 2013 when her productionTore dances had its world premiere in Cannes. The provocative psychodrama, which was created in collaboration with Script Writer and Director Katrin Gebbe, is about a teenager who joins the Jesus Freaks and becomes the victim of violent excesses.

With her current projectThe Swan Verena Gräfe-Höft has been a member of theAntboyIn the meantime, she has realised another international co-production with Denmark. The family drama is the first film from her company Junafilm with partners from Iceland and Estonia. Gräfe-Höft is also co-founder of the Hamburg branch ofWIFT (Woman in Film and Television) for the Fundings of top female talent in the film industry. WIFT is an international business network with more than 13,000 women in 40 countries.

With its programme, the European Film PromotionSegment Producer on the Move young film producers the opportunity to make new international contacts for future projects during the Cannes Film Festival. Each year, the programme results in a number of international co-productions within the participants or with partners with whom they came into contact during the project. Two of the most important criteria to qualify as a Segment Producer on the Move are previous international co-production experience and the theatrical release of a produced film outside the home country. The programme is organised by theCreative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union, as well as by the EFP member organisations, includingGerman Films.