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 47TH INTERNATIONAL THESSALONIKI FILM FESTIVAL,

November 17-26, 2006

 

12 nominations, a slate of successfully completed projects and an important new initiative for the Balkan Fund (18-20 November) of the

 

The Balkan Fund continues its successful course for the fourth consecutive year and is ultimately one of the main consistent attractions for professionals of the international film industry at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, underlining the Greek presence in the booming and flourishing cinema of the Balkan region. Twelve (12) new projects were nominated and will be presented by their writers, directors and producers during this year’s 3-day event at the 47th edition of the Festival, from November 18 to 20.

 

“The Balkan area, and that of South Eastern Europe generally, is very important to TIFF and is therefore at the centre of our activities, strengthening TIFF’ s role in the wider area, as well as the role of Thessaloniki as a centre for culture and development”, says the director of TIFF, Despina Mouzaki. She continues: “For this reason we have developed a wide range of activities, at the centre of which is The Balkan Fund, the script development fund for this area, which in turn is developing in an exceedingly creative and effective manner. Our policy for Balkan cinema is also supported by the Balkan Survey section of the programme, with the presentation of recent productions from the Balkans, as well as with this year’s new initiative Works in Progress, by which works in progress from the area searching for collaborators are presented to the international market. Balkan cinema has great potential and prospects, and the TIFF is here to give it a chance in the international market!”

 

The Balkan Fund projects will be presented to an international five (5) member jury, who after the 3-day workshop and open discussion with each applicant, will grant 4 out of the 12 projects a 10.000 € grant each, thus contributing to the development of their scripts. In the meantime, the applicants will have the opportunity to meet and discuss individually with a selected number of film professionals such as fund directors, producers, distributors and sales agents who are specifically invited to Thessaloniki to attend the proceedings of the Balkan Fund.

 

The Balkan Fund Jury:

 

1.      Peter Carlton, Senior Commissioning Executive - Film4 (UK)

2.      Cedomir Kolar, film producer, A.S.A.P. FILMS (France/ Bosnia & Herzegovina)

3.      Lenny Crooks, head of The UK Film Council New Cinema Fund (U.K)

4.      Roman Paul, sales agent and film producer, Celluloid Dreams / Razor Films (France/Germany)

5.      Christina Kallas, writer-producer and artistic director of the Balkan Fund (Greece/Germany)

 

After the success of the films Grbavica, which won a Balkan Fund grant in 2003 for its script development and finally triumphed at this year’s 57th Berlinale Film Festival where it won the Golden Bear, and The Tuning (previously Red Horizons) by Slovenian director Igor Sterk, which was nominated for the Balkan Fund Awards also in 2003 and went on to receive the main prize at the Mannheim Film Festival and the Best Feature Film award at the Napoli Film Festival, the Balkan Fund this year is experiencing a substantial increase in interest, as it has now established its position as an important and most inspiring event in the development and collaboration of new filmmaking in the Balkans, ensuring the market’s trust regarding the quality of the projects selected.

 

This year’s 12 nominated projects are hereby presented in alphabetical order:

 

1.   Boy, The, writer/director/producer Dimitris Athanitis, co-producer P. Papadopoulos (Greece)

2.   Cairo, writer Vassilis Raissis, director Stergios Niziris, producer Stella Theodoraki (Greece)

3. Circus Fantasticus, writer/director Janez Burger, producer Rutar Jozko (Slovenia)

4. Deepest Scar, The, writer/director Stefan Mavrodiev, producer Pavlina Jeleva, Georgy Cholakov (Bulgaria)

5. Firefly Season, writer/director Miroslav Mandic, producer Mirsad Herovic (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

6. Fish Out of Water, writer Stathis Katsaros, director/ producer Maria Douza (Greece)
7. Heart Shaped Balloon, A, writer Bogdan Mustata, director Catalin Mitulescu, producer Daniel Mitulescu (Romania)

8. Here and There, writer/director/producer Darko Lungulov, co-producers Miroslav Stanic, Lidija Kurucki (Serbia)

9. Lara, writer/director Blaz Kutin, producer Ida Weis (Slovenia)

10. Lodos, writer/director Didem Erayda, producer Munire Armstrong (Turkey)

11. Principles of Life, writer Razvan Radulescu, director Radu Jude, producer Ada Solomon (Romania)

12. Tilt, writers Dimitar Kostantinov Kotzev, Borislav Viktorov Chouchkoc, director Viktor Viktorov Chouchkov, producer Borislav Viktorov Chouchkoc (Bulgaria)

 

Last year’s winners and nominations are working towards completion of development. Among them are A Conversation with Serafim by Romanian Silviu Purcarete, Cum in the Rye (a.k.a Kingdom of Rye) by Serbian Srdjan Dragojevis, Welcome Aboard by Costantine Giannaris and Asphyxiation by Asli Özge, Turkey which is produced by Fatih Akin. In addition, Bulgarian Queen Victoria which has just received the support of Media Plus and will be coproduced by Balkan Fund regulars Karl Baumgartner and Thanassis Karathanos.

