ARTE France Cinéma and Eurimages Awards for Best CineMart Projects handed out

41st International Film Festival Rotterdam
25 January – 5 February 2012

PRESS RELEASE 1 February 2012

ARTE France Cinéma and Eurimages Awards for Best CineMart Projects handed out

The 29th CineMart, co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam concluded today, Wednesday February 1 in Rotterdam, with the announcement of the two awards for best CineMart Projects 2012.
DUNCHARON by Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece, ATTENBERG and producer of DOGTOOTH and ALPS) wins the ARTE France Cinéma Award and first feature project HUMIDITY by Nikola Ljuca (Serbia) - one of the five projects in the BOOST!-program, a collaboration of CineMart, the Hubert Bals Fund and Binger Filmlab - takes the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award. The Jury gave a Special Mention to Indian-American co-production THE LUNCHBOX by Ritesh Batra (India).

Jury members for the 2012 ARTE France Cinéma and Eurimages Awards were Claire Launay (ARTE France Cinéma), Petri Kemppinen (Finnish Film Foundation) and Winnie Lau (Fortissimo Films). ARTE France Cinéma gives its Award, consisting of 10,000 Euro to the producer of the Best CineMart Project in support of the financial development of the winning project.
The Eurimages Award, consisting of 30,000 Euro, goes to the filmmaker or producer of the Best CineMart Project with a European partner.
With these Awards, CineMart, along with its partners ARTE France Cinéma and Eurimages contribute to the development and production of independent filmmaking.

The winners and the Jury statements are:

‘First of all we were all very happy to meet with all the filmmakers of these projects.
To see and feel how much energy and creativity they brought to these stories was very inspiring. This year’s CineMart projects were very diverse and all the projects had their own uniqueness. We are giving three awards.’


ARTE France Cinéma Award
The ARTE France Cinéma Award (10,000 Euro) for the Best CineMart 2012 Project is given to DUNCHARON by Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece), a co-production of Haos Films and Faliro House Productions (Greece), Maharaja Films (France) and The Match Factory GmbH (Germany).

‘A project that is close to science fiction but finally speaks much more about the European sub-consciousness in an original way.’

Eurimages Co-Production Development Award
The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award (30,000 Euro) for the Best CineMart 2012 Project with a European partner is given to HUMIDITY by Nikola Ljuca (Serbia), a co-production of Dart Film (Serbia) and zischlermann filmproduktion GmbH (Germany)

HUMIDITY is one of the five CineMart 2012 Projects in the BOOST!-program, a collaboration with the Hubert Bals Fund and Binger Filmlab. Spring 2011, Nikola Ljuca’s project received Hubert Bals Fund support for script and project development. Subsequently, he participated in the Binger Filmlab On Demand Programme and has been selected for CineMart 2012.

‘A project where through an intimate story about the post-war generation in Serbia, the filmmaker shows that despite gaining the image of economical success, one has forgotten the meaning of love, past and oneself.’

Special Mention
In addition to the Awards, the Jury gave a Special Mention to THE LUNCHBOX by Ritesh Batra (India), a co-production by Anurag Kashyap Productions Pvt Ltd (India) and Cine Mosaic (USA).

‘A special mention to a project that shows us that if you by chance get the wrong mail delivered it may change your life. This project shows that nothing is for granted. A mistake can also be a chance if you’re willing to take it.’


CineMart was the first platform of its kind to offer filmmakers the opportunity to launch their ideas to the international film industry and to find the right connections to get their projects financed. Launching 36 new projects this year in need of additional financing, CineMart also heralds an important start of the 'film year'.
Every year, the CineMart invites a select number of directors/producers to present their film projects to co-producers, funds, sales agents, distributors, TV stations and other potential financiers.


(End of press release)

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