Italian-Baltic development award for coproduction goes to 2 projects

The jury of development award for co-productions between Italy and the Baltic States announced the winners of the prize in Trieste Co-Production Forum “When East Meets West”.

The award was created in November 2018 on the basis of an agreement between national film institutions of four countries. The purpose of the award is to finance the development of co-production of full-length feature films, full-length animated films, and full-length documentaries between Italy and the Baltic States.

This year 11 applications were submitted. Producers from all the countries – Estonia, Italy, Latvia and Lithuania – expressed their intention to work together in the projects presented.

Evaluation panel consisting of Mariella Troccoli and Chiara Fortuna (Direzione Generale Cinema, Rome), Dita Rietuma (National Film Centre of Latvia), Edith Sepp (Estonian Film Institute), and Rolandas Kvietkauskas (Lithuanian Film Centre), assessed the subject matter, story, topical and artistic intentions and originality of the film, relations to Italy or the Baltic States, the vision of the screenwriter or film director, the experience of the creative team, the production and distribution potential of the film decided to award 2 projects.

Creative documentary “Bandiera rossa. Bandiera rossa. I became a communist at 8 and today I don’t know for whom I should vote (“Red Flag“) reveals the important social and political issues with irony and artistic freedom. The film will be co-developed by Italian production company SAYONARA FILMand Estonian production company EXITFILM.

Another awarded project – a fiction film “Sisters” is co-development by FENIXFILM (Latvia) and ALBOLINAFILM (Italy). Experts noted that the story about two young sisters from the orphanage who are going for the adoption by the family from abroad touches an important topic with the with great delicacy and creative originality.

The budget of the award fund in 2020 is 30,000 euros.