 

The Balkan Fund is also proud to announce that the following projects have finished shooting or are in pre- production:

 

  • The project Gucha – Distant Trumpet by Dusan Milic (writer/director), was nominated and presented before the illustrious Balkan Fund jury in 2004. It is now completed. The project found significant backing at the Balkan Fund workshop. It was produced by Karl Baumgartner of Pandora Films, Thanassis Karathanos of Twenty-Twenty Vision, Stefan Kitanov of Arts Films Bulgaria and Emir Kusturica. It is a German-Serbian-Bulgarian-Austrian co-production.

 

  • Hidden Faces, Handan Ipekci’s (writer/director) winning project of the 2004 Balkan Fund Workshop, has over 70 % of the film in the can and is expected to be completed in December 2006. Hidden Faces is backed by German company Tradewind Pictures.

 

  • The project The Coat by Turkish writer/director Kutlug Ataman which is now in pre-production and is being coproduced by Scala Productions (UK).

 

  • Confessions by Serbian writer/director Goran Radovanovic which is in the mid of pre-production

  • Small Crime, a Cyprian-Greek-German co-production by Cyprian writer/director Christos Georgiou which is planning to start shooting very soon.

It is with great regret that the last announcement of one of our projects in production is actually combined with very sad news:

 

  • The 2004 nomination California Dreaming by Romanian award wining director Cristian Nemescu was already under production, with actor Armand Assante attached to the cast, when Cristian Nemescu died tragically in a car accident after just completing the shoot. This was a highly anticipated project by this young, talented Romanian director. He will be greatly missed.

 

The success of the Balkan Fund lies partly in the open discussion/presentation meetings with the international jury, which are followed by most fruitful individual co-development and co-production meetings, scheduled for every participant with the representatives of production and distribution companies who are participating in the workshop. Having said that, one of the main goals of the Balkan Fund is for all nominated projects to benefit from their participation at the workshop, regardless of the jury’s decision on the awards, giving them the opportunity to communicate and present their ideas in the presence of international film professionals who can thus evaluate and eventually participate in the conclusion of their film projects.

 

With programmes such as the Balkan Fund the city of Thessaloniki retains its position as one of the most important cultural centers of Southeastern Europe, at least as far as cinema and the important issue of script development is concerned. It also helps the Greek film industry, in the sense that the nominated projects which belong to the best Greek projects in development at the moment are included in a greater international context together with projects of similar budget and production background. Furthermore, the Balkan Fund contributes to the reconstitution of the Balkans, a fact that is confirmed by the presence of several representatives from political institutions. After the success of the first three years and the positive response from the international film industry, the Balkan Fund workshop is undoubtedly one of the most important events of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

 

Further, a new initiative, “Balkan Fund Presents” is being added this year to the Balkan Fund. This year it will be a Conference on European Screenwriting which is organized in collaboration with the Federation of Scriptwriters in Europe FSE and in association with the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the European Film Academy.

 

The conference will serve as a platform to discuss the situation and profession of European screenwriters as well as the nature and state of European screenwriting at a time of rapid change due to digitalisation and globalisation. Screenwriters and representatives of writers´ guilds from all over Western and Eastern Europe will come together to discuss their art and the state of the industry in relation to effective and relevant storytelling for the screen.

 

The Balkan Fund is run by Christina Kallas, artistic director, Lucia Rikaki, coordinator, and Angeliki Vergou, assistant.

 

For more information please contact our website www.filmfestival.gr or write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

 Foreign Press Contact: 

 

Alexis Grivas: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Angeliki Vergou: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.filmfestival.gr

 

INTERNATIONAL THESSALONIKI FILM FESTIVAL

9 Alexandras ave., 11473, Athens, Greece

Tel: 30 210  8706000, Fax: 30 210 64 48 143