The Berlinale Co-Production Market and Eurimages to introduce two new measures to promote European film projects and producers during Berlinale 2015

BERLIN, 12-1-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — The Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 8 to 10, 2015) and Eurimages will be ramping up their existing partnership during the 2015 Berlinale by introducing two new measures to promote European film projects and producers.

The first of which is the renowned Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, which will be given to one of around 25 projects selected from the Berlinale Co-Production Market. The cash prize of EUR 20,000 will go to the producers of the winning project to support its development.

Eligible for the award are Co-Production Market projects that have been conceived from the outset as theatrical co-productions involving at least two eligible Eurimages countries. These co-productions may not, however, be solely financial in nature. Outstanding artistic quality and a project’s chances of being realised as a majority European co-production are the main criteria for selecting the winner.

The prize is also awarded during co-production markets at festivals in Rotterdam, Sarajevo, Rome, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Eurimages’ goal is to highlight some outstanding European film projects at the initial stages of their development – alongside administering substantial production funding, its main remit since the organisation was established in 1988.

The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award complements the other cash prizes at theBerlinale Co-Production Market: the VFF Highlight Pitch Award and the ARTE International Prize. The former, worth EUR 10,000 and provided by the VFF, a copyright association for film and TV producers, has been awarded to one of the projects selected at the “Talent Project Market” since 2004. The EUR 6,000 ARTE International Prize was established in 2011 and goes to one of the projects participating in the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

“The energising effect this kind of award can have on a new project shouldn’t be underestimated,” says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick. “We are delighted that Eurimages will be awarding this prize at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.”

“This new award underlines Eurimages’ commitment to encouraging closer co-operation between producers right from the start,” notes Roberto Olla, Executive Director of Eurimages. “Bringing together creative and technical inputs from different countries is no easy task, and we believe this prize can help.”

The second measure that has been newly created to further strengthen the partnership between Eurimages and the Berlinale Co-Production Market is related to the most recent winner of the Co-Production Award–Prix Eurimages, a prize given annually at the European Film Awards to a renowned European producer. Each year’s winner receives a carte blanche to participate in the Berlinale Co-Production Market’s Company Matching programme. Here, five companies attend from around the globe who aren’t presenting a concrete project but are known as experienced co-producers with interesting company structures. This year’s winner of the Prix Eurimages, Ed Guiney with his Irish company Element Pictures, has already confirmed his attendance in 2015. He will meet with numerous interested potential partners at pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings.

The complete selection of projects and companies at the 12th Berlinale Co-Production Market will be announced next week.

The main partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market are the MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and Creative Europe – MEDIA.
The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market.