PRESS RELEASE
THE BALKAN FUND ANNOUNCES THIS YEAR’S NOMINATED PROJECTS
Celebrating its sixth year, the Balkan Fund, Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s Script Development Fund, is due to take place during the 49th edition of the festival in November 2008, 15th to 17th inclusive. 12 projects from 9 different countries have been just announced as the 2008 nominated projects of the Balkan Fund.
The projects nominated for the 4 prizes of the Balkan Fund are the following in alphabetic order:
1. Clemency, writer/director Cem Baseskioglu, Makara Film (Turkey)
2. Elysium, writer/director Sandrina Andic, Sabeo Films (Serbia)
3. Fool Moon (Panselinos), writer/director Kyriakos Katzourakis, Omada Technis (Greece)
4. Harisma, writer/director Christina Ioakeimidi, Ekso Productions (Greece)
5. Midnight Sun, writer/director Dusan Ristic, 72nd Street Productions (USA / Serbia)
6. Number Zero, writer/director Sirri Sureyya Onder, Besiktas Kultur Merkezi (Turkey)
7. Outskirts, writers Cristian Mungiu & Ioana Uricaru, director Anatoli Reghintovschi, Saga Film (Romania/ Austria)
8. Submission, writer Zeynep Ozcan Akbal, director Emre Yalg?n, SFR Film and Advertisement Productions (Turkey)
9. System D/ream, writer/director Yasna Zivanovic, 4A4 Productions (France/ Serbia)
10. Tersakan, writer/director Bar?s Pirhasan, Anka Film (Turkey/ Germany)
11. The Last Flirtation of Ms. Dukic, writer/director Mladen Kovacevic, Horopter d.o.o. (Serbia)
12. Zincograph, writer Vladislav Todorov, director Javor Gardev, Peripeteia LLC, (Bulgaria)
The projects will be presented by their writers, directors and producers and, following the 3-day workshop and open discussion with each applicant, an international jury (TBA) will grant 4 out of the 12 projects a 10.000 € ticket each. One of the goals of the Balkan Fund is for all nominated projects to benefit from their participation in the workshop, regardless of the jury’s decision on the awards. In this manner, the filmmakers are given the opportunity to communicate and present their ideas to international film professionals, such as fund directors, commissioning editors, producers, distributors and sales agents, who are specifically invited to Thessaloniki for the proceedings of the Balkan Fund.
Projects that have previously been awarded or participated in the Balkan Fund event are: this year’s Grand Prix of the Semaine de la Critique, Snow, written and directed by Aida Begic (Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2008), 2007’s Cannes Un Certain Regard Award California Dreamin’ (endless) by the late Cristian Nemescu (Romania), 2006 Berlinale Golden Bear winner Grbavica (Bosnia-Herzegovina), written and directed by Jasmila Zbanic, The Tuning by Igor Sterk (Slovenia, 2005), which received the main prize at the Mannheim Film Festival and the Best Feature Film award at the Napoli Film Festival, Gucha (Distant Trumpet) by Dusan Milic (Serbia), which participated in the Berlinale Panorama section in 2007, Hidden Faces by Handan Ipekci (Turkey), which premiered at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2007 and the recently completed films Here & There, written and directed by Serbian Darko Lungulov, starring Mirjana Karanovic and Cindy Lauper and Small Crime, written by Christos Georgiou and Srdjan Koljevic and directed by Christos Georgiou (Greece/Germany/Cyprus).
Many films by prominent scriptwriters and directors nominated in the Balkan Fund are currently in the pipeline. Some of these highly anticipated projects are: The Coat, written and directed by Kutlug Ataman (Turkey), A Heart Shaped Balloon, written by Bogdan Mustata and directed by Catalin Mitulescu (Romania), First of All Felicia, written and directed by Razvan Radulescu and Melissa de Raaf (Romania), and Welcome Aboard, written and directed by Costantine Giannaris (Greece).
The Balkan Fund is run by Christina Kallas, artistic director and Lucia Rikaki, coordinator. It is co-funded by the CNC and the Goethe Institute – Thessaloniki.
For more information please contact our website www.filmfestival.gr or write to Angeliki Vergou, office manager at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
