THE WINNERS OF THE BALKAN FUND
The four winning scripts of the Balkan Fund, each receiving 10,000 Euros, were announced on Friday, November 26th, in a special event at Warehouse C of the Thessaloniki Port. The Balkan Fund is a workshop founded last year by the Thessaloniki Film Festival for the development of scripts and the encouragement of film productions in the Balkans. Out of 55 scripts, 12 were chosen for the preliminary stage. The scripts were studied by a five-member international committee (in a special three-day seminar held at the Electra Palace hotel on November 24-26) which chose the four winners. The winners in the order they were announced are:
-The only Love Affair Hemingway Did Not Write About, from Bulgaria. Screenplay/direction Svetloslav Ovcharov, producer Assen Vladimirov
-Hidden Faces, from Turkey. Screenplay/direction/production Handan Ipekci, co-production Jurgen Seidler
-Snow, from Bosnia & Herzegovina. Screenplay/direction Aida Begic, production Elma Tataragic
-The Hedgehog, from Greece. Screenplay/direction/production Nikos Grammatikos, co-screenwriter Nikos Panayotopoulos
Michel Demopoulos, the Director of the Festival, said that the Balkan Fund is a rather successful institution and expressed the Festival’s intention to continue the effort it began last year. The coordinator of the Balkan Fund, Loukia Rikaki, spoke about the quality of the scripts that were examined and refering to the scripts that were not rewarded said that it does not constitute a failure. “The scripts that were not awarded today might receive even larger financial assistance elsewhere”, said Mrs. Rikaki. “I hope that next year we can award more scripts”, she added.
“We study hundreds of scripts each year and very rarely do we see so many good ideas in such a small amount of time”, said the artistic director of the Balkan Fund, Christina Kallas.
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Earlier, the Cine Link awards –founded by the Serajevo Film Festival- were announced. The awards were presented in Thessaloniki for greater publicity. The two scripts receiving 25,000 euros each are:
-Tea, from Slovenia, by Hanna Slak
-The Dark Side Of the Earth, from Slovenia, by Damjan Kozole. “The fact that both films are from Slovenia proves that our selection was not influenced by other criteria”, said the Director of the Seragevo Film Festival, Mirsad Purivatra.
