Film Accelerator Open Cities, Run By Ex-Sundance CEO Joana Vicente & Producer Jason Kliot, Reveals First Projects

EXCLUSIVE: Open Cities, the tech-oriented film accelerator and production company led by former Sundance CEO Joana Vicente and Oscar-nominated producer Jason Kliot, has selected its first 11 projects.

The roster of features in the Lisbon, Portugal-based company’s inaugural cohort spans genres and global regions. (See the full list below.) In a newly conceived version of traditional film festival-affiliated labs, Open Cities, which launched earlier this year, is aiming to provide resources for filmmakers at a challenging time for the independent film sector.

Along with creative mentors and funding, the company provides support to filmmakers from a number of tech companies whose offerings are increasingly central to the filmmaking process. Partners include Google, Luma AI, Beeble, Publikum, Cinelytic, Plural Group, ZeroSpace, and Wonder Studios.

After the accelerator phase, Open Cities plans to select a number of projects to continue supporting, working closely with their filmmakers to advance them toward financing and production.

“There is something very exciting about bringing 11 filmmaking teams together, side by side, to experiment, challenge assumptions, and solve the creative and production problems standing between their ideas and the screen,” Vicente, co-founder and CEO of Open Cities, said in a statement. “We witnessed acceleration in real time, as filmmakers discovered new creative possibilities, tested different approaches, and developed clearer pathways to getting their films made. What we are building is not simply a place to explore new technology, but a new model for moving ambitious independent cinema from vision to production.”

Co-Founder Kliot added, “Working with this cohort of filmmakers has been one of the most exhilarating and rewarding experiences of our professional lives. Independent film has been through several turning points, and this feels like the most consequential we have witnessed. These are artists with large ideas, working with great artistic mentors and using new technology to give their unique visions the scope they deserve, with technologists and mentors beside them who care about their stories as much as the tools.”

After several virtual sessions, filmmakers gathered for an in-person residency in Lisbon from November 2 to 10. Toward the end of that time, they presented their projects to financiers, producers, distributors, and industry partners.

Among the initial supporters of Open Cities is Ted Hope, who has 70-plus producing credits and helped launched the careers of filmmakers like Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener, Hal Hartley and Michel Gondry. He is a producer of one of the films included in the first cohort, The Diamond Eye.

“I have managed to be around long enough to witness our film business and art changing several times over, but the Open Cities Accelerator is the first time I got to be in the room where it happened,” Hope said in a statement provided to Deadline. “Just like when the Sex Pistols or Velvet Underground first played, after witnessing so much talent letting it rip, many more are going to now pick up their own proverbial guitars to explore new possibilities to express themselves.”

Here are the projects in the initial cohort:

● The Dead God, written and directed by Néstor López; Produced by Pilar Sancho (Spain)

● The Diamond Eye, written and directed by Benjamin Dickinson; Produced by Ted Hope (U.S.)

● Fever, written and directed by Christian Goue (UK, Ivory Coast)

● Mirage, directed by Hallvard Braein; written by Anne Elvedal and Michael Kinirons; produced by Reza Bahar and Macdara Kelleher (Norway, Germany, Ireland)

● The Optimist, written and directed by Paolo Marinou-Blanco; produced by Matias Mariani (Portugal, Brazil)

● Pecan, written and directed by Nolam Plaas; produced by Louis Anania (U.S.)

● The Pink House, directed by Dana Stevens; produced by Amy Robinson (U.S.)

● Sophie Barthes Untitled Project, written and directed by Sophie Barthes; Produced by Anne Carey and Fernando Loureiro (U.S., France)

● Sweet Summer, written and directed by Martim David Gomes; produced by Anton Vicente Kliot (Portugal)

● The Trash King, co-written and directed by Georgi M. Unkovski; co-written and produced by Kamen Velkovsky (North Macedonia)

● When the Movies Died, written and directed by Christina Kallas (U.S., Greece, Germany)

Open Cities plans to hold its second accelerator program in the spring of 2027.