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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 FestivalÕs 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. ÓThe
scripts that were not awarded today might receive
even larger financial assistance elsewhere , said
Mrs. Rikaki. ÓI hope that next year we can
award more scripts , she added. ÓWe 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.
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.
ÓThe 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.
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